John Ferraro is a groove oriented, song-supporting drummer. He’s a musician who serves the band as a whole, with a wide an expansive musical vocabulary. John’s solid technical background and flexible method allow him to accommodate any number of different styles from Jazz (mainstream and contemporary) to Rock (contemporary, alternative, and classic), to Country, Pop, Big Band, and Rhythm & Blues. Respected and admired by both teachers and players alike, John has enjoyed a busy and varied career playing and touring with some of the biggest names in the music industry.
John is a known “Drum Junkie” with an arsenal of tools for the right sound.His extensive collection of drum kids allow him to set-up, tune, mike and provide the full range of sound an style by using a variety of different vintages, shell materials, woods, synthetics, and metals. John’s amazing talent combined with his collection of drums allows him to handle any musical situation.
John Ferraro has been playing drums since he was five years old. Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, to a trumpet playing father and a piano playing mother, music is in his genes as well as in his soul. As a small child he was introduced to a variety of music styles and techniques, but his early idols and influences include: Ginger Baker, John Bonham, Joe Morello, Buddy Rich, Ringo Starr, Charlie Watts, and Tony Williams. When John was eleven years old his family moved to Southern California, where he embarked on his drumming career. Throughout his junior high and high school years, he played in marching bands, participated in talent shows and numerous “battle of the band” competitions, and he even formed a traditional Dixieland Jazz band called Back Bay Jazz.
John attended Orange Coast College and Cal State Long Beach where he majored in Business Administration and took performance classes. John was a member of the Jazz ensemble and earned top honors as an instrumentalist. He landed his first professional gig at Disneyland for the newly opened Space Mountain attraction where he worked for four years. He also performed for a local band called Storyville during those years.
John toured domestically and internationally with Larry Carlton on and off for 18 years. He also circled the globe with Barry Manilow’s world tour, and enjoyed playing for Biff Baby’s All-Stars, a loose aggregate of top flight jamming buddies formed by Sterling “Biff” Ball, Vice President of the Erinie Ball Company. John has also had the pleasure of working with such notable artists such as Carl Anderson, David Benoit, George Benson, Debbie Boone, Vikki Carr, Randi Crawford, Robben Ford, Jay Gradon, Abraham Laboriel, Albert Lee, Steve Lukather (Toto), Keiko & Kazu Matsui, Steve Morse, Aaron Neville, Carlos Rios, Linda Ronstadt, Michael Sembello, Umberto Tozzi, Leslie Ugum, Eddie Van Halen (Van Halen), Carl Verheyen, Kirk Whalum, Tim Weisberg, Tak Matsumoto (B’z), Mike Love (Beach Boys), Sylvie Vartan, and Burt Bacharach over the course of 20 years.
John’s resume sports a wide range of studio work. As a player for Promise Keeper’s Men’s Christian Ministry at live stadium worship concerts, John also recorded on their albums as well. He performs as a session musician for film, television shows, and commercials. His music library credits include tracks for Bronx Zoo, ESPN, The Gambler, Star Search, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Rolling Vengeance, The Young & the Restless, The Warriors, Acura, Budweiser, Honda, McDonalds, Miller Beer, Nissan, and many more. He performed for the 2001-2002 critically acclaimed Lion King at the Pantages Theatre in Hollywood, and kept the beat for NBC’s Fraiser show for nearly ten years. He has recently featured in the films Anchorman 2, Casa de Mi Padre, Action Point, and many other Hollywood and Indie hits. He was also featured on a wide variety of studio projects, including Rod Stewart’s Standards album as well as solo albums for international artists like Tak Matsumoto of Japan’s legendary rock group, B’z. Tak and Larry Carlton’s instrumental album Take Your Pick, which John toured on, won the Grammy for the Best Pop Instrumental Album at the 53rd Grammy Awards. He also has co-producer credit for Mutual Admiration Society’s debut album and is featured as a musician, which is Sterling Ball of Ernie Ball Company’s latest venture.
Recently, John has been working with living legend, singer and songwriter Burt Bacharach for the past 7 years touring all over the world, sharing Burt’s plethora of songwriting talent in multiple countries spanning Europe, Asia, North and South America.