Joseph John Peck
Joseph John Peck (born in Cleveland, Ohio, US) is a musician, educator, composer, and producer with a focus on the steelpan instrument.
He was ready for music at age two with the help of a few pots and pans, so that by age nineteen he was ready to discover his intended passion and career path, the steel pan drums. After leaving his birthplace of Cleveland, OH at the age of 11, he attended middle and high school in Boca Raton, FL, college in Wichita, KS, and eventually made his way to Trinidad, WI, the birthplace of steelpan. In 1997 he returned to Wichita and began teaching Art at Metro-Midtown Alternative High School and began a three year stint as a faculty member at Wichita State University teaching World Music. Upon settling in Los Angeles in 2002, he had earned a BME degree in Music Education, established a Panhead Music, a production and publishing company, became the director of the Wichita State University Steel Pan Orchestra, traveled within the Midwest as an accredited artist with the Missouri Arts Council and Arts Partners, and was lead pannist and musical director for the group Afinké Machine.
In addition to teaching, he has continually maintained the role as student studying with such master teachers as Russ Miller, Dr. JC Combs, Ellie Mannette (Inventor of the modern steelpan), Ken "Professor" Philmore, Ray Holman, Andy Narell, Reginald Ayan Williams, Renaldo Jackson, and John Novello.
Joseph has performed and recorded with an array of amazing artists such as Scott Weiland, Cyndi Lauper, Babylon Saints, Cipes & the People, the Survivor House Band (CBS – reality show), Steel and Strings, Ryan Gosling, Didi Benami, and his own ensemble.
Peck is known for incorporating the sounds of the steel pan instrument into contemporary music and is recognized at one of the most diverse steel pannists in the world. His company Panhead Music & Entertainment, based in Malibu, CA, specializes in music utilizing the steel pan instrument and music education.
Discography
With Pandora's Box
- Speak To Me! (Crimson Heart, 1994)
With Trouble Creek
- Blue Earth (Panhead Music, 1997)
With Afinké Machine
- Afinké Machine (Panhead Music), 1999)
- How ‘Bout This (Panhead Music), 2002)
With Cipes and the People
- Conscious Revolution (2007)
With Scott Weiland
- Happy in Galoshes (Softdrive, 2008)
With Dead Man's Bones
- Dead Man's Bones (Anti-, 2009)
With Babylon Saints
- Babylon Saints (2010)
Guest appearances
- Candlelight Christmas – Douglas Express (1999)
- River of Life – Reach for the Sky (2000)
- Blind Boris – (2009)
- Meet Me At The Pub – Tall Can Wednesday (2010)
External links
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