The late Jackson's drummer performing ...

[drummerman]

'Smooth Criminal'.

Jonathan Moffett

There are more.

 

[richardg]

Metronomic!

 

[Mongeddavid]

I watched him doing wanna be startin something the other day and the tempo he maintained was amazing

 

[richardg]

On my third song now, not noticed him use a tom yet.

 

[richardg]

He£s intriguing. Very precise and hard hitting but does not really break into a sweat, more like a coiled spring.

 

[wow&flutter]

Metronomic for sure. Simon Phillips was under my radar for years but I did remember his performance on Top Of The Pops with the band PHD, must have been the early eighties I guess.

Since the advent of YouTube I’ve been watching him regularly and he’s superb, for those in the know he’ll go down as one of the best. In fact he was so prodigious over the years I’d be surprised if you’ve not heard him on something!

 

[Taff63]

Simon Phillips' Symbiosis is superb- tracks 7 and 8 are excellent. Check out his work on Mike Rutherford's'Smallcreep's Day' and Jon Lord's 'Before I Forget ' as well.

 

[garyi]

Man I fell down a rabbit hole there. Youtube is great!

 

[cutting42]

I love a good drummer and a current fave is the amazing Ash Soan

Slave the Rhythm

The Ash Shuffle

 

[Colin L]

Billy

 

[Cheese]

And now for the groovy variant.

 

[dweezil]

Billy

Sat about 8 feet from him at R Scotts last time, first time I've been aware of how much energy goes into some shots.

Pretty harsh exercise for a 70+ year old. Amazing!

 

[Tim Jones]

My problem in bands in the 80s and 90s was always that the drummers would (a) try to cram way too many fills in and (because of that) (b) constantly vary tempo. I remember more than one dem recording where, in place of a click track, I had to pop a string on my bass into the drummer's phones so he could at least maintain some semblance of consistent tempo.

Hunch: because the 80s session drummers had to compete so hard with sequencers/samplers/machines, they invested hugely in tempo and timbre consistency.

 

[wow&flutter]

Fully agree with the above but I think the quality drummers always shone through. The likes of Simon Phillips, Jeff Porcaro, Carlos Vega, Vinnie Colaiuta & Steve Gadd came through the synthesised drum era I guess due to the human input they could provide.
The above musicians had great feel, very hard to translate but you know it when you hear it.

 

[drummerman]

He£s intriguing. Very precise and hard hitting but does not really break into a sweat, more like a coiled spring.

Yes. He is a metronome. Especially apparent in his Drum Solo. Some 8 mins of intense rhythm work in ultra precise fashion. Whilst it doesn't look as spectacular as some others his ability is on the highest level. A craftsman of his art.