Pete Sweeney began playing drums at the age of five, after he received a drumset for Christmas from his Aunt Joan Diemer. He and his brother Paul played drums for years, much to the delight of the nearby neighbors. They were given several sets of drums over the course of time, mostly budget instruments that were shown a good lashing on a regular basis. One memorable set was left outside in the backyard for a considerable duration, which was found to have radically altered the acoustic quality in many strange and profound ways. In time they were rewarded a new Gretsch set and life was good. However, a new a challenge presented itself :"How to make a 24'' bass drum stop ringing so much?"
Much of the music repertoire of the Sweeney brother's bands consisted of the popular rock bands of the day. It was not uncommon to hear the familiar strains of ''Rock and Roll" by Led Zeppelin mixed in with some John Cage like vocal interpretations. All of that changed when Pete begged his parents to take him to hear the great trumpeter Woody Shaw who was appearing with saxophonist Nick Brignola and his quartet at a neighborhood dive. Woody canceled out that night but Pete was able to hear someone who blew his mind: drummer Dave Calarco. Pete began to study privately with Calarco, even after he was repeatedly threatened to practice or die.
Another turning point was an opportunity to hear the Count Basie band and the Buddy Rich band at JB Scott's. Hearing these bands with their original
leaders at the helm was an incredible experience. Jazz music was discovered, and everything changed. As time went on, Sweeney graduated from High School and went on to be a full-time professional musician. He performed with many different rock, funk, and soul bands. He traveled considerably throughout the United States in the 1980s. After coming off the road in 1989, he joined the band of critically acclaimed guitarist and singer Matt Smith. They recorded many CDs of original music, toured the US, and won the Taguaray song writing contest in 1991. Their music was also featured In the documentary "The Making of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue."
After the Matt Smith Band parted ways, Sweeney went on to perform with a wide variety of musical situations. Some of the highlights include receiving two Grammy nominations for CDs with vocalist Jay Traynor and the Joey Thomas Big Band, playing on the soundtrack for the Mirimax motion picture "The Castle," recording and touring with Allman Brother's guitarist ''Dangerous" Dan Toler, touring North America with Irish tenor Tony Kenny, and being a faculty member at the National Guitar Workshop.
In 1994, Pete began studying with renown drummer Joe Morello. He has also studied privately with Mike Clark and Bob (Rakalam) Moses. In 1999, Pete wrote his first instructional book "Rock Drum for Beginners" for the Alfred publishing company. Since then he has written eight books and created two dvds for Alfred. He has also performed on the instructional dvds of Joe Bouchard (Bassist for Blue Oyster Cult ) and slide guitarist Kirby Kelley.
Some of the many artists that Pete Sweeney has performed with:
1
Mike Portillo
