[CIApilot]

Jeff Beck gets my vote.

And for drums (may take heat on this one): Buddy Rich.

[LS]

From 1968 to 1974, Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge/Cactus was in my opinion light years above any other rock drummer. Buddy Rich was a jazz drummer, but I preferred Joe Morello or Gene Krupa---different extremes. Carmine's skills seemed to wane as he joined other bands with less talented musicians. But he was on the Jimmy Fallon show with the reunited Fudge last March and was as great as I remember.

I saw Baker, and am pretty sure I saw Cobham with Mahavishnu. Wasn't impressed with Cobham, but Baker was tremendous---his early work with Cream had very little traditional high-hat and lots of plain old drum work. Quite original. Never was a Bonham fan, though he was good. Hated Moon, Neal Pert, and "busy" drummers.

[eddie willers]

And for drums (may take heat on this one): Buddy Rich.

I have no idea what constitutes a good drummer but....

....about half the times I was listening to some record and said, "Wow!", when I went and checked the liner notes it said Steve Gadd.