Ever since picking up his first pair of drumsticks at age ten, Drummer/Percussionist Kevin Winard has been fascinated with music—all types of music. Being raised in a musical family, he was introduced to all the greats, from Count Basie to James Brown. Growing up in Santa Barbara, CA he studied drums with Tony Cappiello who was then a student of the legendary teacher Freddie Gruber. At the age of 17 Kevin recorded his first album with the Matt Catingub Big Band featuring the legendary jazz singer Mavis Rivers. Over the next seven years he went on to record another five albums with this highly acclaimed Los Angeles based big band.
When he was just twenty years old he began touring the country backing up one of the most successful pop duos in musical history—The Captain & Tennille. He toured and recorded with them for over ten years. In the summer of 1988, Kevin traveled the United States with the pop group Times Two opening for Debbie Gibson on her Out Of The Blue tour. In 1991 Kevin was requested by French rock star David Hallyday for his European tour and live album. That same year he traveled the world playing with pop icon Paul Anka.
Still striving to broaden his musical horizons, Kevin soon found himself working with two of the greatest vocalist of our time: Vic Damone and Jack Jones. “Working with these great singers and performers taught me so much about music”, he says, “to play for the song, to let the lyrics come through, these were some of the greatest lessons I could learn”. It was 1993 however, that brought about some of the biggest changes in Kevin’s career. He began working with singer/songwriter Kleber Jorge. Brazilian Jazz quickly became one of Kevin’s greatest loves. “It’s the perfect union of all the harmonic elements of jazz with the passionate rhythms of Brazil”, Kevin exclaims, “It was completely captivating”. As a result of his association with Kleber, he began touring extensively with Sergio Mendes performing in the US, Philippines, Japan, Malaysia, Canada and Europe.
From 1995-2005 he toured with world famous trumpet player Doc Severinsen (The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson) performing with symphony orchestras across the Country. "I had never worked with such an artist who was so dedicated to his craft. The consummate showman and performer, Doc always inspired me to play my best".
His drumming and percussion talents also led him to perform with artists such as The Woody Herman Orchestra, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra Jr., Rosemary Clooney, John Rowles, Delaney Bramlett, Roger Williams, Carol Burnett, Hal Linden, Ray Anthony, Les Brown, Billy Barty, Patty Andrews of The Andrew Sisters, Mavis Rivers, Captain Jack McDuff, Jim Nabors, Teka, Marylyn Horne, Marilyn Maye, Christine Ebersole, Gloria Loring, Debby Boone and many more.
Since 2005 he has been touring with singer Steve Tyrell . In the past six years Steve and the band have been to Japan, Europe, Singapore, the Philippines and the US extensively. With Steve he has performed on the Today Show numerous times, The CBS Early Show, The Tonight Show, Michael Parkinson's show in London and the Katarina Vitt's Stars of Ice show in Germany. His tours have also taken Kevin to perform at many European Jazz Festivals: Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Istanbul Jazz Festival (Turkey), Vitoria Jazz Festival (Spain), San Javier Jazz Festival (Spain), the Nairn Jazz Festival (Scotland) and in London twice at the prestigious Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Kevin can be heard on Steve Tyrell’s “Live At The Cafe Carlyle”, “I’ll Take Romance” and upcoming release “It’s Magic-The Music Of Sammy Cahn” . Be sure to check out his Schedule to find him performing with Steve in a location near you.
Kevin has articles published in Modern Drummer and Drum Business magazines. To view please visit the Articles page.
As an educator Kevin has performed master classes in the Chicago area for the Contemporary Music Project, the Milwaukee Conservatory of Music, UWM, and in Santa Barbara at Dancing Drum and Mike’s Drums Shop . He is currently the drums and percussion instructor at Santa Barbara City College.
He has been on numerous recordings and continues to have an active studio career. For a list of recordings please refer to the Discography page. Recently Kevin has invested in a home studio recording both drums and percussion for many artists most notably, Steve Tyrell’s “I’ll Take Romance”. Other recent recording projects include Tom Wopat’s “Ive Got Your Number”, Sasha’s Bloc-”Melancholy”, Hiromi Kanda’s “Days Of Yesterday” and “Lauren White’s “Meant To Be”.
As a producer he has been involved in projects such as, Camilla’s “Swing ‘n’ Sassy”, Mellonie Irvine’s debut release “You’ve Changed”, Margie Nelson’s “Hungry Girl” and most recently as co-producer for Brazilian singer/guitarist Teka’s latest CD project “So Many Stars”.
His latest endeavor is a brand new project that features him singing jazz standards. It is aptly named “Kevin Winard Sings”. Produced by pianist, composer and arranger Peter Clark. this new venture is an exciting diversion for him. Kevin explains, “I was excited and also a bit nervous as I never found singing to be a true profession of mine. It made it sense though. I have had the opportunity to have worked with some pretty legendary singers and having my Mom and Dad loving singers and jazz and always playing it in the house, well I guess it was just in my blood.” Musical examples can be found on the CDs page.
With all of these projects and tours under his belt, what does the future hold for him? “ I want to delve more into the producing and composing areas. I love the process of taking on a project, working with an artist, and developing his/her vision into reality. As an entertainer, it is still very rewarding to perform live, but there is nothing like capturing a moment during a recording session; when the take is over and all the musicians stop and just smile at each other without saying a word...They just know that they have created something special. That to me is what it is all about.”