name some pop star who is good at playing some instrument but average music listener isn't aware of that fact


lionel richie-saxophone
eross ramazotti-lead guitar
stevie wonder drums,harmonica
prince piano,drums, bass
ernie isley-drums bass,piano
bryan ferry-piano
james brown-drums,keyboard
david bowie -all instruments

jimi hendrix-piano
(crosstown traffic)

Harry Connick Jr. easily one of the most "slept on" musicians, known really only for his sinatra like vocals, Harry plays everything WELL! Piano,Drums, Guitar and kills it on Bass!

Aretha Franklin-piano

thebanishedone said:

if i think of stevie i think of keyboard and harmonica
and he started out as a drummer right? not sure if the public knows this
[Edited 11/22/07 0:03am]

I thought my eyes were going to pop out the socket when I saw Stevie on the drums. Amazing!!!

Marvin Gaye - drums, keyboards, organ, percussion, synthesizers (Marvin was a capable session drummer during the early years of Motown. He provided the drums for early Miracles tunes and played on Stevie Wonder's "Fingertips" as well as the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman").

Roger Troutman - guitar, harmonica, bass

Stevie started out playing bongos and harmonica, he got signed to Motown performing the latter instrument though. But Stevie is underrated as a drummer, just utterly brilliant!

Ike Turner - piano (I saw this guy tear up the keys on a performance with the Gorillaz, he's more than capable!)

Ray Charles - saxophone (I'm serious, lol)

----
That's all I can think of at the moment.

I don't know about "great", but I heard Mariah is good on piano

Whitney Houston - piano

Barry White - Drums

Teddy Pendergrass - Drums. He started out as a drummer.

James Brown: Drums - That's him playing drums on "Night Train."

Nice thread and thanks 2 those that contributed so far because some of the above mentioned I didn’t know played instruments

Al Green: Guitar

Janet Jackson-Keyboards...No seriously, pretty good
Tawatha Agee-female singer from Mtume,session singer for Luther Vandross-Keyboards-damn good
Bernadette Cooper-Piano & Bass she kills it. We know her as a drummer.
Brenda Holloway-Violin,cello,viola,bass & flute considered a child prodigy by some.
Milira-Piano
Regina Belle-guitar or keyboards one of the 2!

quite a few ppl dont know John Mayer is great at the keyboard

Bootsy Collins: Guitars and drums (solo and on many P-Funk albums)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=rWYMfcghwck


Chaka Khan playing drums!

SexGod said:

I heard Chaka played good bass guitar too.

Scorpion said:

GTFOH!

SexGod said:

NICE

thebanishedone said:

i'm impressed when people know he plays sax. but yup, he's quite good on guitar and keyboards as well. not too sure about drums, though i have seen drum programming credited to him on at least a couple of his albums.

I swore I heard that Curtis Mayfield could play bass, sax, piano and drums. I'm sure I heard this. We all know he can play guitar... right?

Michael Jackson - Piano

btw, what would you call a synthesizer? I know what it is but what would you describe it as.?
[Edited 11/23/07 22:20pm]

regcart said:

Sheila E.--violin. Good enough to get scholarships back in the day.

floetcist said:

It's like a keyboard instrument but you can do more with like add sounds and all kinds of weird and cool stuff like reverbs and distortion. Stevie was so great in that.

Jimi - piano - "Freedom"
Jimi - harpsichord keyboard - "Burning Of The Midnight Lamp"
Jimi - bass - "All Along The Watchtower"
Eddie Van Halen - keyboards, bass, drums.
Sting - bass, piano, guitar
Pete Townshend - bass, drums, synth, piano
Tommy Lee - piano, guitar

thebanishedone said:

everybody knows these


my additions:

johnny gill- finger snaps