Mike Mainieri -

Mike Mainieri (born July 4, 1938) is an American vibraphonist from the Bronx, N.Y.C., who entered professional music as a teenager with Buddy Rich. He led the Mike Mainieri Quartet on Blues on the Other Side and Insight, then directed the large jazz-rock ensemble White Elephant amid extensive New York session and production work.

Mainieri formed Steps in 1979 with saxophonist Michael Brecker, pianist Don Grolnick, bassist Eddie Gomez, and drummer Steve Gadd; renamed Steps Ahead, the group became his principal long-term vehicle through albums including Steps Ahead, Modern Times, and N.Y.C.

Background

Michael T. Mainieri Jr. was born July 4, 1938, in the Bronx, New York City. Mainieri grew up in a large musical household where aunts and uncles sang standards at family gatherings. His father and an uncle performed a small vaudeville tap act, while his step-grandfather played jazz guitar and taught him chord substitutions. His grandmother gave him early piano lessons.

Mainieri entered Mr. Shiller’s neighborhood music school at eight or nine and studied piano, orchestra bells, xylophone, and percussion. His mother heard vibraphonist Marjorie Hyams on radio and chose the instrument for her son. She worked two years in a sweatshop and bought him a two-and-a-half-octave Deagan vibraphone. Mainieri studied with vibraphonist Lem Leach from age eleven to thirteen and learned standard repertoire through Leach’s four-mallet technique. His teenage studies included drums with drummer Ted Reed, timpani with Doc Frieze, and vibraphone with percussionist Phil Kraus as he prepared for possible Juilliard admission. Mainieri began local bandleading work as a twelve-year-old vibraphonist.

Mainieri formed a trio with teenage guitar and bass players at fourteen and entered Paul Whiteman’s TV Teen Club contest in Philadelphia. The trio won the contest and appeared on Whiteman’s television and radio programs. Mainieri toured with Whiteman as a featured instrumentalist and continued to lead bands for weddings and dances.

A Bronx drummer who knew Buddy Rich repeatedly recommended Mainieri to the bandleader. Mainieri finally sat in with Rich at the Village Gate in 1956, where Rich tested him on a fast “Cherokee” and hired the seventeen-year-old vibraphonist. Rich soon dismissed most of the group, then asked Mainieri to recruit replacement players and write arrangements. Mainieri remained with Rich for roughly six years and developed as a vibraphonist, marimbist, and arranger. Rich recorded him on the April 1960 sessions for The Driver and the October dates for Playtime. Creed Taylor produced the August 1961 New York sessions for Blues Caravan, where Mainieri played vibraphone and marimba and arranged several titles.

Mainieri also accepted engagements with saxophonist Sonny Stitt and guitarist Kenny Burrell outside the Rich group. Mainieri left regular touring around 1962 to marry and establish himself in New York studio work. He assembled pianist Bruce Martin, bassist Julie Ruggiero, and drummer Joe Porcaro for a September 5, 1962 quartet session at Van Gelder Studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, the date that produced Blues on the Other Side.

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