Through his excellent drumming books and DVD, Gavin Harrison has made a mission of teaching drummers how to play polyrhythms, beat displacements, and metric modulations, which collectively will confuse the hell out of your bandmates even as you come down on the 1. If you’ve never heard Harrison play, you might assume from the last sentence that his drumming would be self-indulgent and busy, as he endlessly screws around with the beat. You couldn’t be more wrong. Harrison is a great groove drummer, and his playing always feels perfect. He has incredible dynamics and taste, but always enhances the arrangement with enough spice to keep things interesting – a fact proved on every song he plays with Porcupine Tree, a band that blends the introspection of Radiohead or Coldplay with heavier progressive influences of Tool or A Perfect Circle.

"Halo"

In this song, Harrison starts with another cool funk groove that makes great use of dynamics and hi-hat openings, and ends with a six-stroke-roll fill. At the chorus, he moves his right hand to his ride cymbal, and uses his left hand to play the open hi-hats. This disk has lots of odd-time sections, and in this song, there’s a part that alternates measures of 9/8 and 8/8, though you can just as easily think of the second measure as 4/4. The second time through the pattern Harrison plays a sparser pattern on a sloshy hi-hat, and adds some double bass ruffs to raise the difficulty level even higher.

By Brad Schlueter
http://www.drummagazine.com/lessons/post/gavin-harrisons-hot-licks/

Sly and the Family Stone are an American rock  band from San Francisco, California. Active from 1966 to 1983, the band was pivotal in the development of soul, funk, and psychedelic music. Headed by singer, songwriter, record producer, and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, and containing several of his family members and friends, the band was the first major American rock band to have a multicultural lineup.[1]

Brothers Sly Stone and singer/guitarist Freddie Stone combined their bands (Sly & the Stoners and Freddie & the Stone Souls) in 1967. Sly and Freddie Stone, trumpeter Cynthia Robinson, drummer Gregg Errico,[2] saxophonist Jerry Martini, and bassist Larry Graham completed the original lineup; Sly and Freddie's sister, singer/keyboardist Rose Stone, joined within a year. This collective recorded five Billboard Hot 100 hits which reached the top 10, and four ground-breaking albums, which greatly influenced the sound of American pop music, soul, R&B, funk, and hip hop music. In the preface of his 1998 book For the Record: Sly and the Family Stone: An Oral History, Joel Selvin sums up the importance of Sly and the Family Stone's influence on African American music by stating "there are two types of black music: black music before Sly Stone, and black music after Sly Stone".[3] The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993.

During the early 1970s, the band switched to a grittier funk sound, which was as influential on the music industry as their earlier work.[4] The band began to fall apart during this period because of drug abuse and ego clashes; consequently, the fortunes and reliability of the band deteriorated, leading to its dissolution in 1975.[5] Sly Stone continued to record albums and tour with a new rotating lineup under the "Sly and the Family Stone" name from 1975 to 1983. In 1987, Sly Stone was arrested and sentenced for cocaine use, after which he went into effective retirement.[4] However, Sly and The Family Stone were announced as being in the line-up for the 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Indio, CA., USA.[6]

After the debut single for Sly and the Family Stone, "I Ain't Got Nobody", became a major regional hit for Loadstone Records,[4]  CBS Records executive Clive Davis signed the group to CBS' Epic Records label. The Family Stone's first album, A Whole New Thing, was released in 1967 to critical acclaim, particularly from musicians such as Mose Allison and Tony Bennett.[11]  However, the album's low sales restricted their playing venues to small clubs, and caused Clive Davis and the record label to intervene.[11][12]

Davis talked Sly into writing and recording a hit record, and he and the band reluctantly provided the single "Dance to the Music".[13] Upon its February 1968 release, "Dance to the Music" became a widespread ground-breaking hit, and was the band's first charting single, reaching #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.[14] Just before the release of "Dance to the Music", Rose Stone joined the group as a vocalist and a keyboardist. Rose's brothers had invited her to join the band from the beginning, but she initially had been reluctant to leave her steady job at a local record store.[13]

Sly and the Family Stone began to tour across the country, and were well known for their energetic performances and unique costuming.[unreliable source?][15] The Dance to the Music album went on to decent sales, but the follow-up, Life, was not as successful commercially .[16] In September 1968, the band embarked on its first overseas tour, to England. That tour was cut short after Graham was arrested for possession of marijuana, and also because of disagreements with concert promoters.[17]

Sound, philosophies, and influence of early years

Sly Stone had produced for and performed with both blacks and whites during his early career, and he integrated music by white artists into black radio station KSOL's playlist as a D.J. Similarly, the Sly and the Family Stone sound was a melting pot of many influences and cultures, including James Brown proto-funk, Motown pop, Stax soul, Broadway showtunes, and psychedelic rock music.[4] Wah-wah guitars, distorted fuzz basslines, church-styled organ lines, and horn riffs provided the musical backdrop for the vocals of the band's four lead singers.[16][18] Sly Stone, Freddie Stone, Larry Graham, and Rose Stone traded off on various bars of each verse, a style of vocal arrangement unusual and revolutionary at that time in popular music.[19] Cynthia Robinson shouted ad-libbed vocal directions to the audience and the band; for example, urging everyone to "get on up and 'Dance to the Music'" and demanding that "all the squares go home!"[20]

