Gregg

A native of Detroit, Gregg Bissonette  comes from a family of talented musicians. Gregg’s dad Bud was a drummer and his mother Phyllis played piano and vibes. Gregg started playing on his dad’s drum kit from about the age of 5! His brother Matt is a bassist and producer, and their sister Kathy also lives and works in concert promotion in LA.

After high school, Gregg left Detroit for North Texas State University (now the University of North Texas). He became the drummer for the famed NTSU One O’Clock Big Band. Under the direction of Leon Breeden, Gregg recorded two albums with the One O’Clock Band, Lab 80 and Lab 81.

In 1982, following his graduation from NTSU, Gregg made the move to Los Angeles. In his new home of LA, he made friends with three of his favorite drummers: Myron Grombacher, the late Mark Craney, and Doane Perry. They started a fun drummers club called The Woodland Hills Drum Club with friends Jay Rubin, Barry Schnider, Dean Zimmer, Tony Pia, and many others.

One of Gregg’s dreams became a reality in 1982, when Gregg became the drummer for Maynard Ferguson’s Big Band. An added bonus for him was that the band already included his brother Matt on bass! The band toured the world and recorded a live CD called Live in San Francisco.

From Maynard Ferguson, to multi-platinum recordings, to many world tours and playing on two Grammy award winning albums, Gregg has seen his musical dreams come true one by one. And in 2003, another dream became a reality when he and Matt were asked to tour with Ringo Starr in Ringo And The Roundheads to promote Ringo’s album Ringo Rama.

"Be a musical drummer! Concentrate on keeping the tempo and the groove for the whole song, and play dynamically."