An impressive feature of Steve Fidyk’s drumming on the new CD A Perfect Match by The Taylor/Fidyk Big Band is the wide range of styles covered. In addition to contemporary big band tunes by composer/arranger Mark Taylor, the disc features such classics as “Chelsea Bridge” by Billy Strayhorn and “Kansas City” by Lieber & Stoller.

Fidyk says he had to know some drumming history in order to approach such charts authentically. “It’s so important to listen to the great drummers,” Steve says. “We all stand on their shoulders when we play.”

Steve not only listened, he transcribed. Some of his transcriptions of recordings by Max Roach, Roy Haynes, and Joe Morello appear in the Hal Leonard publication Drum Standards, and Fidyk did the transcriptions for Peter Erskine’s book The Drum Perspective, also published by Hal Leonard. Advertisement

Fidyk says he learned a lot about the importance of dynamics and color from studying the work of Mel Lewis. Steve applies those lessons well on A Perfect Match, complementing each chart’s structure and supplying the appropriate backing, whether aggressively kicking the full band during shout choruses or providing tasty brush accompaniment behind a piano solo.

For information on Steve and A Perfect Match, visit www.stevefidyk.com.