Jeff Porcaro ( Jeffrey Thomas Porcaro ), 4/1/54 – 8/5/92. Born in Los Angeles, California, Jeff was a highly acclaimed drummer, best known for starting the band Toto. He was a session drummer who started his career at age 17 playing for Sonny and Cher’s touring back up band. He worked with many musicians over the years including Steely Dan, Elton John, Madonna, Paul McCartney, and Bruce Springsteen. and many others. Jeff died of an undiagnosed heart condition. He was 38.
An amazing talent! I love listening to Toto and focusing on Jeff's playing. He was obviously very much in demand (just check out the "career" section on the Wiki link). After his sudden death a memorial fund was set up in his name to benefit the music and arts department of the high school he had attended. There was also a huge tribute concert given in his honor. So sad to lose such great talent with no warning for his family, friends and fans to say goodbye. I hate that thought. Jeff also did a video series teaching some of his drum techniques. You can find a lot of them on Youtube, here is a quick one, love his style, and what a cutie he was.
Toto - Hold the Line
via FoxyTunes
2 comments:
Porcaro was a brilliant drummer-- easily one of my favorites. I have the 3CD set of the tribute concert done for him back in 1993. It's a brilliant set with guest appearances from Michael McDonald, Donald Fagen, Denny Dias (the dude who played the electric sitar solo on Steely Dan's Do It Again), Eddie Van Halen, and a regular cornucopia of other performers. The love and respect they had for Jeff really shone through.
Jeff's epitaph is actually a Toto song lyric:
"Our love doesn't end here
It lives forever on the wings of time"
It's from the song Wings of Time on Toto's Kingdom of Desire album-- the last album Jeff recorded with Toto before his untimely passing.
Jeff also came up with the band name Toto-- the TRUE story is "en toto" is Latin for "In Total" or "All-encompassing" the priciple behind Toto's music was that it would be all encompassing.
Most of the other stories about the origin band's name came from guitarist Steve Lukather who got so sick of being asked how the band got its name that he would make stuff up on the fly to tell the music press which they often believed hook line and sinker!
The king of the shuffle. Enough said.
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