Paul Wertico

Paul Wertico (born January 5, 1953 in Chicago) is an American drummer. He gained recognition as a member of the Pat Metheny Group from 1983 until 2001, leaving the group to spend more time with his family and to pursue other musical interests. Metheny heard the Simon Bard Group with Wertico and bassist Steve Rodby, and invited both to join his band. During his tenure with Metheny Wertico played on ten recordings and four videos, appeared on television and toured around the world. He also won seven Grammy Awards (for Best Jazz Fusion Performance, Best Contemporary Jazz Performance and Best Rock Instrumental Performance) and magazine polls, and received several gold records.

In recent years, Wertico has continued to tour and perform around the Chicago metropolitan area, where he is based. This led to the creation of his own band (the Paul Wertico Trio) and collaborations with jazz notables such as Larry Coryell, Kurt Elling and Jeff Berlin. These collaborations enabled Wertico to be featured on group recordings in a variety of musical genres, and gave him an opportunity to produce records. In 2009, Wertico's trio joined forces with Marbin, which consists of Israeli musicians Danny Markovitch (saxophone) and Dani Rabin (guitar). The group performs as Paul Wertico's Mideast-Midwest Alliance, and recorded an album for the Chicago Sessions label. The recording received positive reviews from the Chicago Tribune, Drum! and Modern Drummer. It received a 4.5 (out of 5)-star rating by Down Beat, and was rated one of the best 50 albums of 2010.

When not touring, Wertico divides his career among session work, producing, teaching, composing and leading his own groups. Among the musicians with whom he has played are Eddie Harris, Lee Konitz, Dave Liebman, Sam Rivers, Bob Mintzer, Terry Gibbs, Buddy DeFranco, Roscoe Mitchell, Evan Parker, Jay McShann, Herbie Mann, Randy Brecker, Jerry Goodman and Ramsey Lewis and many others. Wertico is a member of the Larry Coryell Trio. From 2000 to 2007, he was a member of the platinum-record-winning Polish progressive rock band SBB. Wertico's playing has been compared to that of an Impressionist painter; he has also been described as "an inspired madman", "a restless innovator", "a true legend of jazz drums", "a master of drumming insanity" and "a genius of the sticks". In 2004 Wertico was honored as a Chicagoan of the Year by the Chicago Tribune; he has been recommended by that newspaper and the Chicago Sun-Times for album-of-the-year awards.