Greg Federico received his BA in Philosophy from Villanova University in 1991, but has since philosophically lived a life of music. Subsequent to his philosophy degree, Greg turned his attention to specializing in drums and percussion over the course of several years under the tutelage of such mentors as Tony DeNicola, Joe Mekler, Dick Weller, Richie Morales, and John Riley.

As a performer, Greg has had the good fortune to play with many notable jazz artists including Pete Levin, Tony Cimorosi, Jack Grassel, Eric Olsen, and Ron Velosky.

In addition to writing, recording, and performing, Greg has also worked as a music engraver and transcriptionist for jazz guitarist, composer, and 18-time Grammy award winner Pat Metheny, assisting the legendary musician behind the scenes in scoring two songbooks published by Hal Leonard Publishing: "Orchestrion - The Complete Score" (released in March 2011) and a revision of "The Pat Metheny Songbook" (currently in production).

About Greg Federico

As much as Greg Federico would like to say that he chose in this life to express himself as a musician, in his heart of hearts he believes it was the other way around: That music, instead, chose him...

Greg was born in the southern U.S. (Alabama) but was raised in the northeast (Maryland, and then New Jersey). Music has been in his blood for as long as he can remember, and his musical studies began in his childhood with the piano. As he progressed into his teens, his interests expanded to include the drums. Before recognizing that his vocation for the musical life was undeniably set in stone, Greg spent his college years on different paths of learning, eventually earning a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Villanova University (in western suburban Philadelphia, PA). To this day Greg maintains that there is great value he obtained from this discipline and that he is the better for it as is the music he's created to date.

Subsequent to his time at Villanova it became abundantly clear to him that music called and would continue to call him until he answered in the affirmative and gave himself over to it. He went on to study music education for two years at Trenton State College specializing in drums and percussion under the tutelage of Tony DeNicola [Harry James Orchestra] while further augmenting his studies outside of the classroom on drums and exotic percussion with Joe Mekler [Deborah Henson-Conant]. Greg's love of hearing live jazz eventually took him to New York City's famed jazz "dive", The 55 Bar, where he met and subsequently studied with drummer Dick Weller, who had been performing with Atlantic recording artist and jazz guitarist Mike Stern. Shortly thereafter, Greg connected with drummer Richie Morales [Spyro Gyra, Grover Washington, Jr.] at another Mike Stern show and this proved pivotal to Greg's educational advancement. Studies with Morales led to studies with Greg's latest mentor, John Riley [Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Quincy Jones], who authored such instructional books as "The Art of Bop Drumming" and "Beyond Bop Drumming".

Over time, Greg developed a diverse array of musical proficiencies, not only as a performer, composer, and recording artist, but also as a music transcriptionist and engraver. To the latter, he has worked behind the scenes with jazz guitarist, composer, and 19-time Grammy award winner Pat Metheny, assisting the legendary musician in scoring two songbooks published by Hal Leonard Publishing: "Orchestrion - The Complete Score" (released in March 2011) and a revision of "The Pat Metheny Songbook" (currently in production at this time).

As a performer, Greg has had the good fortune to play with many notable jazz artists including mulit-keyboardist, composer/arranger Pete Levin; nationally acclaimed New York bassist Tony Cimorosi; Milwaukee guitarist Jack Grassel; New York pianist Eric Olsen; and the late, great bassist Ron Velosky. In addition to his work as a sideman, the philosopher-turned-musician has developed several of his own jazz ensembles over the past 19 years, each with their own unique sound, performing primarily in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S. Though "home" for Greg is considered the New Jersey corridor between Philadelphia and New York City, he has also toured the Midwest to promote his CD recordings.

As a composer, Greg has been awarded many accolades over the past decade from various songwriting competitions. When composing, Greg draws great inspiration from the positive, life-affirming experiences he's been gifted with, ranging from many of the wonderfully unforgettable places to which he has traveled over time to some of the beautiful, influential persons who have profoundly touched his life along the way...

Albums

This Artist has 1 Album
Clean Clean

Clean Clean

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