I think about Virgil and believe it is more something in him, as a person, which makes his drumming what it is. Despite his personal background and schooling at the instrument he has a mind that thinks differently at the drums; his whole persona of rhythm. No one could do what he does unless they had the same brain.
I listen to him speak and he's a very intelligent, articulate person. Then I listen to him play and it's like he just came from another planet or something.
I do not see anything he does as being outside what Thomas Lang or Marco or other drumming mathematicians can do. They just cannot think like Virgil. He just hears rhythm in a very unique way. I listen to him and it's like trying to figure out a jigsaw puzzle to me. One of those 1000 piece jobs it takes a long time to look at and put together. It's like another language or definitive dialect of English from some remote place. I understand it but, I don't understand it.
It believe it certainly could be said Virgil is the progenitor of such a style, though Vinnie and Weckl were doing math wizardy back then, too. Just in different formats. They are all about the same age, within a few years.
If there are Virgil clones out there I have not heard one. Couldn't say that for Vinnie or Dave. Virgil is unique, for sure.
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