Listening to Beethoven's Ninth, no matter if  on a high-end hi-fi system or on a humble cdplayer like mine, there's always something missing........ you can play the Ninth at a disco night... nobody will start dancing. In India people would pass by without noticing and in a conctruction site, among noises of chains machines you couldn't even hear it. Guessed what's missing?                                              The drums.

Everybody realized this, but the only one so far who had the guts to take the sticks and drum those 80 minutes is Massimo Aiello, free-lance drummer and musis teacher. Massimo Aiello is italian and plays music since he was ten. He studied with the likes of Tullio de Piscopo and Enrico Lucchini. He likes learning and  improving: this is no rock'n roll but he definetly deserves   great respect and has played with around 80 bands, both italian and international and 40 different musical styles. And now he has recorded this Tribute to Beethoven-Drum in the Symphony no.9 for Azzurra Music. With a drum arrangement of Beethoven's Ninth. 

                                  
Considering that we grew up with Beethoven's music,  a piece of symphony, a Windows XP, a  rock'n roll rearrangement; from a classical point of you, you can only associate it with the fall of the orchestra conductor, but we can not ignore this record.

 

What lies inside this record? If it's true that you can better water plants by transplanting them--- flowers are ideas that grow in the vase of arrangement. With melodies in their place. Massimo achieved the idea of playing without overplaying, underline without deleting... so that Betthoven's flowers keep blossoming with red petals.  Pam –Ru-pa-pa. Ra-pa-pa-pa, Ra-pa-pa-pa.. Can you recognize the 28° minute?

Transplant. stem cut in a modern new way, add a wet garage sound, or a minimum of instruments, keyboard otr weird instruments, or a perfect lyric, or a cool dub. Good that there is nothing of that. Hey Fatboy, Junky,...

Nourish your flowers. And now, when there's silence you can hear flutes and boom boom bass. For those who have no rhythm sense, heere's the main theme. Massimo keeps time perfectly, does not play one note too many, or too few, no matter if he is playing a lot, or just a little. Sense of measure  and taste are evident even in the complete darkness, what  am I saying,  during the silence. The Hymn to Joy , in the points where the instruments, (ehm) guitars, distorted keyboards, and drums are silent, and you only hear the choir, gets a new percussive breath, you can tell evn the teeth have been brushed, they don't smell any more, there is something new and fresh. Then at the 22° and 1/2  min, fourth movement , you hear a plain, free, probably improvised solo. And you understand with how much power he had been holding it back from the beginning. Than follows a brief and powerful final resolution and that's all. The record is over.

It had been long since we found a record that you can dig byh the millimeter, keepeng track of minutes and duration of the musical pieces. Interesting idea, right direction , cheerful english design in music, the force for pushing the keys is not enough, there are other things to consider. I see it this way: with one ear, one eye, one hand you have to play, and with the others (ear, eye, hand) you have to remember.

I would trust with eyes closed Massimo,which by the way is also a teacher,  as a drum teacher for my son.

To say the truth some body with an accademic styles suggested I throw away this record. But we have a different idea.

Vladimir Shakhov

Батон.

massimoaiello.com

на главную