Steve Gadd

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For other people named Steve Gadd, see Steve Gadd (disambiguation).
Steve Gadd

Gadd in 2007
Background information
Birth name Stephen Kendall Gadd
Born April 9, 1945 (1945-04-09) (age 66)
Irondequoit, New York, United States
Genres Jazz, bebop, rock music, blues, R&B
Occupations Musician
Instruments Drums, percussion
Years active 1968-present
Website www.drstevegadd.com

Steve Gadd (born April 9, 1945 in Irondequoit, New York) is an American session and studio drummer, notable for his work with popular musicians from a wide range of genres.

Contents

[edit] Biography

Gadd is a native of Irondequoit, New York, a suburb of Rochester, New York. When he was seven years old, his uncle, who was a drummer in the US army, encouraged him to take drum lessons. By the age of eleven he had sat in with Dizzy Gillespie.

After graduating from Irondequoit's Eastridge High School, he attended the Manhattan School of Music for two years before transferring to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, playing in wind ensembles and concert bands. After Gadd finished college in the late 1960s, he played regularly with Chuck Mangione and his brother Gap Mangione. His first recording was on Gap Mangione's debut solo album, Diana in the Autumn Wind (1968).

Gadd was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent three years as a drummer in the Army Music Program, most of which was spent with the Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band in Ft. Meade, MD. While living in the Washington DC area, he briefly took lessons from the noted jazz drummer, Michael S. Smith. Following his military service, Gadd played and worked with a band in Rochester. In 1972, Gadd formed a trio with Tony Levin and Mike Holmes, traveling to New York with them. The trio eventually broke up, but Gadd began to work mainly as a studio musician. Gadd also played with Chick Corea's Return to Forever but left the group.

In the 1970s and 1980s, he toured internationally, and recorded with Paul Simon and also with Al Di Meola's Electric Rendezvous Band. In response to confusion over another drummer by the same name, Gadd, while on his We're on a Mission from Gadd tour in 2005, told fans that was not him. Gadd said, "I've never met the other Steve Gadd. We happened to stay in the same hotel once, though. I kept getting his messages and apparently he was getting mine."

In 1976, Gadd and other session musicians in New York City, including Richard Tee, Eric Gale and Cornell Dupree, formed the group Stuff. Their work included appearances on NBC's Saturday Night Live, both performing on their own and backing Joe Cocker.

By the end of the 1970s, Steve Gadd was an accomplished drummer, with transcriptions of his drum solos on sale in Japan. Chick Corea once commented, "Every drummer wants to play like Gadd because he plays perfect ... He has brought orchestral and compositional thinking to the drum kit while at the same time having a great imagination and a great ability to swing."[1]

In 2005, along with Abraham Laboriel, Patrice Rushen and others, Gadd was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Berklee College of Music for outstanding contributions to contemporary music.[2][3]

The song "A Little Green Rosetta" from the Frank Zappa album Joe's Garage lampoons Steve Gadd's status as one of the highest paid session drummers in popular music.

[edit] Session work

A short list of musicians with whom Gadd has worked include Kate Bush, Paul McCartney, Paul Simon, Steely Dan, Al Jarreau, Joe Cocker, Stuff, Bob James, Chick Corea, Eric Clapton, Pino Daniele, James Taylor, Jim Croce, Eddie Gomez, The Manhattan Transfer, Michal Urbaniak, Steps Ahead, Al Di Meola, Manhattan Jazz Quintet, Carly Simon, Richard Tee, Jon Bon Jovi, Chet Baker, Paul Desmond, The Bee Gees, and Michael McDonald.

[edit] 1970s

In 1975, Gadd played drums on "The Hustle" by Van McCoy and the Soul City Symphony. That same year, he also played the recognizable drum intro and beat behind Paul Simon's hit, "50 Ways to Leave Your Lover". Gadd demonstrated the strengths in his work on the title track of Steely Dan's Aja album – highlighted by Gadd's drum punctuation in the coda of the title cut. Corea's straight-ahead jazz albums Friends and Three Quartets, as well as Jim Hall's 1975 album Concierto are some more examples of Gadd's jazz playing. In 1979, Gadd performed a drum solo on Carly Simon's "SPY" LP.

[edit] 1980s

In 1981, Gadd played in the famous Simon & Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park. He was a featured performer and actor in the 1980 motion picture One Trick Pony starring Paul Simon. Simon's hit "Late in the Evening" was the movie's main title in which Gadd implemented the "Mozambique", a Cuban dance rhythm, into the song.

[edit] 1990s

Gadd recorded and toured with Eric Clapton in 1994/1996 and again from 1997 to 2004. 1997 also saw him on a world tour in a trio with the French jazz great Michel Petrucciani and his Paul Simon band colleague, bassist Anthony Jackson (captured on the "Trio in Tokyo" CD and "Live in Stuttgart" DVD/VHS).

[edit] 2000s

In 2009, Gadd returned to Clapton's band to play 11 nights at the Royal Albert Hall and was part of Clapton's touring band throughout May 2009.

Also in 2009, Gadd reunited with his band from 1973, "L'Image", featuring Mike Mainieri, Warren Bernhardt, David Spinozza and Tony Levin. The group performed at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City, toured Japan, and released the album "L'Image 2.0".

