Virgil Donati

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Virgil Donati
Virgil Donati.jpg
Background information
Born (1958-10-22) 22 October 1958 (age 62)
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Genres
Occupation(s)Musician
InstrumentsDrums, keyboards
Years active1972–present
Associated acts
Websitevirgildonati.com

Virgil Donati (born 22 October 1958) is an Australian drummer, composer and producer. He holds the drum sticks in the traditional style and is also proficient at the keyboard. Donati also performed in Melbourne with Jack Jones (Irwin Thomas) in a Van Halen tribute band known as Hans Valen before inviting Jones into Donati's own bands The State and Southern Sons.

Early life and career[]

Virgil Donati was born in Melbourne, Victoria of Italian descent.[1] He got his first drumset at age 2.[2] He started playing soon after with his father's showband, and kept on doing these shows until he was around 6 years old. At age 6 he started taking piano lessons.[3] He joined his first major rock band and signed with his first major record label at the age of 15. The band was first called Cloud Nine, but was later renamed Taste, with whom he recorded 3 albums.[2][4] Soon after at age 16, Donati left school focusing mainly on the drums, but also piano. At age 19 Donati travelled to the U.S. to study with Philly Joe Jones, and at Dick Groves School in Los Angeles. He also took lessons from snare drum specialist Murray Spivack and Rob Carson.[5]

Success and bands[]

Donati returned to Australia at the age of 21. He then performed jazz with Allan Zavod and Brian Brown, and played with ' band.[6] Before moving to Los Angeles, Donati furthered his success by performing with the likes of Tommy Emmanuel, Tina Arena, Jon Stevens and visiting international acts like Melissa Etheridge, Branford Marsalis, and Tribal Tech. Virgil also recorded and toured with his own bands Southern Sons, Loose Change and On The Virg. From the late 1990s and onwards Donati recorded and toured with acts like Derek Sherinian (with whom he formed the progressive fusion outfit 'Planet X') Steve Vai, Allan Holdsworth, Michel Polnareff and Soul SirkUS.

Influences[]

With his father's choice of records, including Louie Bellson and Buddy Rich albums, Donati quickly became a fan of those great jazz drummers, trying to emulate their solos. The first rock drummer to make a big impact on him was Ian Paice of Deep Purple. Donati said, "I was blown away with his playing, his clarity. Back in the early '70s he seemed to be an articulate drummer with a lot of soul in his playing. I loved his power and strength and the way he articulated his phrasing. I loved his approach."[7] In an interview with Modern Drummer magazine, the issue of which came out in 1999, Donati prefers playing with traditional grip. He said, "I decided that it's just how I wanted to play... There are times when, believe it or not, traditional grip feels better on my left hand than on my right... Traditional grip doesn't limit me in any way. That said, I would not necessarily recommend traditional grip. It is a far more difficult grip to get used to and to develop power with. Any student serious about learning this instrument would be better off focusing on matched. Still, because it's not used very much today, traditional grip seems to be more hip."[citation needed]

Reception[]

Virgil Donati is widely regarded as one of the most technically advanced drummers of all time. Bassist bryan Beller, after performing with Donati and Mike Keneally, described him in a blog post with the following words: "Imagine the technical accuracy of Mike Mangini, the off-the-rails phrasing of Vinnie Coluiata, the beat-displacement of Dave Weckl, and the rock sensibility of Tommy Aldridge, and that's pretty much Virgil Donati—all of it, all at once, all the time. Talk about being taken along for a ride".[8] Donati's piano playing can be heard on his 2016 album 'The Dawn of Time' as well as in various online videos where he's playing the like of Debussy and Ravél.[9]

Discography[]

Solo[]

  • Stretch (1995, Musos Publications)
  • Just Add Water (1997, Thunder Drum Records)
  • Serious Young Insects (On The Virg band) (1999, Vorcity Music)
  • Made in Australia (Gambale, Donati, Fierabracci) (2007, Wombat Records)
  • In This Life (2013, Self-released)
  • The Dawn of Time: Orchestral Works (2016, Self-released)
  • Ruination (2019, Self-released)[10]

With Planet X[]

  • Universe (2000, InsideOut Music)
  • Live from Oz (2002, InsideOut Music)
  • MoonBabies (2002, InsideOut Music)
  • Quantum (2007, InsideOut Music)

With Ring of Fire[]

  • The Oracle (2001, Avalon Records)
  • Burning Live Tokyo (2002, Frontiers, Marquee)
  • Dreamtower (2002, Frontiers)
  • Lapse of Reality (2004, King Records)

Jane Rutter[]

Blo (re-released as Titania's Dream with Peter Bowman)

With Southern Sons[]

With The State[]

  • Elementary (1989)

With Icefish[]

  • Human Hardware (2017)

Other[]

Videography[]

References[]

  1. ^ "Virgil Donati Biography". drumlessons.com. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b "Virgildonati.com". Archived from the original on 17 May 2008. Retrieved 18 June 2008.
  3. ^ "Virgil Donati - isyourteacher". www.isyourteacher.com. Retrieved 21 January 2020.
  4. ^ "Encyclopedia entry for 'Taste'". Worldwide Home of Australasian Music and More Online. Archived from the original on 9 August 2004. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  5. ^ "Virgil Donati". Drummerworld. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  6. ^ "Southern Sons". passagen.se. Archived from the original on 8 October 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2011.
  7. ^ "» Virgil Donati Biography | Famous Drummers". Retrieved 22 January 2020.
  8. ^ "The Life Of Bryan". www.bryanbeller.com. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  9. ^ Virgil Donati, retrieved 15 June 2021
  10. ^ https://www.crucibleofmusic.com/virgil-donatis-new-album-ruination-will-be-released-in-the-summer-of-2019/
  11. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 27 April 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2015.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
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