About me

United States Member since Mar 08, 2022 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 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.
Following his 4 years in Weather Report (having recorded five albums with them including the Grammy Award winning "8:30"), he began to play with Mike Brecker, Mike Mainieri, Don Grolnick and Eddie Gomez in the group Steps Ahead . His other touring and recording credits (400 albums) include Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Gary Burton & Pat Metheny, Joni Mitchell, Kurt Elling, Sadao Watanabe, Eliane Elias, Mike Stern, Miroslav Vitous and Jan Garbarek; the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Modern, the ASKO, Avanti & Absolute Ensembles; "Bass Desires " (with John Scofield, Bill Frisell, and Marc Johnson), the John Abercrombie Trio, the Kenny Wheeler Quintet & Big Band , the Bob Mintzer Big Band , the Yellowjackets as well as his own groups, including Trios with John Taylor, Palle Danielsson, Rita Marcotulli, and his current band with Alan Pasqua and Dave Carpenter.
Peter has recorded twelve solo albums: "Peter Erskine", "Transition", "Motion Poet", "Sweet Soul", "Big Theatre", and his ECM recordings You Never Know, "Time Being", "As It Is" and "Juni" as well as "History of the DRUM", "Behind Closed Doors" and "Side Man Blue" on his own label FUZZY MUSIC.. His latest playing ventures include The Lounge Art Ensemble; that group's latest CD is titled "Lava Jazz" and a piano trio with Alan Pasqua and Dave Carpenter; their double CD "Peter Erskine & Alan Pasqua with David Carpenter - Live at Rocco" has gotten rave reviews from the press and fans, and their newest CD is titled "Badlands."
Besides touring and recording, Peter is now pursuing new avenues in his career by composing for dance, theatre and animation. He has completed musical scores for Shakespeare's King Richard II and A Midsummer Night's Dream, the latter being honored by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle with the award for the "Best Original Musical Score 1987." His music for The American Conservatory Theatre's production of Twelfth Night was awarded by the Bay Area Drama Critics' Circle as the "Best Dramatic Score for 1989." His most recent works for this medium are Hamlet, Romeo & Juliet, the dance piece "History of the Drum" (written for the Kokuma Dance Company of Birmingham, England), "The Yield of the Long Bond" for LA's "Matrix Theatre," and the score for the critically-acclaimed Pasadena Playhouse production of "Side Man." He has written for animation, and composed the music for the Simon & Schuster books-on-audio series "Alien Voices" starring Leonard Nimoy and John deLancie of Star Trek fame. Peter was Composer-in-Residence at the famed Hilliard Ensemble's choral workshop in Germany during the summer of 2000, and received a BBC commission to compose his suite "Music for Brass and Percussion" in 2001.
Erskine is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan, and studied percussion with George Gaber at Indiana University. His own pedagogical efforts include 3 instructional videos, a performance video titled "Peter Erskine Trio / Live at JazzBaltica" (Hudson Music.) as well as 3 drum instruction books, the most recent being titled "Drumset Essentials, Vol. 1", part of a trilogy of books for Alfred Music Publishing. His other books include "Drum Concepts & Techniques" and "The Drum Perspective", both published by the Hal Leonard Corp. A collection of Peter's compositions has been released in France for world-wide distribution, titled "My Book". Peter conducts clinics, classes and seminars world-wide. Peter teaches at the University of Southern California, and is the "Jazz Drumming Consultant" to the Royal Academy of Music in London. He has won the Modern Drummer Magazine Readers' Poll in the Mainstream Jazz Drummer category 7 times, and was awarded an honorary Doctorate degree from the Berklee College of Music. Peter was the soloist along with Evelyn Glennie at the world premiere of a new Double Concerto for Percussion, titled "Fractured Lines," composed by Mark-Anthony Turnage, in London at the Proms in July 2000 with Sir Andrew Davis conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra. That work will be recorded for the Chandos label in summer/2002.
Peter is 48 years old, and makes his home in Southern California with his wife Mutsuko and their two children (and dog).

VERSION ESPAÑOL:
Peter Erskine es un baterista estadounidense de jazz y jazz fusion. Nacido el 5 de junio de 1954 en Somers Point, Nueva Jersey, Peter Erskine comenzó a tocar la batería con tan sólo cuatro años. En 1972 comienza su carrera profesional en la orquesta del director Stan Kenton, con la que permanecería tres años, tras los que pasa a integrar la banda del trompetista Maynard Ferguson. En 1978 recibe la llamada del pianista Joe Zawinul para sustituir a Álex Acuña como baterista de Weather Report al lado del legendario bajista Jaco Pastorius. Erskine estuvo cuatro años con Weather Report grabando cinco de los mejores trabajos de la banda, y tras ese período comienza a trabajar al lado de Michael Brecker saxo tenor, Mike Mainieri vibráfono y Eddie Gomez contrabajo con otro supergrupo de jazz fusion: Steps Ahead1​ y se establece como un solicitado músico de estudio.
Actualmente Peter Erskine continúa su exitosa carrera como músico de sesión de grabación además de llevar a cabo trabajos de composición y arreglos para música de teatro y televisión. Adicionalmente, Peter Erskine es un reputado instructor musical y ha publicado diversos métodos didácticos para bateristas, tanto en libro como en DVD. Es el propietario de "Fuzzy Music", su propio sello discográfico,,2​ es director del departamento de batería en la USC Thornton School of Music3​ de Londres y ha recibido 10 veces el premio al mejor baterista de jazz otorgado por los lectores de la revista Modern Drummer,1​ así como el premio "Honorary Doctor of Music" de la prestigiosa Berklee School of Music.
Estilo y valoración
La versatilidad y la capacidad de trabajo de Peter Erskine4​ le han hecho merecedor de un envidiable currículum que comprende más de 400 grabaciones5​ e infinidad de conciertos con algunos de los más prestigiosos artistas del mundo. Dotado de un enorme talento, el distintivo estilo de Erskine se caracteriza por un peculiar modo de acompañamiento y la capacidad para ejecutar poderosos y sofisticados solos.6​ La química que Erskine estableció con Pastorius en la cima de su carrera fue un elemento esencial para entender el éxito de Weather Report a finales de la década de 1970. Actualmente Peter Erskine sigue estando a la cabeza de los grupos y big bands de jazz más importantes del mundo, y es una figura muy representativa en la historia reciente de su instrumento.
Asociado tradicionalmente a la marca Yamaha, Peter Erskine es, desde 2005 avalista (endorser) oficial de DW Drums.
Colaboraciones
Peter Erskine ha grabado o acompañado, entre otros artistas a Diana Krall, Steely Dan, Chick Corea, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Gary Burton, Pat Metheny, Boz Scaggs, Joni Mitchell, Ralph Towner, Sadao Watanabe, Hubert Laws, Queen Latifah, Al Di Meola, Eliane Elias, Miroslav Vitous, Jan Garbarek, John Scofield, Bill Frisell, Marc Johnson, John Abercrombie, Kenny Wheeler, Bob Mintzer, Bob Sheppard, Joe Farrell, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Lew Soloff, Kenny Kirkland, Mike Mandel, Kenny Werner, John Taylor, Palle Danielsson, Rita Marcotulli o Alan Pasqua.