Peter Donald

Peter Donald (born May 15, 1945) is an American jazz drummer and music executive. He has played with numerous celebrated jazz and pop musicians including Zoot Sims, Charlie Mariano, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Olivia Newton-John, Toni Braxton, and John Abercrombie, and also led his own jazz groups.

In addition, he has provided music to film and television soundtracks and supervised music for advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather.

Peter Donald was born Peter Alexander Donald in San Francisco, California, on May 15, 1945. After growing up in Woodside, California, his family relocated to Boston, Massachusetts, when he was 14.

After taking drum lessons from Alan Dawson from 1964 to 1969, he studied composition at Berklee College of Music in Boston from 1968 to 1970. While studying at Berklee, Donald played drums in the local Boston clubs with many jazz groups, including Clark Terry, Phil Woods, Al Cohn-Zoot Sims, John LaPorta, Joe Henderson, Sam Rivers, Charlie Mariano, and Paul Bley.

Donald's first professional job as a musician was in 1965 with Red Norvo. In the early 1970s, he moved to Los Angeles and began working with many big names in jazz and pop and also worked as a studio musician for films and TV.

In 1972, he composed the soundtrack of Don Edmonds's drama Wild Honeystarring Edward Blessington, Uschi Digard, and Kipp Whitman. The following year, he worked on the soundtrack for an episode ("The Songwriter") of the TV series The Odd Couple (directed by Mel Ferber). He was the executive producer of Dick Halligan & Associates, a Los Angeles-based commercial and film music house.

In 1974/75, he worked with Japanese-American jazz pianist Toshiko Akiyoshi's Trio with bassist Andy Simpkins and recorded Dedications II (Alfa Jazz Records). The following year, he was on Toshiko Akiyoshi-Lew Tabackin Big Band's recording of Long Yellow Road (RCA), alongside Dick Spencer (alto saxophone, flute, clarinet); Bill Perkins (baritone saxophone, flute, bass clarinet); Gene Cherico (bass); Phil Teele (bass trombone); Tom Peterson (tenor saxophone, flute, clarinet); Britt Woodman, Charlie Loper, Jim Sawyer (trombone); Bobby Shew, Don Rader, John Madrid, Mike Price (trumpet); and Gary Foster (alto saxophone, soprano saxophone, flute, clarinet).

In 1976, Donald played drums on Olivia Newton-John's first live album Love Performance (1981, EMI) alongside Rick Ruskin (acoustic guitar), Donna Fein, Pat Carroll (backing vocals), Abraham Laboriel (bass), John Farrar (lead guitar), Greg Mathieson (piano), Skip Griparis (rhythm guitar), and Doug Livingston (steel guitar, synthesizer). The following year, he was on Peter Allen's funk/soul/pop album It Is Time For Peter Allen. He also worked with Helen Reddy, Carmen McRae, and Toni Braxton during that period.

Donald was a founding member of John Abercrombie Quartet with pianist Richie Beirach and bassist George Mraz and recorded three albums—Arcade (1979), Abercrombie Quartet (1979), and M (1981). The quartet toured extensively in the United States, Europe, and Japan and played at many major jazz festivals including the Monterey Jazz Festival, Monterey, California; North Sea Jazz Festival, Netherlands; Newport Jazz Festival, Rhode Island (1977); and Jazz à Juan in Antibes, France (1979).

In the following year, he worked and recorded with various groups including the Denny Zeitlin Trio (1983) and Bob Florence Limited Edition (1985), and stayed with them until the early 1990s. From 1985 to 1992, he was the director of the Percussion Program at the Dick Grove School of Music in Los Angeles.

In 1992, Donald and pianist Richie Beirach recorded Catching Up as George Mraz Trio.

From 1992 through 2002, he worked as a music supervisor for the advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather. After leaving the agency, he formed 2beat Productions, a music consulting and production company, in Santa Monica, California. In November 2005, he transitioned the firm into "JazzPlanet", an online marketplace for licensing recorded performances and compositions of independent jazz artists for movies, broadcasts, video games, and theatrical productions. Among the many musicians featured on the site were the drummer, Peter Erskine, soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman, and Grammy-winning tenor saxophonist Ernie Watts.

From the early 2000s to 2006, Donald led a trio "3prime" with bassist Abraham Laboriel and pianist Tom Ranier. In November 2000, they recorded a contemporary jazz album 3prime Live at Rocco (at Rocco, Bel Air, California) for Fuzzy Music Records.

In 2005, Donald recorded Sunday Afternoons At The Lighthouse Cafe (Woofy Records) as part of Dave Pell Octet with Bob Efford (baritone saxophone), Jim Hughart (bass), Grant Geissman (guitar), Bob Florence (piano), Bill Reichenbach (trombone), and Carl Saunders (trumpet).

In 2010, he received a B.A. in Urban Community and Environmental Studies from Antioch University-Los Angeles, Culver City, California. In 2012, he was awarded a California State Teaching Credential in Social Studies from California State University, Northridge, California.

Donald has also written several books on drums and articles for Modern Drummer.

• Richard Cook, Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings
• Leonard Feather, Ira Gitler: The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X.