Jojo Mayer

Jojo Mayer is a Swiss drummer born in Zürich and currently residing in New York City He plays Vic Firthsticks Sonor drums Sabian cymbals and Evans heads Mayer is the son of a touring musician and began his career as a drummer at an early age receiving his first drum set at the age of two Having taught himself throughout his childhood he broke out into the professional music scene at the age of 18 joining theMonty Alexander group Touring with the group launched him into the major jazz music scene and he has played at the North Sea Jazz Festival Montreux Nice and Athens etc which culminated with his gigging with jazzgreats such as Dizzy Gillespie and Nina Simone Eventually after playing with a great variety of artists Mayer moved away from jazz and into Drum n Bass Jojo Mayer is known for bringing together jazz drum and bass jungle and other influences He is also famous for his ability to play the rhythms of programmed jungle drum n bass music on acoustic drums terming this technique reverse engineering a phrase borrowed from computing1 He executes this approach using various methods such as the heeltoe bass drum technique the Moeller stroke and the pullout or pushpull accent which takes the beat on the rebound Using these techniques he can play beats at astonishing speeds A few of his main influences are Tony Williams Jack DeJohnette and Buddy Rich He is the leader of live electronica trio Nerve which he founded in 1997 He played with the guitarist David Fiuczynski in the avantgarde pop rock band Screaming Headless Torsos and in the fusion jazzband Intergalactic Maiden Ballet He ran the popular Prohibited Beatz live electronica party in NYC from 19962001