Peter Donald
drums
USA
American jazz and pop drummer heavyweight Peter Donald attended the Berklee School of Music studying drums with Master drummer Alan Dawson and, while studying composition, played drums in the local Boston clubs with many jazz groups, including Al Cohn-Zoot Sims, Phil Woods, Clark Terry, Joe Henderson, Sam Rivers, Charlie Mariano, Paul Bley and John Abercrombie.
Since 1971, Peter has lived in Los Angeles, and has worked and recorded with such pop acts as Olivia Newton-John, and Toni Braxton. He has done a variety of television and film work as a player, producer and musical contractor and executive producer.
Peter has recorded and toured with the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, Carmen McRae, he was a founding member of the John Abercrombie Quartet, and also worked regularly with tenor sax legend Warne Marsh.
From 1985 to 1992, Peter was director of the Percussion Program at the Grove School of Music in L.A. while continuing to work and record with various groups including the Denny Zeitlin Trio and the prestigious L.A. based Bob Florence Limited Edition.
In the ’90s, Donald created “2beat productions”, a music consulting & production company which later morphed into “Jazz Planet” which licenses jazz exclusively for film, broadcast, video games, the Internet and theatrical production.
Peter also co-led a trio called “3prime” with pianist Tom Rainier and bassist Abraham Laboriel, Sr..
“Peter Donald is one of the finest drummers I’ve ever heard.” Peter Erskine drums legend