: : Great drummers

Erbetta Marc

Musicians or bands:

Erik Truffaz

Biography and commentary:

Marc Erbetta is a swiss drummer who is probably the first to take the ideas of Drum'n'Bass programmers on acoustic drumset, including brushes (Eric Truffaz, "The Dawn", 1998). The drum'n'Bass is a London electronic music style, using funk drumming samples, by recomposing them by cuts or by transposing them on beatbox. What is typical is the abundance of ghost notes like in funk, an increased speed (compared to the original recordings), which dries the sound (the resonance of the instruments are shorter), the variety of "break beats " (displacing of the afterbeat), an idea already initiated by the great James Brown drummer Clyde Stubblefield (" Cold Sweat ", 1967). Marc Erbetta surely inspired Jojo Mayer (from Swiss origin also) and Johnny Rabb (American). Note that Marc does not content himself to "copy" and improvises with a great sense of rhythm and melody, like any self-respecting jazz (he mastered as perfectly bebop with an independence of the four limbs in line with Tony Williams and Elvin Jones (listen to "Out of Dream", 1997, debut album from Erik Truffaz)). His technique is breathtaking fast. Still too much unknown for my taste (he is not on Drummerworld.com, for example).

Marc De Douvan, publication in French: October 10, 2008 (for the translation in English: July 12, 2015)

Official website