Dave Weckl

Some would call him a drummer's drummer, but Dave Weckl is probably more appropriately a drummer's drummer's drummer -- capable of mind-blowing beats and fills that have to be captured on video to be believed. Weckl often does exactly that, and peddles theses videos to the type of people who hang around music stores spending their parent's money rather than going home and practicing, as Weckl obviously did for many years. He's played with all kinds of people, including pop stars such as Madonna, but most notably he spent years as a seminal member of Chick Corea's Elektric Band, dusting Berklee grads around the country with his upper-tier Fusion licks. Weckl often performs with guitarist Mike Stern, delivering performances that have been likened to a rainstorm of drumsticks falling on a land made of drums. His solo releases find him searching around the Jazz-Funk and Fusion territories of the '70s, surrounding himself with a bevy of chop-shop musicians who duke it out over slick (but not overly slick), funky grooves.