Swiss Matthias
Platinum Member
Going to see them in May! Yay !!
Two nights ago saw the Mike Stern Band with Dave Weckl. Holy crap! It's incredible to me to experience a drummer of that stature in such a small intimate setting. Brilliant!
Yeah, Vinnie! Sorry couldn't resist, I understand the futility of these arguments. I've just always heard an 'in the moment' spark of genius in Vinnie's playing that Weckl has always lacked. But as you say, a drummer can only ever be a master of their own style. Chris Dave might well possess a creative ability that surpasses them both.
Answering Bart: We were at the Tuesday early show. You were at one of those shows?
None of us will EVER be that good. Face it. And it's ok. Because you can still love to play music and be good in your own ways. But only a jealous fool or musical incompetent would not be in total awe of Weckl's abilities and technique. He has it all, and I guess some people just can't handle it. Too bad. Too sad. For them.
Hah, we were at the table nearest to Randy (in fact he was often filling up most of my field of view so I couldn't see Weckl), so we must have been just a row or two apart. One of the things I really liked was the sweet groove Weckl played with his hands on the snare with the snare wires off.
We are going to see him with Mike Stern in May at Ronnie Scott's in London. Looking forward to it, should be a great show!
Weckl is technically amazing, but he is part of the fusion thing that leaves me and many others cold.
I have never heard Weckl on anything 'normal' myself. Didn't he play for Madonna?
Back to his playing, though, I don't get the 'Boring / Predictable / Overplaying' assertions at ALL. Weckl's solos themselves are beautiful pieces of music. He plays with more intricacy, finesse and phrasing than anyone out there. He has great chops, but he uses them in really tasteful ways. Apart from that, his technique is perfect. If you watch A Natural Evolution or just some vids of him talking about technique you can probably appreciate it, and you can really hear it in his playing. He is one of the few drummers (John Bonham being another) who can draw the perfect sound out of a drum (these being some pretty great Yamaha Drums already, by the way), just by hitting it. I also was not a fan of fusion, but Weckl himself got me into it. His playing on his own albums Perpetual Motion, Synergy, and Rhythm of the Soul, as well as on Chick Corea's Inside Out and other albums is just so perfect. Everything he does is so precise. And I guess for those of us who "get it" -- meaning we happen to like his playing -- those are the reasons that we're so blown away by Weckl.