Name your top players....musicians not celebrities....

[DarcyPerry]

Drums: Buddy Rich
Bass: Wille Dixon
Guitar: Aaron Tokana (list gets ridiculously long after my cuz...)
Singer: Ella Fitzgerald or Billy Holiday
Trumpet: Depends on mood... Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis or Chet Baker.
Piano: Simen Aanerud
Organ: Jimmy Smith
Sax: John Coltrane
Slide Guitar: Dave Hole, Derek Trucks, Duane Allman, Ry Cooder, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, ok... Elmore James, doh, it just goes on... Sonny Landreth... ok, I could be here all day...

[slash-ed]

Guitar: This one is pretty much impossible. If I could only pick one, Slash. He has his own distinct voice, I love his playing style and sound, he's a fantastic songwriter, he's created some of the greatest solos of all time, and he's everything you need in a guitar hero.

I think he has an era where he was all of those things. Unfortunately, and I say this as a pretty big Slash fan, I think that era is long gone.

All of the clever melodic things he used to do in GnR seem to have vanished now and I absolutely cringe when it comes to the guitar solos on his Slash albums of late. They all seem like such wasted opportunities. Instead of some well thought out melody with some added Slashy dirty bluesy licks, it's just widdly widdly bullshit.

I feel the same for Zakk too. Listen to Miracle Man and No More Tears and you will hear incredibly aggressive guitar work, but with some melody and a storyline. Listen to I Don't Wanna Stop and it's just like they copied and pasted one of Zakk's solo spots during an Ozzy show. Widdly widdly *yawn* widdly.

I think I've digressed enough now and can't remember the point of this post.

+1 all around. I haven't listened to Zakk in years for exactly that reason.

I too miss the days when Slash was basically shitting out iconic and memorable solos.

[corsair]

Hmmmm....

Drums - Marcel Rodeka
Bass - Roger Glover
Keys - Mike Harvey/Matthew Fisher
Electric Guitar - Elliott Easton
Acoustic Guitar - Lawrence Juber
Vocals - Malcolm Hayman
Sax - Raphael Ravenscroft
All round, do anything muso - Jeff Baxter

[hamo]

Guitar: This one is pretty much impossible. If I could only pick one, Slash. He has his own distinct voice, I love his playing style and sound, he's a fantastic songwriter, he's created some of the greatest solos of all time, and he's everything you need in a guitar hero.

I think he has an era where he was all of those things. Unfortunately, and I say this as a pretty big Slash fan, I think that era is long gone.

All of the clever melodic things he used to do in GnR seem to have vanished now and I absolutely cringe when it comes to the guitar solos on his Slash albums of late. They all seem like such wasted opportunities. Instead of some well thought out melody with some added Slashy dirty bluesy licks, it's just widdly widdly bullshit.

I feel the same for Zakk too. Listen to Miracle Man and No More Tears and you will hear incredibly aggressive guitar work, but with some melody and a storyline. Listen to I Don't Wanna Stop and it's just like they copied and pasted one of Zakk's solo spots during an Ozzy show. Widdly widdly *yawn* widdly.

I think I've digressed enough now and can't remember the point of this post.

+1 all around. I haven't listened to Zakk in years for exactly that reason.

I too miss the days when Slash was basically shitting out iconic and memorable solos.

As a diehard Zakk fanboi, I'm in the same boat to a degree. I was listening to one of his recent BLS tracks and I just found the solo to be kind of perfunctory and directionless. I still love the riffs he's coming out with though, that's the main reason I listen to the new stuff, but there are no No More Tears calibre solos coming out anymore really.

[druz15]

Drums - Marcel Rodeka

Fuck yeah the man, he taught my missus for a few years and I've been lucky enough to jam some chili's with him once.
We opened for his covers band Argus once and he did a jawdropping solo. Afters I was like OMFG that was insane and he was like "nah it was really sloppy I messed up quite a few fills"

for me
Drums: Grohl or Brann Dailor (Mastodon)
Bass: tough one, probably Entwhistle or Duff McKagan (his bass parts pretty much make most GNR songs IMO)
Guitar: Hands down the Froosh, has been since I was 15, and probably always will be.
Vocals: Probably the hardest to narrow down. Plant in his heydey, for more modern stuff maybe Grohl or Dolf from the Datsuns (probably my biggest inspiration vocally apart from Jack White and Plant)
Keys: Jon Lord RIP

[Bg]

All so predictable so far...

Drums - anyone who can hold a beat
Bass - Paul Hanley (The Fall)
Guitar - John McGeoch (Magazine, Siouxsie & the Banshees, PIL)
2nd Guitar - Will Sergeant - (Echo & the Bunnymen)
Vocals - Mark E Smith

Oh I'd pay for that

[hamo]

Hmm, this is hard for me because I wouldn't know good playing versus what just sounds flashy. Faves though for me:

Vox - have always been and will always be partial to Bruce Dickinson.
Bass - I like Stu Hamm. Might have been a time and a place thing as much as anything, but there it is. Also Flea, Steve Harris and whoever the guy was who played in Infectious Grooves.
Drums - shit, at this rate I might as well have just listed all of Iron Maiden, but I like Nicko McBrain. Also Danny Carey, Raymond Herrera and Charlie Benante
Keys - don't know a whole lot of keys players, but Jon Lord stands out. I like Ray Manzarek and Ray Charles too.
Guitar - the 64000 dollar question. I'm always going to say Zakk Wylde, but these days it's more for the riffs and the memories of solos past. Big fan of the Iron Maiden boys, and still love the shred masters of my youth - Eddie, Satch, Vai, Kotzen, Nuno, Gilbert, even Yngwie. I like Vernon Reid too - sue me. Perhaps unexpectedly given that list, I also love the living shit out of Leo Kottke and Wes Montgomery. Seeing Leo live is still a high point of my musical life.

