Will Calhoun

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Will Calhoun (born William Calhoun, 22 July 1964, Brooklyn, New York) is an American drummer, who graduated with honors from Berklee College of Music.

[edit] Career

Will Calhoun, originally comes from the Bronx, New York, but soon moved to Berklee where he graduated with a degree in music production and engineering. He also received the Buddy Rich Jazz Masters award for outstanding performance as a drummer whilst there. Calhoun is best known as the drummer of the band Living Colour. He has also played with Jungle Funk and HeadFake, recorded several jazz albums as a leader, and has appeared as a sideman with a diverse group of acclaimed artists, including Mick Jagger, Pharoah Sanders, B.B. King, Herb Alpert, and Mos Def.

Special kudos for Will's virtuosity include: "Best new drummer of 1988" by Modern Drummer Magazine's readers poll; "Number one progressive drummer" by Modern Drummer Magazine's readers poll three times (1989, 1991 & 1992); Best Drummer of 1990 by Rolling Stone Magazine's critics poll. Will has also won two Grammy awards, one in 1989 for best hard rock performance by a group and then again for best hard rock performance in 1990. Living Colour also won an international rock award in 1991 for best rock band. In addition to drumming, Calhoun also wrote the song "Pride", featured on Time's Up.

Calhoun's drumming incorporates many different stylistic influences and various augmenting technologies.^{[citation needed]} With Living Colour, he was one of the first drummers to blend advanced funk and fusion techniques with elements of hard rock and thrash metal. More recently he has integrated Drum and Bass grooves, ethnic percussion and sampling into his playing. He is a very physical player, with a broad vocabulary from extremely precise grooves to more free-form avant-funk and jazz approaches.^{[citation needed]} He is also an avid user of the Korg Wavedrum, which allows him to integrate banks of effects (including guitar pedals and other effects not typically associated with percussion instruments) into a single drum. Calhoun has recently added a Mandala Drum into his setup. The Mandala is a dynamic multiple control zone electronic surface that uses sensor technology to detect where and how hard a surface strike occurs.[1]