German drummer Andy Gillmann is specialised in playing with brushes. The 'Besenspieler' released "Brushes Unlimited", a DVD about modern brush-techniques, in 2004.
Andy Gillmann's biography, in his own words:
My first important teacher was jazzdrummer Peter Weiss from Düsseldorfer. I took lessons from him for almost six years, starting at the age of fifteen. I've seen countless of his concerts, I was allowed to hang out backstage with the big Jazzcracks and smell the scent of professional musicians. At this time every summer I would visit the jazz and rock classes given in Remscheidt.
In 1987 I started my studies in Arnhem, The Netherlands and, with that, a fantastic and intense time full of music, sessions, extreme practicing, and a lot of musical and personal encounters, that are in part still on-going. I had two great teachers, René Creemers and Joop van Eerven, who inspired and challenged me and whose lessons I looked forward to every week.
In these five years of my studies we worked on and developed many subjects, concepts, systems, etc., from which I am still benefiting as a musician and teacher: chart-playing, transcribing, Basler drums, brush-playing, groove and fill-interpretations, sight-reading, clapping and notation, big band, combo, Latin and fusion ensembles, and hundreds of endless sessions till late into the night.
During my studies I already got my first professional gigs, for example with Harald Schmidt and Thoma.....
