Results for "Drums"

Steve Williams

Born: January 7, 1956

Steve Williams grew up in Washington, DC. He continued his music education at the University of Miami. There he joined Monty Alexander's band, with whom he started to perform on the international scene. He furthered his music education in New York, with Billy Hart.

Back in Washington, Williams played with Milt Jackson, Freddie Hubbard, Joe Williams, Woodie Shaw, Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson, John Hicks, Larry Willis, Mulgrew Miller and many others. He joined Gary Thomas' band, with whom he recorded one of his first compositions, "Pads".

Then he joined Shirley Horn, who would keep for twenty-five years the same rhythm section: Charles Ables (bass) and Steve Williams (drums). Critic Don Heckman wrote in the Los Angeles Times (February 2, 1995) about "the importance of bassist Charles Ables and drummer Steve Williams to the Horn's sound. Working with boundless subtlety, following her every spontaneous twist and turn, they were the ideal accompanists for a performer who clearly will tolerate nothing less than perfection".

Russ Kunkel

When it comes to studio drummers perhaps no one on the planet is as accomplished as famed LA session drummer Russ Kunkel. His discography is one of the most extensive in popular music. Rock steady, his beat has enhanced a musical who's who of 70s and 80s recording, from Dylan to Streisand and, it seems, almost everyone in between. For many years it seemed every other major album featured Kunkel and his partner in rhythm, Lee Sklar on bass. A partial listing of artists he has drummed with or produced gives a flavor of his versatility and includes Jackson Browne, Jimmy Buffett, J.J. Cale, Tracy Chapman, Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Diamond, Bob Dylan, Dan Fogelberg, Don Henley, Elton John, B.B

Hal Blaine

Born: March 25, 1929

Hal Blaine may well be the most profilic drummer in rock and roll history. He's certainly played on more hit records than any drummer in the rock era, including 40 #1 singles and 150 that made the Top Ten. Eight of the records he played on won Grammys for Record of the Year. Blaine, who was born Harold Simon Belsky in 1929, became a professional drummer in 1948 and joined teen idol Tommy Sands' band in the late Fifties. He was the most in-demand session drummer in Los Angeles during the Sixties and early Seventies, and a list of musicians he played with reads like a who's who of popular music. In 1961, Blaine drummed on Can't Help Falling in Love With You, one of Elvis Presley's most memorable sides, and he would play on Presley's film soundtracks throughout the Sixties

