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Terry Bozzio

 
Artist: Terry Bozzio
Terry Bozzio

Similar Artists:

Influenced By:

Followers:

Jörg Fischer

Performed Songs By:

Tony Hymas, Jeff Beck

Worked With:

Ray White, Patrick O'Hearn, Frank Zappa, Napoleon Murphy Brock, Tom Fowler, Ed Mann, Bruce Fowler, George Duke

Formal Connection With:

  • Born: December 27, 1950, San Francisco, CA
  • Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, 2000s
  • Genres: Rock
  • Instrument: Drums
  • Representative Albums: "Nine Short Films," "Chamber Works," "Solo Drum Music, Vol. 2"

Biography

Terry Bozzio first got his start as the drummer for Frank Zappa's backing band during the '70s, but would go on to become one of rock's most versatile session men, and form one of new wave's most visually exciting outfits, Missing Persons, along with then-wife, Dale Bozzio. Born Terry John Bozzio on December 27, 1950 in San Francisco, California, Bozzio began playing on makeshift drums at an early age, before taking formal lessons at the age of 13 (inspired by the Beatles' infamous appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show). After playing in various local garage bands during the mid-late '60s, Bozzio majored in music while attending Sir Francis Drake High School and College of Marin - as he studied timpani and various forms of percussion. By the early '70s, Bozzio had landed gigs with such rock musicals as Godspell and Walking in my Time, in addition to playing in several jazz/fusion outfits and appearing on his first record - backing trumpeter Luis Gasca on his 1972 release, Born to Love You. 1975 saw Bozzio catch his big career break, when he auditioned for and got a spot drumming for Frank Zappa. Bozzio's tenure with Zappa lasted only three years, but the drummer was featured on ten albums and countless tours (Bozzio also appeared in the Zappa concert movie, Baby Snakes). Bozzio also served as the inspiration for several Zappa compositions during their time together, including "the Black Page" and "Punky's Whips." After leaving Zappa in 1978, Bozzio nearly landed spots with a pair of potentially interesting outfits - a jazz supergroup called Group 87 (consisting of bassist Patrick O'Hearn and keyboardist Mark Isham, among others) and already-established hard rockers Thin Lizzy. Unfortunately, both wound up not working out for Bozzio (although he would play on Group 87's self-titled debut recording a couple of years later). But Bozzio didn't have to wait long to join his next project, as he got the thumbs up to join prog rockers UK in 1979. The same year, he played on a pair of UK albums, (Danger Money and Night After Night), plus their subsequent supporting tours. Up next for Bozzio was a new wave project with his wife Dale Bozzio and former Frank Zappa guitarist Warren Cuccurullo, called Missing Persons. The group's space age sound and look turned heads right off the bat, as they enjoyed a pair of hit singles/videos ("Words" and "Destination Unknown"), as well as a gold certified debut album, 1982's Spring Session M. But the band (and Bozzio's marriage) didn't last much longer, as Missing Persons issued only two more albums before splitting up - 1984's Rhyme and Reason and 1986's Color in Your Life. Subsequently, Bozzio has focused primarily on either recording or touring with a wide variety of acclaimed artists, including Robbie Robertson, Gary Wright, Don Dokken, Paul Hyde, Herbie Hancock, Dweezil Zappa, Richard Marx, Jeff Beck, Duran Duran, Explorer's Club, Billy Sheehan, Steve Vai, and Stevie Ray Vaughan, among others. Bozzio also began performing clinics for fellow drummers across the country, in addition to issuing an instructional home video in 1992, Solo Drums. The late '90s saw the drummer issue albums as part of the all-star trio Bozzio Levins Stevens (Black Light Syndrome and Situation Dangerous), plus collaborative albums with Chad Wackerman (Solos & Duets Vol. I & II), and solo releases (Drawing the Circle, Chamberworks, Solo Drum Music Vol. I & II). 2001 saw Terry rejoin Missing Persons for a series of reunion concerts. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
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Terry Bozzio

Terry Bozzio performing with Fantômas at Quart Festival, Norway on July 9, 2005.
Background information
Birth name Terry John Bozzio
Also known as Terry "Ted" Bozzio
Born December 27, 1950 (1950-12-27) (age 58)
San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genres Rock, jazz, synthpop, alternative
Occupations Musician, songwriter
Instruments Drums, percussion, keyboards
Years active 1972 – present
Associated acts Frank Zappa, UK, Missing Persons, Jeff Beck, Korn, Fantômas, Debbie Harry
Website www.terrybozzio.com

Terry John Bozzio (December 27, 1950) is an American drummer best known for his work with Missing Persons and the late Frank Zappa.

