Steve Gadd

Gadd, Steve, drums. b. Rochester, New York, April 9, 1945. Uncle, a drummer in the army, encouraged him. Drum lessons from age seven; sat in with Dizzy Gillespie at 11. Studied music at Eastman College, Rochester, playing in wind ensemble and concert band, and at nights in a club with Chick Corea, Chuck Mangione, Joe Romano and Frank Pullara. After college, drafted into army and spent three years in a military band. After the army, gigged and worked with a big band in Rochester. 1972, formed a trio with Tony Levin and Mike Holmes, going to New York with it.

The trio fizzled out, but Gadd began to work extensively as a studio musician. He also played with Corea's first Return to Forever. 1970's and 1980's, toured internationally, recorded with Paul Simon and with Al DiMeola's Electric Rendezvous Band. By the end of the 1970's Gadd was the most in-demand and probably the most imitated drummer in the world. In Japan transcriptions of his solos were on sale, and all the leading Japanese drummers were sounding like him. Chick Corea 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." Gadd's favorites are Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson, among others.

With many singers, including Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Barbra Striesand, Paul McCartney and Paul Simon; with Corea, Three Quartets (1981), Warner Bros; My Spanish Heart (1976); Friends (1978); The Mad Hatter (1978), all Polydor; with George Benson, In Concert (1975), CTI; with Stuff, Stuff (nda), Warner Bros; with DiMeola, Electric Rendezvous 1982), Columbia; with Carla Bley, Dinner Music (1976).

Interview with Bio info

Steve grew up in Rochester, where he and his brother tap-danced at a small club, and where he played with local musicians and bands that passed through. He studied privately with Bill and Stanley Street; later with John Beck. He attended the Manhattan School of Music for two years, then transferred to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. After finishing school, he played in Rochester with Chuck Mangione. In [the late] 1960's, he went into the Army for three years. He came to New York in 1971 and quickly became one of the most sought after studio musicians in town. Steve, a musician who "doesn't believe in labels," has recorded with artists of all styles and genres, among them Paul Simon, Carly Simon, Phoebe Snow, Steely Dan, Ashford and Simpson, Aretha Franklin, Judy Collins, Bette Midler, James Brown, Joe Cocker, Nancy Wilson, Bob James, and Chick Corea. Until the late 1970's, he remained almost exclusively a session player, appearing briefly with Chick Corea, Mike Mainieri, Herbie Mann, and several others. In 1976 he became a member of the group Stuff with Gordon Edwards, Richard Tee, Eric Gale, Cornell Dupree, and Chris Parker, while continuing his heavy schedule of studio work.

S: When I was a kid of about three years old, my parents, my brother, my uncle, and I lived with my grandparents in one big house. My uncle, who was a drummer, noticed that whenever I was listening to music, I'd pick up a knife, or whatever I could to make some time, and I'd play along with the music. So he gave me a pair of his old drumsticks, and he showed me how to hold them. I used to play with records all day on this old round piece of wood that I had. I chose to listen to marches, John Philip Sousa's mostly. The family would play records, and my uncle and I would play together for hours. Then my father and brother would pick up sticks and play along with us. It wasn't pushed or planned, we just did it for fun. There were no preconceived intentions as to what was going to happen.

Rochester, where I grew up, was a great place for music. The Ridgecrest Inn would have sessions on Sunday afternoons. My whole family would go down, and artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, and Carmen McRae would let kids like me sit in with them. It was great. During that same period I got heavily involved in a drum corps. It had a great drum section and I got into rudimental drumming. I realized there were so many ways to play drums. For example, playing snare drums in an orchestra, which I studied when I went to college and when I took lessons, is one way of doing it, and then there's a very rudimental approach which drum corps are really involved in. So I was playing a lot of different ways. I'd be playing in drum corps using some gigantic sticks and then after drum corps rehearsal my dad and I would go down to the club where they had organ groups and I'd sit in, playing totally different, with smaller sticks. They were greeting into heavy backbeat, which influenced me. Then I took lessons to try to learn reading and orchestral approaches like phrasing in order to get a very musical blending way of playing.

J: Did you go to music school?

