The Aristocrats, Joe Satriani, Nina Hagen, Illegal alliens, H-Block X, Paul Gilbert
Marco Minnemann is one of the most talented young drummers of today (from German origin, born in 1970). His playing in asymmetrical measures, four limbs independence and combination of double pedal and hands (particularly by superimposing alternating of two pairs of limbs, concept called by himself "interdependence") reaches an unprecedented level of speed and complexity. He also has excellent solo improviser qualities (he does not content himself to repeat the same simplistic phrases just trying to impress with speed of execution). Hence, a true artist, because if it is true that the physical and technical prowess is not enough to be a great musician, it is not harmful and is surely even an indispensable basis for reaching to become it (see my philosophical text on the issue of the relationship between physical and intellectual qualities of an artist). Moreover, technical prowess (I would prefer to say gestural because the word "technical" implies that you are not creative, which is not the case here) in music lies not only in speed but also and especially in the dexterity and mental difficulties which impose certain compositions. Now, that's what Marco Minnemann manages to do, which, I have no doubt, will soon be enormously copied (the mark of the great creative artists). He has already made an instructional video ("Extreme Drumming" 2003) and a written method ("Extreme Interdependence" 2001) which use the combinatorial mathematics to acquire the most effectively possible a freedom of playing, notably for independence, as in my own methods or those of Thomas Lang, Horacio Hernandez and Benny Greb. Note, however, a great influence of Terry Bozzio and Kenny Aronoff among the first writers of drumset methods to use combinatorial mathematics.
Marc De Douvan, publication in French: January 3, 2006 (for the translation in English: July 12, 2015)
© 2005 Marc de Douvan Crédits Mentions légales