Drummer Bob Breithaupt was born on July 20, 1955 in Marion, Ohio. The grandson of a spoon-player, Bob was drawn to music at an early age. By age 14, Bob had played his first gig in Marion, and by age 15, he was performing actively around the region with a young Bobby Floyd (the boys' parents had to drive them to their performances).

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Arguably the greatest jazz drummer of all time, the legendary Buddy Rich exhibited his love for music through the dedication of his life to the art. His was a career that spanned seven decades, beginning when Rich was 18 months old and continuing until his death in 1987. Immensely gifted, Rich could play with remarkable speed and dexterity despite the fact that he never received a formal lesson and refused to practice outside of his performances.

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Carter grew up in a household full of music. Everything from jazz, gospel to the Beatles was played.

For Carter Beauford, it all started when he was three years old. His father was going to a Buddy Rich concert, but he couldn't find a babysitter for young Carter. His only solution was to take Carter with him. From the moment Carter laid eyes and ears upon Buddy Rich, he was enthralled and facinated with Rich.

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Roaring out of Richmond, Virginia comes the total metal juggernaut that is Lamb of God. Behind the wheel of this startling musical super-nova is drummer, Chris Adler.

With a symmetrical precision, an intriguing musicality and an undeniable assult, Chris assumes his position as the rhythmic overlord of Lamb of God's music. Ear-piercing bells, sizzling splashes and trashy china's punctuate Chris' flamboyant yet economic time-keeping.

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Born in Oakland, California, David grew up just East of San Francisco. Through his fascination for drums, he began playing music at age 10. His parents bought him his first drumset in high school and the rest, as they say, is history.

By age (17) David began his professional career by 1966, the Vietnam War brought uncertainty. Upon waiting for his draft into the Army, his future changed when it was suggested he enlist in the United States Air Force and become a member of the 724th United States Air Force Band. After his discharge from military service, he returned to his home in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the summer of 1970 David joined Tower of Power.

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Gavin Harrison is a member of the British progressive rock band Porcupine Tree.

In addition, he has authored two instructional drum books entitled Rhythmic Illusions and Rhythmic Perspectives, and produced his own instructional DVD's, Rhythmic Visions and Rhythmic Horizons.

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Gene Krupa was born in Chicago, Illinois on January 15, 1909 and was the the youngest of Bartley and Ann Krupa's nine children. His father died when Gene was very young and his mother worked as a milliner to support the family. Allof the children had to start working while young, Gene at age eleven. His brother Pete worked at "Brown Music Company", and got Gene a job as chore boy. Gene started out playing sax in grade school but took up drums at age 11 since they were the cheapest item in the music store where he and his brother worked. "I used to look in their wholesale catalog for a musical instrument - piano, trombone, cornet - I didn't care what it was as long as it was an instrument. The cheapest item was the drums, 16 beans, I think, for a set of Japanese drums; a great high, wide bass drum, with a brass cymbal on it, a wood block and a snare drum."

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Gregg was born on June 9th, 1959, in Detroit Michigan USA. His mom and dad are both musicians.....his dad Bud Bissonette plays drums (and now has been Gregg's in town LA drum tech for recording sessions and live gigs since 1989,) and his mom Phyllis plays piano and vibes. They used to have a band that played around Detroit, and now live in Los Angeles. Gregg has a younger brother named Matt , and a younger sister named Kathy.

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Grammy Award winner and one of the most talented drummers in the world today. Whether playing with jazz legends like McCoy Tyner or Michel Camilo, rock stars like Carlos Santana or Steve Winwood, or as member of renowned latin ensembles like Tito Puente's Tropi-Jazz All Stars, El Negro has earned a strong reputation as one of the most powerful and versatile players in the current musical scene.

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Like most drummers of Jason Bittner's stature and expertise, he began by banging on pots and pans as early as the age of 3. He began his formal training at age 8, taking lessons and learning rudiments, and was involved in school programs like jazz band and marching band all throughout high school. Eventually Jason entered the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston.

