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Mike Melito

About Me

Born and raised in Rochester NY, Mike Melito has played drums most of



his entire life. He started his professional career at age 16 playing with



Vibraphonist Joe Locke. The great saxophonist Joe



Romano was in the house the first gig Mike played with Locke and



Romano hired Mike for a series of gigs. Work started to snowball for



Mike. He soon started working all over upstate NY with Saxophonist JR



Monterose, Trumpeters Sal Amico and Joe Magnarelli and pianist Bill



Dobbins. He started to lead his own groups as well.



Mike has gone on to work with some of the worlds greatest jazz



musicians. Some of them include legends James Moody, Benny



Golson, Barry Harris and Junior Mance. Younger stars Vincent Herring,



Harry Allen, John Swana, Grant Stewart, Eric Alexander, Steve Turre,



David Hazeltine, Ken Peplowski, Dennis Irwin, Ralph Lalama, Peter



Bernstein, Danilo Perez, Benny Green and many others.



Mike has recorded seven critically acclaimed CDs , MY CONCEPTION



1997, BOUT TIME' 2001, THE NEXT STEP 2004, IN THE TRADITION



2008 CD THE RIGHT TIME, NEW YORK CONNECTIONS 2017, YOU'RE IT! with pianist Dino Losito

2019 and his latest is TO SWING IS THE THING 2023. Mike's CDs



are available from amazon and through him directly at www.mikemelito.com He appears on

several CDs as a



sideman as well was featured in the 12/09 issue of Downbeat magazine.



Mike is the house drummer for the Rochester International Jazz Festival



as a member of the Bob Sneider Trio and endorses Canopus Drums and Istanbul Agop



Cymbals. He works hard at trying to carry on the tradition of his heros



Philly Joe Jones, Papa Jo Jones, Art Taylor, Art Blakey, Billy Higgins,



Jimmy Cobb and Frankie Dunlop.

Contact Me

My Jazz Story

I love jazz because... I was first exposed to jazz... I met [musician name]... The best show I ever attended was... The first jazz record I bought was... My advice to new listeners... Or whatever else you have in mind.

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