Greg Errico (born September 1, 1948) is an American musician and record producer, best known as the drummer for the popular and influential psychedelic soul/

funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...

band

Sly and the Family Stone Sly and the Family Stone was an American band formed in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1966 and active until 1983. Their work, which blended elements of funk, soul music, soul, psychedelic rock, gospel music, gospel, and R&B, becam ...

Career

1960s-1970s

He was a founding member and the original drummer, in December 1966, for Sly & The Family Stone, and in 1971 he became the first member to quit the group, citing the band's continuing turmoil. As a member of Sly and the Family Stone, Errico played at

Woodstock The Woodstock Music and Art Fair, commonly referred to as Woodstock, was a music festival held from August 15 to 18, 1969, on Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York, southwest of the town of Woodstock, New York, Woodstock. Billed as "a ...

music festival in 1969.Errico toured with

jazz-fusion Jazz fusion (also known as jazz rock, jazz-rock fusion, or simply fusion) is a popular music genre that developed in the late 1960s when musicians combined jazz harmony and improvisation with rock music, funk, and rhythm and blues. Electric gui ...

group

Weather Report Weather Report was an American jazz fusion band active from 1970 to 1986. The band was founded in 1970 by Austrian keyboardist Joe Zawinul, American saxophonist Wayne Shorter, Czech bassist Miroslav Vitouš, American drummer Alphonse Mouzon a ...

in 1973/74, but never made a studio recording with the group. His performances can be heard on live recordings hosted at the website Wolfgang's Vault.

Joe Zawinul Josef Erich Zawinul ( '; 7 July 1932 – 11 September 2007) was an Austrian jazz and jazz fusion keyboardist and composer. First coming to prominence with saxophonist Cannonball Adderley, Zawinul went on to play with Miles Davis and to bec ...

said that no one could play his tune "Boogie Woogie Waltz" better than Errico had. Errico joined the

David Bowie David Robert Jones (8 January 194710 January 2016), known as David Bowie ( ), was an English singer, songwriter and actor. Regarded as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, Bowie was acclaimed by critics and musicians, pa ...

band for his

Diamond Dogs Tour The Diamond Dogs Tour was a concert tour by the English singer-songwriter David Bowie in North America in 1974 to promote the studio album '' Diamond Dogs'', which was released the same year. The first leg of the tour utilized a rock opera-sty ...

during September 1974. Errico later collaborated with bands such as

Santana Santana may refer to: Transportation * Volkswagen Santana, an automobile * Santana Cycles, manufacturer of tandem bicycles * Santana Motors, a former Spanish automobile manufacturer * Sailboat designs by W. D. Schock Corp ** Santana 20 ** Santan ...

, on ''Carlos Santana and Buddy Miles Live'', released June 7, 1972, and with the

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

. In 1974 he began drumming for the

Jerry Garcia Band The Jerry Garcia Band was a San Francisco Bay Area rock band led by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead. Garcia founded the band in 1975; it remained the most important of his various side projects until his death in 1995. The band regularly tour ...

on and off thru 1984. He also worked with

Larry Graham Larry Graham Jr. (born August 14, 1946) is an American bass guitar, bassist and baritone singer, with the psychedelic soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone and as the founder and frontman of Graham Central Station. In 1980, he released the si ...

(from Sly & The Family Stone) plus members of the

Tower of Power Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. The band has had a number of lead vocalists, the best-known being Lenny Williams, who fronted ...

horns, Journey and the Pointer Sisters on the first album for

Betty Davis Betty Davis (born Betty Gray Mabry; July 26, 1944 – February 9, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter, and model. She was known for her controversial sexually oriented lyrics and performance style, and was the second wife of trumpeter ...

; Errico produced and drummed.

Some later works

During mid 80's - mid 90's Greg joined the reformed

Quicksilver Messenger Service Quicksilver Messenger Service is an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in San Francisco. The band achieved wide popularity in the San Francisco Bay Area and, through their recordings, with psychedelic rock enthusiasts around the globe, ...

. Early 2000's, 2005 - 2008 produced a couple CD's for Jamie Davis,

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

w/members of Count Basie Orchestra. Performed at the 2006 Grammy Awards, in the Sly & the Family Stone tribute, alongside most of his former bandmates. 2024 Greg was an executive producer on Grammy winning "Basie Swings The Blues", Best Large Jazz Ensemble album category. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYLvOZX6kCw

Legacy

He was inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), also simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music and the ...

in 1993. He continued to tour, with

The Family Stone ''The Family Stone'' is a 2005 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Thomas Bezucha. Produced by Michael London and distributed by 20th Century Fox, it stars an ensemble cast, including Diane Keaton, Craig T. Nelson, Dermot Mulron ...

, alongside fellow founding member of Sly and the Family Stone

Jerry Martini Gerald L. Martini (born October 1, 1942) is an American musician, best known for being the saxophonist for Sly and the Family Stone. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1993 as a member of Sly and the Family Stone. Early lif ...

(saxophone). This band also included former Sly and the Family Stone member

Cynthia Robinson Cynthia Robinson (January 12, 1944 – November 23, 2015) was an American musician, best known for being a founding member of Sly and the Family Stone, for which she was the trumpeter and a vocalist. Her voice and presence were featured in the h ...

