Liotta, Tony - Schlagwerk

Tony Liotta

"Sticks" Magazine wrote about Tony Liotta: “He is an incredible workaholic, a passionate drummer, a lover of real sounds exploring the worlds of rhythm. An almost life-long career in the music business has propelled him to the top”. According to recent press commentaries "Liotta is not only a globetrotting artist, he is also Germany´s answer to Billy Cobham. He has inspired generations of musicans.” At the studios, he is the legendary "first take drummer".(Westfälische Rundschau). His latest album "Colours of Life" was called "a time document of the art of drumming" ("Sticks" Magazine). "Tony Liotta is one of the world´s best drummers and percussionists". ("Prinz" Magazine). “He unites the facination of drumming and rhythm into the “Tony-Liotta-Groove-Sound-Overall-Package" ("Sticks" Magazine).
Tony Liotta is also a teacher. The „Tony Liotta Drumschool“ has existed for thirteen years and is considered to be one of the best in Germany. As a compendium of his many years of experience, Liotta´s instructional DVD „Drums Total Vol.1“ was published by Leu Verlag in the year 2006.

To top

Professional Activities

Dummer and Percussionist

Why Schlagwerk?

Schlagwerk are the best

Favourite Instrument?

Cajon and Udu

Musical Style

World, Jazz, Fusion, Rock, Pop

Bands/Projects

XXL - Trio with Tony Liotta and the Italian Santacatterina Brothers. Playing Fusion
Worked with international Jazz Artists like Dizzy Gillespie, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Paul Bley, Lee Konitz, and many others. www.enricosantacatterina.com

Tony Liotta`s JazzBrass -
The sax player Frank Kirchner is one of the best known and most booked saxophonists in Germany. www.frankkirchner.de. Dimitri Telmanov trumpet. Markus Scheltinga live and studio work with Cyndi Lauper, Herbert Grönemeyer, Jimmy Somerville Frank. Productions for John Watts or Gloria Gaynor. On keyboards Jörg 'Shaby' Pelzer, among others played with Larry Carlton, Stefan Raab. Tony Liotta on drums. (Rocky Roberts, Bernard Purdie, Kenny Arranoff, Zoro, Steve Smith and Pete York, Omar Hakim, John Blackwell, Thomas Lang, etc.) Andre de Cayres tours throughout Europe and various CD productions.

Pink Floyd Project - pays tribute to the legend of the psychedelic rock group Pink Floyd around Roger Waters and David Gilmor. Worldwide, there are only a few cover bands that rise to this challenge. A huge drum and percussion set fills the stage. Tony Liotta plays with extreme drum sounds, and special percussion effects, with gongs, udo and thaiko skins. Keyboard atmospheres of Shabby Pelzer (Larry Carlton, Stefan Raab, etc.) and fantastic sounds and droning riffs of guitarist Markus Exner (Achim Reichel, BAP, Sydney Youngblood, Randy Hansen, Stigma, etc.) thrill the audience. At vocals the incredible Robert Collins (Pointer Sisters, Zucchero, Mark Ternzi, etc.) with a voice that is as dirty as exciting. Backing vocals the famous dutch “jazztube“ Lucy Wende. Jörg Schmidt, bass (Frank Henkes) and on the saxophone the great Frank Kirchner (Grönemeyer). Together, the seven musicians play the probably greatest rock music ever written - but also add a piece of their own interpretation.

How to mic

It differs depending on whether it is a live or a studio situation. I use Neumann and Sennheiser mics for studio work and clip mics for the cajon, and for the bass cajon I use a layer and overheads. Use ambient miking to capture the original sound of the instrument. You can check it out in my new video, which is coming up soon.