Playing alongside with music’s best like Norbert Stachel, Curtis Ohlson, Booker T. Jones, Billy Sheehan, Oakland-based drummer John Mader is no stranger to the BX3 World tour. In March 2007, John completed a third leg of BX3 tour with Stu Hamm and Jeff Berlin is now on tour with Miguel Migs in the USA.



While gearing up for his two-month BX3 tour, John Mader has decided to take a look at the New Dixon Artisan TMS kit, where he was instantly drawn by the beauty of Midnight blue burst sparkle finish. John Mader was also impressed by how much versatility it provides. Made with pure North American Maple, the Artisan TMS kit is a perfect fit for John as his playing style ranges from hard rock metal to jazz.



In addition to being one of the most well known independent players, John Mader is also known for his infamous teaching style.



Biography:

John Mader was born in Oakland, California, setting the foundation for his own style of "East Bay Grease." With a musician father, and a mother who grew tired of having her furniture destroyed by the tap, tap, tapping of drum sticks, John was encourage to play drums on a real kit at the age of five. From that age on, the sticks never left his hands.



In high school he performed in little theater, and then went on to tour with a youth orchestra. At 17 John began his profession pursuit in music. At 21 he joined the well known Bay Area band, The Uptones . The Uptones toured the U.S. opening for Billy Idol, UB40, Oingo Boingo, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and many others.The Uptones went on to win a BAMMY.



Soon John Mader had offers to play with his own jazz heroes: Norbert Statchel, Julie Homi, Curtis Ohlson, Frank Martin, and many others.



John Mader was one of the founding members of Dick Bright's 20-piece dance band, SRO. For over five years John was fortunate enough to tour with a group of outstanding performers, many of whom have gone on to perform with Mariah Carey, Todd Rundgren, Narda Michael Walden, to name just a few.



John Mader joined Ryan Downe as a member of his band, and they enjoyed two tours opening for The Who, on the Quadrophenia Tour, playing to 30,000 screaming fans in support of Ryan's album "Hypocrite" on Polygram.



Recently, in addition to performing with several Miles Davis band alumni, John Mader has performed on stage with Grammy Award winning artists Booker T. Jones, Steve Miller, Pat Benatar, Patti Austin, Angela Bofil, and Lenny Williams. John also has toured extensively with Pee Wee Ellis and Fred Wesley of the JB’s (James Brown Horns, and Parliament Funkedelic’s "Horny Horns"). John is currently performing with Booker T. Jones, and Miguel Migs. In March of 2007, John completed a third leg of the B3 tour with Stu Hamm, Billy Sheehan, and Jeff Berlin.



You can hear John Mader’s grooves on Patti Austin’s Concord Records release “In and Out of Love” and Pee Wee Ellis’ European releases “A Mighty Love” and “Live and Funky”.



In his “spare time” John Mader has also played drums for several Tony Award winning musicals including Disney’s “The Lion King”, “Rent”, "Mamma Mia", and the world premiere of “Wicked “.