Home » Jazz Musicians » Steve Grover

Steve Grover

Drummer/composer Steve Grover was born February 26, 1956 in Lewiston, Maine. He studied with the excellent local jazz drummer and teacher Dick Demers, and after studying at Berklee and the University of Maine, Steve landed a gig with guitar legend Lenny Breau. Steve worked with him on and off for the next few years, learning the subtleties of small group interplay with a master musician. In 1979, Grover attended a program at The Creative Music Studio, the music school run by Karl Berger, which had such visiting artists as Oliver Lake, Julius Hemphill, Lee Konitz, Bob Moses, and other musicians. At CMS, Steve was exposed to the concepts of artists from the world of jazz, new music, and world music.

In 1980 Grover teamed up with clarinetist Brad Terry, saxophonist Charlie Jennison and bassist John Hunter to form a group called The Friends of Jazz, which performed in Maine schools and communities. The group also played host to visiting artists, working with Dizzy Gillespie, Buddy Tate, Gray Sargent and others while occasionally reconstituting itself with excellent players like pianist Chris Neville, trombonist Tim Sessions, bassists John Lockwood and Tom Bucci, guitarist Tony Gaboury, and other fine musicians.

In 1985, Steve composed Blackbird Suite, a song cycle setting for the Wallace Stevens poem Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird. Local performances of this piece garnered a grant for Steve to compose Splitting the World In Half, a collaboration with the poet Mark Melnicove that was performed at the Maine Festival in 1986. Several years passed before the 1991 premiere of Thirteen Ways of Looking At a Blackbird as a multi-media presentation involving the theater artist Lee Faulkner, which incorporated music, choreography, masks, mime, video, film, and slide projections. The piece was commissioned by the Maine Community Foundation and was staged at the Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris in June 1991. Performances followed at the Maine Festival and as part of a residency in May 1992 in the Farmington school system.

Further explorations of this piece continued into 1994, when Blackbird Suite won the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz/BMI Jazz Composers Competition. For the first time the music involved the vocalist Christine Correa and the pianist Frank Carlberg, who performed the piece at the Kennedy Center in November 1994, as part of the Monk Institute’s competition. When a CD of the music was finally released in 1997, the reviews were excellent. Excerpts of the piece also helped Grover win, along with eleven other contestants, JAZZIZ magazine's Percussion On Fire talent search in 1996, securing a spot on the CD accompanying the February 1997 issue as part of the prize.

Read more

Tags

Album Review

Steve Grover: Variations

Read "Variations" reviewed by Alberto Bazzurro


Sessant'anni, nativo del Maine, Steve Grover è qui alla testa del proprio quartetto (voce e piano trio), su cui s'innestano a turno i quattro fiati, generando cinque quintetti (senza la tromba e sempre con un solo sax) e sei sestetti (appunto con la tromba aggiunta a un unico sax alla volta). Il risultato è di una notevole compattezza e solidità, su pagine che come ci dicono i titoli girano per lo più attorno al tema dell'oscurità (ma anche del suo ...

143
Album Review

Steve Grover Trio: Breath

Read "Breath" reviewed by Norman Weinstein


Drummer Steve Grover may or may not be a practicing Buddhist, but he plays drums with a lightness and clarity that my friends doing daily Buddhist meditation might well envy. The title cut on this engaging album is a strikingly original Grover composition where the trio members sound like they are breathing together with a kind of musical and spiritual unity rarely heard in studios or concert stages. Pianist Frank Carlberg, while sounding influenced at times by Keith Jarrett or ...

176
Album Review

Steve Grover Quartet Featuring Brad Terry: Remember

Read "Remember" reviewed by Dave Nathan


For his second album for Invisible Music, superb Maine-based drummer Steve Grover has gotten together long time collaborator, clarinetist Brad Terry for an appealing program of Grover compositions. Grover, winner of the 1995 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz/BMI Jazz Composers Competition, has been an adjunct professor of Music at the Bates, Bowdoin and Maine Universities as well as performer in demand in the Northeast. Brad Terry, an excellent contemporary clarinet virtuoso, is relatively unknown in the United States. While he ...

