{"title":"Peter Erskine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003ePeter Erskine was drumming by age four, attending Stan Kenton's National Stage Band Camps by seven, and on the road with Kenton's orchestra at eighteen. Three years with Kenton, two with Maynard Ferguson, and then in 1978 Jaco Pastorius heard him play at a Ferguson show in Florida and told him he'd be in touch. A few months later, Pastorius recommended Erskine for Weather Report. The appointment surprised people who had written him off as a big band specialist, but Erskine had grown up listening to Miles Davis, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report, not big band music, and his four years with the band produced five albums, including the Grammy-winning live double album \"8:30\" (1979), and established him alongside Pastorius as one of the era's defining rhythm sections in jazz fusion. After leaving Weather Report in 1982 he moved to New York and joined Steps Ahead, working alongside Michael Brecker, Mike Mainieri and Eddie Gomez for five years, while simultaneously launching his own recording career with the self-titled 1982 Contemporary Records debut. He later recorded for ECM with John Abercrombie and built a long-running trio with pianist John Taylor and bassist Palle Danielsson. Since 1994 he has also run his own Fuzzy Music label, taught at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, appeared on over 700 albums, and been voted Best Jazz Drummer of the Year ten times by Modern Drummer readers. What's stocked here centres on the Weather Report years and his own early solo recordings.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"peter-erskine-peter-erskine-1982-japanese-contemporary-vinyl-lp","title":"Peter Erskine - Peter Erskine (1982 Japanese Contemporary Vinyl LP)","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eVinyl:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eVG+\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSleeve:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eVG+\u003cb\u003e\u003cbr\u003eObi:\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eVG+\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOur grading system explained \u003ca href=\"https:\/\/dpbg4u-d1.myshopify.com\/pages\/secondhand-grading-guide\"\u003e\u003cb\u003ehere\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e.\u003cbr\u003ePhoto is of the actual item.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeter Erskine - \u003cem\u003ePeter Erskine\u003c\/em\u003e | Vinyl LP - 1982 Japanese Contemporary Records (P-11298, Warner-Pioneer Corporation)\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eErskine had spent four years in Weather Report, playing on \u003cem\u003eMr. Gone\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003e8:30\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eNight Passage\u003c\/em\u003e, but his debut album under his own name goes in a different direction entirely. The rhythm section here is acoustic: Eddie Gomez (Bill Evans's long-time bassist) and Erskine himself, with Kirkland's piano and Grolnick's electric piano providing harmonic colour. Don Alias adds congas, bata drum and shaker on several tracks, bringing a percussive richness that connects to Erskine's Weather Report experience without copying its aesthetic. \"Leroy Street\" opens with the largest ensemble on the album, both Breckers, Mintzer and Kirkland playing together over Gomez and Erskine. \"In Statu Nascendi\" is a percussion feature. \"E.S.P.,\" the Miles Davis composition from the Second Great Quintet album of the same name, gets a reading with Mintzer on tenor, Kirkland on piano and Gomez on bass that treats the piece as a post-bop vehicle rather than a fusion one. \"Change of Mind\" brings Michael Brecker's tenor to the foreground, and side B opens with \"All's Well That Ends\" featuring Mainieri's vibraphone alongside Brecker. \"My Ship\" is Kurt Weill's ballad, Erskine, Gomez and Grolnick alone. \"Coyote Blues\" closes with the full band.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe personnel overlaps significantly with Steps Ahead (Erskine, Mainieri, Mintzer, and the Breckers all played in that group), but the music here is less polished and more open than the Steps albums. Kirkland, who was 27 at the time and about to join Wynton Marsalis's band, plays with the harmonic sophistication that would make him one of the most in-demand pianists of the decade. Michael Brecker's tenor playing on the tracks where he appears carries the rhythmic drive and harmonic adventurousness that defined his style. Gomez brings a classical precision to the bass that grounds the album.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is the 1982 Japanese pressing on Contemporary Records P-11298, released the same year as the US original, made by Warner-Pioneer Corporation.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Contemporary Records","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43767137992763,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0630\/3203\/3339\/files\/IMG_7668.jpg?v=1783685390"}],"url":"https:\/\/lushliferecords.com.au\/collections\/peter-erskine.oembed","provider":"Lush Life Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}