ABOUT DON CAPONE: Don Capone is currently appearing in the Tampa Bay area with a variety of working groups and he is covering the whole gamut of musical styles. Recently he has finished recording a Jazz CD with a group on the scene in clubs in the Tampa area. The group, New Directions, asked Don to join and add his experience in both Big Band and small group styles to their sound. For the last two years, Don has been performing with some of the areas great jazz players to include John Lamb of the Duke Ellington Band, Matt Bokulic of the Jack Brokenshaw group and the Mike Mc Carther group also playing with Richard Drexler of numerous recordings and international performance fame. Don has been supplying percussion back up for singers, Rose Bilal, Kim Murray, Lori Harden and recently, Denise Moore.

Don served as music coordinator for The Renaissance Center for the Arts from 2002 through 2004. The Center provided free music and art education for the children of the surrounding neighborhood of Tampa Heights. Don also performed with the Renaissance Jazz Ensemble as staff drummer. The ensemble performed music written by the Centers director Mr. Nick Cutro. Nick directed the ensemble also performing piano selections with the group which often featured the students themselves singing and playing various percussion instruments on stage. Various local and nationally known players were invited to play at the center for the musical benefit and education of the children and to raise funds for the center itself.

Don has studied with some of the top Jazz and Show drummers in the U.S. Starting at the age of fourteen with Charley Perry in N.Y. After serving in the Navy and playing with the Great Lakes Training Center Band in Illinois, Don returned to New York City where he met and studied with Elvin Jones and took in as many acts as he could while working the club scene. Don’s Jazz gigs in the Big Apple began with Luise Brown at the Inner Circle in midtown Manhattan and took off from there, playing the Metropole with the Soul Project and moving on to The Cheetah Lounge, The Top of the Sixes and Jilly’s with Frankie Randal, The Copa Cabana with The Paris Brothers Show Band, The Riviera Show Band, Mickey, Larry and The Exciters.

In the early seventies Don began trekking back and forth from New York City to Las Vegas with the likes of Arthur Connolly, Wilson Pickett, Jimmy Clanton, Bobby Breen, Tiny Tim and Dee Clark, finally settling in Boston to study at the Berklee College of Music with Alan Dawson who was introduced to Don by John Labarbara who was then writing for and playing with Buddy Rich’s Big Band. While in Boston, Don teamed up with Spencer Wood who was one of the top writers for show bands at the time. Don’s affiliation with Spencer got him the opportunity to play on the A B C Wide World of Sports background music for a Mark Spitz video that was recorded and edited for television in Clearwater Florida. Don finished the seventies doing the Playboy tour with Geri Jerome from Las Vegas.

In the eighties, Don began hitting the road again playing the Soul Circuit just for the experience. What an experience it was! The Coasters, The Platters, The James Brown Review featuring Big Mama, The Drifters, The Four Tops, Bunny Siegler, Dee Dee Sharp, Little Eva, Latimore Brown, Kathy Wells, just to mention a few. After a couple of years and too many “One Nighters” to count; Don returned to Tampa to continue his drum studies with Ron Delp who was instrumental in helping him design his new jazz techniques and showband style, which he utilized with Me and the Other Guys, Dan Mc Million, Kent Lavoy, Charley Ensinosa, Dick Rivers and many more. During his career, Don has been influenced by every big name or newcomer he ever met or heard. So when you hear Don Capone play, he’s really playing Don Capone. After a concert at Pauls Mall in Boston, Don had a chance to visit and talk to Buddy Rich actually addressing how to make it as a big band drummer. Rich told him: “Kid, watch, listen and play your heart out.” If you ever see Don play, you’ll see that advice is still taken seriously.

Don is currently playing on and producing an instructional DVD to be released in late 2007.

CONTACT DON CAPONE HERE