Vinyl Night

Jerry Hey is thee world class trumpeter, arranger and orchestrator whose career has spanned over four decades. From Dixon Illinois, born to a pianist mother and trombonist father, with older brothers who played trombone and tuba. He started playing at an early age on his older brother’s boy scout bugle. Jerry studied in high school with Charlie Geyer from the Chicago Symphony and then went to Indiana University where he also studied with William Adam. He connected with lifelong friend, Larry Hall and others who lured Jerry to Hawaii for gigs. After that, Larry Williams came and joined with Ken Wild, Bob Wilson, Kim Hutchcroft and Pauline to form The great band, Seawind. Seawind moved to L.A. in 1976 and recorded two albums for CTI Records. The great Quincy Jones asked Jerry to play and arrange on Q’s record, “I Heard That”. That was the catalyst which put Jerry as Quincy’s “go to guy” . Next was the Brothers Johnson’s, BLAM which hit #1 on the R&B charts. Not only did the future six-time Grammy winner become Jones’ “first call” horn arranger on all his subsequent projects (George Benson’s Give Me the Night; Michael Jackson’s Off the Wall, Thriller and Bad), but Hey became the go-to trumpeter and horn arranger in the industry, contributing to some of the biggest records of the subsequent decades including Chaka Khan’s “I Know You, I Live You,” Al Jarreau’s “Boogie Down,” Earth, Wind & Fire’s “Let’s Groove,” Toto’s “Rosanna,” Teena Marie’s “Behind the Groove,” Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls”.
Today, the Illinois native is still one of the most dependable musicians in the business, having worked on recent records from Mary J. Blige, Wilco, Fall Out Boy, Katy Perry, Maroon 5, D.J. Cassidy and Dirty Loops.

Walfredo Reyes, Sr. was born in Havana, Cuba and raised in New York City. He began studying music with his father and studied drumming with influential teachers such as Wm. V. Kessler, Morris Goldenberg, Daniel Perez, and Murray Spivak. Walfredo attended the Music and Arts High School in New York City, and then returned to Havana with his family at the age of eighteen.

Walfredo was the first drummer to play Cuban percussion and drum set simultaneously. He also pioneered the first recordings of “descargas”
(Cuban Jam Sessions) with Cuban bassist Israel Lopez (Cachao), recording his own album "Cuban Jazz" in 1954. He was also one of the organizers of the Club Cubano de Jazz (Cuban Jazz Club).

Walfredo recorded with Tito Puente, Tito Rodriguez, José Fajardo and numerous others in New York City. During the same year, he moved to Puerto Rico where he was the drummer at the El San Juan Hotel backing some of the finest acts from the U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Walfredo Reyes, Sr. recorded with a stellar cast of artists in both Cuba and the United States, including Tito Puente, Louie Bellson, Cachao, Alex Acuna, Tito Rodriquez, Chico O'Farrill, Linda Ronstadt, and Steve Winwood. Working in Las Vegas for many years, Walfredo Sr. also performed with Milton Berle, Wayne Newton, Tony Bennett, George Burns, Sammy Davis Jr., Robert Goulet, Rich Little, Bernadette Peters, Rita Moreno, Juliet Prowse, Ben Vereen, and Dionne Warwick. Walfredo Reyes Sr. is one of Cuba's most influential drummers and one of the pioneers in fusing percussion with drumset. His diverse background and experience make him one of the most in-demand clinicians and educators in the country today. Walfredo Reyes Sr. was recognized for his extensive percussion work with a Modern Drummer Award at the 2005 Modern Drummer Festival.

Tom Scott is a veteran composer, arranger, producer, musical director and saxophonist, having earned 3 Grammy Awards and 14 Grammy nominations over four decades. He made his first record as a leader in 1968--at age twenty. The number of solo recordings in his catalogue now stands at 35. In addition, his music has been sampled by dozens of recording artists including 2Pac, Madonna, Bruno Mars, Snoop Dog, Massive Attack, Wu-Tang Clan, N.W.A. and The Chemical Brothers.


Tom’s career as a guest artist spans more than 500 recordings—by such diverse artists as Barbra Streisand, Quincy Jones, Thelonius Monk, the Blues Brothers, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Aerosmith.  His numerous contributions as a player and arranger include Joni Mitchell’s Court And Spark, Steely Dan’s Aja; hit singles like Carole King’s Jazzman, Paul McCartney’s Listen To What The Man Said, Rod Stewart’s Do You Think I’m Sexy, Blondie’s Rapture, Captain Tenille’s Do That To Me One More Time, Whitney Houston’s Saving All My Love For You; and on movie soundtracks such as TaxiDriver, Bladerunner, Heaven Can Wait, Toy Story 2 and Monsters, Inc. just to name a few…..


His television composing and conducting credits include the themes for Family Ties, Starsky Hutch, Square Pegs and background scores forBaretta, Cannon, Barnaby Jones, Streets Of San Francisco, National Geographic Explorer, and numerous T.V. Specials and Network Movies. He has served as Musical Director for the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, the Celebration At Ford’s Theater, the People’s Choice Awards,Comic Relief, the Carol Burnett Show, the Pat Sajak Show, Joni Mitchell, George Harrison, Olivia Newton-John, and the GRP All-Star Big Band, among others--and has toured five continents as leader of his own group. He is also active as a clinician throughout the U.S. and Canada, performing and teaching Master Classes in Woodwinds, Arranging Film Composing.

