Happy Birthday, Carl Palmer!

Today is the birthday of one of the best drummers ever. Carl Frederick Kendall Palmer was born on 20 March 1950. He is famous for his works in Emerson, Lake & Palmer, but he also worked with Crazy World of Arthur Brown, Atomic Rooster, and Asia. His influences were famous jazz drummers such as Art Blakey and Buddy Rich which shows on his early works by being influenced more from jazz than any other genre.

In 1970, two young but experienced musicians teamed up to further expand their musical creativity and therefore started to look for a drummer. After auditioning several drummers they found Palmer and they felt "immediate chemistry." This trio chose their last names alphabetically to create the band of ELP (Emerson, Lake & Palmer). This band focused their sound on art-rock, jazz, electronica, pop-rock, and even classical music. They gained a big fanbase from the prog scene. They created many beautiful albums such as Tarkus and Brain Salad Surgery. Even though they had a successful career as a band, they disbanded in 1980 however, they subsequently reunited in the early 1990s and played gigs in outdoor summer concerts. Today Palmer is the only one alive in the band. He wrote his name next to lots of legends and he was even awarded "Prog God" at the 2017 Progressive Music Awards.