solo albums by drummers

List your favorite albums by drummers where they play drums and maybe there are some electronics or another drummer or other sounds, but it's mostly drums (not just like any album made by a drummer)

Not sure any of the ones I've heard are that great tbh.

there was another thread called "drummers' albums" but that was just for "albums noteworthy for their drumming" and not this particular topic

i will admit that this is partly an excuse to talk about jon mueller and greg fox, both of whom have new records out this year. i liked the fox-millions duo, looking forward to hearing his new one. jon mueller's new album is something else -- it was recorded in a shaker meeting hall and the sound is out of this world. i love it. i am sure i will think of more but i want to know about others i'm missing!

i pretty much love all of jon mueller's solo stuff.

super good https://rhythmplex.bandcamp.com/album/tongues

I can think of lots of drummer solo albums but drums aren't the focus of most of them. Moon doesn't even *play* drums on his solo album iirc.

i didn't know what to call the thread that wouldn't make it unwieldy -- i am looking for drummers' albums where the drummer plays drums and maybe there are some vocal elements or other instruments, but the focus is on drumming

i feel like there must be a bunch i don't know!

frank rosaly has a few solo albums where he plays drums + electronics but i only have one of them

Glen Velez, solo frame drum with incredible sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8J1bnyeHuuU

Deantoni Parks' album should count since it's a live solo performance, if you watch his videos he's playing samples on a keyboard with his right hand and playing hi-hat/snare with his left:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-GlTMZrZnU&list=PLaucXuwTx3L9TnHoxz96j0yXlOwNk8Tsx

I can think of lots of drum duo/trio/percussion ensemble albums, but will think about more solo albums and report back tomorrow.

duos and trios are interesting too! post them all!!

like i am not particularly interested in classically schooled percussion ppl playing a composition
the creativity required to generate an album's worth of drum music by oneself (or with another drummer or two) is interesting to me

oh oh oh, Susie Ibarra's 'Drum Sketches' album is FANTASTIC top to bottom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vetb3KnLcHc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HSn2iW4ixGs

Here's a couple from the 70s that fit the bill and are OK in parts,

http://www.mediaboom.org/uploads/posts/2016-04/1460404486_r-2225328-1270905882.jpeg.jpg

http://shop.cdkrakovska.cz/24030-thickbox_default/zabba-w-lindner-carsten-bohn-vollbedienung-of-percussion.jpg

Here's an album of really nice drum duo performances:
https://tonyfalco.bandcamp.com/album/origin

i'm guessing there must be some christian vander records along these lines.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kk9NaHsobew

Glenn Kotche:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwekSyWxcgg

Oh yeah! Forgot about him!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lci01iu8WRk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlo1XvJXsr0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFdhUBWEyOw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzVjLEzN36M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8wI49h-4qY

(Obviously lots of drummers^!)

John French did a solo drum album called O Solo Drumbo. Included a bunch of Beefheart drum parts, at least one French-Frith-Kaiser-Thompson. I didn't recognize all the song titles.

Also the Tortoise percussionists did a project as Bumps.

I have this percussion record by Stomu Yamashta, Red Buddha. Interesting, but I don't play it very often.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQp6yPOum_A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQytfoovpjc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E9oW5qojs_g

https://www.discogs.com/Les-Batteries-Noisy-Champs/master/452486

three drummers make a solo album together

https://img.discogs.com/NRd0tB-Rztif30s88JZQ6n3n2js=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-1130247-1194473145.png.jpg

Chris Corsano - The Young Cricketer

is that him? decent legspin action

Baby Dodds — Talking and Drum Solos

I think I tried to do this thread - or something similar - once a few years ago and didn't get many answers. Looking forward to checking some of this stuff out.

once saw max roach play a mesmerising half-hour* solo on just a single cymbal**, wish that had become a record

*might actually have been longer
**his kit was him on a stool and the cymbal on a stand and that's it

Jack dejohnette led a number of ecm style jazz LPs not all of which are on ecm and what I remember of them makes me want to revisit

Also Paul motian led a bunch of ecm type shit which I want to hear because I read somewhere that he is a great example of the use of rubato in drumming which, from a rubato-loving-guitarist pov, interests me v much

Also there's a keiji haino album where he takes to solo percussion iirc?

