One of the great Hard Bop Drummers as can be seen in this performance of "A Night In Tunisia" from 1958.

Art Blakey - Drums

With:
Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Benny Golson - Sax
Bobby Timmons - Piano
Jymie Merritt - Bass

^Love Blakey. Found this great video with him, Sunny Murray, and Elvin Jones, some of my all time favourites.



I think Murray played best in the video, he's just so damned off the wall (and high as hell probably).

I have seen that clip before. It's pretty cool to see the three of them jamming away like that. it's one of the many drum battles that used to be staged on TV shows. If you put the phrase "Drum Battle" into youtube, you'll find loads of them. A lot of the classic Drum Battles involved Buddy Rich. Here's the Buddy Rich/Gene Krupa Drum Battle, one of the most famous.




Rich played one with Louis Bellson, one with Jerry Lewis (Yup, THAT Jerry Lewis), he even played one against Animal from the muppet show in the 1970s. there were others of course. Lionel Hampton was involved in a couple. Before Hampton took up Vibes, he was a Drummer. And a host of others followed.

Everybody always forgets this guy, the late, great Ed Shaughnessy.

Oh Yeah, Ed Shaughnessy was a fine Swing/Bop Drummer. A whole bunch of really good musicians passed through the Tonight Show Band. Some the best of them stayed for years, like Big Ed.

This is Shaughnessy's Buddy Rich Drum Battle

Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Benny Golson - Sax
Bobby Timmons - Piano
Jymie Merritt - Bass

Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Benny Golson - Sax
Bobby Timmons - Piano
Jymie Merritt - Bass

My vote for most under-rated drummer in music, Mike Clark from Herbie Hancock & the Headhunters.

That was killer. Rich's snare sounded so fine on that. (he won the battle big time too)

I'm going to go with Buddy Rich. Amazing. I've heard some of the best compositions from Buddy Rich.