The line-up this edition was at least as spectacular as in 2004 when the festival was initiated as a showcase for the grand opening of Drumworld.

As a bonus the musicians of Proyecto Comparsa Oriental entertained the audience between the many impressive clinics with their own brand of percussion.

Drumbassadors
The Drumbassadors opened the festival. René Creemers and Wim de Vries fused technique and musicality into a highly entertaining mix. The duo has an aptly chosen name as they deliver a remarkable, language barrier breaking show that promotes percussion in a wonderful way. Both musicians use rhythmic influences from all over the world to play real songs - we\'re talking proper structured musical pieces here - on their drum kits. Just great.

Andy Gillmann
German artist Andy Gillmann is a highly demanded session drummer who worked with Fendrich, Pe Werner, Ebenezer Splooge and Miss Behavin\' among others. The drummer is also a famous teacher and released his own instruction DVD, \"Brushes unlimited...\", in 2004.

Gillmann took his time to build up tension during his clinic. His jazz orientated parts were solid and properly played but a bit clean perhaps. However, things got exiting when Gillmann decided to leave his drum kit, seated himself upfront, close to the audience, and showed how much is possible with just a snare drum and brushes.

Ron van Stratum and Femke Krone
About eight years ago drummer Ron van Stratum and percussionist Femke Krone did several series of clinics together. Both musicians have separately gained a lot of knowledge and experience since. And now was the time for a new duo clinic.

Making music is communicating. Van Stratum and Krone made this crystal clear by almost permanently keeping eye contact. It felt like improvisation because the drummer and percussionist both presented each multiple other opportunities to build a new perspective or change the direction of the musical journey.

Stéphane Galland
Contrary to previous announcements it was not Marco Minneman but Stéphane Galland who was up next. The Belgian drummer has a world tour with Joe Zawinul on his resume, leads his own experimental trio Aka Moon and is a very innovative and original musician behind the drum kit.

Galland showed to master very complex rhythms. He succeeded in pushing and twisting time and the feeling of time, while keeping hold of structure. Maybe too experimental and complex for some in the audience, for most others simply breathtaking.

Marco Minneman
The surprise act, for a long time just announced as \'drummer X\', turned out to be Marco Minneman. The German drummer guarantees a spectacular and impressive technical clinic any time, all the times. The crowd went nuts.

Minneman masters a high level of technique but always strives to use that in a creative way. On a projection screen a dialogue from the motion picture Monty Pyton\'s Meaning of Life was shown. Minneman had given each character its own sound and played along with the film, real time delivering a new sound track. Very amusing.

John Blackwell
American funk meister John Blackwell suffered from technical difficulties. Due to bad luck he could not play along songs on a CD but had to change plans right there and then. Blackwell proved to be an absolute professional and provided an improvisation that was loaded with emotion and expression.

Rather than reprimanding the festival staff behind the stage John Blackwell attacked his drum kit and made his annoyance clear in a musical way during a clinic that might be the best of the festival just because of that.

He not only expressed aggression. After playing for a while, there was room again for other emotions. John made some jokes about the failing CD player and gave the audience a preview of his upcoming solo album. A beautiful played jazzy accolade to his daughter Jia Kennie who sadly passed away in 2004.

Omar Hakim
Headliner of this day was Omar Hakim. Hakim has played with a diversity of artists including Weather Report, David Bowie, Sting, Madonna and Miles Davis. Less than two months ago Omar Hakim toured with funk formation Chic. Recently he also recorded albums with fusion bassist Victor Bailey, American Idol winner Kelly Clarkson and in between Hakim is working on a new solo album, following 2000\'s \"The Groovesmith\".

The drummer who has been one of the first artists to embrace electronic drum kits as an opportunity rather than a tread, had come to The Netherlands to promote Roland\'s V Drums. Hakim turned out to be a gifted speaker as well as a gifted player.

Hakim presented anecdotes about Miles Davis, philosophical reflections (\"Music is about communicating, about the connection between heart and mind.\") and was the first artist who really tried to have a dialogue by taking all time to answer questions from the audience. The interaction made Omar Hakim\'s clinic very entertaining and made everybody wish for more.

Summarized: the second edition of the Adams Drumworld festival was a huge success as well. A glorious tradition is growing!

NB: More photos are available at each artist profile.