2026兩廳院夏日爵士 彼得．厄斯金爵士五重奏《空中漫步》

國家兩廳院 NTCH

A drummer among drummers— returning with seismic force

Reuniting fusion legends to unleash a storm of rhythm!

A master of all styles, Peter Erskine is the definitive drummer of the golden age of jazz fusion. As a core member of Weather Report and Steps Ahead, his presence can be found in nearly 700 albums. His career spans collaborations with greats like Stan Kenton and Diana Krall, as well as contributions to cinematic masterpieces such as the Oscar-winning La La Land. With two Grammy Awards, ten-time Modern Drummer Readers Poll winner, and a place in the magazine’s Hall of Fame, Erskine is, without question, the drummer’s drummer.

For this performance in Taiwan, he unites with Mike Mainieri, a central figure of Steps Ahead, alongside the ensemble behind his Grammy-nominated album Dr. Um. Through lightning-fast rhythms, they invite the audience to follow the beat and take a walk along the soaring jazz skyline.

Drums｜Peter Erskine

Vibes｜Mike Mainieri

Saxophone｜Bob Sheppard

Piano｜Cédric Hanriot

Bass｜Matthew Garrison

Peter Erskine

Peter Erskine has played drums since the age of 4 and is known for his versatility and love of working in different musical contexts. He appears on 700 albums and film scores, has won 2 Grammy Awards and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music.

Fifty albums have been released under his own name or as co-leader. He has played with the Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson big bands, Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Kenny Wheeler, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Brecker Brothers, The Yellowjackets, Pat Metheny & Gary Burton, John Scofield, et al, and has appeared as a soloist with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, plus the London, Los Angeles, Chicago, BBC Symphony, Bochum, Tokyo Metropolitan, Yomiuri Nippon, Oslo and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras. He premiered Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Erskine — Concerto for Drumset & Orchestra” with Beethoven Orchester Bonn and performed it at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Peter has been voted “Best Jazz Drummer of the Year” ten times by the readers of Modern Drummer magazine and was elected into its Hall of Fame in 2017.

Mike Mainieri

Primarily recognized as an award-winning jazz vibraphonist, Mike Mainieri’s equally remarkable talents as producer, performer, arranger, and composer have contributed to shaping the cutting edge in music.

During the '50s and early '60s, he performed with such legendary artists as Buddy Rich, Billie Holliday, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins and Wes Montgomery. At the age of 20, he won Downbeat’s International Jazz Critic’s Award.

In the late 70s, Mike founded the pioneering jazz/fusion group Steps Ahead, which included previous cohorts Michael Brecker, Eddie Gomez, Steve Gadd and Don Grolnick. Delving into contemporary sounds while maintaining experimental sounds and compositional integrity, Steps Ahead was and is a launching pad for young talent and new musical ideas.

Dr. Um Band

In recent years, Erskine feels, he’s strayed from his true love, fusion and R&B drumming. Dr. Um, which Erskine self-produced, marks his return to “the kind of drumming I was best-known for in my youth and during my years with Weather Report and Steps Ahead.” He elaborates: "I’d traveled my ‘anti-drumming’ path of recent years about as far as I could take it—exquisite music where ‘less’ was so much ‘more’—the minimalism of my ECM and Fuzzy Music trio recording years had become my calling card. So the chance to play this way again feels very fresh and new to me. It’s being able to live the ‘if I knew then what I know now’ dream and make some really cool music at the same time.

“I feel inspired, like a kid, only one who’s got something to say.”

Dr. Um—the title a very cool play on words—feels like a return, yet at the same time there’s nothing retro about it. Acclaimed in the jazz world for their virtuosic musicianship, the band carries the language of classic fusion jazz into the 21st century.

In 2016, Dr. Um received a Grammy nomination. The same lineup later released two follow-up albums, Second Opinion and On Call, both of which were warmly received by jazz audiences and critics alike.