Drums | b. 1954

Peter Erskine started drumming at four, was attending Stan Kenton's National Stage Band Camps by seven, and joined Kenton's orchestra professionally at eighteen. Three years on the road with Kenton were followed by two with Maynard Ferguson, and then in 1978, after Jaco Pastorius heard him play at a Florida gig and recommended him to Weather Report, Erskine's career changed shape entirely. His four years with the band, 1978 to 1982, produced five studio and live albums, including the Grammy-winning "8:30" (Columbia, 1979), and placed him alongside Pastorius in one of jazz fusion's most celebrated rhythm sections. He had been typecast as a big band specialist before Weather Report; the appointment clarified that he'd always been listening to Miles Davis and the Mahavishnu Orchestra rather than Kenton. After leaving in 1982 he moved to New York, joined Steps Ahead with Michael Brecker and Mike Mainieri, and launched his solo recording career with the self-titled Contemporary Records debut the same year. He later built an enduring ECM-associated trio with pianist John Taylor and bassist Palle Danielsson, founded his own Fuzzy Music label in 1994, and has held a teaching position at the Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California. Erskine has appeared on over 700 albums and won two Grammy Awards.