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Jeff Queen has been involved with percussion since the age of 10. At the age of 15, Jeff began his drum corps career with the Canton Bluecoats and continued on to March with the Velvet Knights, Santa Clara Vanguard, Blue Knights and the University of North Texas. Jeff was the Drum Corps International Individual and Ensemble Snare Drum Champion in 1994 and 1995 as well as the Percussive Arts Society Individual Snare Drum Champion in 1994 and 1995. Jeff has taught in the drum corps activity for many years, including being the caption head for the Carolina Crown drum and bugle corps from 2003-2004.

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Born in Havana, Cuba in 1972, Branly began playing drums at the age of 13. Branly has performed with nearly every mayor group in Cuba in virtually every musical genere from straight-ahead jazz to fusion to hardcore dance music .

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John Blackwell Jr., the sound, funk and fury behind Prince and the New Power Generation is a spectacle for the eyes and ears. Blackwell’s slamming tight grooves, popping snare and furiously flamboyant drumstick twirling and cross-arm strokes must be seen to be believed.

Blackwell, born in Columbia South Carolina, was raised in a very musical family. John’s father, John Sr., was a very well known professional drummer who performed with acts like The Drifters, The Spinners and Mary Wells. John Jr. got his first drumset at age 3 and was brought to many concerts that came through South Carolina by his father. While in high school, John was playing in the High School Jazz and Marching Band while performing every weekend with the R&B/Jazz/Fusion group, Robert Newton & Lotusfete as well as with Billy Eckstine.

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Lionel Hampton is one of the most extraordinary musicians of the 20th century and his artistic achievements symbolize the impact that jazz music has had on our culture in the 21st century. He was born April 20, 1908 in Louisville, Kentucky. His father, Charles Hampton, a promising pianist and singer, was reported missing and later declared killed in World War I. Lionel and his mother, Gertrude, first moved to Birmingham, Alabama, to be with her family, then settled in Chicago.

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Best known as the bandleader for the TV show Late Night With Conan O'Brien and longtime drummer with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Max Weinberg has played with some of the most prominent contemporary musicians.

A highlight of his career was performing the instrumental "Night Train" with President Bill Clinton at his 1992 inaugural ball.

In 2000, his jazz-infused big band the Max Weinberg 7 released their self-titled debut album on Hip-O Records.

 

Mike Portnoy is the acclaimed drummer of Dream Theater as well as various side-projects such as Liquid Tension Experiment, TransAtlantic and O.S.I.

Mike is an American drummer primarily known for his work with the progressive metal band Dream Theater. Known for his drum prowess, Portnoy has won 23 awards from the Modern Drummer magazine.

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Neil Peart was born in Canada on September 12, 1952 . When he was 18 years of age, he journeyed to England with music on his mind. Once he got there, he quickly found himself selling trinkets to tourists in order to support himself. He did, however, discover a book called The Fountainhead, written by Ayn Rand, while there and Rand's writing has influenced Peart's writing throughout his career. The most obvious influence can be heard in the lyrics of 2112.

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Pat is one of today’s most dynamic & versatile drummers. From deep pocket R&B/Funk, Pop, and swampy Roots grooves, to world rhythms, and fiery fusion fills, he brings it all together with musicality, finesse, and uncanny technical ability.

Pat has toured the world and recorded with some of the best in the business, including Patti LaBelle, Gloria Gaynor, Glen Burtnik, Dee-Lite, Patti Smyth and many others. He is currently leading his own group, Groovallegiance, featuring Guitarist Chieli Minucci (Special EFX), Bassist Gary Grainger (John Scofield, Acoustic Alchemy), Keyboardist Chris Fischer (Mint Condition). Their debut CD will be released in 2008.

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Award-winning musician Pete Lockett is one of today’s most versatile and prolific percussionists.

He has traveled, performed and studied extensively throughout India and around the world, recording and performing with Bjork, Peter Gabriel, Robert Plant, Bill Bruford, Jeff Beck, Sinead O'Connor, Steve Smith, Trilok Gurtu, Evelyn Glennie, Amy Winehouse, Mel C, Steve White, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC concert orchestra and more.

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Peter Erskine began playing the drums at the age of four, and has now been at the forefront of world-class jazz ensembles for thirty three years. His first major professional work was with the Stan Kenton Orchestra, which he joined in 1972. After a three-year stint with Kenton and a two year stay with Maynard Ferguson, he joined Weather Report in 1978. The excellence of the partnership between Erskine and bassist Jaco Pastorius was an integral part of that group's success.

