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Paul Wertico Musical artist

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"), magazine polls, and received several gold records.In recent years, Wertico has continued to tour and perform around the world, as well as 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 performed as Paul Wertico's Mid-East/Mid-West Alliance, and recorded an album for the Chicago Sessions label that received accolades from publications such as the Chicago Tribune, DRUM!, and Modern Drummer. Wertico's current group is Wertico Cain & Gray, featuring multi-instrumentalists David Cain and Larry Gray. A 2013 recording by Wertico Cain & Gray, entitled Sound Portraits, won "Best Live Performance Album" in the 13th Annual Independent Music Awards (2014).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 Frank Catalano, 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, Ramsey Lewis, and many others. Wertico is a member of the Larry Coryell Power Trio. From 2000 to 2007, he was a member of the platinum-record-winning Polish progressive rock band, SBB. He's also the inventor of TUBZ, made by Pro-Mark (who also makes the “Paul Wertico Signature Drum Stick”.) A new independently manufactured signature product is also now available called “Paul Wertico’s Acousticx”.Wertico played drums on Paul Winter's 1990 Grammy-nominated release, Earth: Voices Of A Planet. He has also played on and produced a number of CDs for artists, including vocalist Kurt Elling's 1995 Grammy-nominated release, Close Your Eyes, as well as Elling's 1997 Grammy-nominated release, The Messenger, 1998 Grammy-nominated release, This Time It's Love, and 2003 Grammy-nominated release, Man In The Air. Wertico has performed in all 50 states and in more than 60 countries. His playing has been compared to that of an "Impressionist painter," while 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, and he has also been recommended by that newspaper and the Chicago Sun-Times for album-of-the-year awards. In addition to Wertico's awards as a member of the Pat Metheny Group, he was voted "Fusion Drummer Of The Year" in DRUM! magazine’s readers poll and placed in the top five in the electric-jazz category in Modern Drummer's readers polls. Wertico has appeared on the covers of Drum Tracks, Modern Drummer, Chicago Jazz, Percussioni (Italy), Belgo Beat (Belgium), PerQsja (Poland) and Bateristas al Sur (South America). In 2010, the Cape Breton International Drum Festival awarded him with a “Life Time Achievement Award” for his “Major Contribution To The World Of Drumming & Education,” and he also received the Montréal Drum Fest’s coveted career recognition award. In addition, as Musical Director for the crowdsourced TV video series, Inventing The Future, Paul was nominated for a 2012-2013 Emmy Award in the “Outstanding Achievement In Interactivity” category by The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Midwest Chapter. Paul also hosted his own radio show, Paul Wertico’s Wild World of Jazz, from 2010 to 2012.