My Uncles friend turned me on to Carl when Brain Salad Surgery came out. I was 10 years old and went with them to see ELP at Madison Square Garden in New York. Seeing him playing live and up close I was amazed at his technical and showmanship skills. From that night on he became my favorite drummer/percussionist and a huge influence on my style of playing.
Carl is every bit as good as Neil Peart. He just has a completely different style. His soloing style was similar early on (listen to Welcome Back My Friends . . . .), but later stuff with Asia, ELP, and solo has taken on much more of a jazz style.
Imo i'd say inconsistent, rather than none, but overall his playing was more orchestrally/rudimentally focused. Sometimes he plays nice busier boogaloo/soul jazz'ish grooves with a cool feel, then other times playing the same part he'd be coked up and rushing, giving it a chaotic Moon'ish feel at times, but yeah, definitely not a natural player for simple "laying it down", or heavy Bonham/Paice R&B/funk influenced grooving. ELP didn't need that sort of drumming though, you could be more unorthodox with it. As you say i think he managed to play cool creative stuff in a style that wouldn't have worked with a lot of other rock bands. His playing on the first Atomic Rooster album has some good playing in more of a hard-rock/heavy psych style of prog.
My Uncles friend turned me on to Carl when Brain Salad Surgery came out. I was 10 years old and went with them to see ELP at Madison Square Garden in New York. Seeing him playing live and up close I was amazed at his technical and showmanship skills. From that night on he became my favorite drummer/percussionist and a huge influence on my style of playing.
WOW!!!!!!!!! This piece is one of the most creative drumming ever!!!!
Carl is every bit as good as Neil Peart. He just has a completely different style. His soloing style was similar early on (listen to Welcome Back My Friends . . . .), but later stuff with Asia, ELP, and solo has taken on much more of a jazz style.
Guy had no pocket and still managed to play great, creative stuff.
Imo i'd say inconsistent, rather than none, but overall his playing was more orchestrally/rudimentally focused. Sometimes he plays nice busier boogaloo/soul jazz'ish grooves with a cool feel, then other times playing the same part he'd be coked up and rushing, giving it a chaotic Moon'ish feel at times, but yeah, definitely not a natural player for simple "laying it down", or heavy Bonham/Paice R&B/funk influenced grooving.
ELP didn't need that sort of drumming though, you could be more unorthodox with it. As you say i think he managed to play cool creative stuff in a style that wouldn't have worked with a lot of other rock bands. His playing on the first Atomic Rooster album has some good playing in more of a hard-rock/heavy psych style of prog.
He couldn’t keep time
@@Loskov-my3xw Agreed. He has elements of Show-Boating over technical ability.
ELP wouldn't sound as good if it were all to a grid imo