Oh well, solo percussion is it?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8bIgrDA8-E

oh, my thread was on the sandbox and it was a little more specific and there were a few answers.

http://beta.ilxor.com/sandbox/ThreadSelectedControllerServlet?boardid=142&threadid=1699

I remember that I was inspired to start that thread when I heard Pete Might Spook the Horses by Heads, Hands, and Feet. It's not even a completely drum song, but I felt like I could live in the solos.

http://www.freewebs.com/teejo/bolts/johnsolo.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ6on9ZaNeE

Also Paul motian led a bunch of ecm type shit

was trying to think if anything of his fit the bill... maybe his soundtrack to punishment park?

There's a double CD of Christian Vander (Magma dude) drum solos called Korusz, can't say I've listened to it more than once tbh.

https://img.discogs.com/vcHnynP1_oytRi0iQ_W7n9DR4ko=/fit-in/300x300/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(40)/discogs-images/R-5387022-1392110545-9241.jpeg.jpg

two albums by groups led by grateful dead drummers
https://img.discogs.com/rnTn4EtLH0C-TYYF4cdJntZ-UGw=/fit-in/600x600/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1760887-1477881293-4592.jpeg.jpg
https://img.discogs.com/wr8B0AZKv6kCQpAfztC5zNL2KMc=/fit-in/600x603/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-1722952-1422470541-5732.jpeg.jpg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmdDkxV0208

saunier + chippendale

batucada fantastica by luciano perrone

patrice sciortino - percussion power

I can think of lots of drummer solo albums but drums aren't the focus of most of them. Moon doesn't even *play* drums on his solo album iirc.

He and Ringo both play on "The Kids Are Alright" on Two Sides Of The Moon, but not very well. Keith never practiced, which wasn't an issue so much when the Who were active (which they were steadily through 1973), but if they took six months or a year off, his playing atrophied quickly. Most of the drums on his album are played by Jim Keltner, with the late Miguel Ferrer playing on one track.

Fuck all that jazz stuff. Did you know that the best Replacements solo album is Chris Mars' Horseshoes and Hand Grenades?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5fuptlWpz30

idk if this qualifies under your criteria but I like the one album dave narcizo (well, basically most of throwing muses) released as lakuna

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9pXcCmzhDdk

is that him? decent legspin action

― an uptempo Pop/Hip Hop mentality (imago), Tuesday, March 7, 2017 3:18 PM (seven hours ago)

that is not chris corsano.

Milford Graves got the important obligatory mention already

off the top of my head:
Zach Hill's Astrological Straits, WW put out something recently like this but I haven't heard it, there's a compilation called "Just Drums" (there might be two volumes) that are short tracks by a bunch of different contemporary drummers/percussion ppl. Kevin She@ gave it to me for free because he was genuinely amazed and surprised by my enthusiasm for purchasing the albums by People (his project with Mary Halvorson -- also worth a listen). I think outside of Kevin and Mary, I think that me and WW are the only two serious fans of that band.

if you want, I can send you a not-the-best-recording of the thing I did last year that was basically solo drums + electronics (when I opened for Chris Corsano)

Paal Nilssen-Love has a couple of these, Miro and 27 Years Later.

Bruce Ditmas - Yellow Dust (always seems impressive and like something I should like when I dip in but never quite listened to the whole thing through).

Mickey Hart surely has a whole bunch. I like this 90s Supralingua album - global / tribal / drum circle type thing, more going especially vocals but the focus is drums.

used to own this solo drummer compilation feat Fugazi, Don Cab, Storm & Stress personnel: https://www.discogs.com/Various-Membranaphonics/release/3221752

it was a neat idea but not that exciting to actually listen to iirc

recently been digging this album by a British experimental dude called Jaxson Payne. it's kind of late 80s sounding house/techno (makes me think of Bang The Party or someone like that?) played live on MIDI drums all in one take

Great thread, will make time to check some stuff out.

