solo albums by drummers

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.