ETHAN WINOGRAND BIOGRAPHY 2010

Born in New York City, at five years he started playing guitar and began private guitar lessons two years later while adding piano to his studies. At the age of fifteen he discovered the drums and that was that. Two years later he joined the rock group “Joe Cool”, who as part of the early NYC punk scene performed at CBGBs, Max´s Kansas City and other clubs most weekends along side other suspects such as; Talking Heads, Television, Blonde, John Cale, The Ramones, The Dictators ect... It was during this period that Winogrand started exploring jazz. In 1978 after leaving Joe Cool he was free to pursue his newly discovered love of Jazz and began studying at the Drummer´s Collective with director Rick Kravitz. Along with his life long friend guitartist Adam Scher, they formed the Jazz-Rock-Fusion group “High Tide”. After a few years playing throughout the northeast region of the US, the group disbanded and Winogrand continued his jazz explorations by joining the Richard Lindsey trio. He also started recording for a variety of New York artists.

In 1983, he joined the groundbreaking art/funk trio “Unknown Gender” recording and co-producing their next four records and touring extensively throughout Europe for the next eight years. Winogrand relocated to live in Copenhagen, Denmark for the next four years. While there, he worked at Adapter Studios, composing and producing music and sound for industrials/commercials as well as for his own projects. He was also establishing himself as a uniquely styled drummer, playing with many of the local Danish musicians and jazz artists.

After returning to NYC in 1987 he became involved in the downtown art/rock/jazz scene, becoming a regular performing artist at venues such as the Knitting Factory, Amazon, China Club, The Kitchen, Nuyorican Poets Society, Corniela St. Café, The Pyramid Club while performing and recording with varied artists such as: Stranger Jones, Nue Enemy, Changing Bodies, Cindy Rickmond, Richard Lindsey Trio, Valerie Block Quartet, Ed Sullivan´s Big Duck, Marc Sloan, Virgin Dog, Sue Fisher and so on. It was during this period that Winogrand received a call from Carla Bley with an invitation to record on Karen Mantler´s debut CD produced by Steve Swallow. He subsequently toured with Mantler for that and her second CD, which included a tour with Carla Bley´s Very Big Band, consisting of such notables as: Steve Swallow, Andrew Sheppard, Don Alias, Lew Soloff. In 1991, Ethan and Eric Mingus formed “New Republik”, a funk rock sextet, with included Matt Munisteri & Catherine Russell. A year later Winogrand moved to Brooklyn where he began to sharpen his focus on jazz and improvised music. With Ross Bonadonna, a Brooklyn local multi instrumentalist and so began a collaboration that continues to formulate and develop.

In 1998 Winogrand began purchasing recording equipment and setting it up in his Brooklyn apartment. It wasn’t long before various artists (Seamus Blake, Donny McCaslin) started passing through Spokes Studio for commercial and record projects; Eric Mingus´s debut solo CD, a number of ESPN sports documentaries produced by Mingus, the new Stranger Jones and Sue Fisher CDs. But the studio was mainly for Winogrand to work on and record his own material at his own pace.

On January 4th 2000 Ethan and his wife Montse celebrated the birth of their son; Mateo Garry Winogrand. Three months later, they moved with all their belongings including the studio, to the north of Spain near his wife´s home town. Ethan immediately set up his studio in the new location where it is currently operating. For the next couple of years Winogrand joined Eric Mingus for tours throughout Europe spending most of that spring, summer and fall promoting Eric Mingus´s CD “Um Er Uh”. Upon his return home he began performing with some of the local artists and in his free time started working on the compositions that were to become “Made In Brooklyn” recorded both in his studio in Spain and at Wombat in Brooklyn, New York. Made in Brooklyn was released in the summer of 2003 by Clean Feed records. .

Winogrand currently performs both as a leader and sideman, locally and throughout Spain leading a piano trio featuring Jacobo de Miguel, with the Madrid based quartet “The Four” and “The Cinema Quartet”. Winogrand´s latest CD titled, “Tangled Tango” was released by Clean Feed Records at the start of 2007. That same year he recorded in trio with Erik Friedlander and Ross Bonadonna in New York for yet another 2007 release. He continues to record and tour Europe with Eric Mingus as well as leading his own groups.

Winogrand visits NYC at least once each year for recording sessions, family visits, friends, the jazz club scene, ect…maintaining his connection and involvement with the musicians he has worked with through the years.