Contents

Biography

Terry Bozzio was born December 27, 1950 in San Francisco, California. He started at age 6 playing makeshift drum sets of various materials such as coffee cans, broken arrow sticks, and crumpled high voltage signs playing to the records of Tito Puente and the "Surf Drum" music of Sandy Nelson and The Ventures. At the age of 13 he witnessed The Beatles premier performance on The Ed Sullivan Show, and begged his father for drum lessons. During this time he played in the garage bands Blue Grass Radio, The Yarde, and Tamalpaias Jungle Mountain Boys.

In 1968 Bozzio attended Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo, California and later went on to the College of Marin. During this time he studied concurrently with Chuck Brown on the drum set and Lloyd Davis and Roland Kohloff on percussion and timpani scholarship. He also played Bartok-Dahl-Cowell & Baroque chamber ensembles with the Marin and Napa County Symphonies.

In 1972 Terry played in the rock musicals Godspell and Walking in my Time. He also began playing in local jazz groups with Mark Isham, Peter Maunu, Patrick O'Hearn, Mike Knock, Art Lande, Azteca, Eddie Henderson, Woodie Shaw, Julian Priester, Eric Gravatt, Billy Higgins, Andy Narell, Hadley Calliman, Mel Graves, and Mel Martin. He became a regular in the Monday Night Jim Dukey Big Band at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall.

He recorded and toured with Frank Zappa beginning in 1975, and appeared in the concert movie Baby Snakes. He is noted for performing Zappa's "The Black Page", a piece of music designed to be a "musician's nightmare" a page so filled with notes as to be almost black.

In 1977 he joined The Brecker Brothers with long time San Francisco friend and guitarist Barry Finnerty. With The Brecker Brothers, Bozzio toured and recorded the album "Heavy Metal Be-Bop." Shortly after, Terry was dismissed from Zappa as he joined Group 87 with Mark Isham, Peter Maunu, Patrick O'Hearn and Peter Wolf. The group auditioned for and got a record deal with CBS, wherein Bozzio declined membership in the group and then auditioned unsuccessfully for Thin Lizzy.

In 1979 he joined the band UK with Eddie Jobson and John Wetton, replacing Bill Bruford & Alan Holdsworth. They record Danger Money and Night After Night and tour the US twice (supporting Jethro Tull), as well as Europe and Japan. Bozzio then quits UK to form the band Missing Persons with ex-Zappa guitarist Warren Cuccurullo and then-wife and vocalist Dale Bozzio. Missing Persons released the albums Spring Session M (in which they received a Gold Record), Rhyme & Reason, and Color in Your Life. They also toured US & Europe and appeared in numerous TV and Radio shows.

After disbanding Missing Persons in 1986, Terry joined up with ex-Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor for his solo band. He can be seen in a couple videos from that period. He also played on sessions with Robbie Robertson, Gary Wright, Don Dokken, XYZ, Paul Hyde, Herbie Hancock, Dweezil Zappa, and Richard Marx. During this time he also began touring as a clinician/solo drummer and recorded "Solo Drums" which was his first instructional video for WB. Bozzio also joined Mick Jagger and Jeff Beck to make the video Throwaway, and later teamed up with Beck & keyboardist Tony Hymas to co-write/produce and perform on the Grammy Award winning album Guitar Shop.

In 1988 Bozzio married Ev Kvamme and in 1990 was the birth of his firstborn son Raanen Bozzio.

Between the years of 1990-1995 Terry developed ostinato-based drum solo compositions and recorded his second instructional video Melodic Drumming and the Ostinato Volumes 1, 2, and 3, as well as Solo Drum Music Volumes 1 & 2 on CD. He also joined Tony Hymas, Toney Coe, and Hugh Burns to form the band Lonely Bears and record The Lonely Bears, Injustice, and The Bears are Running, while living off and on in Paris, France. He also formed the band Polytown with David Torn and Mick Karn.

From 1995-2002 Bozzio did numerous tours of the US, Australia, Canada & Europe as a solo drum artist as well as recording two solo CDs: Drawing the Circle and Chamberworks. He also teamed up with Chad Wackerman to produce the Duets video and Alternative Duets CDs. Bozzio was inducted into the Modern Drummer "Hall of Fame" and won the Clinician of the Year award twice as well as Drum Magazine's Drummer of the Year and Best Clinician. Internationally, her received Schlagwerkrant Magazine's (Germany) and Player Magazine's (Japan) Best Drummer Award.

In summer of 2005 Bozzio filled in for Dave Lombardo in Fantômas for their European tour.[citation needed] Bozzio was inducted into Guitar Center's RockWalk in Hollywood on January 17, 2007[1] along with rock and roll icons Ronnie James Dio and Slash. Bozzio also worked with the nu-metal band Korn on their 8th studio album after the departure of their drummer David Silveria. He was scheduled to also play on the road with the band during the Family Values Tour, but he left the group and was replaced by Joey Jordison of Slipknot and later Ray Luzier.