The lyrics for the band's songs were usually pleas for peace, love, and understanding among people. These rallies against vices such as racism, discrimination, and self-hate were underscored by the lineup for and on-stage appearance of the band. Caucasians Gregg Errico and Jerry Martini were members of the band at a time when integrated performance bands were virtually unheard of; integration had only recently become enforced by law. Females Cynthia Robinson and Rosie Stone played instruments onstage, rather than just providing vocals or serving as visual accompaniment for the male members.[21] The band's gospel-styled singing endeared them to black audiences; their rock music elements and wild costuming—including Sly's large Afro and tight leather outfits, Rose's blond wig, and the other members' loud psychedelic clothing—caught the attention of mainstream audiences.[unreliable source?][15]

Although "Dance to the Music" was the band's only hit single until late 1968, the influences of that single and the Dance to the Music and Life albums were heard across the music industry.[19] The smooth, piano-based "Motown sound" was out; "psychedelic soul" was in.[19] Rock-styled guitar lines similar to the ones Freddie Stone played began appearing in the music of artists such as The Isley Brothers ("It's Your Thing") and Diana Ross & the Supremes ("Love Child"). Larry Graham invented the "slapping technique" of bass guitar playing, which became synonymous with funk music.[22] Some musicians changed their sound completely to co-opt that of Sly and the Family Stone, most notably Motown in-house producer Norman Whitfield, who took his main act The Temptations into "psychedelic soul" territory starting with the Grammy-winning "Cloud Nine" in 1968.[23] The early work of Sly and the Family Stone was also a significant influence on the music of Michael Jackson, soul/hip-hop groups such as George Clinton & Parliament-Funkadelic, Arrested Development, and The Black Eyed Peas, and others.[24]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Errico

Well when i first heard this Elvis Costello tune it was the oh so cool drumming that attracted me to this song. Thomas had a way, a swagger that so suited Costello's style and as this groove shows he knew how to augment or should i say embelish a song. Thomas was recruited as a member of Costello's backing band The Attractions in 1977. Elvis Costello & The Attractions would spend the next decade touring the world, and recording nine albums, including Get Happy!! (1980), and Blood and Chocolate (1986).

Although Costello split with The Attractions between 1987 and 1993, he continued to work regularly with Thomas during this period. Thomas played drums on the albums Spike (1989), Mighty Like a Rose (1991), and Kojak Variety (recorded in 1990 but not released until 1995) and was a member of Costello's 1989-1991 touring band, The Rude 5.

Costello reunited with The Attractions for the albums Brutal Youth (1994) and All This Useless Beauty (1996).

In 2001 Costello recruited Thomas, Faragher, and fellow Attraction Steve Nieve to record the album that became When I Was Cruel (2002). Elvis Costello & The Imposters, as they were subsequently named, have gone on to tour extensively, and recorded the album The Delivery Man (2004).

Thomas lives in Los Angeles, with his wife Judy. Their daughter Tennessee is drummer for the band The Like. In 2003 Pete Thomas was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Elvis Costello & The Attractions.
[edit] Studio work

Over the years Pete Thomas has been an in demand session musician. Among his many credits include, drums for Graham Parker's 1991 album Struck By Lightning and 1992 album Burning Questions.

After Costello split with The Attractions for a second time, Thomas worked for the next few years primarily as a session drummer, recording with such artists as Suzanne Vega, Neil Finn, Vonda Shepard, Sheryl Crow, Fito Páez, Joaquín Sabina, Los Lobos, Wild Colonials, Matt Brown of 3 lb. Thrill, and John Paul Jones.

In 1993 Thomas joined the band Squeeze for their album Some Fantastic Place replacing Gilson Lavis on drums. He was not a part of that band after the one album.

In 1994, Thomas was part of a trio that included vocalist/avant garde opera diva, Diamanda Galás, and former Led Zeppelin bassist/multi-instrumentalist John Paul Jones, who recorded the album, The Sporting Life.

Mark Lavon Helm (born May 26, 1940), better known as Levon Helm, is most famous as the drummer (and often vocalist) for the rock group The Band. Helm is known for his deeply soulful, country-style voice, and powerful drumming style highlighted on many of the The Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", "Ophelia" and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". His 2007 comeback album Dirt Farmer earned the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008, and in November of that year, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him #91 in the list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.

Have a listen to the original version then have a crack at the groove and see whether or not you can make feel as good as Levon does. I dare say i will be repeating myself but don't you dig how he's playing for the song - sorry about that but i guess you know how i feel about this topic by now.