Recently I've fallen in love with Jay Daniel's Broken Knowz album from late last year. A young DJ/producer from Detroit who's been drumming almost all his life. The album's based on his live drumming which he then combined with programmed drums (MPC) and keys (Fender Rhodes, Juno 106, RX). It's a really beguiling and absorbing listen. "Paradise Valley" is so beautiful.

if you want, I can send you a not-the-best-recording of the thing I did last year that was basically solo drums + electronics
yes please!!

i am going to dig into these ASAP, thank you all for the recommendations
some names are familiar but i've never heard any of these :)

Love this one. Carla Bley, Robert Wyatt, a Floyd and assorted other folk. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEoN0QApLSM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eCzjnE5dmts

Think these come under the category of 'any album made by a drummer'.

eh. ok.

Neal Morgan, who I know best from his drumming with Joanna Newsom (prior to her last album), released a few albums of drums and multi-tracked vocals. The first one in particular, To The Breathing World I think was really enjoyable. This seems like the best place to listen online, he's fairly under-represented on YouTube.

http://www.juno.co.uk/products/neal-morgan-to-the-breathing-world/373995-01/

Andrew Cyrille: "What About?" from 1969.
Jerome Cooper: "The Unpredictability of Predictability" from 1979.

andrew cyrille and milford graves did a record together called "dialogue of the drums" on their label ips (institute of percussive studies)

Stewart Copeland's Rumblefish soundtrack is probably my favorite thing along these lines

Also the Birdman soundtrack.

Billy Martin has a really great solo album from '02 (I think he's super underrated because of MMW's jam band associations):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwORqecCebQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XaXCusqqko

^ Really nice!

It's interesting there are a lot of straight ahead records with drummers as "leaders" but very few of them are classic records - Max Roach and Tony Williams have some great ones but there aren't a lot of others that come to mind.

That said I've been into this Jo Jones Trio record lately. It seems like in a lot of cases they're not all that different from other jazz trio/quartet/quintet records except that they feature the drummer a little more prominently and maybe the drummer's compositions. Here it seems like they mic'd/mixed things so the drums are more prominent:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TiV8QVueu0s

I also discovered there's a Jo Jones/Milt Hinton duo record where Jo Jones plays percussion. Want to give it a good headphone listen, not really good for office listening.

I dunno, like Billy Cobhams Spectrum? That's classic. More recently, I love the two or three Brian Blade records, too.

I've had a copy of Reebop Kwaku Baah & Ganoua - Trance. Another one that seems like it should be great but the lo-fi recording doesn't work that well in this instance.

It's interesting there are a lot of straight ahead records with drummers as "leaders" but very few of them are classic records - Max Roach and Tony Williams have some great ones but there aren't a lot of others that come to mind.

Um...Art Blakey, maybe?

And I'm just starting to dig into his discography, but Elvin Jones has some amazing late '60s/early '70s records.

I've got a ton of great jazz records led by drummers (thinking Joe Chambers, Billy Drummond, Herlin Riley, etc), but that's another thread.

a duo record here:

https://www.discogs.com/Derek-Bailey-Jamie-Muir-Dart-Drug/master/110081

I still can't think of any true "totally solo" drummer records other than the Milford Graves and Corsano ones mentioned.

Man, this thread led me to discover this '87 record by Bob Moses and Billy Martin, it's insane. Lots of electronic loops and '80s effects, West African drumming over gated reverb beats, this has to be a treasure trove for a certain kind of dj, right?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SE_kMOaaFxg&list=PLNOQTYAhGu92OGs57-xGCEdlDOi46FymU&index=6

trying that embed again:

https://youtu.be/SE_kMOaaFxg?list=PLNOQTYAhGu92OGs57-xGCEdlDOi46FymU

new kid millions/man forever sounds promising!
http://ravelinmagazine.com/posts/man-forever-plays-what-kid-millions-has-always-wanted/#content

Ronald Shannon Jackson's Puttin' On Dog is nothing but drums and vocals.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDXegO6MylQ

http://cps-static.rovicorp.com/3/JPG_400/MI0002/306/MI0002306282.jpg?partner=allrovi.com

Side 1 of this fits the bill. Side 2 adds Carter Jefferson on saxes, Jon Faddis and Lew Soloff on trumpets for a return to your previously scheduled programming.
The first half is a tutorial in african, cuban, and afro-cuban polyrhythms.