[edit] 2010s

In 2011, Gadd worked with Kate Bush on her "50 Words for Snow" album. Kate Bush was interviewed by Jamie Cullum and told him that she had wanted to work with Steve Gadd for a long time but had not had the courage to approach him. She described Steve Gadd as "a sweet person, really down to earth" and said that "his interpretation of music is so sophisticated". She said she loved working with him and that there was a real chemistry that started to click in.

[edit] Equipment

Steve Gadd uses Yamaha drums, which he has played since 1976. He has recently changed his gear to a setup consisting of "Birch Custom Absolute" toms and a maple bass drum. He also uses a chrome Yamaha Recording Custom Steel Shell snare drum.

He has been asked to contribute his ideas to develop his own signature series Zildjian K Custom Session cymbals.

Gadd also has Vic Firth sticks with his signature on them. The drumsticks are a very light, thin kind, black in color, and normal "wood color" on the tips. There is also an identical model with nylon tips. The stick is also slightly shorter than the American Classic 5A, and features a barrel tip for improved recording sound. It is 15+3⁄4 in (40.0 cm) long and the diameter is .550 in (1.40 cm). Along with having his own signature stick, he also has his own signature brushes. These brushes are intended to solve the problem of wire brushes snagging on new coated drumheads by slightly angling the wires in the top 3/4” (1.9 cm) of the playing end. The wires glide across the head, allowing a smoother sweep and a velvet swish sound.

Gadd uses a variety of Remo heads: a coated Powerstroke 3 on the batter side of the snare, coated Pinstripes or coated Ambassadors on the batter sides of toms, and clear Ambassadors for the resonant sides. He uses a Pinstripe on the bass drum.[4][5]

[edit] Discography

As Steve Gadd & Friends

  • Live At Voce - Deluxe Edition (2010) [BFM Jazz]

As Steve Gadd/ with the Gadd Gang:

  • Gadd About (1984)
  • The Gadd Gang (1986)
  • Pigs and Wizards (1987)
  • Here & Now (1988)
  • Live at Bottom Line (1988)
  • Gadd Gang (1991)

With Stuff:

  • Stuff (1976)
  • Stuff It (1978)
  • Live Stuff 1978)
  • Live In New York (1980)
  • East (1981)
  • Best Stuff (1981)

With Patti Austin:

With B.B. King:

With Chick Corea:

With Steely Dan:

  • Aja on (title track)
  • Gaucho on ("Glamour Profession", "My Rival", "Third World Man" and 'percussion' on "Hey Nineteen")

With Simon and Garfunkel:

With The Manhattan Transfer:

With Paul Simon:

With Steps Ahead:

  • Smokin' in the Pit

With George Benson:

With Joe Brucato:

With Eric Clapton:

With James Brown:

  • Black Caesar

With Art Farmer

With Milt Jackson:

With Hubert Laws:

With Yusef Lateef:

With Jackie and Roy:

With Al Jarreau:

With Rickie Lee Jones:

  • Rickie Lee Jones
  • Pirates
  • Magazine

With Paul McCartney:

With Chuck Mangione:

  • Disguise
  • Tarantella
  • Main Squeeze
  • Land of Make Believe
  • Alive
  • Together
  • Friends And Love

With Michel Petrucciani:

  • Trio in Tokyo
  • Both Worlds

With Al Di Meola:

With Lee Ritenour:

  • Feel the Night
  • Captains Journey
  • Friendship

With Bob James

  • BJ4 (1977)
  • Touchdown (1978)
  • Lucky Seven (1979) (Tracks "Rush Hour" and "Blue Lick")

With Michel Jonasz:

  • Michel Jonasz au Zénith (1993)
  • Où vont les rêves (2002)

With Sunlightsquare:

  • Urban Sessions (2006)

With Weather Report

  • Mr Gone (1978) (Tracks "Young and Fine" and "And Then")

With Funk Factory

  • Funk Factory (1975) (Tracks "Watusi Dance", "Rien Ne Va Plus", "Funk It" and "Lilliput")

With Lalo Schifrin

With Jeremy Steig

With James Taylor

With Art Garfunkel

  • Some Enchanted Evening, 2007[6]
  • Songs from a Parent to a Child, 1997[6]

With L'Image

  • L'Image 2.0, 2009

With Lesley Meguid

  • The Truth About Love Songs, 2010

With Chet Baker

  • She Was Too Good to Me, 1974

With Don Sebesky

With Masahiko Satoh

  • Amorphism, 1985

With Kate Bush:

[edit] References

  1. ^ Bosso, Joe. "Steve Gadd on playing with Clapton, McCartney, and his own band". Musicradar.com 5 Jul 2010. Accessed 6 May 2011.
  2. ^ "Honorary Degree Recipients", Berklee College of Music website
  3. ^ Cf. Gadd's official website
  4. ^ The Official Steve Gadd Website: Set Up Accessed 14 June 2009
  5. ^ Yard Gavrilovic: Steve Gadd's Drum Tech Accessed 10 July 2010
  6. ^ a b c d "Official website: discography". Drstevegadd.com. 1991-08-15. http://www.drstevegadd.com/discography.htm. Retrieved 2011-10-15. 

[edit] External links

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