Leland "Lee" Sklar is a prominent electric bass guitarist. Sklar has contributed to over 2,000 albums as a session musician. He has collaborated with countless well-known performers including Phil Collins, Jackson Browne, Ray Charles, Air Supply, Warren Zevon, LeAnn Rimes, James Taylor, Donna Summer and he has recorded soundtracks to films and television shows.

Gregory Arthur "Greg" Phillinganes is an American keyboardist, singer, songwriter, and musical director based in Los Angeles, California. A prolific session musician, Phillinganes has contributed keyboard tracks to numerous albums representing a broad array of artists and genres. He has toured with notable artists such as Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, and Toto, served as musical director for Michael Jackson, and has released two solo albums.

JR Robinson and Steve Sykes demonstrate how to get an amazing drum sound with BLUE microphones at Sweetwater Sound's performance theater. From proper overhead angling to phase canceling and kick drum EQ's, JR and Steve show us how to get the perfect studio drum sounds and recreate the parts JR recorded on Michael Jackson's "Rock With You", Chaka Khan's "Ain't Nobody" and Eric Clapton's "Change The World"

Born in Santiago, Cuba, Luis Conte began his musical odyssey playing the guitar. At 15, looking for freedom, Luis emigrated to Madrid, Spain. He soon had another opportunity to travel, this time to Hollywood. In California, Luis stayed with a cousin and attended Hollywood High School, playing guitar in numerous rock bands throughout his teens.

After high school, Luis met John Monteallegre, who reunited him with Cuban drums at LA City College. By the time he was 18, Luis was intensely interested in drumming and took every opportunity to play and to learn, drawing his inspiration from a deep source of rhythm absorbed during his youth in Cuba With this new career, Conte proved himself musically versatile , and by 1973, he was playing regularly in local clubs. He quickly became a busy studio musician, and throughout the 1970s-present playing on Madonna, Ray Charles, Phil Collins, Santana, Shakira, Jackson Browne, Sergio Mendez, Mana and Eric Clapton , just to name a few. He played in the Latin fusion band Caldera. In the 1980s, Conte toured with several different musicians,
including Madonna, guitarist Al Di Meola, and Andy Narell.

Recently, Conte has toured as part of James Taylor's "Band of Legends." Luis Conte was part of Phil Collins 1997 "Dance into the Light" tour and 2004 "First Farewell Tour", performing in both of them Afro-Cuban percussion and adding more depth into the concert songs. He also performed during The Phil Collins Big Band tours in 1996 and 1998. He won…
"Percussionist of the Year" - Modern Drummer Reader's Poll (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012)
"Percussionist of the Year" - Drum Magazine (2007, 2008, 2009)
"Studio Percussionist of the Year" - Drum Magazine (2007, 2008, 2009)

John Good is the Senior Executive Vice President of DW Drums. He talks about his early days as a drum student with DW, discovering he had an incredible knack for being drum tech, going on the road with the likes of Frank Zappa and eventually being convinced by DW founder Don Lombardi to join him at DW, where John became a designer and perfected DW's unique Timbre Matching system.

Pioneering jazz-rock drummer and composer Danny Seraphine is a founding member of Chicago. Worldwide the iconic group has sold over 122 million albums, and, just domestically, earned 22 gold, 18 platinum, and 8 multi-platinum albums. In 1990, after 23 years in the group, Seraphine and Chicago had a jarring parting of ways, and he left music behind for 15 years. But a call to play a benefit show for a fellow drummer pulled him out of seclusion and sparked a creative rebirth. Today, Seraphine looks forward with Sacred Ground (Street Sense), the sophomore record from his jazz-rock powerhouse group CTA—often described as “Chicago on steroids”—and he makes peace with his past with the refreshingly candid memoir Street Player: My Chicago Story (Wiley)



David J. "Hawk" Wolinski is an American keyboardist, songwriter and record producer, probably best known for his work with the funk band Rufus and their lead singer Chaka Khan. Wolinski has worked with numerous other artists as musician, songwriter or producer, including the Bee Gees, Glenn Frey, Michael Jackson, Danny Seraphine, Beverley Knight, Millions Like Us, Stephanie Mills and Minnie Riperton.

Bruce Swedien is a Grammy Award-winning audio engineer and music producer. He is known for his work with Quincy Jones.
Swedien first came to recognition for his work in 1962 on Frankie Valli The Four Seasons "Big Girls Don't Cry" for which he won a Grammy nomination.
Swedien is a five-time Grammy winner and has been nominated 13 times. He recorded, mixed, and assisted in producing the best-selling album in the world, Thriller by Michael Jackson. He was the primary sound engineer for Jackson's studio recordings from 1978 to 2001.
He also recorded and mixed for jazz artists such as Count Basie, Art Blakey, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock and Jeff Oster. His pop work includes Patti Austin, Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack, Mick Jagger, David Hasselhoff, Jennifer Lopez, Paul McCartney, Diana Ross, Rufus, Chaka Khan, Barbra Streisand, Lena Horne, Donna Summer, Sarah Vaughan, and the zouk band Kassav'.