Daniel Peter "Danny" Seraphine

born on 28/8/1948 in Chicago, IL, United States

Danny Seraphine

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Danny Seraphine

Daniel Peter "Danny" Seraphine (born August 28, 1948) is an American drummer, record producer, theatrical producer and film producer. He is best known for being the original drummer and founding member of the rock group Chicago, a tenure which lasted from February 1967 to May 1990.

Early life

Danny Seraphine was born in Chicago and raised in the predominately Italian Mont Clare neighborhood adjacent to the west suburbs of Elmwood Park and River Forest. He started playing drums at the age of nine while attending St. Priscilla Catholic grade school. When he was 15 years old, Seraphine dropped out of Steinmetz High School. He studied privately with famed percussionist Bob Tilles at DePaul University, where members of Chicago were also studying.

He continued his education with big band drummer Chuck Flores, followed by two years of study under jazz drummer Jo Jones (also known as Papa Jo Jones) in the mid-1970s.

Chicago Transit Authority

By the late 1960s, Seraphine was drumming in various bands, including one with teen friends Walter Parazaider (saxophone and woodwinds) and Terry Kath (guitar). After the addition of Lee Loughnane (trumpet), James Pankow (trombone), Robert Lamm (keyboards) and Peter Cetera (bass), the band performed under a number of different names, first the Missing Links, then The Big Thing (sometime The Big Sound), before settling on Chicago Transit Authority, which was soon shortened to Chicago because of threatened legal action by the actual Chicago Transit Authority.

Chicago

Their producer and manager, James William Guercio, moved Chicago out to Los Angeles and they became the house band at the Whisky A Go Go. They subsequently obtained a contract with Columbia Records and recorded their first album - a double album - in just two weeks. The album was titled after the band's name, The Chicago Transit Authority, and released in 1969. Second only to The Beach Boys in terms of Billboard singles and albums chart success among American bands, Chicago is one of the longest running and most successful pop/rock and roll groups.

Seraphine co-wrote several songs for the band: "Lowdown" (a Top 40 hit for the band), "Little One," "Take Me Back to Chicago," "Show Me the Way," "Birthday Boy" and "Street Player." His writing partner was often David "Hawk" Wolinski, the keyboardist for Chaka Khan and Rufus. His song "Street Player" was sampled by Bucketheads for the dance hit "The Bomb (These Sounds)", and later by rapper Pitbull for the hit "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)" from the album "Rebelution". The song samples "75, Brazil Street" by Nicola Fasano versus Pat Rich, which itself samples "Street Player". "I Know You Want Me" has also been featured in Dance Central, the Xbox Kinect-based dancing game, Dance Dance Revolution X2 for PlayStation 2, and SingStar Dance, the PlayStation Move-based dancing game.

Seraphine was dismissed from Chicago in 1990.

Post-Chicago

In early 2006, Danny Seraphine debuted a new band, California Transit Authority (CTA), featuring himself on drums, Marc Bonilla on lead guitar, Mick Mahan on bass guitar, Ed Roth and Peter Fish on keyboards, Mike Wallace on guitar, and Tower of Power singer Larry Braggs on vocals. Seraphine and Bonilla initially put the band together to play for several charity benefit shows.

Included in the new band's repertoire are several Chicago songs, including "Make Me Smile," "25 or 6 to 4," "South California Purples," "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?" and Steve Winwood's "I'm A Man".

CTA released their first studio album, Full Circle, on August 14, 2007, followed by a tour of the United States. The band's second CD Sacred Ground was released on March 21, 2013.

2009 saw the release of Lonely Street, a film for which Seraphine served as an executive producer and the music supervisor. In 2010, Danny published his autobiography "Street Player- My Chicago Story". In the same year, he released the biographical and instructional DVD "The Art of Jazz Rock Drumming" produced by The Drum Channel.

Awards and achievements

Seraphine has been ranked by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the top 100 drummers of all time. In 2010, Seraphine received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Cape Breton Drum Festival. In 2011, he also won a LIfetime Achievement Award, Montreal Drum Festival. Additionally, he was recognized by the ASCAP as a co-writer of Pitbull's "I Know You Want Me (Calle Ocho)".

Endorsements

Danny endorses DW drums, Remo drumheads, Zildjian cymbals and drumsticks.

External links

  • 2013 Audio Interview with Danny Seraphine from the Podcast "I'd Hit That"
  • Danny Seraphine - Drummer Cafe
This page was last modified 17.06.2013 23:29:27

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