Today would have been my brother Pete Zeldman’s 68th birthday.
Pete Zeldman was a virtuoso American drummer, composer, and rhythmic theorist renowned for his pioneering work in multiple pedal orchestration and extreme four-way limb independence. Often described as a “rhythmic conceptualist,” he was celebrated for his ability to play multiple simultaneous tempos and complex contrapuntal rhythms.
He played with Steve Vai, Sonny Stitt, Joe Satriani, and many others (including a long-running collaboration with Cindy Shapiro, Rob Shapiro, and Jeff Virgo in the arty pop band 2.5D, a legendary improv session with Jaco Pastorius, and a short stint with John Lurie and the Lounge Lizards), and was a longtime instructor at The Drummer’s Collective in NYC. His LPs include Other Not Elsewhere (1991), Twilight Walks Over (2009), and the posthumous release Enigma, (2024).
Pete was a cut-up who once greeted me by dashing into the hallway of his apartment building stark naked, shouting “Old Pete Zeldman’s got a few tricks up his sleeve,” leaping up and clicking his heels in mid-air.
He was absurd, brilliant, obsessive, kind, compassionate, and generous.
He moved to England in the 1990s where he continued to teach and put on workshops in the EU.
He was my only brother. I loved him. For moments during our difficult childhoods, he was my only friend.
In 1993, at the lowest point of my drinking, he handed me a meeting book and escorted me to the local AA meeting where I got sober and eventually became the person you know today.
Pete’s dear wife Cheryl was beside him when he died of pancreatic cancer on February 28, 2023 in their home outside London.
On the first anniversary of his passing, as my daughter and I were reminiscing about Pete, the ceiling light in our apartment went out for a moment, and then came back on. As a rational, agnostic modernist who believes in science, I’m pretty sure that was Pete tapping the veil between us.
Here are some places where you can experience his music, thoughts, and the way he inspired other artists. If you know links I missed, please share them in the Comments.
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