E. Doctor Smith

Born: December 2, 1956

E. Doctor Smith, inventor of the Drummstick, began his musical journey as a teenager playing percussion in the District of Columbia Youth Orchestra and in Maryland’s Montgomery County Youth Orchestra. Inspired by the Miles Davis fusion bands of the mid-70s, he continued his studies with Paul Sears, drummer of the Muffins. His first group, Oranus Rey, featured guitarist Paul Bollenback, bassist Ed Howard, and saxophonist Tim Chambers. In 1980 Smith moved to New York where he met fellow Music Building tenants Madonna and her co-writer, Stephen Bray. With Bray, Smith performed in the Breakfast Club and The Same. The Same was produced by Brian Eno and featured keyboardist Carter Burwell, guitarist Chip Johannsen, singer Clodagh Simmons, bassist Stanley Adler, and the motto "Semper Mutants." Following Bray and Madonna to Los Angeles, Smith assisted on many of Madonna's biggest albums as well as other of Bray's projects including Nick Kamen, Gladys Knight, The Breakfast Club, Bryan Ferry, and Steel Pulse. In L.A. Doc’s sound engineering skills were honed in sessions working alongside Michael Verdick and Tony Shepperd. Back on the East Coast, Smith performed with the New England groups K2, Flash to Bangtime, and Feat of Clay using a Simmons kit he called the “Beast." Inspired by that of British drummer Bill Bruford, Smith’s 12-piece kit was the first embodiment of his love of digital drums. In 1995, as a member of the trio Between The Lines, and influenced by the work of Roy "Future Man" Wooten, Smith designed and built the Drummstick, a percussion controller consisting rather humbly of a 2x6 piece of wood with 16 finger-pads. Borne of a desire to walk on stage, plug in and play like a guitarist, while accessing his beloved and virtually infinite world of digital sounds, Smith’s Drummstick developed a life of its own. In 2000 Smith debuted his first CD of original music, The Drummstick, with his band of the same name, which featured core members Jack Wright on guitar, Neil Mezebish on horns, and Celia DuBose on bass. That year he also performed using the Drummstick with guitar legends including Bon Lozago of Gong, Tom Principato, Bill Kirchen, Paul Bollenback, as well as bansurist John Wubbenhorst, tabla master Sandip Burman, and the famed Howard Levy. Now living in San Francisco, Smith performed at the Edgetone New Music Summit of 2006 with horn player Eric Dahlman. In March 2007, Smith will release a new Drummstick 2 CD, a long-distance collaboration with the original Drummstick band and other musical friends (and the re-release of his first Drummstick CD) on Edgetone Records. Smith also produced and performed on an Edgetone release entitled Robert Anbian and UFQ: the Unidentified Flying Quartet. This timely and troubling work of jazz and poetry features poet Robert Anbian, saxophonist Charles Unger, keyboardist Sam Peoples, and bassist Mike Shea. Smith has collaborated with 7 string bass virtuoso Edo Castro and Seth Elgart for his upcoming release on Edgetone Records, "K2". His sixth album on the Edgetone Records label 1s entitled "Quantum ", and reunites Smith with his former Drummstick band mate, guitarist Jack Wright (Quantum Kids, Temporal Chaos Project), the Quantum Kids' bassist, Tom Shiben, and Smith's Feat of Clay co-founder, trumpeter Eric Dahlman. Quantum is Smith’s first album using the new Zendrum EXP, MIDI percussion controller, the first commercially sold EXP, designed by David Haney of the Zendrum Corporation. “FutureJazz” (Edgetone EDT4171) is Smith's latest work and his seventh album on the Edgetone Records label. FutureJazz unites Smith with guitarist Peter McKibben (Savant Garde) and features flautist, Laura Austin Wiley (Resonance). Smith continues his unique fusion approach with the Zendrum EXP, combined with McKibben’s inspired guitar looping mastery and Wiley’s thoughtful flute playing to create music swirling between the sublime, the beautiful, the incendiary. Inspired by the music of iconic jazz fusion pioneers like Return to Forever, progressive rock groups like King Crimson, Jethro Tull, Genesis, Tangerine Dream, and the 1970 classic tome “Future Shock” by author Alvin Toffler, Smith and McKibben’s compositions are borne out of an appreciation for the those musical masters, and the shock that accompanies the reality today’s musicians face in our rapidly changing, ever-evolving, digital age. Smith, McKibben and Wiley have not shied away from it. To the contrary, they have sought to embrace it by using some of the latest musical technology, instruments and signal processing to explore the boundaries of the analog and digital, musical frontiers. Smith currently performs with bansurist John Wubbenhorst's Facing East, and with keyboardist Steve McQuarry's "Echelon" electric quartet, featuring violinist Michele Walther and bassist Ted Burik. Doc's latest projects are with bansurist John Wubbenhorst and his group Facing East; "FutureJazz”, his seventh album on the Edgetone Records label with guitarist Peter McKibben, and flautist Laura Austin Wiley; Steve McQuarry's Electric Quartet featuring bassist Ted Burik and violinist Michele Walther of McQuarry's Resonance Jazz octet. Doc also performs regularly with the Laura Austin Wiley Electric Quintet with keyboardist Jim Lang, guitarist David McFarland and bassist Edo Castro Woodhouse. Doc recently completed a tour and album with bassist Jason Everett’s Deep Energy Orchestra, featuring Trey Gunn of King Crimson on Warr guitar, guitarist Fareed Haque of Billy Cobham’s Crosswinds band, Radhika Iyer on electric violin, Phil Hirschi of the Mahavishnu Orchestra on cello, Chaz Hastings on tabla, Rachel Nesvig on violin and Aleida Gehrels on viola. His newest effort is the Trio Electrique with bassist Edo Castro Woodhouse and violinist Michele Walther. In 2023 he will release his 9th album on the Edgetone Records label, "Ketu" featuring Seth Elgart, Claudia Paige and Peter McKibben, and a duo album with keyboardist Thollem McDonas.

