F - J

Anton was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and started playing the drums at age four. He moved to Boston in the USA when he was 17 and studied both jazz and classical music at the New England Conservatory, graduating in 1975. The following year he moved to New York and began making his name as a freelance musician. He soon met Letterman show MD Paul Shaffer on a session for Joan Armatrading, but it was almost ten years before he got the chance to join Shaffer on the Letterman show. 

Adam Frey has quickly established himself as one of the best euphonium soloists in the world by bringing his sharp intellect, mature musicianship, and charismatic stage presence to audiences all over the world. 

David Friedman, internationally renowned vibraphonist, marimbist, composer and jazz educator, has his own musical message, born of fascinatingly diverse musical influences. Few jazz musicians can claim as broad a spectrum of performing and recording experience, with such varied musical personalities as Leonard Bernstein, Luciano Berio, Bobby McFerrin, Wayne Shorter and Yoko Ono. The list doesn`t stop there. Friedman has been heard either live or on recordings with, among others, Joe Henderson, Horace Silver, Johnny Griffin, Jane Ira Bloom, Ron Carter and John Scofield. His compositions are featured on Chet Baker`s award winning Enja release, Peace, with bassist Buster Williams and drummer Joe Chambers. Friedman is also the featured soloist on this recording. 

Steve Gadd is the most acclaimed drummer’s drummer of the past quarter century. From the early 1970s he forged a new era in studio craft with his phenomenal technique and emotionally intense playing. Whatever the music, be it jazz, pop, RnB or fusion, Gadd was simply the best. 

Australian-born Frank Gambale is a man dedicated to the guitar, not only as a fine player and composer, but as a teacher of the instrument, whether face to face or through his instructional books and videos. Many are the players who have progressed through his guidance and inspiration. 

Emerging from the vibrant late-1960s San Francisco East Bay music scene, the mighty Tower of Power eleven-piece soul-funk machine featured the famous Tower of Power horns and the devastating rhythm team of Francis ‘Rocco’ Prestia on bass and David Garibaldi, purveyor of some of the slickest funk beats ever heard. 

Ralf began playing at the age of 10, first experimenting with selfmade drum sets composed of tin cans and a soap containers. He started out by playing to the music of the local American radio station AFN, who aired a lot of R&B, Rock, Funk, Jazz and Soul. 

From power ballads, chopping rhythms to soaring fretboard forays, Matthias Jabs guitar work has been intrinsic to the hard-rocking Scorpions’ sound and repertoire since joining the band in the late ‘70s. Along with founder members Klaus Meine and Rudolf Schenker, he remains at the heart of an outfit that just keeps on rockin’. 

A player with remarkable technical skill and energy, Akira Jimbo has in recent years become the first Japanese drum set artist to achieve worldwide acclaim on the clinic circuit. His amazing ambidexterity and musical command of both acoustic and electronic sounds always brings the house down.