Terry Bozzio is currently the Artist in Residence for the online drumming community website, http://www.drumchannel.com

Musical innovation

Terry Bozzio performing live with the SS Bozzio.

Like Hall of Fame drummer Gary Chester, Bozzio is noted for creating the melodic ostinato for the drum set.[citation needed] In most of Bozzio’s works, the ostinato is played using various bass drum and hi-hat permutations while he solos against these rhythms using his hands. Sometimes (often in the same composition) the opposite is true, where he will hold an ostinato pattern with his hands and solo with his feet. Like Chester, Bozzio developed the application for the melodic ostinato for drum set when he noticed how a pianist would solo or play counter rhythms against the ostinato or pedal point. He then applied this concept to the drum set.[citation needed]

Bozzio is also noted for creating orchestral compositions on the drum set by playing polyrhythms and metric modulations[citation needed] while utilizing his large custom kit (sometimes nicknamed "SS Bozzio"), in which the tom toms are tuned to specific notes to create the atmosphere that is Bozzio’s signature sound. Terry Bozzio’s influence has been seen in some of the most prominent drummers of today including Marco Minnemann, Thomas Lang, Mike Mangini and Chris Utter.

Terry Bozzio currently endorses Drum Workshop drums, Sabian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and Attack drum heads, all of which have special custom lines designed for him. In fact, his cymbals were designed from the ground up by Bozzio himself, including a completely different kind of lathing method. Terry is known to use various white noise cymbal pairings, where he stacks multiple crashes and/or china cymbals to create atypical sounds. This idea may have arisen from Zappa's abhorrence of loud cymbals, so to satisfy his boss, he cut large chunks out of his cymbals, which created a "swooshy", and more trashy sound. This is seen in the Baby Snakes movie in prominence. The "SS Bozzio" is often just as amazing, to onlookers of his performances, as the drummer himself. His kit has evolved from a fairly standard large drum set, akin to that of Neil Peart, including various sound effects and the standard drum arrangements, to his current setup which includes more than 10 pedals to operate various percussion devices and dozens of drums to achieve his melodic drum parts.

Current drum kit setup

Drums

Vertical Low Timbre drums in olive ash burl finish with satin chrome lugs and black powdercoat rims. All heads are Terry Bozzio Attack signature in clear mylar

  • 10" snare tuned to D
  • 13 - 8" x 3" piccolo toms - tuned from high C to a low C
  • 12" solid craviotto snare tuned to B
  • 8" x 3" piccolo tom tuned to Bb
  • 8" x 6" tom tuned to A
  • 4 - 10"x 6" toms G-F-E-D
  • 10" x 8" tuned to C
  • 12" x 6" tuned to B
  • 12" x 8" tuned to A
  • 13" x 9" tuned to G
  • 14" x 10" tuned to F
  • 16" x 12" tuned to E

Cymbals

All cymbals are Sabian Radia Terry Bozzio signatures.

  • 21" ride
  • 16" china below 8"china
  • 18" china below 10"china
  • 14" china w/12"crash stack below 7"china w/6"crash stack
  • 16" china w/14"crash stack below 8"china w/7"crash stack
  • 18" china w/16"crash stack below 10"china w/8"crash stack
  • 20" china w/18"crash stack below 12"china w/10"crash stack
  • 20" china below 12"china
  • 22" china below 14"china
  • 36" Chinese gong (behind right w/beater on cym boom)
  • 10" hihats
  • left remote china hi hat 16" over 18"
  • spoxe hi hat
  • 12" hi hats
  • lp tambourine
  • 12" heavy bell under 8" cup chime
  • 11" heavy bell under 7 1/2" cup chime
  • 10" heavy bell under 7" cup chime
  • 9" heavy bell under 6 1/2" cup chime
  • 20" flat ride w/20"china stack, under closed14" flat bottom hi hats, under factory metal , under pete englehardt ribbon crasher
  • 26" B-20 radia gong on dw custom 3 point gong holder designed by Terry
  • 20" crash w/20" novo type china stack
  • right remote china hi hat 16" over 20"
  • 6" closed flat bottom mini hihat
  • 7" closed flat bottom mini hihat