[SixGunLover]

Hmmmm....

Drums - Marcel Rodeka
Bass - Roger Glover
Keys - Mike Harvey/Matthew Fisher
Electric Guitar - Elliott Easton
Acoustic Guitar - Lawrence Juber
Vocals - Malcolm Hayman
Sax - Raphael Ravenscroft
All round, do anything muso - Jeff Baxter

Cool to see some local players on your list - I agree that Marcel's a fantastic player; I used to play live with him every week and he was always perfect.

[SimonHirst]

If we're going towards forming bands, I would stealthily steal the singers position and go with:

Bass: Tim Foreman from Switchfoot
Drums: Phil Selway from Radiohead
Guitar: *UNIQUE*, and if he is too busy selling drugs I would approach Johnny Marr........
Piano/Keys: Eddie Rayner from Split Enz.

[twistedthoughts]

Drums: Dave Abbruzzese - unbeatable groove. Pearl Jam suck post-Dave Abbruzzese.

Bass: that guy who plays for Incubus now. Used to be in The Roots. Can rock, but can groove too. Awesome.

Guitar 1: Ian Moss. I want to marry Ian Moss. Fuck you, don't judge me.

Guitar 2: Me - why the fuck would I make this band and not get to jam out with them?

Keys: Rob from a Christchurch band The D'scendantz (sp?). Worth checking out - great band.

Vocals: Mike Patton. Every style covered. Well.

[Scooter13]

shit, at this rate I might as well have just listed all of Iron Maiden,.

Pretty much the conclusion I came to. All of Maiden. Period. So I had another go and came up with all of Zeppelin.

A 3rd attempt brought me a weird Ozzy era/ Black Sabbath combo: Iommi or Randy Rhoads for guitar, Bill Ward for drums, Ronnie James Dio for Vocals.
Bassists, apart from Steve Harris....hmm, Cliff Burton? I could of said Geezer Butler here of course too. Always had a soft spot for David Ellefson too, but I think it's more his bass tone and how he fits in to the Megadeth sound.

[Pastasauce]

Drums: Glenn Kotche from Wilco
Bass: Eddie Breckenridge from Thrice
Guitars: The Edge from U2
Hammond Organ: Jenny Conlee from The Decemberists
Vocals: Susan Tedeschi

I feel like this band could make some sweet, atmospheric alt-country or something like that.

[KentNZ]

Interesting little thread. And Eddie Raynor is an amazing musician - I have the Reunion DVD Split Enz did a little while back and he really shines...

Musos?

Drums, Manu Kache or Nick Mason. A player who can play with flair, but happily sits in the pocket for the song. Paul Russell is an amazing ex-local (Eight, Che Fu, Supergroove, Bruce Conlon, currently in Stomp, London)
Bass, Me? haha or... Tony Levin or... that other guy from David Gilmours Pink Floyd - the 'My Bass And Other Animals' author (anyone read that?). Guy someone. Pratt? Same comment about pockets.
Keys & Programming; Peter Gabriel?
Vocals. Well, me! There's a whole bunch of great singers out there, but this is my wish list so I can be "all about me" on this one. Its make believe after all...
Guitar. Tough: Sorry, not thinking of names - but you can probably tell I'd lean toward song-makers rather than shred-shakers... So, the guy from Stings band, the guy from U2 , the guy from Snow Patrol. Maybe John Mayer. Oh, I know who... Daniel Lanois. And Bruce Conlon. Love his tone. (Ugly green Strat into lovely old Bassman?).

But a smaller band, just me on acoustic, a great pianist, someone who can drive a Nord keyboard with understated class, a cello player and a percussionist - with a couple more singers. Nice.

[mitch.twentyfive]

Guitar: *UNIQUE*, and if he is too busy selling drugs I would approach Johnny Marr........

haha


this is way to hard, so i'll name a few for each intsrument.

Drums: Dave Turncrantz (Russian Circles) Bill Bruford (Yes, Crimson etc.)

Vocals: Judah Nagler (The Velvet Teen) Steve Snere (These Arms Are Snakes) Thom Yorke (Radiohead) & Jeff Buckley

Guitar: Robert Fripp (Crimson etc) David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) John Frusciante (more the solo stuff) and all of the Mogwai guys.

Synths/Keys: hands down, Rick Wright (Pink Floyd)

Bass: Brian Cook (TAAS, Russian Circles) Josh Staples (The Velvet Teen) William Waters (Kerretta)

[alanp]

If we're doing fantasy bands...

Drums -- Charlie Watts (not one of the usual suspects called out for this kind of thing... dunno why.)
Bass -- Roger Waters (you've got to have a Mr Personality semi-troublemaker, don't you? Plus I still love the bass line from Money.)
Guitar -- Noel Gallagher (different generation... hopefully bringing a different slant to things.)
Guitar -- Richie Sambora
Keys -- Keith Emerson (I was tempted to say one of the Kraftwerk dudes, but that's hugely not likely.)
Vocals -- Bruce Dickinson, or Rob Halford (both have great technique.)

Tried for something different here... I'm not sure what they'd produce, but I'm certain it'd be a cracking good tune. They're all from different times and places, but I hope they could pull together. It would have to be better than a vid on Youtube my brother showed me -- Skrillex, and the Doors.