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Greg Fundis
Greg Fundis is an American drummer based in Chicago IL with a career in music performance, recording and education spanning over three decades. Fundis’ jazz group, the Greg Fundis Quintet appeared at the 2025 Chicago Jazz Festival. Most recently, Greg Fundis placed in the top 20 out of 10,000 drummers in a worldwide drumming competition receiving an honorable mention from Grammy-nominated band Primus. He is a founding member of 56 Hope Road, an award-winning acoustic funk band who independently produced four full length albums and performed over 1500 live shows nationwide. Fundis is a frequent collaborator with Blue Note Records artist Fareed Haque playing drums on 7 of his albums as well as touring throughout the US and abroad. Fundis appears as the drummer on hundreds of recordings and has performed on stage internationally with notable artists in a multitude of genres including George Benson, Joey DeFrancesco, Roy Hargrove, Paquito D’Rivera, Two Friends, Neal Francis, Nick Lutsko, Led Zeppelin 2, Mathien, Vikku Vinayakram, V. Selvaganesh, Salar Nader, Maurice Brown, Freekbass, Comedian Rich Little, Louis Bellson, Joe Lovano, Tom Harrell, Bob Brookmeyer, Robert Irving III, Tony Monaco & Ray White. Fundis has a Masters Degree in Jazz Studies from DePaul University and a Bachelors in Commercial Music from Millikin University. While at Millikin, at the age of 19, Fundis’ book of original compositions "Contemporary Audition Solos for Percussion" was published by one of the world’s largest music education publishing companies Alfred Music. In addition to relentless performing, Fundis has taught at Roosevelt and DePaul universities and currently coordinates summer drumming workshops for over 3,000 youth throughout the Chicagoland area. Greg Fundis is a signed endorsee of Vic Firth Drum Sticks as well as Humes and Berg cases.
Gear
Ludwig Drums
Paiste & Zildjian Cymbals
Vic Firth Sticks, Brushes & Mallets
Humes and Berg Cases
Remo Drum Heads
Tags
Alternative Guitar Summit: Honoring Pat Martino, Volume 1
by Jack Bowers
Each year the Alternative Guitar Summit, led by Joel Harrison, presents a concert to honor a living jazz composer/guitarist. That wasn't possible in 2021, however, as venues in and around New York City were shuttered tight by the Covid-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, it was clear that the chosen honoree, the great Pat Martino, was gravely ill and might not have another year to live. With that in mind, members of the Summit took their guitars straight to a studio to record ...
Continue ReadingJoshua Jern Jazz Orchestra: Lockdown
by Jack Bowers
After taking a pleasant and romantic Midnight Stroll in 2019, trumpeter/composer Joshua Jern's Chicago-based Jazz Orchestra (like almost everyone else) began a coronavirus-decreed Lockdown but has emerged two years later from that self-imposed hiatus swinging harder and more often than ever. As before, most compositions and all arrangements are by Jern; and as before, the orchestra performs them with ardor and panache. This time around, however, there is a formidable new “weapon" on two tracks ("A Stretch ...
Continue ReadingJoshua Jern Jazz Orchestra: Midnight Stroll
by Jack Bowers
One can only imagine how difficult it must be, especially in such uncertain times, for any musician to decide that the time has come to assemble a big band and usher it into a recording studio, let alone one whose name and reputation are, more than likely, scarcely known outside his own neighborhood. Thumbing his nose at the odds, Joshua Jern, a Chicago-based trumpeter and educator with impressive talents, has done exactly that, escorting his remarkably well-groomed ensemble on a ...
Continue Reading"Greg Fundis can execute a commanding minutes-long drum solo that would make the real John Bonham green with envy" - A.V. Club read full article
"high-velocity improvisations driven hard by drummer Greg Fundis' eruptions" -Chicago Tribune read full article
"Greg Fundis’ acoustic and electric drum kit open up new frontiers for the time honored genre. . .Fundis’ electric drums can sound like they are bouncing off the moon before reaching the audience’s ears or they can pierce through the air like lasers at the speed of light. Greg does a great job of balancing the styles of acoustic jazz trap drumming with electric percussion. His acoustic solos are clean and articulate, using the digital pads to spice his rhythms." -JamBands.com read full article
Primary Instrument
Drums
Location
Chicago
Willing to teach
Beginner to advanced
Credentials/Background
In addition to relentless performing, Fundis is a music educator, ensemble director and clinician in the Chicago area where he has held positions at Roosevelt and DePaul universities and currently teaches percussion classes at Whitney Young High School and coordinates world percussion activities for over 3,000 area youth with JCC of Chicago.
Clinic/Workshop Information
Greg Fundis also performs as a drumset and percussion clinician throughout the US and abroad with past clinics at Java Jazz Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia, Boise Jazz Festival- Boise, Idaho, Illinois Day of Percussion-Roosevelt University & School of Rock-Andersonville Chicago, IL
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