S: I went to the Manhattan School of Music for two years and then transferred to the Eastman School of Music and began taking lessons with John Beck with whom I had studied before. There were more playing ensembles happening at Eastman and a great win ensemble. I really got into playing in a percussion section and occasionally had a chance to play in one of the orchestras. I was becoming a real good concert snare drummer as well as a good cymbal player, which is a real difficult instrument to play. Mallets, xylophone, bells, and tympani were always harder for me to get into.

J: After college you played with Chick Corea. What was that like?

S: Chick came to Rochester and formed a band, Chuck Mangione, Chick, Joe Romano, Frank Polaro, and me. We were working six nights a week. We got into the same kind of stuff that Miles was doing and the influence came from Chick. He was real innovative. Working with Chick was inspiring and confusing; it was different. I remember going to the club one night--we'd worked about three weeks and there was some tension. Joe Romano was a real strict bebop player, like real Charlie Parker. Chuckie had been playing with Chick and was really aware of the musical power he had, Frank Polaro was a helluva bass player, and then there was me. I could play with all my might all night without getting tired but there was something that just wasn't happening; there wasn't a real blend. The tenor player was feeling uncomfortable at the way Chick was playing behind him, Chick was feeling real locked in to the way I was playing, because I was playing a very rhythm-oriented thing, and Chuckie was aware of all the shit happening and just let it go by.

One afternoon Chick said let's go down to the club and play. I said great. He ended up playing some drums for a while and I watched him. I said, holy shit, not because he was a great technician, but just the musical approach--he got so much more music out of the instrument. At that time my original set was a big bass drum, and I had ordered a new, smaller set. Chick had to go into New York for the weekend and while he was there the new set came, and, man, I'm telling you, when he came back the band was steaming. I forgot the backbeat, eliminated playing the high hat on two and four. There's a thin line between real free-form music and music that's loose where one isn't really heavily influenced. There's a thin line between when it happens and when it's bullshit.

J: How would you compare your various band experiences with your present career as a studio musician?

S: I think it's been very musically rewarding for me to work in the studio. I'm not by any means saying I don't want to play live because I think that's just as valid. I really think that rapport with an audience is very important. Maintaining both is really the answer, whether it's recording during the day and going over to a club at night or doing some concerts on the weekends.

J: Reflecting, then, on your role as an artist, what is your general concept of your own contribution?

S: I don't consider myself an artist. I go out there and I try to play what's right for the music. It seems to be a much more open approach and it would seem to allow me to be able to expand as the music of the time expands. I think people who get hung up in their own artistry often get into a certain style they feel is them and that if they do anything different the public won't be able to identify their artistry, which is kind of limiting. I don't think that way. I have a good time playing. I try to play the best I can. I know I can play the drums and I want to play the best that I can possibly play. I want to play better a year from now than I'm playing now, not because my artistry is at stake, but just because I like it. 2

More...

Since arriving in New York City in 1971, multi-talented drummer-percussionist Steve Gadd has become one of the most versatile, valuable and employable session musicians in the United States. His innovations with the fusion group Stuff in the late '70s were to influence a generation of young drummers.

Born Rochester, New York, on April 9, 1945, Gadd learned about rhythm early--on his feet, tap-dancing at a local club. From age 3, his uncle taught him to play drums and his early interest in Sousa marches is evident even today in his playing. His growing interest in percussion received a further boost working with a drum corps where he discovered just how many different ways there were to play the instrument.

He studied privately with Bill and Stanley Street, then with John Beck, spending two years at Manhattan's School of Music before going to Eastman in Rochester. His first gigs were with Chuck Mangione and Chick Corea. Working with Corea was a revelation for Gadd. Corea introduced him to limitless creative possibilities and subtleties of jazz-rock. The experience was to influence Gadd's whole approach to drum technique and change his style completely, evolving into his exceptional lightness of touch and formidable rhythmic dexterity.

From '72, Gadd became one of New York's most coveted session-players, performing briefly with Chick Corea, Mike Mainieri and Herbie Mann. In '76, along with Eric Gale, Richard Tee & Co, Gadd worked with revolutionary fusion band Stuff, gaining a world wide reputation as the funk drummer.

Gadd's studio output as a side-player has been prolific and, not surprisingly, his influence as one of the most innovative and technically accomplished percussionists continues to dominate the scene internationally into the '90s. 3