Postby rpc » Wed Mar 16, 2011 10:46 pm
Someone mentioned classifying "greatest" drummers according to the revolutionary approaches to the instrument that the drummers who followed them took. And while there's obviously no comparison between the professional skill set of today's leading drummers and the skill sets of leading drummers from decades upon decades ago, it should suffice to give the first Civil War-era drummer who ever mounted a foot pedal to a bass drum and surrounded it with symphonic percussion gadgets first dibs on any claim to ground breaking drum-world foresight. But with that as a given, it seems suspiciously homogeneric to ignore the modifications to the craft that have come from Latin, African, Caribbean and even Indian drummers. It also seems suspicious that Gospel, reggae, progressive rock, Motown and metal drummers aren't regarded as a painfully obvious source of change to the way that the instrument is played, set up, etc. In fact, if I can say so without ruffling too many feathers, I think it's pretty silly to even entertain the idea that landmark changes in how drumming is done have come with any regularity from what I think it's fair to refer to as the white-collar clique of the world of drumming.
Again, that's not at all to say that drummers outside of the main stream have a monopoly on skill, (far from it); but it is to say that when we review the history of drumming since the advent of the modern drumset, we should do the right thing and admit that entire paradigm shifts in approach and instrumentation have almost never come from the most immediately recognized "gods" of drumming, and have almost always come from every-day Joes whose clever ideas are somehow popularized, eventually becoming the norm.
Personally, my hat's way off to the first anonymous Mesopotamian llama farmer who ever thought to grab a cowbell, set it on a stump and whack at it with his spear.
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