Interesting results in this poll on Sting.com....

www.sting.com/members/community/

Surprised to see Keith Carlock only at 4% and Manu Katche at 11%... Sorry, I find Manu sometimes is a bit too laid back, very good finesse drummer (Book of My Life was his best contribution to Sting's music IMNSHO) if your material is always soft but for the material requiring drive, power and finese, I rarely see him create magic in that arena... He does it on a few occasions bring the drive (Montreaux, 2000?), but it's rare.

And its a race between Vinnie and Stew...

Vinnie
Vinnie
Vinnie

Of course that vote is subject to change based on mood swing, caffiene, and song being listened to at the time.

of course..... but the path is clear: or Vinnie (yes! yes! yes!) or Stewart!

Trini, take into account that perhaps most people who are taking part in the poll did not happen to attend a concert on the Sacred Love tour (with Carlock). The Brand New Day tour (Katche') was an extremely extensive tour. So that alone could be easily taken into account for the disparity.
Also, could there be a good chance that a number of people who did see the Sacred Love had no idea what drummer they were listening to. Not all fans are as interested in the details as some of us are. Besides, no official dvd or cd product was ever manufactured from that particular tour -- so can we surmise that Carlock went unfairly unrecognized to a great majority during his tour of duty with Sting?

Shall we connect Police and solo Sting path? There is/was symbiosis between Sting and Stewart. It was machine, best body and also most funny play. Then is Vinnie - damn good connection, understanding.. with Sting and that is the question. All of drummers of list are good

Oops I miss read the question when i voted! Anyway not many people are going to have seen all those drummers live so you cant compare them, so its not really a fair poll!! :P

Omar Hakim was awesome on the Bring on the Night dvd! :)

i noticed that the poll excludes Marvin Smitty Smith. so i cry foul! the hordes of wonderful folks in South America back in 1987 are not being given the option of a vote! :)
hmmm...let's see here. i've seen Colaiuta drum with Sting four times - and Katche', Carlock and Freese all once. let's see. eenie-meanie-miney-mo. :)

Baht,

Carlock deserves more respect, I thought the guy did a phenomenal job when the mix was right, I prefer him to almost all of those drummers with the exception of Colaiuta, I thought his style was a perfect match for Sting's music and vision. Too bad that he played on a tour that did not get the respect it deserved.

Trini, be sure that Carlock is easily gaining a ton of respect in the drumming community. In only the past few years, he has been hovering around the top of many distinguishing polls. And he has been delving into various projects in order to showcase the range of styles he is capable of handling. I could even picture him being awarded the most coveted 'all-around' someday - if he carries on at this pace. Right now, the main obstacle in his way is the force of nature who just so happens to be leading this poll.

I wouldn't mind seeing the same Sacred Love band but replacing Kipper with Lyle Workman.

I wouldn't be opposed to hearing a Sting studio disc with Keith Carlock on drums. But I think he's now far removed from the Sting camp and has quite a few acts that he seems highly connected to and which will keep his services extremely busy - Donald Fagen & Walter Becker being the strongest musical bond. It isn't that unlike the loyalty that Manu Katche' had shown to Peter Gabriel.
I read that Jason Rebello will indeed be returning to the Jeff Beck tour when it commences and since he not only contributed musically but also compositionally to the forthcoming Beck studio cd, I get the feeling he will remain involved when the time comes to promote that product...as will Vinnie.
So right now, any participants beside Dom remain a mystery. But since Sting recently mentioned Manu Katche', then I would not be surprised to learn that he is tapping that resource for certain recordings. I also am assuming that Kipper will be involved in some capacity.
By the way, I opened up this poll to the drumming community at houseofdrumming.com ... some very knowledgeable and capable players contribute to that site - including top notch players such as Terry Bozzio, Peter Erskine, Todd Sucherman, Gavin Harrison and a slew of others. The guys on the site obviously enjoy any poll that comes their way and have definitely taken to this one. :)

Good stuff Baht, hopefully Billy Childs might be Jason's replacement but he might not want to do a long tour as he seems a bit older.

So no Vinnie, no Jason, no Carlock, should be interesting to see what happens. Very true that Manu was mentioned by Sting recently, hopefully not for the tour.

I see the drumming community catapulted Vinnie way up, good to see he is where he deserves to be, way ahead of 'that other drummer'... ;-)

That "other drummer" is a legend. Vinnie = nice drummer Stewart Copeland.. nothing needs to be said. The fact that Vinne took the poll would have nothing to do with the fact it's on
the Sting website would it?

Probably not, mets. Though I believe it would have something to do with this:

http://www.houseofdrumming.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5824&sid=eb68e90329a9587d2ec461ab516d9a8a

you don't play fair, baht. how dare you facilitate the ability for those 'knowledgeable and capable' drummers to take part in such a poll?!?!?
what hath thou wrought?

While I am the biggest Stewart Fan on here..... I can see how Vinnie was placed above him on a Sting website. Stewart never played with Sting on a Solo Tour.....nor will he! However if the debate came down to who is the best overall musician that would have to go to Stewart. After all the man can play countless instruments and has written and performed countless movie soundtracks. It all makes sense to me given the source of the info. Stewart fans shouldn't be that shocked. Take the Poll on a Police based website and I am sure Stewart would be number one. It all has to be kept in context. I actually think Omar Hakim is taking the short end of the stick on this poll. How quickly people forget. Some of the things I have seen Omar do on the drums are flat out amazing.

The best drummer is clearly Abe Jr.. got nothing with the fact that I've met him, and he's a great guy, very melodic and got humility.. I guess thats why I voted for Stewart..

Abe's so humble he'd probably agree!

I must admit that I am enjoying the rationalizing nearly as much as the continuing outcome of the poll. :) The real drawback to the poll is that there is the possibility of multiple votes. This negates the entire endeavor in my opinion.
Perhaps you are correct, glarb, I shouldn't have opened up the poll to the amateurs, semi-pros and pros over at houseofdrumming.com. But to be fair, this was not a site focused only on Vinnie Colaiuta and therefore, not only Vinnie received votes as a result of my link. Omar's stock greatly grew. Copeland went up and so did Carlock.
Now here's a suggestion: How about some member of a 'Police based website' or a Copeland enthusiast site create a link and see what takes place?

This poll is perfect because It asks with sting in general and sting.com represents sting in general so...
Really not a surprise to see Vinnie here , everyday we can see : " ooohh great vinnie!!" etc etc , but Stewart situation is a little complex

Who is the best drummer you have seen perform live with Sting?

this poll is perfect. :)