Joe Bergamini is a drummer from New Jersey in the United States.[1] He is the front man of the jazz fusion band 4 Front.[2] Since 2000 Bergamini has been playing in the progressive rock band Happy the Man in its reunion, and appears on their 2005 album, The Muse Awakens.[3][4] He performed in both the Broadway and national tour productions of the Billy Joel musical Movin' Out,[5] and currently subs on drums at the Broadway shows The Lion King, Jersey Boys, and In the Heights. In addition to performing with Billy Joel (when Billy made one of his many appearances at Movin' Out) Bergamini has also performed with Dennis DeYoung and Deborah Gibson.
Bergamini was born in Belleville, New Jersey, and grew up in East Hanover. While attending the New Jersey Institute of Technology and getting his bachelor's degree in architecture, Joe studied intensively with the legendary drum instructor Dom Famularo on Long Island, as well as teachers Al Miller, John Riley, and Jim Chapin. During his college years he taught high school drum lines, built his teaching practice, and played in many bands. During the 1990s some of these bands included: Eternal Vision (where he met 4 Front bassist Frank La Placa), Friday's Child, Outskirts (with his brother Steve on guitar), Big Radio, and others.
Recognized internationally as an educator, Joe has given hundreds of drum clinics in schools, retail stores, and conventions. He has appeared at the Ultimate Drummers Weekend (Melbourne, Australia) (2002 & 2007), The Cape Breton Drum Festival (Nova Scotia, Canada), KOSA (Vermont, USA), and the Sonny Emory Drumset Camp (Atlanta, GA USA).
After many years as a columnist and contributing writer for Modern Drummer magazine (to which he still contributes), he served a brief stint as the drum editor for Carl Fischer publications. In 2007 became the Senior Drum Editor for Hudson Music. His responsibilities with Hudson include overseeing all of their print projects, as well as co-producing DVDs. Bergamini has also worked with Tama Drums during the R&D for their Bubinga Omnitune drums, and appears on the Tama website in various educational videos. He is also a featured endorser of Sabian cymbals,[6] Vic Firth sticks, Evans drumheads, and Latin Percussion
An active author, Joe's works include: MD Classic Tracks (Modern Drummer Publications), Turn It Up and Lay It Down: The Book (Alfred Publications), It's Your Move (co-author with Dom Famularo) (Alfred Publications), Drum Techniques of Led Zeppelin (Alfred Publications), Operation: Rockenfield (Carl Fischer), Drumming Out Of the Shadows (Carl Fischer), and Polyrhythmic Potential (co-author with Chris Pennie) (Carl Fischer). He has won three Modern Drummer readers poll awards and one Drum! magazine "Drummy" for his books.
Joe is also the co-owner (with Dom Famularo) of the independent music publisher Wizdom Media LLC. Their books are distributed worldwide by the Alfred Publishing Company.
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Bergamini maintains websites at [1] and [2] which contain his news, schedule, and multimedia clips.