Good prog band, bad drummer

Guldbamsen wrote: I think I know what Pedro is on about ... that these modern day drummers, who all are outstanding technical and can play insanely complex rhythm patterns, at times feel strangely metronomic and predictable. Personally, and speaking from a drummers point of view, then I think it's down to feel - and courage to push oneself out there where mistakes and missing beats suddenly can take on new form and give to the music something that is totally different, than what you would've gotten had you had a guy like Portnoy play. I think it has to do with just how much these guys have been playing and rehearsing, that it comes to a point where you get so good that it almost becomes a tournament in how never to make mistakes again - and it just so happens that I think some of the absolute finest parts of music stem from "mistakes" or bended "truths" - bended in that it gets transformed and moulted into something that truly transcends the word mistake.

This is exactly the comment I was making in my post about Maitland vs. Harrison.  I have the pleasure of singing with a Vocal Jazz ensemble at my school (a sample from our latest recording), which includes a fantastic instrumental combo of drums, bass, and piano.  We currently have two drummers who switch off on kit and auxiliary percussion duties.  One of the drummers--let's call him J--has had a lot of Jazz training and is primarily a Jazz drummer.  Our other drummer is the one you hear on the recording, who has had less Jazz training and is primarily a Metal drummer.

On technical merit alone, J is a better drummer in any style because he has a more reliable sense of time, which gives him a big "pocket" and allows him to play with the beat and play "around the beat" without getting lost.  J is also comfortable with a more diverse sonic palette, and is seemingly not afraid to try new things or make "mistakes."  J can usually do this successfully without losing his sense of time.  A big part of Instrumental Jazz (and the instrumental/scat component of Vocal Jazz) is improvisation, and playing off of the written and improvised parts played by the other musicians in the group (which is less common in Rock music, but no less welcome!), another arena in which J excels.  J is not perfect, and will sometimes speed up unintentionally, but his formidable chops almost entirely make up for it. (It helps that the other musicians in the combo are able to follow the beat even when he's messing with time, perhaps something that most Rock musicians would find hard to do.) On top of all this, J is quite dynamic and emotionally expressive in his playing, a pair of qualities I also find in Chris Maitland that seems to be absent from Gavin Harrison.

Harrison has said that when he is playing another instrument in a group with another drummer, all he really wants from the drummer is a good sense of time.  I absolutely agree that a good sense of time is paramount.  What I don't agree with is his solution: an often metronomic, lifeless approach to timekeeping.  J proves that it is possible to both keep time and play with it while being emotionally expressive and sensitive to the other players.  Not everything has to be completely metrical, which is what I get most of the time from Harrison.  I understand that he is able to subdivide--and physicalize those subdivisions--on a micro-level, but I'd love to hear him put that aside once in a while and play outside the box.  If he can keep track of 32nd quintuplets, he certainly ought to be able keep track of the big beat while he plays around it. (Again, perhaps the limitation is less with Harrison and more with the other musicians.)