Morgenstein, Rod (USA)

Rod Morgenstein began his professional music career as a founding member of the groundbreaking group The Dixie Dregs. While a student at the University of Miami in Florida he met Steve Morse, Andy West and Allen Sloan. The university was a hotbed of musical activity during this period, hosting future talents like Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Danny Gottlieb, T Lavitz and Bruce Hornsby. Under the official Studio Music and Jazz curriculum title Rock Ensemble II, the Dregs honed their fusion chops and recorded their classic album Great Spectacular, now available on CD.

The Dixie Dregs’ music combines rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk and classical influences into a rich, ever-changing tapestry of sound, with Rod’s drumming weaving seamlessly and colorfully through this musical landscape.

His unique, dynamic and musical drumming style led to Rod being voted Best Progressive Rock Drummer in Modern Drummer Magazine’s Reader’s Poll five years in a row (1986-1990) and Best All-Around Drummer (1999), earning him a permanent place in the magazine’s prestigious Honor Roll. The Dixie Dregs, whose last six recordings each received Grammy nominations for Best Rock Instrumental Performance, were described by the Philadelphia Inquirer as possibly the most technically advanced instrumental group in progressive fusion.

When the group temporarily disbanded in 1983, Rod joined forces with Steve Morse and bassist Jerry Peek in the Steve Morse Band. Rod recalls, “One of our biggest breaks came when we toured for three months with Rush on their 1985-1986 Power Windows tour. I felt a surge of popularity, both as a band and drummer, from performing night after night in sold-out arenas full of appreciative progressive-rock fans.”

The Steve Morse Band recorded two albums, after which Rod found himself at a crossroads as Steve Morse joined the re-forming group Kansas.

Within a year of moving to New York City in 1986, after living around Atlanta, Georgia for 11 years, Rod met Kip Winger and Reb Beach, future members of the band Winger. “Kip and Reb were writing and recording demos and being rejected by labels. They were driven to get signed. We jammed, hit it off, and two months later they told me they had a deal and asked if I’d do the record.”

The rest is history. Their self-titled 1988 debut album sold over two million copies worldwide, earning platinum in the U.S. and gold in Japan and Canada. It also led to an American Music Award nomination for Best New Heavy Metal Band. Follow-ups like In the Heart of the Young continued the success and international touring.

The band ceased activities in 1993 after touring for the acclaimed Pull, as alternative music replaced metal as the dominant genre.

Kip Winger then set out to record his first solo album, This Conversation Seems Like Dream (1997), a departure from earlier Winger albums drawing on world percussion rhythms and heavy grooves. Rod recorded the drum tracks for this and for Songs from the Ocean Floor (2001) at Kip’s home studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

1997 also saw the self-titled debut of the Rudess / Morgenstein Project, a progressive power duo with Rod and Dream Theater keyboardist Jordan Rudess. The idea for this project came during the Dixie Dregs’ 1994 Full Circle tour when a power failure left only keyboards working, leading to a blistering 10-minute drum / keyboard jam that brought down the house.

Rod’s other ongoing projects include the jam band Jazz Is Dead, featuring creative improvisations of Grateful Dead music with ever-changing lineups including T Lavitz, Alphonso Johnson, Jeff Sipe, Billy Cobham and Jimmy Herring, and Platypus with John Myung (Dream Theater), Ty Tabor (King’s X) and Derek Sherinian (Planet X). A Platypus spin-off is Jelly Jam, a power trio featuring Rod, Ty Tabor and John Myung.

In addition to his recording and touring credits, Rod is very active in drum education. He is Associate Professor of Percussion at Berklee College of Music in Boston, and his recognized instructional materials include videos, audio cassettes and books. His latest offering is Drum Set Warm-Ups, touted as the definitive text for developing and improving all aspects of drum set playing. Rod has been a columnist for Modern Drummer Magazine (U.S.), Rhythm Magazine (UK) and Sticks Magazine (Germany), and is an international clinician involved in product development for Premier Percussion (Rod Morgenstein Signature Drumheads), Sabian Cymbals (Signature Tri-Top Ride), and Vic Firth Sticks (Signature Sticks and Isolation Headphones), with whom he has been an endorser for many years.

As described in Modern Drummer Magazine, “You can see it in his face, Rod Morgenstein loves what he does for a living. Talk to him about drums and you’ll see those eyes start to crinkle as a warm, sincere smile spreads over his face. Get him behind a set of drums and the same enthusiasm is evident in the way that he tears into the kit as though he’s been waiting weeks to get at it. Not that his playing is uncontrolled, because he is in charge of everything happening on the drum set, but you never get the sense that Morgenstein has lost any of the initial excitement about the drums that makes people become drummers to begin with.”