The Drumming of Jeff Porcaro (w/ Rich Mangicaro)

This interview was excerpted from Brian’s new weekly Amazon Music /AMP live radio show called “Drum Corner Radio”.
GET AMAZON’S AMP APP AND TUNE IN TO BRIAN’S WEEKLY SHOW LIVE, GO TO LIVE.ONAMP.COM/BRIANSTEPHENS (or search for @brianstephens on the AMP app)
Few drummers have the sort of extensive and impressive discography of drummer Jeff Porcaro. The list of artists that he has recorded with looks like the Who’s Who of Popular Contemporary Music and includes names like Hall & Oates, Diana Ross, Michael McDonald, Pink Floyd, Micheal Jackson, Eric Clapton, and… so many others that it would be easier to list all of the artists that Jeff did NOT record with than list all those on his discography.
Jeff was also a founding member of the band Toto and played on all of their albums up until his untimely death at the age of 38 in 1992.
In this episode, Brian and Rich Mangicaro talk about Jeff’s recording history, the drums and cymbals that he used, and so much more. Rich is one of the best resources on all things JP because he was both Jeff’s close personal friend and his Artist Relations rep at Paiste cymbals.
-------------------
Rich Mangicaro has been a professional musician all his adult life. He’s performed and/or recorded with many of music’s most influential artists including 15 years as a band member of Eagles founder, the late Glenn Frey. Rich has also worked with Joe Walsh, Jeff Bridges, Aaron Neville, The Tubes, James Morrison, Venice, Michael McDonald, David Crosby, Jackson Browne and many more.
As a music journalist, Rich has written for Modern Drummer, Drumhead, Drumscene, Percussive Notes, Edge, Rhythm UK and Batteur, enjoying both national and international recognition. Rich’s written word strives to show the person behind the name, what makes them who they are and how they achieved their success, from a vantage point of his own experience as a professional musician.
Recognized as one of the music instrument industry’s foremost authorities in the field of Artist Relations, Rich spent 19 years as Director of Artist Relations for the Paiste cymbal company and currently is Artist Relations Manager for both Gon Bops, Inc. and Innovative Percussion, Inc., signing endorsement contracts with some of the worlds most influential drum/percussion artists.
Along with his artist relations work and continually performing and recording, Mangicaro is the creator, producer and editor of the web series on You Tube, “The Art Of Improv” - a series about spontaneous artistic creation, featuring talents from music, dance, acting and photography. He has also created and edited video content for many artists and product promotions. Like his written word, Rich’s video pieces show an intimate side of the artist and provides insight into the music business from his professional vantage point.
In 2018, Rich released his debut instrumental album entitled “Travels”, featuring all original compositions and performed all the keyboards, drums and percussion. Rich Mangicaro is currently composing underscore music for Bedheads Music and just released his second album “Dialogues” which is now available on all of the streaming platforms.
Find out everything about Rich at RichMangicaro.com
DCR Ep.01's PLAYLIST:
“That’s Why”: Michael McDonald
“Home Of The Brave”: Toto
“Human Touch”: Bruce Springsteen
“Stay The Night”: Chicago
“Lover Of Love”: Allen Toussaint
“Calling Elvis”: Dire Straits

[@benfrewin9926]

Nothing better in this world than listening to people (who actually knew him) talk about Jeff Porcaro.

[@BrianStephensOfficial]

For sure!! There’s so much great info that Rich shared, but a ton more that we didn’t have time for.

[@emb2302]

The name of Jeff’s band in high school was actually Rural Still Life not Stillwater. Stillwater was the fictitious band for the movie ‘Almost Famous.’ David Paich’s audition song for Jeff’s band was Joe Cocker’s ‘Feelin’ Alright.’

[@BrianStephensOfficial]

Cool. Thanks for the clarification. 🤜🏻🤛🏻

[@emb2302]

@@BrianStephensOfficial Great interview. It was my understanding that Jeff also lended his artistic skills to creating the Paiste Signature logo. Everything that man touched was a masterpiece.

[@jeffcrocker1078]

A great example of a gretsch kit is Larry Carlton's sleepwalk album standard 12 13 16 14x 22 no rims tama mount on Bass drum ludwig supra tuned low pictures on the back of the lp or in the cd booklet. Also pages lp Jeff played gretsch in the studio

[@BrianStephensOfficial]

Thanks for that info, Jeff. Down the rabbit hole I go!! ;-)