He is a session drummer, author and teacher born in
Berkeley, California, who is much in demand in the Los Angeles, California,
area.He studied at the
California State College in Northridge and while where recorded with The Don
Ellis Big Band in 1968.He
joined up with them full-time in 1969 and remained with them for around four
years until leaving in 1973 to join Frank Zappa & The Mothers of
Invention. Staying with
them for a year be branched out as a freelancer and then in 1982 joined the
band Free Flight. Towards the
end of the 1980s he took up touring with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra. In the last three decades has
performed with acts such as Tony Bennett, Michael Buble, Captain &
Tennille, Richard Carpenter, Natalie Cole, Clare Fischer, David Foster, John
Klemmer, The Manhattan Transfer, Bette Midler, Carmen McRae, The Muppets, David
Newman, Seals & Crofts and Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention.The many albums he has appeared on
include Mujer by Shirley Bassey, And So Is Love by Rita Coolidge,
Everything Must Change by Randy Crawford, Earth Songs by John
Denver, Shock Treatment by Don Ellis, Dr. Heckle & Mr. Jive
by England Dan & John Ford Coley, Me Enamore by Jose Feliciano, This
Time by Al Jarreau, Mancini's Angels by Henry Mancini and Love
Like Ours by Barbra Streisand.His talents are also very much sought after in the television, film
and commercial industry where he has worked on shows such as American
Idol, Animaniacs, Charmed, Dancing With the Stars, Dawson's Creek. Deep
Space Nine, King of the Hill, Pinky & The Brain, The Simpsons and Star
Trek Enterprise and Voyager, movies that include A League of
Their Own, Piglet's Big Movie, Swing Kids and Wired and commercials
for Ping golf clubs and Coca-Cola.As an author on the subject of drumming, he has written several articles
for the magazine Modern Drummer and the book Even in the Odds.In the field of musical education
he gives private tuition and is a Department Chair at the Los Angeles Music
Academy along with Joe Porcaro of Toto.They also worked together with on the creation and design
of the drum program for the Percussion Institute of Technology where he
held the position of Department Head from 1980-1996.Alongside teaching today he
performs with a band called Babaghanoush and the guitarists Mike Miller and
Prasanna Ramaswamy.
The Manhattan
Transfer Recordings
Body and Soul (Edward Heyman/Johnny
Green/Robert Sour/Frank Eyton)
Twilight Zone/Twilight Tone (Marius
Constant/Jay Graydon/Alan Paul)
