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Only in person

1) Hamid Drake with DKV Trio 3/27/2001 @ Tonic NYC. Vandermark & Kessler disappeared (not literally) for the last 20 or so minutes. Super Groove.

2) Gerry Hemingway with Marilyn Crispell & Barry Guy. Maybe 1999 or 2000 @ Tonic. The most intense and powerful drummer live remains Hemingway. Last summer @ The Stone with Michael Moore's American Available Jelly was so incredible as well.

3) Ches Smith with Mat Maneri & Craig Taborn @ Cornelia Street Cafe March 2013 - first time the trio played and it almost resembled doom metal by the second set. Trio is playing for the third time in early September.

Honorable mention to Randy Peterson every time - maybe the best was with Mat & Ed Schuller April 2013 - although live he is always so intense and riveting.

Any time I saw Alan Dawson.

Virgil Donati with Allan Holdsworth a couple of years ago. Certainly one of the most athletic displays I've seen on drums.

Sat directly in front of Joe Farnsworth playing with Pharoah Sanders a few years ago. He did some things that left me just shaking my head and smiling.

An unsung hero of mine is Butch Miles. Butch took over the drum chair in the Basie band and really kicked the band to life.

Virtually any solos by Max Roach, Art Blakey, Chico Hamilton were superb. Mel Lewis and Jeff Hamilton are two of the most musical drummers I've ever heard.

There have been more than three amazing live performances by a drummer that I've enjoyed and appreciated, so here are my first three.

1. Alan Dawson trading fours with Ed Thigpen in a drum workshop in 1962 while I was a student at Berklee School of Music.

2. Jimmy Cobb with the Miles Davis Sextet in 1962.

3. Roy Haynes with his quartet in Anchorage in 2007.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS2QuhAaNLk


I hadn't seen this promo video until moments ago. I noticed my name in passing (at :31) because I helped put together "A Tribute to Jazz in Alaska", a display which was in the lobby of our Performing Arts Center that evening. Sadly, two of the other persons named are no longer with us, "Army" Kirschbaum & Clon Von Fitz.

Yes, I met Roy Haynes. In fact, I was fortunate enough to meet each of these drummers, though it took me over 40 years to meet Jimmy and Roy.

Elvin Jones in several settings

Billy Higgins many times....probably the best time was on a trio at Stanford Jazz Workshop with Mulgrew Miller/piano, and Ray Drummond/bass

3rd place undecided [ may not be possible]....honorable mention include Freddie Waits, Phillie Joe Jones, Art Blakey, Kahil El Zabar, Hamid Drake, Billy Kilson on Dave Holland Quintet, Buddy Rich, Jim Black, Nasheet Waits

I forgot about that incredible show with Billy Kilson with Dave Hollands Quintet maybe 1999.

Also Jim Black with Ellery & Andrea. Same show at Tonic. When they played Coltrane's India, the little building shook.

BLACK MUSIC CELEBRATION AT BERKLEE
DRUMMER'S NIGHT
ROY HAYNES
ALAN DAWSON
FEBRUARY 5, 1987

I've been waiting until I had time to visit my storage unit and pull out my collection of concert programs so I could scan and post this. A truly unbelievable night.

The 1st half of the program featured Alan Dawson in a quartet comprising exceptional Berklee faculty: Bill Pierce, tenor sax; Donald Brown, piano; and John Neves, bass.

Following an intermission, the second half featured Roy's working quartet of the time: Ralph Moore, tenor sax; David Kikoski, piano; and Ed Howard, bass.

I do not recall there being an encore drum duet/battle.

Buddy Rich, live at Disneyland in the late '70s;
Dennis Chambers, live with The Brecker Brothers in the '90s;
Peter Erskine with Alan Pasqua and Dave Carpenter, 2004

Jazzooo wrote:Buddy Rich, live at Disneyland in the late '70s;
Dennis Chambers, live with The Brecker Brothers in the '90s;
Peter Erskine with Alan Pasqua and Dave Carpenter, 2004

Those guys were dialed!
I have a CD of this trio from a L.A. club date from around this time period which is excellent.