Steve Gadd

Gadd is a native of Irondequoit, a suburb of Rochester, NY. When he was seven years old, his uncle, who was a drummer in the US army, encouraged him to take drum lessons. Gadd became so talented at the drums that by the age of eleven he had sat in with Dizzy Gillespie. After graduating from Irondequoit's Eastridge High School, he attended the Manhattan School of Music for two years, then transferred to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, playing in wind ensemble and concert bands. At night, he would often play club gigs with other young musicians including Chick Corea, Joe Romano, and Frank Pullara. After Gadd finished college in the late 1960s, he played regularly with Chuck Mangione and his brother Gap Mangione, his first recording being Gap Mangione's first solo album, Diana in the Autumn Wind (1968).Steve was drafted into the U.S. Army and spent three years as a drummer in the Army Music Program, most of which was spent with the prestigious Jazz Ambassadors of the U.S. Army Field Band in Ft. Meade, MD. In the 1970s and 1980s, he toured internationally, and recorded with Paul Simon and also with Al Di Meola's Electric Rendezvous Band. Many people assume that he played with the British rock band Charlie, but Gadd, while on his We're on a Mission from Gadd tour in 2005, told fans that was another drummer by the same name - not him. In fact, Gadd said, "I've never met the other Steve Gadd. We happened to stay in the same hotel once, though. I kept getting his messages and apparently he was getting mine."