Ever since picking up his first pair of drumsticks at age ten,  Drummer/Percussionist Kevin Winard has been fascinated with music—all types of music. Being raised in a musical family, he was introduced to all the greats, from Count Basie to James Brown. Growing up in Santa Barbara, CA he studied drums with Tony Cappiello who was a student of the legendary teacher Freddie Gruber. At the age of 17 Kevin recorded his first album with the Matt Catingub Big Band featuring the legendary jazz singer Mavis Rivers. Over the next seven years he went on to record another five albums with this highly acclaimed Los Angeles based big band. When he was just 20 years old he began touring the country backing up one of the most successful pop duos in musical history—The Captain & Tennille. He toured and recorded with them for the next ten years. In the summer of 1988, Kevin toured with the pop group Times Two opening for Debbie Gibson on her first tour. In 1991 Kevin was requested by French rock star David Hallyday for his European tour and live album. That same year he traveled the world playing with pop icon Paul Anka.
   
Still striving to broaden his musical horizons, Kevin soon found himself working with two of the greatest vocalist of our time: Vic Damone and Jack Jones. “Working with these great singers and performers taught me so much about music”, he says, “to play for the song, to let the lyrics come through, these were some of the greatest lessons I could learn”. It was 1993 however, that brought about some of the biggest changes in Kevin’s career. He began working with Brasilian singer/songwriter Kleber Jorge (who has toured and recorded with bassist John Pattitucci and Sergio Mendes). Brasilian Jazz quickly became one of Kevin’s greatest loves. “It’s the perfect union of all the harmonic elements of jazz with the passionate rhythms of Brasil”, Kevin exclaims, “It was completely captivating”. Then in 1996-1997 another dream was realized when he was asked to tour with one of Brasil’s most popular artists, Sergio Mendes performing in the US, Philippines and in Europe at the North Sea and Pori Jazz Festival. During 2002-2005 he toured once again with Sergio doing concerts in Japan, Canada, the US, the Philippines and in Malaysia.

In 1997 Kevin got together with percussionists Kalani and Michael Faue and formed the group MURUMBA. Taking traditional folkloric rhythms and songs from Africa, Cuba and Brasil plus some original songs, they created a sound that is all their own. In March of the same year they produced their first album. The responses from the musical community have been nothing short of amazing. Such notables as Sergio Mendes, Gregg Bissonette, Emil Richards and the LA Times have all praised the album very highly.

1998 brought an even greater diversity for Kevin when he was requested by the world famous trumpet player Doc Severinsen (The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson) to tour the US and perform with symphony orchestras across the country and toured with him until 2006. "I had never worked with such an artist who was so dedicated to his craft. The consummate showman and performer, Doc always inspired me to play my best".

He also has an active studio career in the Los Angeles and Santa Barbara areas. He has recorded with singer/songwriter Jeremy Kay, Jeff Elliott's debut CD, Gilberto Gonzalez’s albums Equilibrio Sonidos and Sobre El Lienzo, and various sessions for Source Music Companies. He has also recorded with The Captain & Tennille, Toni Tennille, Ray Anthony, Luis Muñoz, Robert Kyle, Kleber Jorge, Matt Catingub, Teka, The Mask Theme (CBS Television), 3rd Rock From The Sun (Syndication), recordings by Shawn Thies, singer/songwriter Karen Thurber's debut CD, Rebecca Kleinmann's CD, singer Ray Brown Jr and Perla Batalla's latest project and most recently Sumiko Fukatsu's latest CD Caminho do Sol featuring Bill Cantos on piano, Fabiano on guitar and Tom Kennedy on bass. For a full list of his recordings, please go to the Discography page.

Kevin has composed songs for the Muzak company, has published articles in Modern Drummer and Drum Business magazines, produced one CD, Camilla—Swing 'n' Sassy and has co-produced three others, Teka—Watercolours of Brasil, Christopher Neal Nelson—All This Love and Murumba—Origins. His most recent production is of jazz singer Mellonie Irvine. This was her debut CD which features Christian Jacob, Kevin Axt, Jeff Elliott, Carl Saunders, Matt Catingub, Red Holloway and Teka. He also played drums and percussion and sang two duets with her on the recording.

He has also performed with The Woody Herman Orchestra, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra Jr., Rosemary Clooney, John Rowles (Australian Tour), Delaney Bramlett, Roger Williams, Carol Burnett, Hal Linden, Ray Anthony, Les Brown, Billy Barty, Patty Andrews of The Andrew Sisters, Mavis Rivers (New Zealand Tour), Larry Williams, Rique Pantoja, Renato Neto, Katia Moraes, Captain Jack McDuff, Jim Nabors, Marylyn Horne, Marc O'Connell, Luis Conte, Lew Soloff, Lou Marini and Gloria Loring.

2005 brought yet another change in his career when he began touring with singer Steve Tyrell. In the past two years he has toured Japan, Europe and the US. With Steve he has performed on the Today Show, The CBS Early Show, Michael Parkinson's show in London and the Katarina Vitt's Stars of Ice show in Germany. His tours have also taken Kevin to perform at many European Jazz Festivals: Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Istanbul Jazz Festival (Turkey), Vitoria Jazz Festival (Spain), San Javier Jazz Festival (Spain), the Nairn Jazz Festival (Scotland) and in London twice at the prestigious Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club. Be sure to check out his schedule to find him performing with Steve in a location near you.

Kevin has performed master classes on Brasilian drumming in the Chicago area for the Contemporary Music Project, taught classes at the UWM and at the Milwaukee Conservatory of Music and has done master classes in Santa Barbara at Dancing Drum and Mike's Drum Shop. He is currently the drum set and percussion instructor at Santa Barbara City College.

With all of these projects and tours under his belt, what does the future hold for him? “ I want to delve more into the producing and composing areas. I love the process of taking on a project, working with an artist, and developing his/her vision into reality. As an entertainer, it is still very rewarding to perform live, but there is nothing like capturing a moment on a recording; when the take is over and all the musicians stop and just smile at each other without saying a word...They just know that they have created something special. That to me is what it is all about.”