(trumpet) before she died in 2015. Errico's intricate drumming, particularly with Sly & the Family Stone, has been sampled on a multitude of recordings by hip hop producers over the years. Errico appears in two recent documentaries, "Summer of Soul" and "Sly Lives."

Personal life

Errico was born and grew up in

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. Errico relocated to Las Vegas in 2023, and continues to play and produce. A 2014 scientific paper states that Errico is the musician with the highest degree and

PageRank PageRank (PR) is an algorithm used by Google Search to rank web pages in their search engine results. It is named after both the term "web page" and co-founder Larry Page. PageRank is a way of measuring the importance of website pages. Accordin ...

centralities, and the second highest Eigenvector centrality, of all musicians of all time.

Equipment

Over his career, Errico has played a variety of drum sets, Ludwig and DW. He currently plays DW drums and

Paiste Paiste (English pronunciation: , ) is a Switzerland, Swiss musical instrument manufacturing company. It is the world's third largest manufacturer of cymbals, gongs, and metal percussion. is an Estonian language, Estonian and Finnish language, ...

cymbals.

Discography

*'' A Whole New Thing'' –

(1967) *'' Dance to the Music'' – Sly and the Family Stone (1968) *''

Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...

'' – Sly and the Family Stone (1968) *''

Stand! ''Stand!'' is the fourth album by soul/funk band Sly and the Family Stone, released on May 3, 1969. Written and produced by lead singer and multi-instrumentalist Sly Stone, ''Stand!'' is considered an artistic high-point of the band's career. R ...

'' – Sly and the Family Stone (1969) *''

'' – various artists, (as Sly and the Family Stone) (1970) *''

There's a Riot Goin' On ''There's a Riot Goin' On'' is the fifth studio album by the American funk and soul music, soul band Sly and the Family Stone. It was recorded from 1970 to 1971 at Record Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, and released later that year on No ...

'' – Sly and the Family Stone (1971) *'' Rolling Thunder'' –

Mickey Hart Mickey Hart (born Michael Steven Hartman, September 11, 1943) is an American percussionist. He is best known as one of the two drummers of the rock band Grateful Dead. He was a member of the Grateful Dead from September 1967 until February 19 ...

(1972) *'' Carlos Santana & Buddy Miles! Live!'' –

Carlos Santana Carlos Humberto Santana Barragán (; born July 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, best known as a founding member of the Rock music, rock band Santana (band), Santana. Born and raised in Mexico where he developed his musical background, he r ...

and Buddy Miles (1972) *''

'' –

(1973) *'' Monkey Grip'' –

Bill Wyman William George Wyman ( né Perks; born 24 October 1936) is an English musician who was the bass guitarist with the rock band the Rolling Stones from 1962 to 1993. Wyman was part of the band's first stable lineup and performed on their first 19 ...

(1974) *'' Band Wagon'' – Shigeru Suzuki (1975) *''Changing Times'' - Ike White (1975) *''David Soul'' –

David Soul David Soul (born David Richard Solberg; August 28, 1943 – January 4, 2024) was an American-British actor and singer. With a career spanning five decades, he rose to prominence for portraying Detective Kenneth "Hutch" Hutchinson in the Americ ...

(1976) *''Lee Oskar'' –

Lee Oskar Lee Oskar (born 24 March 1948) is a Danish harmonica player, notable for his contributions to the sound of the rock-funk fusion group War, which was formed by Howard E. Scott and Harold Brown, his solo work, and as a harmonica manufacturer. H ...

(1976) *''Stone Alone'' – Bill Wyman (1976) *''Giants'' – Giants (1978) *''Before the Rain'' – Lee Oskar (1978) *''Say It with Silence'' –

Hubert Laws Hubert Laws (born November 10, 1939) is an American flutist, piccoloist and saxophonist with a career spanning over 50 years in jazz, classical, and other music genres. Laws is one of the few classical artists who has also mastered jazz, pop ...

(1978) *''My Road, Our Road'' – Lee Oskar (1980) *'' The Apocalypse Now Sessions'' –

Rhythm Devils The Rhythm Devils is a percussion-based rock band led by former Grateful Dead drummers Bill Kreutzmann and Mickey Hart. Grateful Dead The Rhythm Devils had their origins as an informal but frequent fixture in the Grateful Dead concert repertoire ...

(1980) *''Watchfire'' –

Pete Sears Peter Roy Sears (born 27 May 1948) is an English rock musician. In a career spanning more than six decades, he has been a member of many bands and has moved through a variety of musical genres, from early R&B, psychedelic improvisational rock ...

(1988) *''Snakes & Stripes'' – Harvey Mandel (1995) *'' Seven'' – Enuff Z'nuff (1997) *''Red Clay Harvest'' – Cravin' Melon (1998) *''

The Closing of Winterland ''The Closing of Winterland'' is a four-CD live album by the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete concert performed on December 31, 1978. The concert was also released as a two-disc DVD. The title derives from the fact that it was the last ...

'' –

(2003) *'' Garcia Live Volume Five'' –

(2014) *'' Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74)'' –

(2017)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Errico, Greg 1948 births American people of Italian descent American funk drummers American rock drummers American session musicians American soul musicians Drummers from San Francisco Living people Psychedelic soul musicians Rhythm and blues drummers Sly and the Family Stone members Weather Report members 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Jerry Garcia Band members