Vinnie vs. John

[in_the_pocket]

Yeah Yeah Yeah the technical aspect is obiously that vinnie take john jr robinson and throw him in the sky, but let be honest, in terms of groove how is more capable of bringing the song at the highest level?

__ Vinnie Colaiuta

__ John Jr Robinson

[CLWarunki]

Don't even go there.

[drumaddix]

It,s a hard one dude.to me ,Vinnie is also a great groover.Not the Omar Hakim style of groover,but still,i think he has great pocket and it's getting better as he grows older.

[in_the_pocket]

That's true man but in terms of groove I think that John has more meat there I don't know if I'm wright but that is my feeling.......!!!!!11

[in_the_pocket]

If you see you get paid for groove, not technical, just groove, jeff was an animal player but his strong sense was on GROOVE, same as John Robinson, Vinnie is a groove man also but his back ground, in my opinion, he still clean it for the open road of more groove and less technical stuff, but John waow man that man is amazing, he can use the same snare drum the same stupid fills but he makes the music........

[CLWarunki]

Look, drumming is not a competition - this is not a sport... this is an art.

To make a long argument short and to contradict myself a bit, I will add that Vinnie is better than EVERYONE!

[img]tongue.gif[/img]

[in_the_pocket]

Man you are honest CLWarunki you are honest, and make me laught, I throw the water that I was drinking by my nose, good laught......

[SeattleDrumKing]

Sport is art. An athlete's improvisation within a play is a lot like jazz. His physical movements are a lot like playing the drums.
Here's my take. I agree with Derek in the sense that we shouldn't compare greatness to see who's better. There is no better. There's just different tastes.
Vinnie can't nail a click like J.R. According to producers that work with both, Vinnie has a more natural feeling groove. Meaning he plays around the click and sometimes consistantly ahead of it. This doesn't matter because the track still feels great. Vinnie's sound in the studio isn't that great and ussually gets manipulated in order to make it fit the track.
J.R NAILS the click. Spot on, you can't hear it in on the playback unless you turn it way up. His drums also sound great. He has hundreds of snare drums he brings to sessions. The way he hits the drums records almost better than any other drummer. His backbeat consistancy and dynamic is like no one else.
JR doesn't play fusion though, and he's not a great improvisor, and he doesn't play odd groupings. So, it's up to you. I prefer the looseness and humaness of Vinnie. But I respect the hell out of JR.

[SeattleDrumKing]

P.S Vinnie's not better than everyone. I know this is a joke, but the reality is Vinnie is limited like most. He's amazing at certain things, and just doesn't do others. He doesn't play latin, be-bop, African, or ECM jazz. I'm not saying anyone is better than anyone. Just VINNIE's not the best. He's amazing and original and what HE does. And has many imitators. But he could never play like Jeff Ballard, Brian Blade, Jorge Rossy, or even Dennis Chambers, and Steve Jordan. Vinnie is Vinnie. And that's all.

[CLWarunki]

I respect art on MANY levels. Vinnie Colaiuta has a highly artistic approach to his drumming. So does Stewart Copeland, Terry Bozzio and anyone else who's playing is instantly recognizable... this is art within drumming. These people are artists.

So basically what you are saying is that JR is a HUMAN DRUM MACHINE really. Machine-like percision with the click and super consistency... maybe a bit of feel when needed, since he is human after all - right?

No offence to JR, but let me just end on this note:

Vinnie is painting Mona Lisa's while JR is doing Connect The Dots.