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Phil Collins is one of that very rare breed of artists who combine musical accessibility and overwhelming popularity with the respect of their most illustrious peers. Phil Collins is one of the world’s best-loved male vocalists but also a fantastic rock and jazz drummer.

In addition, he has also risen to the challenge of recording with artists as iconoclastic as Brian Eno, Robert Fripp and John Cale. Genre-hopping is no problem for the man who has been a member of the jazz ensemble Brand X and the hugely successful Genesis. In another role entirely, he has enjoyed both commercial success and critical acclaim for acting performances as divergent as a starring role in the British film "Buster" and a cameo in the American production "And the Band Played ON."

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Rocco Prestia is the innovator of 'Fingerstyle Funk'. His bass lines on tunes such as "What Is Hip?' are legendary among fans and music professionals alike.

He has produced a top notch instruction video, title "Fingerstyle Funk". It is an excellent resource for any aspiring bass player. The bonus for any Tower of Power fan, is it includes video footage of the entire band.

Bass Player Magazine made Rocco the subject of a major article in their December 1997 issue. His photo was on the magazine cover.

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Steve Gadd, 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 Di Meola's Electric Rendezvous Band.

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Steve Smith was originally drawn to the drums by hearing marching bands in parades as a child in his native Massachusetts. At age nine, in 1963, Smith began studying the instrument in earnest with local teacher Bill Flanagan, who played in big bands in the swing era. Smith's early inspiration at this time was drawn from the great drumming stars of the big bands such as Gene Krupa, Buddy Rich, Louie Bellson and Kenny Clarke, among others. In particular, regular trips in his youth to The Boston Globe Jazz Festival, where he first saw and heard his idols, made a special impact on his musical endeavors.

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Thomas Lang was born 05. 08. 1967 in Vienna, Austria and started playing the drums at the age of 5. He grew up in a little town called Stockerau in Lower Austria, about 25 miles outside of Vienna. His parents Kurt and Helga were very supportive of his early ambition to become a drummer and allowed him to attend the local music school for drum and piano lessons.

His first drum teacher was a gentleman named Johann Hengst who was a classical percussionist and played with Viennese orchestras. He taught Lang to play traditional grip and to read music. Although at the time it all seemed very boring and tedious, Lang really benefited from his lessons in many ways.

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Tito Puente, the great Harlem-born Puerto Rican musician known as the "sultan of salsa" and "king of timbales," died Thursday June 1, 2000, during a heart operation, a spokesman from New York University Hospital said. He was 77. "The world is richer for having known him and poorer for having lost him."

Four time Grammy Award Winner; featured motion picture performer. Doctorate of arts & sciences. Internationally acclaimed world wide performer. There are not enough adjectives to describe Tito Puente.

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Tommy Igoe has been at the forefront of drumset performance and education for the last 20 years. He started playing at the age of two and won every local and regional competition during his school years. While studying drumset in high school, he also marched in the famed early 1980’s Bayonne Bridgemen drum corps calling it “… still to this day, one of the most intense musical experiences of my life.”

At the age of 18, he embarked on his first global tour with the Glenn Miller Orchestra which then led into a non-stop stream of gigs; playing and recording with Lauryn Hill, New York Voices, Dave Grusin, Stanley Jordan and Blood Sweat & Tears, countless commercials, TV and film scores and a permanent member of folk-rock legend Art Garfunkel’s band for 9 years.

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Victor Wooten redefines the word musician. Regaled as the most influential bassist since Jaco Pastorius, Victor is known for his solo recordings and tours, and as a member of the Grammy-winning supergroup, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones. He is an innovator on the bass guitar, as well as a talented composer, arranger, producer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist.

But those gifts only begin to tell the tale of this Tennessee titan. Victor is the loving husband and devoted father of four; the youngest sibling of the amazing Wooten brothers (Regi, Roy, Rudy and Joseph), and the bassist in their famed family band; the student in the martial art of Wing Chun and the nature survival skill of Tracking; the teacher of dozens of bass players at his acclaimed annual Bass & Nature camp; and the master magician.

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