Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be drummers in South Florida.
Miami-born Jonathan Joseph has toured and recorded with vocalists Ricky Martin and Joss Stone — two pop artists with oversized name recognition — but even that hasn’t made him a comparable star despite his own oversized technique, taste, and speed around the drum kit.
The 58-year-old Port St. Lucie resident has also worked with rock, jazz and fusion names like Jeff Beck, Pat Metheny, Joe Zawinul, Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Richard Bona, Martin Barre, Randy Brecker, Mike Stern, Betty Wright, Nestor Torres, and the Yellowjackets.
Trained by the incomparable instructor Steve Rucker at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, the drummer’s talent is comparable to current percussive icons like Vinnie Colaiuta, Dennis Chambers, Dave Weckl, and Omar Hakim.
And although his home base being near the bottom of the Sunshine State means he’s seen and heard less than his peers, Joseph’s every new project could shine more light on his world-class dexterity. Like his latest venture, the Beast Mode Trio (beastmodetrio.com), with keyboardist Tal Cohen and bassist Armando Gola.
The group has a forthcoming self-titled debut album that’s being mixed and mastered by Gola, and appears at Crazy Uncle Mike’s in Boca Raton on Jan. 12.
“It’s mostly originals, written by all of us, with a few cover songs,” Joseph says. “Like ‘My Favorite Things’ by Rodgers and Hammerstein; ‘Lonnie’s Lament’ by John Coltrane, and ‘Yesterdays’ by Jerome Kern, which we play in a 7/8 time signature. They all have our unique rhythmic approach.”
Grammy Award winners all, the members of the Beast Mode Trio are also akin to a musical United Nations (fittingly touring to play the Thailand International Jazz Conference on Jan. 24). The Australia-born Cohen’s credits include Terence Blanchard, Joe Lovano, and Greg Osby; the Cuban Gola’s include Arturo Sandoval, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Eldar Djangirov, plus his own celebrity vocalist association in Jennifer Lopez. But the trio’s chemistry stems from years of previous instrumental gigs, jams, and recording sessions.
“The first time I played with Tal was a jam session at Churchill’s Pub,” Gola says, “the oldest bar in Miami. We also used to play at a jazz club there called Le Chat Noir. And Jonathan and I have done many years of recordings and concerts with different bands, including [the Weather Report tribute act] Weather Underground.”
Joseph’s drumming is in the league of hummingbird-like speed kings who attract eyes and ears by nature. To some singers and soloists who are used to being in the spotlight, that can be intimidating. There were reasons that such outsized drumming talents as Buddy Rich and Billy Cobham toured under their own names late in their respective careers after shining in bands led by others.
Yet Joseph, Cohen and Gola all understand that surplus technique and beastly chops are only necessary when they suit particular pieces of music.
The drummer’s work with the Zawinul Syndicate, Austrian keyboard legend Joe Zawinul’s offshoot group from Weather Report, taught him lessons in non-clave-based rhythms and world music. And Joseph’s 2015 instructional book, Exercises in African-American Funk (Hudson Music), written with Rucker, illustrates the fusing of Cameroonian rhythms into contemporary music that his playing with the gifted Cameroon-born bassist Bona inspired.
“Richard probably had more impact on me than any other artist I’ve worked with,” Joseph says, “and Armando is probably one of the only other musicians I know who could help create the rhythms we come up with. Tal, who’s a tremendous up-and-coming talent, has been fascinated with those rhythms since we first crossed paths. He plays mostly acoustic piano, with occasional Fender Rhodes electric piano figures.”
The Beast Mode Trio features the perfect foils for Joseph, and not just because all are deserving of wider recognition. Cohen seamlessly blends his knack for Middle Eastern melody with traditional jazz harmony, and his rhythmic prowess perfectly suits the propulsive rhythm section. Gola sports a deep, massive tone on electric bass, and an ability to match Joseph on everything from stately ballads and jazz standards to complex shell-game rhythmic patterns on original fusion compositions.
Both Cohen and Gola reside in Joseph’s hometown of Miami, and the drummer has indeed ventured elsewhere during his career of star associations.
Many of the jazz/fusion artists he worked with came during the second half of the 1990s, when he lived in and around New York City. Joseph then met British singer Stone following the turn of the century; married her mother, and started splitting time between the United States and England.
There, Stone introduced him to Beck (1944-2023). Joseph became the final 2012-2017 drummer, before Colaiuta’s return to the lineup, in a scroll of affiliated who’s-who percussive practitioners who worked with the guitarist throughout his career. But Joseph’s move to Port St. Lucie during that time frame was for reasons non-musical.
“In 2016, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer,” he says. “The surgeon that my urologist recommended was based in Celebration, near Orlando. So I sold my townhouse in Boca Raton and moved further north to be closer to where I needed to commute for treatment. I hardly told anyone, and hardly anyone knew me in Port St. Lucie, where I wasn’t playing any music. I had surgery in 2017 after my last tour with Jeff, plus a tour with Jethro Tull’s former guitarist, Martin Barre. Those were both great distractions, and I’ve been cancer-free for more than seven years since.”
The Beast Mode Trio took shape not long after Joseph’s new survivor status did, providing incentive for the seemingly ageless drummer to break new ground with Cohen and Gola, musicians a generation or more younger.
On the trio’s album and at its upcoming area performance, listeners can expect the unexpected in Cohen’s harmonic and melodic variations being fused with African polyrhythms like Mangambe and Bikutsi, as featured on cuts like Joseph’s composition “Pinda.”
Few other than Weather Report have ever created a jazz/fusion beast this heavy — especially, and similarly, with no guitarist required.
If You Go
The Beast Mode Trio performs at Crazy Uncle Mike’s, 6450 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton.
When: 7 p.m. Jan. 12
Tickets: $25-$245
Info: 561-931-2889, crazyunclemikes.com