Great Canadian Drummers

Groovissimo · August 24th, 2004, 10:59 PM

In Canada, we can boast that we have one of the world's most influential drummers when it comes to motivating young drummers - Neil Peart. In Canada many fine drummers have made their mark: Paul Brochu (Uzeb, Gino Vanelli), Mark Kelso, Rick Gratton, Paul DeLong, Magella Cormier, Randy Cooke, Guy Nadon, Wilson Lawrencin, only to name a few. Most of these excellent musicians will never make the Modern Drummer cover, but are just as good as any international greats !

There are a lot of newcomers who are being noticed, like Nelly Furtado's drummer Dave Langguth, and Montreal's Tony Albino.

Can you guys make us discover more up-and-coming Canadian drummers ?

**FuseU1** · August 24th, 2004, 11:20 PM

I agree with you whole heartedly about that.

I dug DeLong [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img] since listening to him on the '84 Kim Mitchell album "Akimbo Alogo," with the AOR hits "Go for a Soda" & "All We Are." Great player.

Gratton is a flat-out MFer [img]eek.gif[/img] . Discovered him when I bought the PIT vid w DeLong, as I'd heard he was a real MoFro. In it, Paul turns to the audience after a drum duet w Rick & exclaims in disbelief, "How can ANYONE play like THAT?!!" RG has some skills reminiscent of Vinnie, Novak, & Virgil...

Cooke blew me away w Kim Mitchell in '95 at the Ottawa Super Expo. The live stuff he did in the 6/4 dotted tune All We Are was just incredible...Gaddish, w a dose of Wecklage. ;c) ...& super tasty.

I'd like to check more about Kelso, for sure.

You covered all the CAN drummers that I am fond of, & I cant add any more. Beat Hit or Tombo might have some more input. [img]wink.gif[/img]

[ November 29, 2004 12:18 PM: Message edited by: fuseU1 ]

**quitou** · August 25th, 2004, 04:15 AM

Some other Canadian drummers that are really good...Jeff Salem from Toronto...he's got some insane skills...and then there was a guy from Vancouver called Randall Stoll...Haven't heard anything from him in quite a while, but he played with KD Lang and Tom Cochrane, and from what I heard he was an amazing afro-cuban drummer...wonder what happenned to him...is he still around???

**beat Hit** · August 25th, 2004, 02:17 PM

Jeff Salem from Toronto...he's got some insane skills

[img]graemlins/thinking.gif[/img] With all due respect... I wouldn't put Jeff Salem in the same league as the others mentionned above... Sorry...

[ August 25, 2004 12:02 PM: Message edited by: Beat Hit ]

**quitou** · August 25th, 2004, 05:21 PM

Originally posted by Beat Hit:
<blockquote>quote:<hr /> Jeff Salem from Toronto...he's got some insane skills

[img]graemlins/thinking.gif[/img] With all due respect... I wouldn't put Jeff Salem in the same league as the others mentionned above... Sorry...

[ August 25, 2004 12:02 PM: Message edited by: Beat Hit ]<hr /></blockquote>Really??? I saw some clips of him playing on his website, and he looked pretty damn good to me...good groove, independence, good double bass skills, good chops, he can play over left foot clave, he versatile...I don't know what more you can ask for in a drummer.

http://www.salemdrum.com/photo.html#1

scroll to the bottom and watch the video called "Drumology"...I'm impressed with it...who knows, maybe I'm just easy to impress.

[ August 25, 2004 03:07 PM: Message edited by: quitou ]

**beat Hit** · August 25th, 2004, 06:41 PM

Again... Don't mean any disrespect. IMHO, he's a good average drummer, but I would not put him in the "Great Canadian Drummers" category. I think the Montreal Drum Fest would have invited him to perform a long time ago... Gratton, Delong, Cooke, Brochu, Kelso, Cormier all performed at the Fest and more than once for some of them. I'll leave it at that....

**FuseU1** · August 25th, 2004, 07:07 PM

From the 4th paragraph of my first post, above:

Cooke blew me away w Kim Mitchell in '95 at the Ottawa Super Expo. The live stuff he did in the 6/4 dotted tune All We Are was just incredible...Gaddish, w a dose of Wecklage. ;c) ...& super tasty.

There is a nice live version of this tune on the KM albums "I Am A Wild Party-Live ['90]" & also KM's Greatest Hits...it doesn't give individual musicians track listings, but the liner notes include the drummers Greg Critchley, Paul DeLong, Matt Frenette [Loverboy fame], Pat Mastelotto, & Greg Morrow [now a Nashv session ace]. I just wish there was also a recorded copy of Cooke's version for purchase!

[ August 25, 2004 04:08 PM: Message edited by: FuseU1 ]

Groovissimo · August 25th, 2004, 07:23 PM

Hi,

Just thought of some Canadian drum legends: April Wine's Jerry Mercer , jazz greats Archie Alleyne, Terry Clarke, and rock/pop great Whitey Glan ! And not to forget, our Elvin Jones, the great Claude Ranger.

And anybody know Miche Pouliot, from the Ottawa region ?
We also tend to forget the great teachers we have in our colleges and universities. In these next threads, let's try and acknowledge some of our teachers.

**FuseU1** · August 25th, 2004, 07:42 PM

Aah
Forgot about Mercer of the Wine, & Terry Clarke, big-band/jazz bop drummer

**hanayalator** · August 25th, 2004, 09:30 PM

Randall is definetely still around, he's doin a lotta sessions in Van I think. And I'm curious as to why more Canadaian drummers haven't been on the cover of MD. I know it's mostly sold in America, but I think talent-wise, the above mentioned drummers could have definetly been on some covers. Thoughts?

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