Virgil Donati
Virgil Donati drums with traditional grip and a clean, forceful attack, whether inside free jazz with Brian Brown or the laid-back pulse of a nightclub band. Complex phrases stay legible under pressure.
With Brian Brown he works inside free-ranging pieces that mix Australian bush colour with improvisation, answering lyrical turns and nervous discovery with close, reactive playing. In smoother club jazz the pulse stays steady and uncluttered. He has also written the bulk of the music for the progressive fusion band Planet X, and his drumming turns up with rock and jazz artists well beyond those sessions. He plays keyboards as well, including on his own album The Dawn of Time.
Virgil Donati appears on
Ya-de-ya
A laid-back nightclub scene, a smoothed-out jazz band, and Linda Cable’s strong voice pouring down like silver: this classic LP from the Melbourne jazz singer gathers seven original songs in that polished club mood.
Wildflowers
Composed in 1984, Wildflowers blends sounds of the Australian bush with free jazz. Across nine tracks the music is liberated from any obligation to fashion or idiom.