185
Album Review

The Steve Grover Quartet Featuring Brad Terry: Remember

Read "Remember" reviewed by Dave Nathan


For his second album for Invisible Music, superb Maine-based drummer Steve Grover has gotten together long time collaborator, clarinetist Brad Terry for an appealing program of Grover compositions. Grover, winner of the 1995 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz/BMI Jazz Composers Competition, has been an adjunct professor of Music at the Bates, Bowdoin and Maine Universities as well as performer in demand in the Northeast. Brad Terry, an excellent contemporary clarinet virtuoso, is relatively unknown in the United States. While he ...

148
Album Review

The Steve Grover Quartet with Brad Terry: Remember

Read "Remember" reviewed by Dave Nathan


For his second album for Invisible Music, superb Maine-based drummer Steve Grover has gotten together long time collaborator, clarinetist Brad Terry for an appealing program of Grover compositions. Grover, winner of the 1995 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz/BMI Jazz Composers Competition, has been an adjunct professor of Music at the Bates, Bowdoin and Maine Universities as well as performer in demand in the Northeast. Brad Terry, an excellent contemporary clarinet virtuoso, is relatively unknown in the United States. While he ...

198
Album Review

Steve Grover: Consideration

Read "Consideration" reviewed by Dave Nathan


Maine's independent Invisible Music Records label continues to bring to public attention, the artistry of musicians working and living in the New England area, with special emphasis on the State of Maine. Not only does the label feature artists who would not otherwise be heard, but they regularly open their recording studios to musicians who go beyond playing standards and offer newer music, including their compositions, for consideration. Consideration offers a musical agenda of 10 of drummer/leader Steve Grover originals. ...

Read more articles
9

Recording

Red Piano Records Announces The Release Of "Variations" The New Recording From Award-Winning Drummer/Composer Steve Grover

Red Piano Records Announces The Release Of "Variations" The New Recording From Award-Winning Drummer/Composer Steve Grover

Source: Jason Byrne, Red Cat Publicity

Featuring Steve Grover (drums, compositions), Frank Carlberg (piano), Sean Farias (bass), Christine Correa (voice), Andrew Rathburn, George Garzone & Duncan Hardy (saxophones), Chris Klaxton (trumpet) Available NOW Brooklyn-based Red Piano Records is proud to announce the release of Variations by Steve Grover, a drummer and composer from Maine. This album features a stellar ensemble of jazz musicians from the New York City, Boston and Maine jazz scenes: Steve Grover (drums & compositions), Frank Carlberg (piano), Sean Farias (bass), Christine Correa ...

36

Recording

New CD available by award-winning composer Steve Grover

New CD available by award-winning composer Steve Grover

Source: Steve Grover

This November sees the release of Statement, the new jazz CD by The Steve Grover Quintet Plus One. Statement features the latest group of original compositions by award-winning composer and jazz drummer Steve Grover, featuring a quintet of Trent Austin, trumpet/flugelhorn; David Wells, tenor saxophone; Tony Gaboury, guitar; Chris Van Voorst Van Beest, bass; and Steve Grover, drums, augmented on four sextet tunes by alto saxophonist Jason St. Pierre. The music ranges from the African-inspired groove of the opening sextet ...

77

Recording

New CD from the Steve Grover Quintet "Between Now and After"

New CD from the Steve Grover Quintet "Between Now and After"

Source: All About Jazz

Drummer/composer/bandleader Steve Grover announces the release of his latest CD “Between Now And After". The music features a quintet comprised of David Wells, tenor saxophone; Tim Sessions, trombone; Tony Gaboury, guitar; Chris Van Voorst Van Beest, bass; and Steve Grover, drums. All of the compositions are originals written by Steve Grover, the 1994 winner of The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Composers Competition. The music is rooted in the post-bop tradition with strong melodies and interesting, colorful harmony. “It's no ...

