Best Drum Solos

Once we get a nice assortment, I could put together a public Spotify playlist with the best one! Just a thought.

Ginger Baker - Cream/Wheels of Fire: Toad

Ginger Baker - Blind Faith/Blind Faith: Do What You Like

Ginger Baker, We're Going Wrong on Disraeli Gears

in-a-gadda-da-vida  or some early grand funk albums

Sing Sing Sing (With a Swing) - Benny Goodman

Great so far! Feel free to list a few at a time, I'm piecing together the full list.

check out : Lineage - Lenny White Solo- (live) on - Return To Forever - Returns (live disc2)

I can't remember if it was Chicago or Three Dog Night, but the solo was called "Motorboat to Mars".

Jethro Tull - This Was: Dharma for One

I was a drummer in high school & college, had a set of Ludwigs (that were made in Chicago, IL, so you can probably guess how old I am), and I am almost embarrassed to admit this, but I saw Grand Funk Railroad live at RFK Stadium in DC and that drummer was really "on" that night!  He played an incredible drum solo!

Having said that, I had the pleasure of seeing Led Zeppelin with John Bonham, one of the best rock and roll concerts I ever attended.  He did some solo work, but didn't need to, his drumming was just awesome!

Second wlutke's recommendation of Sing, Sing Sing.

You'll want the 1938 version recorded at Carnegie Hall.  I think the drummer was Gene Krupa.  Excellent performance (if dated sound) all the way around.

I'll toss in a personal guilty pleasure:

Mick Fleetwood - "World Turning" from Fleetwood Mac Live in Boston

Sandy Nelson, Let There Be Drums.  Many of my favorites already posted.

Tony Williams, with The Trio of Doom (John McLaughlin/Jaco Pastorius), intro to The Dark Prince, live at Havana Jam festival.
Billy Cobham, One Word (Birds of Fire LP), Mahavishnu Orchestra

The drum solo from Soul Sacrifice by the guy who was playing for Santana at Woodstock.....absolutely awesome!!

Eruption/You Really Got Me- Van Halen.

theforerunner, that would be Michael Shrieve.

Batuka - Santana lll - not a solo but percussion forefront
Drum Opera - INXS - drum machine 

El Nicoya - Santana - Abraxas

Well you have to include "Nardis" from the Cafe Blue album from Patricia Barber. Another poster mentioned Mick Fleetwood which made me think of "Tusk" which is not really a solo but worthy no doubt.

Patricia Barber - Black Magic woman - around the seven minute mark it gets going good . Slow steady build to climax - from Companion

Steve Gadd -Aja- Steely Dan

Great picks on Ginger Baker! Totally agree.
Gene Krupa - Sing Sing Sing is indeed classic!
Want to add Mark Nauseef -- Dark and lately impressed by Brian Blade.

Rolling Stones- You Can't Always Get What You Want

2nd - Dave Brubeck Quartet/Joe Morello – Far More Drums
Buddy Rich – Channel One Suite, Norwegian Wood

Sorry, Two More:

Louis Bellson – Skin Deep
Steve Gadd – Keep the Customer Satisfied

 The Sheffield Lab Drum record.Entire LP nothing but drumming about the best Drum sound I heard.I also like Terry Bozzio on Zappa's the Black Page.

All great entries above....+1 on all of them.

A few more suggestions;

- Don't know if you can qualify them as a 'solo' performance per se, but every member of ONDEKOZA is at virtuoso level on their individual parts.
Any album by them qualifies as among the 'best drumming' performances....

- Kim Hok Man, "Master of Chinese Percussion"

- And finally, without a doubt, IMHO, anything by Neil Peart from RUSH!!! In particular his many iterations of the drum solo from "Working Man" over the years, his playing on Cygnus X-1 (both parts across 2 albums), Bytor and the Snowdog, La Villa Strangiato, Xandau, 2112, Tom Sawyer, YYZ,...the list goes on and on. What he does, how he plays and the orchestra-like 'force of one' he demonstrates blows me away every time.

As an aside,...if you have not read Peart's book "Ghost Rider, Travels on the Healing Road", I would highly recommend it.  A very deep, touching and immersive read,...

+ 1) falconquest: Patricia Barber "Cafe Blue" ..."Nardis", Mark Walker
Any time Carl Palmer can be "let loose".

My nomination is not really a drum solo per se, but two little "breaks" played by Don Lamond, Woody Herman's drummer, in the Bobby Darin recording of "Beyond The Sea". Too cool for words!

There are lots of very good percussionest.
Personally, I've always likes Buddy Rich.

Great pieces of music...keep it coming!

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Drum Solos???
Thanks guys! Now i really feel old...:-)
Back in the sixties it was almost mandatory in the middle sets to have a long one!
Always wondered what the poor drummers did to not get a "break" in the show...:-)

Drum Solos???
Thanks guys! Now i really feel old...:-)
Back in the sixties it was almost mandatory in the middle sets to have a long one!
Always wondered what the poor drummers did to not get a "break" in the show...:-)

At Carnegie Hall, (Dave Brubeck Quartet album), Castillian drums song.
Recorded in 1963, solo drum of 14 minutes, not bad at all for a 50 years old recording.
Also a an one hour recording of drum call "the drums flights" played by a body builder by the name of Rob Schuh. Very special experimental album.
Enjoy  

Well the best I've heard in regards to tantalizing sound was at Carnegie hall so I'll guess the best recorded one is from there as well. 

The live recordings in Carnegie Hall might be OK, but as far as venue acoustics go it's probably one of the very worst.

And now for something completely different:

I was driving today and Culture Club's immortal hit "The War Song" (key lyric: War is stupid, People are stupid) popped up on XM.  I had completely forgotten that this song featured a real, honest to goodness drum solo!  Maybe not a solo for the ages, but a solo nonetheless.

Any drum solo by Omar Hakim, Tony Roy Jr.
Frenchman marc cerrone always has a good sounding drum set.. even though is not a 1st class drummer.  check out "2nd chance"  with tony allen for intersting afro beat or cerrone's drum solo live at versailles 2005.
Phil collins did an entertaining solo live in paris I believe.

I saw Roy Haynes do a solo during a lecture/demonstration in a university performance hall ca. 1980.  It was quite impressive.

Nice input everyone! I'm assembling a Spotify playlist the best I can with what they have available. Here's the playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/user/1250668582/playlist/0atitBeCQDCcWwoj78ZBpK

I made it collaborative so people can add and remove at will. Think of it like a wiki playlist!

Tony Williams on Miles' "Nefertiti"; brilliant.  The tune is all about Williams soloing throughout while the front line just plays the melody and don't solo.

KISS - Peter Criss, Alive or something. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a huge KISS fan. But I will never forget listening to this solo when I was a kid, even if I can't remember the album. It goes on forevah! 

Ginger Baker TOAD off the Wheels of Fire Album - hard to find one better if you got the equipment to reproduce it.

What, no grateful dead? I saw them a couple dozen times before Jerry died and really enjoyed the "drums" portion of there concerts. They would play (Bill & Mickey) for about 20 minutes on there own without the rest of the band. Good stuff & very talented musicians.  

Somehow, I'm getting a great drum vibe from my gear from the drums (not a drum solo itself) of this band's debut album.

The Reign of Kindo - Something In The Way That You Are

The drummer's finesse is making the drums livelier in my system

I love Reign of Kindo! I'll have to check it out on my system.