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I have not yet acustomed myself to this guy yet, heard little of his stuff... Ive been reading some of the recent Virgil post stuff, and it seems he is certainly respected in this forum, especially if he's being pitted against Dave and Vinnie. Can anyone recommend their top 3 'must haves' cd/vid for me to be blown away by?
Ive tuned in to a lot of Marco Minneman stuff, and both of their names seem to crop up together in certain circles... anyone rate him?
Maybe its the complexity revolution.... s**t i am behind!
Peace [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]
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Phil, I posted the same topic a few days ago, and I think the rest of the guys on here would recommend you do a few things. First of all, go to www.virgildonati.com and check out some sounds. Next, check out www.xplanetx.com , which is one of the bands he plays with. Finally, I think they'd tell you to do a search in this forum for "virgil donati" and check out some of the links to video clips and such. Hope this helps. I'm a Vinnie fanatic, and Virgil, though I've only seen and heard a little, seems to be a monster player. Yes, he is certainly worthy of being mentioned with the other guys.
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Phil I have seen both of them( Virgil in both band and clinic setting) they are absolute Monsters. Virgil played the most outrageous solo I have ever seen in a band setting. Marco is crazy. They are good friends. Virg wrote the forward to Marco's new book. When asked who is setting new standards in the realm of Ostinatos with the feet and playing over the top in an outrageous way with the hands Marco's first reply was Virg. And when asked who is bringing fresh ideas in the interdependence realm Virg replyed Marco. Both have been called by Modern Drummer as 2 who are raising the bar in the area of mechanics and creative concepts. Virgil was called the KING of progressive fusion by the writers of Modern Drummer. I have listened to both of their recorded work and enjoy Virg much more. He is a more musical drummer IMHO. He seems to be more stylistically diverse and plays in many different band settings. Much
of Marco's work seems to have a techno-pop element to it. I do not enjoy it as much. He in my opinion is very reminiscent of Terry Bozzio and even his albums, some of which have a Missing Persons element to them. I would recommend Virgil's solo disc Serious Young insects and the Planet X Moonbabies album to start with.(Amazing display of Interdependence and sub-dividing odd times with great feel and creativity and some amazing soloing and of course mind-blowing double bass.) I have no hesitation in saying that these 2 are raising the bar in many respects even beyond some of my all time Faves like Vinnie and Dave among others. By the way Virg is someone who is greatly admired by the likes of Dave, Simon, Dennis, Vinnie and many others. It is Dave himself who said everytime I listen to Virg I hear and see many things I cannot do and probaly will never be able to do on the Drums. Pretty high praise coming from someone like Mr. Weckl. You can also try out the Planet X live album (Live from Oz) it is an excellent disc. I have heard from a few guys who have had the privelage to hear some of the early work for the NEW! Planet X live disc from last years tour that it is even much more outrageous than the last live disc, seems hard to believe.
Hope this helps Phil, Best regards Digital
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By the way one area in Virgil's playing that is truly amazing and is very reminiscent of Vinnie is his Over the barline phrasing. He does not play much of your typical fills and licks but comes up with very fresh and technically wicked concepts when embellishing with fill-ins. Just wanted to add that.
Regards again Digital
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http://homepage.mac.com/matthughen/
i have a clinic clip from virgil that you can download from my website.
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Check out Joel Hoekstra's Undefined for Virgil playing a bit less insanely and with more of a pocket. He plays shuffles, fusion and other styles on this disk and takes 5 solo's on the disk. It's a great and interesting CD and has gotten a lot of 4 and 5 star reviews. You can get it at JoelHoekstra.com.
My favorite vid of Virgil is Obsessive Rhythms from 1989 or the live bootleg from a clinic he did.
