He is a session musician born in Irondequoit, Rochester,
New York, and has been described as "arguably the most recorded drummer in
history".He began to learn
the drums when he was seven with the encouragement of his uncle and by the
time he was eleven he was sitting in with Dizzy Gillespie.He studied at the Manhattan School
of Music and the Eastman School of Music and in the evenings would often
accompany artists such as Chick Corea and Chuck Mangione. After finishing his education he became a drummer in the
US Army followed three years later by joining a group from Rochester before
teaming up with Tony Levin and Mike Holmes and forming a trio.He was also a member of Return of
Forever with Chick Corea but he left them both to become a studio drummer.Throughout the 1970s and '80s he made numerous recordings
with many artists and he regularly toured with Paul
Simon
and Al Di Meola's Electric Rendezvous Band.In 1976 he was a founding member of
the group Stuff, who backed Joe Cocker and appeared on several Saturday
Night (Live) shows, and in 1988 he formed The Gadd Gang who recorded two
albums: The Gadd Gang and Here and Now. He
became highly sought after and throughout his career has appeared
with artists and groups such as Steely Dan, B.B.King, The
Manhattan Transfer, Steps, George Benson, who was only 14 when
they first worked together, Eric Clapton, James Brown, Al Jarreau,
Ricky Lee Jones, James
Taylor, Barbra Streisand, Van
McCoy and Paul
McCartney
among many others. He is noted for creating the
rhythm on Paul
Simon's "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover", using "drum punctuation
of the coda" for "Aja" by Steely Dan and he has also been attributed
with creating the "disco beat" with his work on "The
Hustle" by Van
McCoy
. In 2005 he received an honorary doctorate from Berklee
School of Music and was inducted into the Percussive Arts Society Hall of
Fame.