Solo track on Tony Williams' Spring:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnTEPOOl2DE

Pretty much anything by Eiko Ishibashi, esp Carapace and Imitation of Life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gp3JE9XagY

https://img1.etsystatic.com/044/1/7167637/il_570xN.651265039_t9kc.jpg

i love this.
the first real tack>>head album basically.

Tony's Spring and Life Time are such incredible records. It's really a shame Tony didn't do a whole string of albums like that. Taking nothing away from Emergency! and (turn it over), those Blue Note dates hinted at a fascinating compositional voice that, sadly, never re-emerged.

The Mi-Gu (drummer from Cornelius' band) self titled record is ace too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AIjT3jL2tQ

Not strictly solo drums, but this 1977 duets album by Max Roach and Abdullah Ibrahim has some pretty great moments.

Really enjoying the new Andrea Belfi album:

https://andreabelfi.bandcamp.com/album/ore

never heard of that guy but he does sound interesting!

Reggie Watts to thread.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=344OpaQCAQI

John McEntire - Reach The Rock (OMPS), et al.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coFNfX6GNBo

Not drumming per se, but any chance to revisit the funky grooves of Mark's Keyboard Repair is welcomed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLoNNHAeV0Y&index=5&list=PLAE2A55CE262F866F

Eddie Prevost (AMM) has several totally solo records, e.g. this one:

https://www.discogs.com/Eddie-Pr%C3%A9vost-Material-Consequences/release/432072

this was a split album with Organum, but still awesome:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3lW68FxmXI

My high school drum teacher put out his first album of solo drums this year, and it's great. Really melodic and not about chops, more like drum lullabies at times.

https://daveschoepke.bandcamp.com/
https://open.spotify.com/album/6Adz9EMIoPxuy2vjEYLYEV?si=wMui5bdpSVit_2ufHzm9mg

cool!

here's two more:

https://www.discogs.com/Cleve-Pozar-Solo-Percussion/release/4341542

https://www.discogs.com/Sun-City-Girls-Piano-Bar-For-Drummers-Only/release/797635

Great thread, hadn't seen it before. Harry Bertoia built these sound sculptures and recorded albums of them---pretty fine visual results too:
Harry Bertoia

Is this thread limited to jazz/rock/funk/etc? Cos I can think of more examples of solo percussion albums in classical music than in those genres.

Not limited -- post away!

I went to see Kim So Ra last week and she was a phenomenal bandleader + i was super into her music. i bought the CD! i think it's called A Sign of Rain.

Buddy Rich’s ‘The Roar of ‘74’ kinda blew my mind last week - caused me to fall down the ever entertaining Buddy Rich YouTube hole ...

Ha, I tried listening to that the other day and just couldn’t do it. It felt like a salesperson was shouting at me, arranged for a big band.

Ultimately, the only Buddy Rich recordings I dig are the Lester Young Trio records with Nat King Cole, and the bus tapes.

I like this drum solo, which seems just discreetly tweaked by DJ:
https://octoocta.bandcamp.com/track/ecstatic-beat

Also wasn't some of Endtroducing turntables x live-in-the-studio drummer?

Never heard that, I thought the whole point is that it was all samples?

Re: Buddy, I just wrote this on Twitter today

it's become so fashionable to hate on him because he was a fucking asshole + didn't play especially cool music + and has become shorthand for showing off, that I think he's actually underrated in a weird way

— CHANTS (@ChantsWI) September 30, 2019

xpost maybe I'm thinking of a later album---doesn't he sometimes play drums, percussion?
New one due in November:
https://www.factmag.com/2019/09/23/dj-shadow-to-release-double-album-our-pathetic-age/

Stewart Copeland - "Rumblefish" soundtrack already mentioned, but also "The Rhythmatist"

In a similar English-drummer-in-Africa vein, Mick Fleetwood's "The Visitor"

Oh wait, Copeland's American. I'm an idiot.

Robert Wyatt's "End of an Ear" was what jumped into my mind when I read the thread title.

xpost maybe I'm thinking of a later album---doesn't he sometimes play drums, percussion?

Are you thinking of RJD2 maybe? He started with breaks, and then obsessively learned to engineer and play (and then sample) his own breaks to match the qualities of a nice & dirty '60s/'70s recording.