I think we have some techy drummers on here who get flustered by all the discussion of the importance of the intangibles, those things not so easily quantifiable. And yes, at its essence, you could probably say that what makes Steve Gadd sound like Steve Gadd can all be quantified as varying "techniques" of one sort or another, but at the end of the day, we all know what the difference is between a "technical" drummer and a "feel" drummer, and where each one's priorities lie.
I would counter by saying that you assume a great deal about what you call
techy drummers. You further imply that a drummer grounded in technical application is frustrated by aesthetic intangibles, then immediately resort to labeling, which is the least aesthetic and/or intangible road to travel.
All I personally have ever said about this topic is the following/
There is an initial period in the development of a person's playing when the primary goal should be technical grounding. And yes, if you do it right that process takes years. I can't tell you how many times I used to get ripped on a forum about my old WFD experiences from a guy giving me a groove cop lecture. Then you'd ask him how long he had been playing, and he'd reply, 1 year, 2 years. Well, sorry but that's a joke. If you've been playing drums for even less tahn 5 years, you have no business yacking on and on about percussive aesthetics when you don't even know enough about the drum itself to speak coherently. Then there are guys who have been behind drumsets for 20 years or more and have never learned a single rudiment. A lot of these guys call themselves
feel drummers, because they have through sheer willpower figured out a way to occasionally sound respectable. But for all their bravado, they are still people who are going into their 20th year as 1st year drummers. Besides if they
are getting by, you have to wonder how many more actualizations they could have attained had they not taken this road as opposed to the other.
Then I think there is that next period when yeah, aesthetics are the only issue, and I'm fairly certain that the technically grounded drummer who travels that road will fly past that 20 year guy who did it the
hope for the best way in about 20 minutes. A lot of groove priests don't like to hear this, but it is what is, especially when a groove pope like Gadd has all those obvious chops that came from years of having all that drilled into him when he was in school, the military and elsewhere.
We all tend to obsess about tech specialists as if they're the dominant force in drumming and the ruination of civilization, when it has already been correctly established that few guys like that work real gigs. So that problem fixes itself anyway. And I'm not talking about clinic freaks. That's an entirely different subject. I'm talking about grounded, solid totally musical drummers.
Therefore, a technically grounded drummer has to come to the mountain, just like all the groove priests who got there first but forgot to take communion. The problem for the original guys is they get upset when the technically grounded drummer becomes a far better groove and feel drummer than they could ever be. and in most cases, that is exactly what happens for those who travel
that road.
Again/ feel and technique/ inseparable.