Jeff Porcaro

Jeff Porcaro
Porcaro in 1986
Background information
Birth name	Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro
Born	April 1, 1954(1954-04-01) Hartford, Connecticut
Died	August 5, 1992(1992-08-05) (aged 38) Los Angeles, California
Genres	Hard rock, pop rock, AOR, progressive rock
Occupations	Musician, songwriter, producer
Instruments	Drums, percussion
Years active	1971–1992
Associated acts	Toto, Sonny and Cher, Steely Dan, Boz Scaggs, Clover

Jeffrey Thomas "Jeff" Porcaro (April 1, 1954 – August 5, 1992) was an American session drummer and a founding member of the Grammy Award winning band Toto. Porcaro was one of the most recorded drummers in history, working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions. While already an established studio player in the 1970s, he shot to prominence in the US as the drummer on the Steely Dan album Katy Lied. Allmusic has characterized him as "arguably the most highly regarded studio drummer in rock from the mid-'70s to the early '90s", further stating that "It is no exaggeration to say that the sound of mainstream pop/rock drumming in the 1980s was, to a large extent, the sound of Jeff Porcaro."

Biography

Personal life

Porcaro was born in Hartford, Connecticut, the eldest son of Los Angeles session percussionist Joe Porcaro. His brothers Steve and Mike are both still active session musicians. Porcaro was raised in the San Fernando Valley area of Los Angeles and attended Ulysses S. Grant High School.

On October 22, 1983, Porcaro married Susan Norris, a Los Angeles television newscaster. They had three sons, Christopher Joseph (born July 3, 1984), Miles Edwin Crawford (born June 12, 1986), and Nico Hendrix (born December 26, 1991).

Career

Porcaro began playing at the age of seven. Lessons came from his father Joe Porcaro, followed by further studies with Bob Zimmitti and Richie Lepore.

When he was seventeen, Porcaro got his first professional gig playing in Sonny and Cher's touring band. During his 20s, he played on hundreds of albums, including several for Steely Dan. He toured with Boz Scaggs, before co-founding Toto with his brother Steve and childhood friends Steve Lukather and David Paich.

Besides his work with Toto, he also performed as a session musician with artists such as Paul McCartney, Dire Straits, Willy DeVille, Jackson Browne, Donald Fagen, Steely Dan, Rickie Lee Jones, Michael Jackson, Go West, Nik Kershaw, Love and Money, Paul Simon, Don Henley, Madonna, Airplay, Al Jarreau, George Benson, the Manhattan Transfer, America, Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees, Tom Scott, Michael McDonald, Amy Holland, Joe Cocker, Stan Getz, Sérgio Mendes, Lee Ritenour, Christopher Cross, James Newton-Howard, Timothy B. Schmit, Joe Walsh, Jim Messina, Poco, Exile, the Four Tops, Barbra Streisand, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, Les Dudek, Warren Zevon, Bonnie Raitt, David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Pink Floyd, Roger Hodgson, Paul Anka, Eric Carmen, Eric Clapton, Miles Davis, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Tommy Bolin, Larry Carlton, Mari Iijima and Seals & Crofts.

Richard Marx dedicated the song "One Man" to him and said Porcaro was the best drummer he had ever worked with.

Michael Jackson made a dedication to Porcaro in the liner notes for his 1995 album HIStory: Past, Present and Future, Book I. Porcaro had contributed drums to four songs on Jackson's Thriller album ("The Girl Is Mine", "Beat It", "Human Nature", and "The Lady In My Life"), as well as playing on the Dangerous album hit "Heal the World".

He also played drums on 10cc's ...Meanwhile (1992). On the 1993 10cc Alive album, recorded after his death, the band dedicated "The Night That the Stars Didn't Show" to him.

Death

Porcaro died on August 5, 1992 at the age of 38. The rock star fell ill after spraying insecticide in the yard of his Hidden Hills home and died that evening at Humana Hospital-West Hills. According to the LA Times Report, The Los Angeles County Coroner's office lists the cause of death to be a heart attack from the hardening of the arteries caused by cocaine use, not from an allergic reaction to the pesticides as presumed (and stated by Toto in the band's official history) immediately after his death.

Porcaro's funeral, attended by an estimated 1,500 people (friends, family, colleagues and fans), was held on August 10 in the Forest Lawn - Hollywood Hills Cemetery, where he was buried. The Jeff Porcaro Memorial Fund was established to benefit the music and art departments of Grant High School in Los Angeles, where he was a student in the early 1970s. A memorial concert took place at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles on December 14, 1992 with an all-star lineup that included Boz Scaggs, Donald Fagen, Don Henley, Michael McDonald, George Harrison, David Crosby, Eddie Van Halen, and the members of Toto. The proceeds of the concert were used to establish an educational trust fund for Porcaro's sons.

Discography

With Toto

• Toto (1978)
• Hydra (1979)
• Turn Back (1981)
• Toto IV (1982)
• Isolation (1984)
• Dune (soundtrack) (1984)
• Olympic Games 1984 (soundtrack) (1984)
• Fahrenheit (1986)
• The Seventh One (1988)
• Past to Present 1977 - 1990 (1990)
• Kingdom of Desire (1992)
• Toto XX (1998)
• Greatest Hits Live... And More (DVD with behind the scenes footage and interviews)

Other artists

• Seals & Crofts - Unborn Child (1974)
• Tommy Bolin - Teaser (1975) - tracks 1, 2, 3, 5
• Steely Dan - Pretzel Logic (1974), Katy Lied (1975)
• Boz Scaggs - Silk Degrees (1976), Down Two Then Left (1977), Middle Man (1980), Other Roads (1988)
• Hall & Oates - Beauty on a Back Street (1977)
• Larry Carlton - Room 335 Album (1978)
• Warren Zevon - Excitable Boy (1978) - "Nighttime in the Switching Yard"
• Colin Blunstone - Never Even Thought (1978)
• Lowell George - Thanks, I'll Eat It Here (1979)
• Pink Floyd - The Wall - "Mother"
• Bee Gees - Living Eyes (1981)
• Greg Lake - Greg Lake (1981)
• Michael Jackson - Thriller (1982), Dangerous (1991) - "Beat It", "Human Nature", "The Girl is Mine", "The Lady in my Life", "Heal the World"
• Elton John - Jump Up!
• Donald Fagen - The Nightfly (1982)
• Don Henley - I Can't Stand Still (1982), The End Of The Innocence (1989)
• Christopher Cross - Another Page (1983)
• James Newton Howard - "James Newton Howard and Friends" (1983)
• David Gilmour - About Face (1984)
• Michael McDonald - If That's What It Takes (1982) - No Lookin' Back (1985) - "Take It To Heart" (1990)
• Eric Clapton - Behind the Sun (1985) - Forever Man
• Roger Hodgson - Hai Hai (1987)
• Jon Anderson - In the City of Angels (1988)
• Clair Marlo - Let it Go (1989)
• Madonna - Like a Prayer (1989)
• Twenty Mondays - The Twist Inside (1990)
• Michael Bolton - Time, Love & Tenderness (1991)
• Cher - Love Hurts (1991)
• Dire Straits - On Every Street (1991)
• Bruce Springsteen - Human Touch (1992)
• Christopher Cross - Rendezvous (1992)
• 10cc - ...Meanwhile (1992)
• Roger Waters - Amused to death (1992)

See also

• Rosanna shuffle

External links

• Official Toto website section dedicated to Porcaro
• Porcaro page at Drummerworld