Carl Palmer of Emerson, Lake and Palmer fame as well as the supergoup Asia is one of my favorite rock drummers. He is a highly skilled live musician. He has a light touch and he’s amazingly accurate and fast. Carl was hailed as the rock-n-roll equivalent of jazz great Buddy Rich. I personally like to watch Carl Palmer using the classic jazz grip on the sticks. You don’t see it a lot with rock drummers. Another thing I really enjoy is Carls sense of showmanship. He knows how to put on a good show while playing the drumset. He is truly a great example of a good mix of musicianship and great stagecraft.
Today I’ve got two drum solo clips from the great Carl Palmer. One from earlier in his career and one from much later in his career after he started using more double bass drums. In the first one, I particularly like his use of the double gongs. Those gongs he has have my idea of perfect gong bloom. They bloom slowly and bloom long. I’m not sure what brand of gongs he’s using but they sure sound great. In the second clip, you can see that Carl is only getting better with age.
Classic Rock Drum Solos – Carl Palmer
Asia – Carl Palmer Drum Solo
AAAAAHHHHKKK!!
Epileptic Siezure!!!!!!!
Dang, Carl can hit those skins… but fire the video director!
Ha! They liked crrrr-azy video action back in the day. As if Carl wasn’t whackin’ those drums fast enough.