Quote Originally Posted by Swish
Ha! Ok, I really don't go crazy over "drum music", but I certainly think that almost anything by Peter Erskine, especially when he was with Weather Report, was pretty stellar stuff. It's hard to believe that he's been playing with Diana Krall lately. What a change that must be for him! In addition, I still really like Richard Bailey's percussion on Freeway Jam from Jeff Beck's Blow by Blow album. That tune really pumps still pumps me up like crazy.

Swish
It's not that hard to believe Erskine is playing with Krall...playing with Krall gets you PAID.

Madonna once had both Omar Hakim and Dave Weckl as her drummers on tour which, of course, is like washing down Spam with Moet.

Erskine is another one of my favs. He's got two CD's from the mid 80's on Denon records called "Transition" and "Motion Poet". Both are exquisitely recorded and have some very involving and interesting music and great supporting musicians (Brecker, Ambercrombie, Will Lee, Miranov, Mintzer, Marc Johnson et al). Vince Mendoza composed and arranged many of the pieces and he's just a freggin' musicial genious(in a Gil Evans kind of way)!

There is one guy who hasn't been mentioned yet who is sort of a pioneer for many of these modern session guys...Steve Gadd. Gadd sometimes gets "dissed" for being
a little mechanical and predictable but let face it...he's the Godfather of session drummers.
I still hear plenty of guys ripping off his "50 ways..." licks. Throw in "Aja", "Mr. Magic", and "Spain" and Gadd has a pretty decent resume of memorable licks. Another significant contemparary of his is Harvey Mason of Breezin, Headhunters, and Mountain Dance fame.