Aug 16, 2018
Peter Erskine has been playing drums at the age of four and since
then his musical journey has taken him to being one of the most
well respected jazz drummers of all time. Peter has performed on
700 albums and film scores, has picked up two Grammy Awards, and
has an Honorary Doctorate from Berklee College of Music.
Peter’s professional drumming career began with the Stan Kenton
Orchestra and then on to working with Maynard Ferguson. It was soon
after Peter began working with Jaco Pastorius before joining
Weather Report and moving to Los Angeles. Peter recorded five
albums with Weather Report and toured the world many times with the
band.
Peter has worked with many influential artists including Diana
Krall, Joni Mitchell, Vince Mendoza, Steely Dan, plus European
musicians Jan Garbarek, Kenny Wheeler, Palle Danielsson, John
Taylor, Kate Bush, Nguyen Lê, Rita Marcotulli, the Norrbotten Big
Band in Sweden plus Sadao Watanabe in Japan. Peter’s film work
includes “Memoirs of a Geisha,” all three of the Austin Powers
movies, “The Secret Life of Pets,” plus the title music of the
Steven Spielberg/John Williams collaboration, “The Adventures of
Tintin.” He also played the jazz drumming cues on the Academy
Award-winning soundtrack for “La La Land,” and can be heard playing
on the scores for “Sing,” “Logan” and “House of Cards.”
Peter produces jazz recordings for his record label, Fuzzy Music,
with 4 Grammy nominations to its credit. Peter is also an active
author with several books to his credit; titles include “No
Beethoven (Autobiography & Chronicle of Weather Report),” “Time
Awareness for All Musicians,” “Essential Drum Fills,” and his
latest book (co-authored with Dave Black for Alfred Publishing),
“The Drummers’ Lifeline.” He is also authoring a series of iOS
Play-Along apps suitable for all instruments. Peter is also a
Professor of Practice and Director of Drumset Studies at the
Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California.
Endorsements: Tama Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth Sticks, Remo
Drum Heads, Meinl Percussion, and uses Shure Microphones and Zoom
digital recording devices.
Links: Website: petererskine.com Facebook: facebook.com/PeterErskineDrummer Twitter: twitter.com/petererskine YouTube: youtube.com/user/erskoman