129

Performance / Tour

2nd Annual Steve Grover Birthday Bash in Portland ME

2nd Annual Steve Grover Birthday Bash in Portland ME

Source: All About Jazz

Dimensions In Jazz Presents The Steve Grover 2nd Annual Birthday Bash Featuring The Steve Grover Septet w/ Trent Austin, trumpet; Tim O'Dell, alto saxophone; David Wells, tenor saxophone; Andrew Rathbun, tenor saxophone; Rick Peckham, guitar; Chris Van Voorst Van Beest, bass; Steve Grover, drums/composer. Premiere of “Portraits For Septet" and other brand new original music New CD “Between Now And After" available now Friday February 23 and Saturday February 24 8 PM Starbird Performance Hall, 535 Forest Avenue, ...

126

Recording

New CD "The Garden Above" from David Wells, Tony Gaboury, and Steve Grover

New CD "The Garden Above" from David Wells, Tony Gaboury, and Steve Grover

Source: All About Jazz

On October 20, 2006, Invisible Music Records will release the new CD of the jazz collective featuring saxophonist David Wells, guitarist Tony Gaboury, and drummer Steve Grover, entitled The Garden Above (IM-2037). This recording features original compositions, standards, and jazz compositions, including a unique interpretation of the Sonny Rollins extended piece “Freedom Suite". The music of this trio is at times spacious, swinging, free, textural, intimate and always melodic.

In a new review from UpBeat magazine, Steve Feeney writes, “This ...

76

TV / Film

Steve Grover Music in New Documentary Film, "Tony Montanaro, Theatre & Inspiration"

Steve Grover Music in New Documentary Film, "Tony Montanaro, Theatre & Inspiration"

Source: All About Jazz

Music from the Steve Grover CDs Breath and Remember will be featured in the new documentary Tony Montanaro, Theatre & Inspiration, a film about the remarkable theatre artist, performer and teacher Tony Montanaro, by Maine filmmakers Huey, Richard Searls, and Lee Faulkner. A public premiere is being planned for the Maine International Film Festival in Waterville, Maine in July. There will be a Portland, Maine screening later in the summer of 2006. DVDs will be for sale at each location. ...

208

Performance / Tour

Steve Grover Trio: Upcoming Concerts

Steve Grover Trio: Upcoming Concerts

Source: All About Jazz

The Steve Grover Trio featuring Frank Carlberg, piano; Chris Van Voorst Van Beest, bass; and Steve Grover, drums will be performing in concert at the following colleges: February 26: University of Maine at Augusta, clinic 1 PM; concert 7:30 PM February 27: Bowdoin College, Brunswick ME concert at 8PM February 28: Bates College, Lewiston ME concert at 8PM Steve Grover Trio: The music of the Steve Grover Trio is rooted in the modern jazz piano trio tradition, yet the personality ...

CD Between Now And After:

"It’s no exaggeration to say that every cut is a winner...There is a lot to hear, think about and enjoy on this great new CD from a Maine jazz master in his prime." —Up Beat

CD The Garden Above:

"...every song on this album provides serious food for thought... In the title track, the melody line is so lyrically delivered you can almost hear a spoken word piece in the deep background... This trio prov[es] they’ve got a sense of adventure, and it’s that quality that makes this disc stand up to many repeated listens. You find something new every time." —The Portland Phoenix

Primary Instrument

Drums

Willing to teach

Beginner to advanced

Credentials/Background

B.M. Music Performance flexible hours; contact for rates www.stevegrover.com

Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Variations

Red Piano Records
2016

buy

Statement

Self Produced
2011

buy

Between Now And After

Self Produced
2007

buy

Breath

Invisible Music Records
2003

buy

Remember

Invisible Music Records
2001

buy

Remember

Invisible Music Records
2000

buy

33 Degrees

From: The Garden Above
By Steve Grover

Similar

Get more of a good thing!

Our weekly newsletter highlights our top stories, our special offers, and upcoming jazz events near you.