Jump to content

Jeff Porcaro: Difference between revisions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
Llecco (talk | contribs)
32 edits
mNo edit summary
Line 154: Line 154:
[[Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People from Hartford, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People from South Windsor, Connecticut]]
[[Category:People from South Windsor, Connecticut]]
[[Category:Burials at Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale)]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:American Roman Catholics]]
[[Category:Steely Dan members]]
[[Category:Steely Dan members]]

Revision as of 19:22, 13 August 2013

Jeff Porcaro
Jeff Porcaro on the drums on the Toto Fahrenheit World Tour in Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii, November 10, 1986
Jeff Porcaro on the drums on the Toto Fahrenheit World Tour in Blaisdell Arena, Honolulu, Hawaii, November 10, 1986
Background information
Birth nameJeffrey Thomas Porcaro
Born(1954-04-01)April 1, 1954
South Windsor, Connecticut
DiedAugust 5, 1992(1992-08-05) (aged 38)
Los Angeles, California
GenresHard rock, pop rock, AOR, progressive rock, jazz, jazz fusion[1][2]
Occupation(s)Musician, songwriter, producer
Instrument(s)Drums, percussion
Years active1971–1992
Website
Jeff Porcaro's signature

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,[3] working on hundreds of albums and thousands of sessions.[4] 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."[4]

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,[5] 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, Gerry Sack, 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.[6]

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 one LA Times Report, The Los Angeles County Coroner's office lists the cause of death to be a heart attack from atherosclerosis induced by cocaine use,[7] not from an allergic reaction to the pesticides as presumed (and stated by Toto in the band's official history) immediately after his death.[8]

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

Other artists

See also

References

  1. ^ "Stan Getz - Apasionado CD Album". Webcache.googleusercontent.com. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  2. ^ "The Sheffield Catalog // Sheffield Lab Audiophile Recordings | The reference standard for musical and sonic excellence". Webcache.googleusercontent.com. 2011-10-09. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  3. ^ "Freedrumlessons.com". Freedrumlessons.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
  4. ^ a b Ruhlmann, William. "Jeff Porcaro". AllMusic. Retrieved 2011-10-24.
  5. ^ "Jeff Porcaro's official discography". Toto99.com. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
  6. ^ "liner notes "Paid vacation", see quote about "One man"". Geocities.jp. Retrieved 2010-12-09.
  7. ^ Julie Tamaki (September 4, 1992). "Drummer's Death Linked to Cocaine, Coroner Says : Autopsy: Report finds no evidence to support earlier belief that Toto's Jeff Porcaro died of an allergic reaction to a pesticide". Los Angeles Times.
  8. ^ "Official TOTO Website - Band History". Toto99.com. 1992-08-05. Retrieved 2011-10-24.

Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeff_Porcaro&oldid=568399238"