Mike Mainieri
b. 24 July 1938, the Bronx, New York, USA. Mainieri was playing the vibraphone by the time he was 10 years old and performing publicly at 14. He studied at the Juilliard School and then joined the Paul Whiteman Band before touring with the Buddy Rich Orchestra (1956-62). He left Rich to become a session musician in New York. During the '70s he wrote music for television and films. He played with Jeremy Steig's band Jeremy And The Satyrs at the Cafe A Go Go, formed a 16-piece rock band and led his own quartet with Steve Gadd on drums. He invented the synthi-vibe, which not only allowed him to treat the sound of the vibes electronically but also to be heard in high-volume situations. In 1979, he brought together a group of session musicians to tour Japan. The unit included Gadd (later replaced by Peter Erskine), Michael Brecker, Don Grolnick (piano), and Eddie Gomez. They were named Steps, later to be Steps Ahead, and were described as ‘a contemporary bebop band’.