Rod’s
professional music career began as a founding member of
the groundbreaking group the Dixie Dregs when, as 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, playing host to
brilliant future talents like Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius,
Danny Gottlieb, T Lavitz and Bruce Hornsby. Playing under
the official Studio Music and Jazz curriculum title of
Rock Ensemble II, the Dregs honed their fusionesque chops.
It was here that the band recorded its classic Great
Spectacular album now available on CD.
The
Dixie Dregs' music combines rock, jazz, bluegrass, folk
and classical influences into a rich, ever-changing tapestry
of sound. All the while, Rod’s drumming weaves its way
seamlessly and colorfully through this swirling musical
landscape.
His
unique, dynamic and musical drumming style has led to
Rod’s winning the Best Progressive Rock Drummer award
in Modern Drummer Magazine’s Reader’s Poll 5 years in
a row (1986-1990) and Best All-Around Drummer (1999),
earning him a permanent position in the magazine’s prestigious
Honor Roll. The Dixie Dregs, whose last 6 recordings have
each received Grammy nominations for Best Rock Instrumental
Performance, are best described in the following Philadelphia
Inquirer concert review, “The Dregs have their own unique
language and style familiar to bluegrass and country music,
refined with classical finesse and delivered with high-powered
technology and rock energy. The band is possibly the most
important, and certainly the most technically advanced,
instrumental group in progressive fusion.”
When
the group temporarily disbanded in 1983, Rod joined forces
with Steve Morse who, along with bassist Jerry Peek, formed
the Steve Morse Band. Rod remembers, “One of our biggest
breaks came when we had the opportunity to tour for 3
months with Rush on their 1985-1986 Power Windows tour.
I felt a surge of popularity, both as a band and as a
drummer, as a result of performing night after night in
sold out arenas packed with appreciative progressive-rock
fans. And it was more than obvious that many of them were
drummers.”
The
Steve Morse Band recorded two albums, at which point Rod
found himself at a crossroad in his career, as Steve Morse
joined the reforming group Kansas. “I was ready for a
musical change and to try something both new and challenging.”
Within
a year of moving to New York City in 1986 after living
in and around Atlanta, Georgia, for the previous 11 years,
Rod met Kip Winger and Reb Beach, namesake and lead guitarist
of the as-of-then-non-existent band Winger. “Kip and Reb
had been writing and recording demos and forever being
rejected by record labels. I met them at a point in their
lives where they were completely driven to get signed.
Nothing could shake their determination. We got together
and jammed, hit it off, and two months later they called
to say they got a deal and to see if I’d be interested
in doing the record.”
The
rest is history! Their self-titled debut album in 1988
sold over two million copies worldwide, earning the band
a platinum album in the U.S. and gold albums in Japan
and Canada. It also led to an American Music Award nomination
for Best New Heavy Metal Band. This album was followed
by In the Heart of the Young and, once again, platinum
and gold awards were in the offing, coupled with non-stop
international touring.
The
band ceased activities in 1993 after touring for the highly
acclaimed Pull recording, as dramatic changes were
taking place in the music scene. Alternative music had
replaced metal as the accepted music of the day.
In
2002, WInger reunited for a summer tour with Poison, CInderella
and Faster Pussycat in support of 'The Very Best of Winger',
a greatest hits collection. And in 2006, the band released
the critically acclaimed, 'Winger IV', followed by tours
in Europe, US, Japan and Australia.
In
1993, when Winger temporarily disbanded, Kip Winger set
out to record his first solo album, This Conversation
Seems Like Dream (1997), a dramatic departure
from the first three Winger recordings, drawing heavily
on world percussive rhythms, dark imagery and heavy grooves.
Rod recorded the drum tracks for this album and the more
recent Songs From The Ocean Floor (2001) at Kip’s
home studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
1997
also saw the self-titled debut release by the Rudess/Morgenstein
Project, an instrumental progressive power-duo, featuring
Rod and Dream Theater keyboardist extraordinaire Jordan
Rudess. The seed for this project was planted one evening
on the Dixie Dregs 1994 Full Circle tour in Fort Lauderdale,
Florida, when a sudden power failure shut down the guitar,
bass and violin rigs. For whatever reason, the keyboards
remained unaffected. And what followed was a blistering,
10 minute drum/keyboard power-duo jam, which brought down
the house. It was that evening’s events, which inspired
Rod and Jordan to form their “small in numbers yet mighty
in sound” band. The Rudess Morgenstein Project has played
concerts in the US, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Mexico, Germany,
Holland and the UK. Additionally, Rod recorded the drum
tracks for Jordan's solo cds, ' Rhythm of Time' and 'The
Road Home'.
Other
on-going projects that Rod is involved with are jam band
Jazz Is Dead which features creative improvisations
of the music by the Grateful Dead. Members of JID have
included T Lavitz, Alphonso Johnson, Jeff Sipe, Billy
Cobham, Jeff Pevar, Dave Livolsi, and Jimmy Herring, with
an ever-changing line up. Another project is Platypus,
whose two recordings feature John Myung (Dream Theater),
Ty Tabor (King’s X) and Derek Sherinian (Planet X). The
music is a mix of instrumental and vocal tunes that blend
many different styles together. An offshoot of Platypus
is The Jelly Jam, a power trio featuring Rod, Ty
Tabor and John Myung. Their debut release came out in
2001, and The Jelly Jam, '2' was released in 2004
In
addition to his recording and touring credits, Rod is
very active in drum education. He is currently a Professor
of Percussion at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Mass.
Also, his highly recognized instructional materials include
videos, audio cassettes and books. His most recent offering
is Drum Set Warm-Ups, touted as the definitive
text for developing and improving all aspects of drum
set playing. Additionally, Rod has been a columnist for
Modern Drummer Magazine (U.S.), Rhythm Magazine (UK),
Sticks Magazine (Germany) and is an international clinician
and involved with product development for Sabian Cymbals
(Signature Tri-Top Ride), and Vic Firth Sticks
(Signature Sticks and Isolation Headphones), with
whom he has been an endorser for many, many years.
Rod
can be summed up in the following passage from a cover
story in Modern Drummer Magazine: “You can see it in his
face; Rod Morgenstein loves what he does for a living.
Get him talking 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 for weeks to get at it.
That’s not to imply that his playing is uncontrolled,
because he is definitely in charge of everything that
is happening on the drum set. It’s just to say that 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.”