Bobby Colomby | |
---|---|
Birth name | Robert Wayne Colomby |
Born | Manhattan, New York, United States | December 20, 1944
Occupation(s) | Drummer, producer, and presenter |
Instrument(s) | Drums |
Robert Wayne Colomby (born December 20, 1944) is a jazz-fusion drummer, record producer and television presenter. He is best known as an original member of the group Blood, Sweat & Tears, which he co-founded in 1967. He has also played with many other musical artists.
Colomby was born in Manhattan, New York City. He graduated from City College of New York with a degree in Psychology. He is a self-taught musician. His elder brother, Harry Colomby, was the manager of jazz musician Thelonious Monk.
Early in his career Colomby played drums with folk musicians such as Odetta and Eric Andersen. [1] Colomby then connected with Steve Katz and Al Kooper, former members of The Blues Project, soon after the breakup of that group. This led directly to the formation of Blood, Sweat & Tears in September 1967.
Colomby played on the first Blood, Sweat & Tears album, Child Is Father to the Man , which was released in 1968 and reached #47 on the US Billboard Pop Albums chart. The group's self-titled second album was an even bigger critical and commercial hit. It reached #1 on the same chart and featured 3 hit singles, And When I Die , You've Made Me So Very Happy and Spinning Wheel . The group appeared at the Woodstock festival in August 1969 while the album won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970.
He appeared as a performer on nine Blood, Sweat & Tears albums and was the last original member when he stopped playing with the group in 1976. Along with Roy Halee he co-produced the group's 1977 album Brand New Day . After many changes in the group membership he became (in the end) the de facto owner of the Blood Sweat & Tears name. Colomby maintains ownership of the "Blood, Sweat & Tears" band name and, although he no longer plays with the band, he still oversees their musical direction.
Colomby is the uncredited drummer on the John Cale and Terry Riley collaboration album Church of Anthrax , which was released in February 1971.[ citation needed ]
He produced the debut solo album by jazz bass virtuoso Jaco Pastorius in 1976 and The Jacksons' comeback album Destiny in 1978.
In between, he played drums and percussion on Eddie Palmieri's Grammy nominated album Lucumi, Macumba & Voodoo in 1978.
For a few years in the late 1980s Colomby served as a reporter for the television programs Entertainment Tonight and CBS This Morning . He also hosted In Person from the Palace.
In 2000 Colomby and Richard Marx created Signal 21 Records. [2] The label released only one album, Richard Marx's Days in Avalon , before folding shortly thereafter.
In 2002 Colomby began producing a series of albums for trumpeter Chris Botti, including, December, When I Fall in Love, To Love Again,Italia and Impressions and the DVDs Chris Botti Live with Special Guests and Chris Botti in Boston.
He has also worked with Paula Cole ( Courage ), Jeff Lorber ( He Had a Hat ) and Leo Amuedo (Guitar Stories).
Colomby is married to Donna Abbott, a graphic designer and native of California.
Blood, Sweat & Tears is an American jazz rock music group founded in New York City in 1967, noted for a combination of brass with rock instrumentation. BS&T has gone through numerous iterations with varying personnel and has encompassed a wide range of musical styles. Their sound has merged rock, pop and R&B/soul music with big band jazz.
Child Is Father to the Man is the debut album by Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in February 1968. It reached number 47 on the Billboard pop albums chart in the United States.
Christopher Stephen Botti is an American trumpeter and composer.
David Clayton-Thomas is a Grammy Award-winning Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter, best known as the lead vocalist of the American band Blood, Sweat & Tears. Clayton-Thomas has been inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame and in 2007 his jazz/rock composition "Spinning Wheel" was enshrined in the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame. In 2010, Clayton-Thomas received his star on Canada's Walk of Fame.
Blood, Sweat & Tears is the second album by the American band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released on December 11, 1968. It was the most commercially successful album for the group, rising to the top of the U.S. charts for a collective seven weeks and yielding three successive Top 5 singles. It received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 1970. The album has been certified quadruple platinum by the RIAA, with sales of more than four million units in the U.S. In Canada, the album enjoyed a total of eight weeks at number 1 on the RPM national album chart.
Blood, Sweat & Tears 3 is the third album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears. It was released in June 1970.
B, S & T; 4 is the fourth album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in June 1971. It peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Pop albums chart.
Greatest Hits is a compilation album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, initially released in February 1972.
The Blues Project was an American band formed in New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood in 1965. The group's original iteration broke up in 1967. Their songs drew from a wide array of musical styles. They are most remembered as one of the most artful practitioners of pop music, influenced as it was by folk, blues, rhythm & blues, jazz and the pop music of the day.
"You've Made Me So Very Happy" is a song written by Brenda Holloway, Patrice Holloway, Frank Wilson and Berry Gordy, and was released first as a single in 1967 by Brenda Holloway on the Tamla label. The song was later a huge hit for jazz-rock band Blood, Sweat & Tears in 1969, and became a Gold record.
Days In Avalon is the sixth studio album by singer/songwriter Richard Marx, released independently in 2000 on the now defunct label Signal 21. This was the only release on the label created by Marx and Blood, Sweat, and Tears drummer Bobby Colomby.
New Blood is the fifth album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in October 1972.
No Sweat is the sixth album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in 1973.
Mirror Image is the seventh album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released by Columbia Records in July 1974.
Pages was an American pop rock band active during the late 1970s and the early 1980s. The band consisted of Richard Page and Steve George on vocals and keyboards supported by various studio musicians, some of whom from time to time were considered part of the band. Although Pages was highly regarded for its well-crafted pop and jazz-fusion sound, the group did not achieve commercial success, and disbanded after recording three studio albums. Pages is perhaps best known as the launching pad for the recording careers of Page and George, who later formed the band Mr. Mister who topped the charts during the mid-1980s with the hits "Broken Wings" and "Kyrie".
Steven Katz is an American guitarist, singer, and record producer who is best known as a member of the rock-pop-jazz group Blood, Sweat & Tears. Katz was an original member of the rock bands the Blues Project and American Flyer. As a producer, his credits include the 1979 album Short Stories Tall Tales for the Irish band Horslips, and the Lou Reed albums Rock 'n' Roll Animal and Sally Can't Dance and the Elliott Murphy album Night Lights.
Now Is the Time is a jazz album released by Jeff Lorber Fusion. The album was released in 2010 on Heads Up Records and was produced by Jeff Lorber, Bobby Colomby, and Jimmy Haslip. It was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Jazz Album.
Brand New Day is the tenth album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears, released in November 1977. This was the band's only release on ABC Records. It was produced by Roy Halee and the band's former drummer Bobby Colomby. Colomby and Halee had also co-produced the group's fourth album, Blood, Sweat & Tears; 4, in 1971. Brand New Day failed to reach the Billboard 200 chart, peaking at #205.
Jerry Donald Fisher is an American R&B singer – Texas-born and Oklahoma-reared – known internationally for being the lead vocalist with Blood, Sweat & Tears from 1971 to 1975. He is known to Dallas music fans for his R&B gigs from 1964 to 1972, and known in Bay Saint Louis as one-half of the husband–wife proprietorship of "Dock of the Bay," a restaurant and nightclub owned and operated by the two from 1976 to the spring of 2005, when they sold it a few months before Hurricane Katrina blew it away.
Found Treasures is a budget compilation album by the band Blood, Sweat & Tears released by CBS/Columbia Records/Sony Music in 1990. The songs here were recorded from 1967 to 1976 while the band was signed to Columbia Records. This collection includes album tracks along with several single edits as they were heard on the radio. The single edits included here were not readily available on other albums and compilations at the time of this release.