The Pat Metheny Group drummer since 1983, Wertico lives in Chicago's north suburbs and is a Northwestern University faculty member. When he's not on tour (he's performed in 49 states and 36 countries), he plays regularly in several Chicago groups. Earwax Control, a group which he still co-leads, won the 1990 NARAS' Outrageous Recording Award and Drum Magazine's 1997 "Fusion Drummer of the Year." He also co-leads Trio New, and leads 4 other groups, Strapagander, Paul Wertico's Quintet Thing, the Paul Wertico Group and the Paul Wertico Trio (including guitarist John Moulder and bassist Eric Hochberg. "The chameleonic percussionist Paul Wertico is dynamic in any setting but particularly with his trio." says the Chicago Tribune's Howard Reich. "Wertico's trio gleefully defies restrictions of genre and musical language." Notable folks with whom Wertico has performed include Muhal Richard Abrams, Jim Beard, Marcus Belgrave, Joshua Breakstone, Ari Brown, Henry Butler, Ron Carter, Emmett Chapman, Jodie Christian, Richie Cole, Steve Coleman, Larry Coryell, Pete Cosey, Joe Daley, Kenny Davern, Buddy DeFranco, Allen Eager, Kurt Elling, Carl Fontana, Chico Freeman, George Freeman, Von Freeman, Matthew Garrison, Charles Gayle, Terry Gibbs, Gil Goldstein, Bunky Green, Tim Hagans, Fareed Haque, Eddie Harris, Gene Harris, Milt Hinton, Dave Holland, Franz Jackson, Lee Konitz, Sergey Kuryokhin, Howard Levy, Lou Levy, Dave Liebman, Herbie Mann, Rick Margitza, Paul McCandless, Ken McIntyre, John McNeal, Jay McShann, Bob Mintzer, Roscoe Mitchell, Tiger Okoshi, Evan Parker, Rebecca Parris, Alan Pasqua, Jaco Pastorius, Willie Pickens, Art Porter, Bennie Powell, Sam Rivers, William Russo, Bob Sheppard, Ben Sidran, Marvin Stamm, Tomasz Stanko, Ira Sullivan, Lew Tabackin, Brian Torff, Ross Traut, Miroslav Vitous and Mars Williams.
His musical interests are wide-ranging. He's backed the Drifters, Little Anthony, the Coasters, the Shirelles, Mary Wells, Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers. He played on Paul Winter's 1990 Grammy-nominated Earth: Voices of a Planet. He is also a free-lance artist, studio musician (countless jingles) and session player. Chicago Reader critic Neil Tesser says, "As a leader, Wertico knows what he wants and how to get it as a drummer, he reins in the raw energy of fusion and funnels it into the postbop tradition, igniting the music as only a handful of modern drummers can."
He performs and does drum programming on a number of Ken Nordine's radio shows and recordings. He's a contributor to DRUM! magazine, a former columnist of Drums & Drumming, and has performed on five Grammy Award-winning albums and several movie soundtracks. His debut CD, The Yin and the Yout, covers the spectrum between retro-fusion and African influences. He also played (as part of the Laurence Hobgood Trio) at the 1996 Jazzfest. He was also elected to serve on NARAS' Chicago Chapter Board of Governors. You can hear Wertico on John Moulder's Awakening, Bobby Lewis' Inside This Song, Passion Flower, Here I Go Again and Kurt Elling's Grammy-nominated Close Your Eyes.
Links
You should definitely check out his own home page. There's even more info, a large discography and lots of neat links. You can also email him at: p-wertico@nwu.edu or if you're looking to book him for a recording session, a concert performance, clinic or private lessons, try 74244.413@compuserve.com.
For more information, visit their website: http://pubweb.acns.nwu.edu/~pwe574/PAUL.HTML
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