Tiger Bill Meligari

"Tiger" Bill Meligari is a professional drummer-performer, teacher-clinician, author-publisher, producer, freelance writer, and Black Belt Martial Artist with more than 40 years experience in the drumming field. He has worked with a variety of artists from Jazz specialists like Thad Jones to Rock ‘n’ Rollers like Vince Martell (original lead guitarist of the Vanilla Fudge). Recordings include albums with keyboard artist Rocco Ferrante and Dickie Goodman's hit album "Jaws."

Bill first became a “DrumHead” at the age of four, after playing his cousin’s drumset. At age 13, he landed his first weekly paying gig playing drums for the North Jersey School of Ballet and began teaching his own students at that time. In High School, Bill received both the "Outstanding Musician Award" and "John Philip Sousa Band Award.” In college, he played in the New Jersey Percussion Ensemble under Ray DesRoches and in the William Paterson Jazz Band under the direction of Thad Jones, but the lure of the road proved too strong and Bill left school to go on tour.

Always very much pro-education, Bill attended the Third Annual Percussion Symposium in Miami, Florida, with Joe Morello and Danny Gottlieb, which changed his life. Aside from the fact that he was featured on an extended drum solo in Al Ipris' composition "32 Heads Are Better Than One," presented by the Ludwig Drum Company, the week long session of clinics gave Bill the idea of adapting the for-drummers-only clinic format to be suitable for presentation to the general student body. His aim was to generate interest in music in students from elementary school through college level. Today he continues to spread the word through his performances in schools throughout the United States.

Traveling on the road for more than 10 years gave Bill experience playing many styles of music from jazz to rock to symphonies to show tunes. During this time he also enjoyed a stint working as drummer-percussionist with the Joe Morello Quintet.

In demand as both an educator and performer, Bill travels the country educating others in his Tension Free Drumming Concepts through his special brand of drum clinics and concerts both in solo format and with his band, "TigerBill & The Mix." Bill started on the internet in 1998 when he was hired as an expert guide on drums.about.com. Two years later he opened his own drumming site at www.TigerBill.com. Over the years, Bill has performed at many of the world’s largest drum events including Cape Breton's International Drum Festival in 2005. In addition, he runs an online Drum Shop www.tigerbillsdrumbeat.com/shop-tiger-bills-best-drum-shop and a site dedicated to his drumming concepts at www.TensionFreeDrumming.com.

Bill, also a computer programmer who graduated from Chubb Institute for Computer Technology in 1981, feels that computers are the greatest things since drumming and uses the combination to produce online educational training courses for drummers of all skill levels. He has written a double bass drum text that has received high praise from master percussionists, including Louie Bellson and Roy Haynes, and has released a text and DVD series detailing his Tension Free Drumming Concepts. Over the years, Bill has written numerous articles for magazines, including On Stage, Modern Drummer, and DRUM!

At Winter NAMM 2004, Bill entered the NAMM World’s Fastest Drummer Competition and not only won for Fastest Hands but became only the second person in history to play more than 1,000 beats per minute using his feet. This officially ranks the him as one of the Fastest Drummers in the World.

Although you might think that Bill's nickname "Tiger" comes from his Martial Arts training, it actually comes from drumming. Joe Morello nicknamed him "Tiger" due to his voracious appetite for digesting technique as fast as Joe could throw it at him. Today, Bill remains the only student ever to have read and played Morello's entire book of transcribed drum solos at the original tempos.

TigerBill currently uses and endorses: SABIAN, Pintech, Taye, Axis Percussion, Pro-Mark, and Hansenfutz.

For more, check out TigerBill’s DrumBeat Web site at www.TigerBillsDrumBeat.com and his revolutionary Concepts of Tension Free Drumming at www.TensionFreeDrumming.com. Show less