Virgil Donati

Late last year I went to a Virgil Donati clinic in Melbourne. Not that I do too much drumming these days, but it was a shot of nostalgia because I used to drive to Melbourne regularly in my younger days to see Virgil playing with various bands at the Grainstore on King St (now a strip bar ... or so I hear)

Apparently Virgil forgot to stop practising. The somewhat ironic thing I find is that the more technically proficient a musician becomes, and the more they push boundaries, the less accessible their music becomes. Which is to say, it is accessible, or understandable, to fewer people. Virgil has taken to this to such a level that I'm not sure he understands himself what the hell he's doing. I'm not too proud to admit that some of it sounded like complete bollocks to me. Anyone can make a drum solo sound like a crippled goat falling backwards down a spiral staircase - well, almost anyone - but it takes decades of unrelenting practice to do it on purpose ... and be specific about how many flights of stairs, the breed of goat, and a medical diagnosis of its disability.

At one point he was playing 5 beats with his left hand, 6 beats with his right foot, 7 beats with his left foot ... and folding a map with his right hand!