Ken has two new projects :
TEN DIRECTIONS a SUPER BAND with Bass great MARK EGAN,and FAYE GREEN Vocals
plus a great
A NEW JAZZ TRIO .
A NEW CD SOJOURN released in August !!
Stay tuned for upcoming dates on the live show page. 2018 is looking like a very busy year!!!
Ken grew up on Pawcatuck CT/ Westerly RI border, a fishing and beach town in the north eastern USA.
Ken's parents were young when they had him and he was exposed to great deal of good music from The Beatles , Herb Alpert, Cream,Vanilla Fudge and Deep Purple which would end up being one of Ken's all time favorite bands. There was also soul music James Brown, Aretha Franklin , Issaic Hayes and much more.
Ken finally got his first drum set at age 14 . He had saved up money from mowing lawns and was able to buy a 1962 Rogers holiday kit with Ziljian cymbals for 300 bucks,a tremendous deal. With that Ken started playing with local groups and got more serious in high school . In 1982 Ken received a scholorship to go to Berklee school of music . Ken decided to wait on school and kept playing locally getting more experience gigging with better and more well known bands .
In 1987 Ken was in a band called Asylum that was on brink of signing with A&M records and touring with Extreme there new band that was doing very well.
Things didn't
work out and Ken found himself now looking at the bigger picture .He knew without question that he wanted to be a professional drummer . So he started studying with a great drummer from Providence RI Evan Burr.
This led to Ken eventualy
meeting Danny Gottlieb
one of his drumming idols from The Pat Metheny Group and Danny introduced Ken to his teacher the great Joe Morello of Dave Brubeck "TAKE FIVE " fame.
That teacher/ student relationship lasted the next 23 years until Joe' untimely death .
Ken also studied with Kenwood Dennard and Zak Danziger while in New York.
During this time Ken had moved to New York City and then New Jersey and had become a great studio drummer doing sessions, jingles, and recordings as well as tours internationally.
To this day Ken has worked with some pretty big names in the business
including
Alicia Keys
Billy Joel
Joey Ramone
Vic Juris
Pete McCann
Mark Egan
Ronnie Earl
Popa Chubby
Billy Eric
Gil Goldstein
Philip Glass
Ed Littman
Danny Gottlieb
David Mann
Dave Mullen
Dem Brooklyn Bum
Ken Wessel
Virginia Mayhew
Racing 8
Bed Of Nails
Jon Cline Combine
Victoria Warne
Roman Holiday
Ted Mckenna
Micheal Powers
Tomoko Ohno
Shimpie Shiratori
Gary Mazzoroppi
and many more!
The Great Joe Morello.