Barrett Martin

Born: April 14, 1967

Barrett Martin is a Grammy-winning producer, composer, and renowned session drummer and percussionist who has played on over 100 Jazz, Blues, Rock, and World music albums. His work can be heard on albums by the Barrett Martin Group, REM, Queens Of The Stone Age, Mad Season, Screaming Trees, Walking Papers, Tuatara, Blues legend CeDell Davis, and recording sessions that range from the Peruvian Amazon, to Brazil, Cuba, and even Jerusalem. He recently won a Latin Grammy for his production and drum work on the Brazilian album “Jardim-Pomar.” Barrett holds a masters degree in ethnomusicology and linguistics and has taught at several universities in the United States

Johnathan Blake

Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, has also proven himself a complete and endlessly versatile musician. Blake’s gift for composition and band leading reflects years of live and studio experience across the aesthetic spectrum. Heralded by NPR Music as “the ultimate modernist,” he has collaborated with Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Tom Harrell, Hans Glawischnig, Avishai Cohen, Donny McCaslin, Linda May Han Oh, Jaleel Shaw, Chris Potter, Maria Schneider, Alex Sipiagin, Kris Davis and countless other distinctive voices. DownBeat once wrote, “It’s a testament to Blake’s abilities that he makes his presence felt in any context.” A frequent presence on Blue Note records over the past several years, Blake has contributed his strong, limber pulse and airy precision to multiple leader releases from Blue Note artists including Dr

Stuart Nevitt

Born: 1949

Stuart Nevitt, composer, drummer/percussionist and one of the early members of the Grammy-winning world beat band Shadowfax Born in Elizabeth, N.J., Nevitt learned the rudiments of drumming at age 4 from his father, who was also a drummer. Nevitt played in rock bands and orchestras throughout high school before going off to the University of Miami to study music. He moved to Chicago in the early 1970s and met woodwind player Chuck Greenberg, bassist Phil Maggini and guitarist G.E. Stinson. They invited him to join their experimental group named after Gandalf's horse, Shadowfax, from J.R.R

Peter Magadini

An internationally acclaimed performer, educator and author, Peter Magadini has played with artists including Diana Ross, George Duke, Mose Allison, Sonny Stitt, Chet Baker and John Handy. He as also played percussion with The Berkshire Music Festival Orchestra at Tanglewood, The Toronto Symphony and The Formm Festival of Contemporary Music at Carnegie Hall. In addition, Peter has performed as a studio musician in the US and Canada and has been featured on many recordings with his own quintet. Mr. Magadini holds degrees from both the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and the University of Toronto and includes among his teachers drummers Don Bothwell, Roy Burns, Timpanist Roland Kohloff and North India tabla master Mahapurush Misra. He is a celebrated educator and the author of many popular and critically acclaimed volumes such as Musicians Guide to Polyrhythms, voted 6th on Modern Drummer Magazine's list of the 25 greatest drum books. Peter is currently teaching drumset for the Brubeck Institute (University of the Pacific), at the Jazz School in Berkeley, at Haight-Ashbury Music and in his own private studio in Marin County California.

Obo Addy

African musical history comes to life when master drummer Obo Addy steps on stage. As a prominent member of the first generation of African musicians to bring their traditional and popular music to Europe and America, this versatile magician of the drums embodies the past, present and future of Ghana's musical culture. An original and respected composer whose music reaches far beyond the boundaries of his land of birth, Addy has a twenty-year presence on the international performing arts scene and has become known for his ability to celebrate past traditions while expanding to embrace new ideas and foreign influences

Lindsey Rahn

Born: July 29, 1985

Lindsey Rahn is new on the music scene in northwest Arkansas. At age 24, she holds a bachelor's degree in Jazz Studies from Brigham Young University-Idaho. She has played in numerous jazz bands and combos, Latin bands, percussion ensembles, and classical bands and orchestras. Born in Vancouver, Washington, Lindsey began playing on pots and pans at age 4. Throughout school, she was awarded numerous awards and scholarships for mallet percussion and drum set. Lindsey attended Brigham Young University-Idaho on scholarship for music and was equally involved in jazz and classical percussion for the duration of her time there