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The Worlds Best Drummer List

By kevin | July 19, 2008

FIrstly, a huge thankyou to everyone who contributed by commenting on my last post where I asked the Question “Who is the best drummer in the world?”

Obviously this is a really tough choice to make, as there are so many great players who we all look up to as drummers and percussionists. Many of you gave more than five - and thats fine… I did my best to include every drummer mentioned, and I tried to create a ranking system that would include the wishes of those people who ranked drummers in order and those who just named some without ranking them.

I never intended it to be a very scientific study - I really just wanted to get a list of drummers who are influential to everyone at the moment. All I did was tally up the number of votes that each drummer got and Ive ordered the list that way.

So… Drum roll please…. here is the list:

Buddy Rich
Steve Gadd
Vinnie Colaiuta
Neil Peart
Dave Weckl
Peter Erskine
Elvin Jones
JoJo Mayer
Thomas Lang
Jeff Hamilton
Louis Bellson
Art Blakey
Grant Collins
Greg Bissonette
Steve Smith
Clyde Stubblefield
Dennis Chambers
Evelyn Glennie
Tito Puente
Tony Williams
Alex Acuna
Billy Cobham
Chris Adler
David Garibaldi
Franz di Cioccio
Jack DeJohnette
Joe Morello
John “Jabo” stark
John Bonham
Max Roach
Giovanni Hidalgo
Omar Hakm
Travis Barker
Danny Cary
Gene Krupa
Idris Muhammad
Jeff Porcaro
Jon Knox
Morgan Agren
Mr Changuito
Philly Joe
Roy Haynes
Art Tatum
Jason Bittner
Kenwood Denard
Marco Minnemann
Mike Portnoy
Mr Kalani
Pancho Sanchez
Roy Wilfred Wooten
Vinny paul
Airto Moreira
Joe Marchisella
Simon Phillips
Trilok Gurtu
Alex Duthart
Andrew Gander
Antonio Sanchez
Billy Martin
Clayton Cameron
David Jones
Dougie Brown
Freddie Gruber
Gary Chaffee
Hamish Stuart
Horacio Hernandez
Jabo Starks
James Waples
Jason Bonham
Jeff Queen
Jim Black
Joey Baron
Kevin MacNeil
Leung Heung Wing
Mark Kennedy
Virgil Donati
Yaron Isreal
Yim Hok Man

There are people in this list who I’ve never heard of, and for that I’m really grateful. I’m going to make it my mission over the next couple of months to find out something about each one of these players and listen to some of their music.

This is just a starting point, and there is some obvious weaknesses in the way I did this informal survey, so what I’m going to do is create some polls for this website which will give us some more helpful information a bit more scientifically.

The first polls are going to be..

Who is the most influential drum set player of all time?

Who is the best classical percussionist of the current era?

Who is the greatest conga player/percussionist of all time?
I’m going to start with this list as the nominations - and you can nominate anyone to be included at any time, by simply leaving a comment on the appropriate posting. These posts will be up in a few days - once I’ve figured out the new software I’ve installed to do it!

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Topics: Announcements, Drum Kit, Drum Set |

10 Responses to “The Worlds Best Drummer List”

  1. Shane Says:
    July 19th, 2008 at 5:19 pm

    I think Chad Sexton should be on that list. He is an amazing drummer with his own style. He did drum corps before picking up the drum set, so with his corps experience is incorporates a lot of rudiment in his playing and is basically a human metronome. I think he is definitely more talented than Travis Barker. Check him out on Youtube or something.

  2. Shane Says:
    July 19th, 2008 at 5:21 pm

    And sorry about my horrible typing : - P

  3. Luis Alberto Says:
    July 20th, 2008 at 1:22 am

    yeah there is a lot of incredible drummers that don’t apear in this list… but anyways… its a good point for u kevin!

  4. Dave Hopgood Says:
    July 20th, 2008 at 10:10 am

    Hey dudes, Art Tatum is a piano player!
    I guess the list kind of came down to most popular rather than best in choices like Chris Adler (who’s a fine drummer, don’t get me wrong.)
    Also I thought world’s best drummer meant they had to be alive which is why I didn’t have Buddy Rich, Tony Williams and Jeff Porcaro in my list.

  5. Harry Says:
    July 21st, 2008 at 12:17 am

    I think Danny Heifitz should also be on the list - (he works with mr. Bungle and Secret cheifs 3 and others) His technical ability and versatility of musical styles is amazing

  6. John Says:
    July 21st, 2008 at 11:42 pm

    No Tony Allen?

  7. Kris Says:
    July 30th, 2008 at 10:04 am

    JOEY JORDISON OFF SLIPKNOT!!

    he’s sick and an ace drummer

  8. Ana Says:
    August 19th, 2008 at 2:21 am

    And Tré Cool? He’s an amazing drummer and represents the Punk Rock.

  9. Bookmarks about Percussion Says:
    August 20th, 2008 at 1:45 pm

    [...] - bookmarked by 3 members originally found by henry2k7 on 2008-08-02 The Worlds Best Drummer List http://percussioneducationonline.com/2008/07/best-drummers-list/ - bookmarked by 3 members [...]

  10. seamoose Says:
    October 4th, 2008 at 7:16 am

    I think that Stewart Copeland(formally of the police) should be on the list

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