Foot operated

  • 12" Chinese gong or
  • 8" x 3" foot tom tuned to
  • 10" x foot tom tuned to
  • 12" x foot tom tuned to
  • 10" hi hat
  • Vic firth/emil richards jingle stick
  • Wooded headed tambourine
  • 12" wooden headed djembe
  • 16" x bd tuned to F
  • remote china hi hat 16" over 18"
  • 20" x 12" bd tuned to C
  • spoxe hi hat
  • 12" hi hats
  • 20" x 16" main left kick drum (muffled) tuned to Bb
  • Metal tambourine shaker or tb special tambourine foot plate jingle device
  • 20" x 16" main right kick drum (muffled) tuned to G
  • 24" x 14" bd tuned to A (w/ akg d-112 may mic)
  • right remote hi hats 16" over 20"
  • 18" x bd tuned to D
  • 18" x bd tuned to E
  • 20" x 8" bd tuned to B

Other

  • Glockenspiel
  • 36" wuhan Chinese gong
  • One octave set of wuhan Chinese bossed gongs

Selected discography

Solo

  • Solo Drum Music I (1992)
  • Solo Drum Music II (1992)
  • Drawing The Circle (1998)
  • Chamber Works (1998)
  • Solos & Duets (with Chad Wackerman) (2001)
  • Nine Short Films (with Billy Sheehan) (2002)
  • Chamber Works (2005, with Metropole Orchestra)
  • Prime Cuts (2005)
  • Four From Ten Twenty Nine (2008)
  • Seven Nights in Japan (2008)

Frank Zappa

Missing Persons

UK

  • Danger Money (1979) (Replaced Bill Bruford)
  • Night After Night (1979, Live)

Dweezil Zappa

  • Back to the Beach Soundtrack (Wipe Out) with Herbie Hancock (1987)
  • My Guitar Wants to Kill You (1988)
  • Shampoohorn (1994)
  • Automatic (2000)

Other

  • Born To Love You Luis Gasca (1974)
  • Eye of the Beholder Ray Baretto (1977)
  • Heavy Metal Be-Bop Brecker Brothers (1978)
  • Group 87 Group 87 (1980)
  • Andy Taylor Andy Taylor (1986)
  • Robbie Robertson Robbie Robertson (1987)
  • Castalia Mark Isham (1988)
  • Rivers Gonna Rise Patrick O'Hearn (1988)
  • Who I Am Gary Wright (1988)
  • Def, Dumb and Blonde Deborah Harry (1989)
  • El Dorado Patrick O'Hearn (1989)
  • How Long Michael Thompson (1989)
  • Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop Jeff Beck & Tony Hymas (1989)
  • Twins Soundtrack Jeff Beck (1989)
  • Girlfriend from Hell Jorgenson (1990)
  • Mark Isham Mark Isham (1990)
  • Up From The Ashes Dokken (1990)
  • Beckology Jeff Beck (1991)
  • In Your Face Earl Slick (1991)
  • Rush Street Richard Marx (1991)
  • Retrograde Planet Zazen (1992)
  • Vol. Pour Sydney Lonely Bears (1992)
  • White Sands Soundtrack Patrick O'Hearn
  • Big Bang: In the Beginning Was a Drum Compilation (1994)
  • Hide Your Face Hide (1994)
  • Polytown Polytown (1994)
  • First Signs of Life Gary Wright (1995)
  • Thank You Duran Duran (1995)
  • Trust Patrick O'Hearn (1995)
  • Black Light Syndrome Bozzio, Levin, Stevens (1997)
  • Dream Castles Sly (1997)
  • Something With a Pulse Mark Craney & Friends (1997)
  • Age of Impact Explorers Club (1998)
  • Best of the Lonely Bears Lonely Bears (1998)
  • Proof: The Very Best of the Knack The Knack (1998)
  • Zoom The Knack (1998)
  • Lonely Bears Lonely Bears (1999)
  • Injustice Lonely Bears (2000)
  • Situation Dangerous Bozzio, Levin, Stevens (2000)
  • The Bears are Running Lonely Bears (2000)
  • Compression Billy Sheehan (2001)
  • Feeding The Wheel Jordan Rudess (2001)
  • XYZ XYZ (2001)
  • Big Delta Omar & The Howlers (2002)
  • Delete & Roll Bozzio Preinfalk & Machacek (2002)
  • Queen of the Damned Soundtrack Jonathan Davis, Richard Gibbs (2002)
  • Raising The Mammoth The Explorers Club (2002)
  • Bozzio - Mastelotto with Pat Mastelotto (2003)
  • Alamo Soundtrack Carter Burwell (2004)
  • Boogie Man Omar & The Howlers (2004)
  • Drum Nation, Vol. 1 Various Artists (2004)
  • Two Sides of If Vivian Campbell (2005)
  • Sic Alex Machacek (2006)
  • Untitled Korn (2007)
  • Live with the Tosca Strings DVD(2008)

References

External links


 
 
Learn More
Danger Money (1979 Album by U.K.)
The Lonely Bears (Jazz Band, '90s)
Missing Persons (1982 Album by Missing Persons)

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