Anybody who played drums for Frank Zappa was a great drummer, Vinnie Coulaiuta, Chad Wackerman, Anysley Dunbar but especially Terry Bossio, check his drum kit out. John Bonham Neil Peart Ian Paice.
Cherissi Osie is a wonderful session drummer too, she's been on tour of late with Simple minds and Bryan Ferry etc Mel Gaynor was great too as Simple Minds long time Drummer..
This guy's is amazing, quirky with some interesting high hat patterns. Carter Beauford. Another great but unfortunately late drummer was the guy from Toto Jeff Porcaro, just listen to drum pattern on Rosanna.
A rather sweeping generalisation that no modern drummers can read drum music. I know quite a few that can. If you want to be a session drummer, play on cruise ships or teach drumming you have to be able to read drum music. If you were referring to modern pop/rock drummers in bands like Coldplay and Snow Patrol then I would tend to agree with you, but for more technical styles of music such as jazz, fusion, tech/prog metal then most of the drummers can read and write drum music. It is not uncommon for them to work out their parts by listening to the music and writing out what they are going to play. When you're working with pieces of music that have multiple time signature and tempo changes in them working out what you are going to play before you do it is essential.
Another vote for Carter Beauford. I just love what he plays on the hi hats. His playing is very musical. I also have a soft spot for Thomas Lang. His pedal work is amazing and he does like to show off his stick tricks. Both of those guys are cool drummers, but as far as who I think is the best drummer then my vote goes to Dave Weckl whose command of the drums is just astounding.
Impressive, but Moon would have been more interesting to watch for 4 mins plus he would have destroyed his kit at the end.
Interesting that you use the word powerhouse in relation to a drummer. When I was living in Kingston, I shared my flat with a lady called Sonja Kittelson. Sonja's boyfriend was Herman Rarebell of the Scorpions and when in London he would kip at the flat. When they did a concert in Hammersmith, he stayed long enough for the Melody Maker review to come out. His English was fine but he didn't fully understand the sentence referring to him so he asked me to explain it: "The quaintly named Herman Rarebell was a powerhouse of relentless mundanity" Awkward...
