Who are the musician's musicians?

The question is plural, you'll need at least one more.

 

Doug Sahm
Johnny Smith
Les Paul
Buddy Emmons
Gabby Pahinui

 

Robert Wyatt

 

Jeff Beck. Never heard anything bad about him, only praise. While Page and Clapton have their share of detractors, Beck seems to be unanimous.

 

Michael Landau

 

Kenny Aronoff - Drummer's drummer

 

When it comes to a certain group of singers... Anne Briggs.

 

Flatt & Scruggs
Stanley Brothers
Jim & Jesse

In short, Bluegrass is very much a musician's genre

 

Beck had a bad reputation in the Yardbirds for throwing tantrums when his equipment didn't work correctly. I think he has improved since then.

 

Joey Spampinato.

 

Speaking as a drummer Al Jackson Jr and Billy Ficca

As a guitarist, Tom Verlaine, Johnny Marr, Dave Gregory

 

Moogy Klingman didn't have much respect for M. Frog, claiming that he was just in the band because Todd liked having him around..

My nominee would be Dave Stewart. Not the one who was in Eurythmics, but the one who was in National Health, Egg, Hatfield & The North and Bill Bruford's band. He was a columnist for Keyboard magazine for quite a while which published a Flexidisc of his song Henry & James that was much sought after by other players.

 

Two late great tenor sax players:
Michael Brecker and Frank Vicari

 

Steve Gadd
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter
Bill Payne

 

He delved in styles that weren't exactly to my liking, but after having seen him perform, Stu Hamm would be the go-to guyou for metal bass playing.

 

Mick Ronson. Guitarist, arranger and producer. One of rock music's true gentlemen and almost forgotten today to all but his fans.

 

Ringo Starr.

People tell me how lucky he was to play in The Beatles, "he was not even the best drummer in The Beatles." Then I read an interview with some drummer and he say that Ringo Starr is the reason he play drums.

 

Fred Below
Richard Innes

Has anyboby mentioned Carol Kaye

 

I mentioned Carol Kaye near the beginning of the thread.

 

It won't hurt mentioning her twice. She has played on thousands of tracks hundreds of hits

 

All Music Guide-
In the who's who of rock & roll, Chuck Leavell is a very big someone. His piano and keyboard playing has graced the albums and/or stages of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, the Black Crowes, George Harrison, Blues Traveler, the Marshall Tucker Band, Hank Williams Jr., and a long list of others.

 

I think I read once that some of the band members resented him messing with their sound.

 

Robert Fripp.

 

Between his work as a session player and touring guitarist, Gerry McGee has worked with a variety of artists including Elvis Presley, The Monkees, Sandy Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Rita Coolidge, Jerry Reed, Dwight Yoakam, Emmylou Harris, Patti Page, Booker T, Joe South, John Mayall and Delaney and Bonnie and of course, The Ventures.

Gerry has also done acting and stunt work, including a film with Gary Busey and Kristofferson where he slaps the backside of Barbara Streisand.

 

Definitely Dave Stewart. Not the guy who plays keyboards with Barbara Gaskin or Bruford but the erstwhile guitarist for Longdancer, The Tourist/ Eurythmics. Highly respected for his musicality by the towering giants: Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Mick Jagger, Leonard Cohen and many others.