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Bio:
Ed Mays began playing piano at the age of nine and took up drums in
1967
in the Seattle area where he studied for several years at the Keith
Purvis
Drum Shop with
Gary Kieth. In his late teens he began playing
professionally
in commercial rock bands for private parties and High School & Jr.
High
Dances. He played his first club
date at the Flame Tavern in Burien
at the age of 19.
In 1972 he became interested in Jazz. Inspired by the fusion
bands
of that era such as the Headhunters, Weather Report, Return to Forever,
and
Tower of Power, he
began to add funk and jazz bands to his roster of rock
and show bands and to pursue an understanding of linear funk and
classic
Be-Bop techniques. He was aided in
this endeavor by many friends and
mentors, most notably his teachers Otis (Candy) Finch the late great NY
Be-Bop
era drummer and 7 year veteran of Dizzy Gillespie’s
bands and Keith Purvis,
teacher and father figure to countless extraordinary NW drummers.
Ed
learned the principals of linear sticking techniques in the mid
70’s from
Mike Clark, one of the primary conspirators in the linear funk
revolution.
Like Mike Clark, Steve Gadd, Dave Garibaldi, and so many of his heroes,
Ed
developed
his hands playing in marching bands. Traveling all over the
country in the early 70s
he became drum section leader. This culminated
in 1976 when he led his drum
section in the NY Bi-Centennial parade.
Spanning a lifelong professional career, Ed has played with countless
rock,
country, R&B, and jazz groups here and coast to coast, including NW
rock-n-roll
legend Tiny Tony, award winning artists such as blues man
Tom Boyle, and
extraordinary female vocalists such as Diana Ruiz,
LJ Porter and So. Texas
Blues great Trudy Lynn. Ed
spent most of the 80’s in Texas where he
worked for
4 years in various incarnations of the Big Otis Show
Band -a 60’s
R&B/funk horn band and on the road
playing the hotel circuit. He
formed his own jazz
group with Gary Dorsey of the Boogie Kings -the
Park
Avenue Quartet and spent the summer
of ’85 playing full time at the prestigious
Villa Restaurant in Woodlands TX.
Coming back to Seattle, Ed
continued to play full time up until
the mid
90’s
when he got tired of
commercial music and turned his attention to
teaching
and recording. He teaches
drums at A Sharp Music, Eckstein MS,
Roosevelt HS and at his home in North
Seattle. Ed strongly
believes
that teaching
is learning and has never stopped studying,
most recently
with
the phenomenal Terri Lyne
Carrington and Weather Report veteran
Alex
Acuna.
He now has his own band- Groove
Kitchen and also
plays
with The Yoginis –Limitless Sky
recording artists, the Jack Becker Blues Band,
Jazz Montage, Jimmy Free's Friends
and Diana Ruiz.
Ed plays a Pearl Masters Custom kit and
Roland V-Drums. He uses Zildjian &
Sabian Cymbals, vintage
Gretsch & Yamaha
brass snare drums, and Ghost pedals.