In a drummer swing-off, who do you have?

[Lamontsdad]

I was poking a bit of fun at @Houndog ‘s comment about “swing off”, but hot dang! I flipping LOVE these answers! Thank you sincerely!!!!

 

[Houndog]

And the answer is...a TIE between Jeff Hamilton and Peter Erskine. Hands down, sticks down.

I was going to mention Jeff Hamilton . His solos even swing !!!!

 

[Peano]

Who swings the most?

Swings? It depends on what you mean by that word. In American music, the Swing Era was roughly 1935 to 1945 -- and comparable musical styles beyond (Ellington, Basie, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, Harry James, etc. -- it's a looong list). Benny Goodman is widely acknowledged to be the father of Swing.

It appears that a lot of people who answered your question named drummers who appeal to them, regardless of their relation to Swing. Some mentioned Bernard Purdie and Errol Palmer. Both are heroes of mine, but neither had much of anything to do with Swing and rarely played or recorded anything that could be considered Swing.

That's all OK. I post this merely to suggest that when you pose a question like this, spend a few moments thinking about what the words in your question have actually come to mean in the history of American music. Explain just a little what you mean by the words in your question. Otherwise, everybody tacitly plugs in their own definitions, and we end up just talking past one another and not about anything in particular.

 

[karmikmikestein]

This guy!!
I love how he's looking around as if to say: "yeah Daddy 'O! can you dig it? I knew that you could!!"

Holy sweet Jesus ..........!!!!!!!!

 

[karmikmikestein]

I may have missed it, but I haven't seen anyone name the most obvious drummer yet. It's Bernard Purdie. After all, he played all the parts that were attributed to all the aforementioned drummers.

Heck, let's throw Jeff Porcaro, Hal Blaine, Omar Hakim, Terry Silverlight, Mel Taylor, Kim Plainfield, Gary Chester, Jeff Krauss, Jimmy Cobb, Keith Carlock and Ronnie Verell in for good measure. Erskine is great too and should always be included in any list.

 

[cinemadrummer2001]

Elvin Jones!

 

[Sammybear]

Duffy Jackson!

David Hungate (Toto) strumming a six-string for Duffy.

 

[nchia]

Joe Farnsworth can swing like a mofo!

 

[RayB]

Neil Peart "Heat

I don't get this at all.

What does "swing" mean? It doesn't mean chops, technique. Whatever one admires about Neal Peart, I can't accept that he swings or plays a deep groove. I saw a video of him sitting in with the Buddy Rich band. Great chops, good sound, and stiff as a board. When I think of great drummers known for their swing and groove, Neal Peart is not even close.

Put it another way. Take a close listen to Benny Benjamin on Martha Reeves and the Vandella's "Heat Wave". What a great backbeat, a deep shuffle groove. Whatever complex rythms and solos Neal Peart can play, he couldn't come near playing a shuffle with that much soul.

Okay, Jo Jones playing brushes could swing a 14-piece band like mad. All the stick control, 4-way coordination, linear drumming, odd time signatures, etc. doesn't add up to swing, soul, groove.

I take Jo Jones as the greatest "swinger" of all times.
Dave Tough, an all-time great, subtle swinger.

Sid Cattlet
Gene Krupa
Walter Johnson
Gus Johnson
Benny Benjamin
Carlton Barrett
Earl Palmer

 

[JazzDoc]

Swings? It depends on what you mean by that word. In American music, the Swing Era was roughly 1935 to 1945 -- and comparable musical styles beyond (Ellington, Basie, Buddy Rich, Louis Bellson, Harry James, etc. -- it's a looong list). Benny Goodman is widely acknowledged to be the father of Swing.

It appears that a lot of people who answered your question named drummers who appeal to them, regardless of their relation to Swing. Some mentioned Bernard Purdie and Errol Palmer. Both are heroes of mine, but neither had much of anything to do with Swing and rarely played or recorded anything that could be considered Swing.

That's all OK. I post this merely to suggest that when you pose a question like this, spend a few moments thinking about what the words in your question have actually come to mean in the history of American music. Explain just a little what you mean by the words in your question. Otherwise, everybody tacitly plugs in their own definitions, and we end up just talking past one another and not about anything in particular.

Well said - I think folks are confusing SWING with GROOVE in their answers here.

 

[RayB]

Well said - I think folks are confusing SWING with GROOVE in their answers here.

Benny Goodman WAS NOT the father of swing! Or the King of Swing. He had a great band, no doubt, and was prominent in the rise of the big band era. In the mid 1930's the music industry was not integrated, and as excellent as black big bands were, they could never achieve the same level of popularity as white bands. Benny's initial success was based on playing arrangements by Fletcher Henderson, who had a great band that never had the kind of success a white band could. In fact, Goodman payed Henderson $25 for some of the arrangements that became #1 hits. Goodman was promoted as the King of Swing, and that was good business, but he popularized a style of music created and nurtured by black bands. You should read some of the comments black musicians from that era had about Goodman being called the King of Swing. John Hammond produced Goodman's band: then he heard Basie's band out of Kansas City and declared he now heard a GREAT band that could really swing.

I would also point out the 1935-1945 is identified as the "Swing" (or Big Band) era. That is not the same thing as what "swing" means in music and drumming. There's a rhythmic flow in great back beat drumming of any style. A motion the "groove" creates that has a pendulum type feel, a sway. You feel it in your toes, in your body. And it doesn't have to be pounded; in fact, smacking the daylights out of 2 and 4 often is over compensation for a lack swing.

If you choose the potted text book definition of swing as "the Swing Era", then you assume swing only exists for drummers playing a type of music between roughly 1935 and the late 1940's. There's a quality of swing in all types of drumming. So many grooves swing. A relaxed flow, a motion. Sorry, but when a forum member picked Neal Peart as a drummer with the greatest swing, I couldn't disagree more. And not because Peart didn't play in the "swing era". I don't hear any relaxed feel in his drumming, as proficient as he is.

Anyway, drummers who I believe have maximum swing in their playing include Earl Palmer, Benny Benjamin, Carlton Barrett, all who played way after the swing era. The back and forth in their rhythm, the way it drives the music without overpowering it and creates a shimmy inside us.

If you want to consider great drummers from the "Swing Era", please look beyond Buddy's big band style, super fast, punching every frigging figure in the arrangements, "you ain't got the chops to keep up with me", now dig this amazing solo drumming. Please listen to how Jo Jones, Dave Tough, Sid Catlett and some other guys drove a big band.