Bill (BJ) Zampa isn't your typical Rock Drummer.
In Fact , It is more accurate to label Zampa as a "Groove-Meister ". Zampa combines Head Banging beats with funky idioms to produce the biggest Foot Stomping sound around.
Known for his exceptional drumming abilities, Zampa at the age of 22 after playing New England local clubs with acts such as The Excerpts , Mad Racket , Run 21, was asked to join up with Tony MacAlpine by Mike Varney.
While in Calf, Zampa and MacAlpine keyboardist Mark Robertson started a jam band which would feature Jeff Watson of (Night Ranger) guitar , Davey Pattison of (Trower - Montrose) vocals, Clarence Clemons on sax,Dave Bronz of (Clapton - Trower) bass . Neil Shawn , guitar hero Randy California Hanson of (Spirit ), Jeff Pilson of (Dokken) were regulars at the Bay area shows and would often get up to play with the band .
At this time, Pattison and Bronz asked Zampa to join them in Robin Trower's band , Zampa at this point was under contract with Tony MacAlpine to finish up his Squwk Polygram release Eyes Of The World album and world tour. Zampa did manage to fill in a few dates with Trower after all.
In 1990 Mike Varney called upon Zampa again to fill the drumming spot with the band Driver which consisted of Rob Rock vocals, Roy Z guitars) later Z went on to produce Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson) , Emil Lech-Brando bass.The band toured the East Coast until 1991 and soon after disbanded.
Upon leaving Driver, Zampa did a short stint with guitar hero Blues Saraceno until he received a phone call from guitar great Yngwie Malmsteen asking him to join his band and finish up his Seventh Sign North American tour.(Mike Vecera vocals, Barry Sparks bass, Mat's Olausson keyboards, Yngwie Malmsteen guitar). After leaving Malmsteen Zampa and Vecera started to put together a new band with ex Malmsteen bass player Barry Sparks and Scott Boland guitars. The band was called M.V.P. Pony Canyon picked up the band and released the album entitled Windows . Soon after the release there was a line up change and Vecera called upon Shrapnel recording artist Joey Taffola to fill the guitar spot and Jammie Scott of (Tyketto) to play bass. Zampa and M.V.P. with the new lineup toured South America supporting Quite Riot.
With South America behind him, Zampa built Father Panic Studios and started producing local New England bands, when his old pal Ted Bullet ex(Thunderhead-Son Of A Bitch guitar player vocalist) gave him a call from Germany looking to start yet another band.
After Bullet and Zampa finished up some demos, German label SPV picked up the duo and requested that Bullet reform Thunderhead. Without a guitar player or bass player Zampa looked up old pal from the local club days guitar great Jimi Bell ex -(Geezer Butler- Joined Force) and Mark Franco ex (Joined Forces - Canyon)bass, to fill out the new Thunderhead lineup. One month later SPV released Thunderhead's Ugly Side. Thunderhead toured Europe with "METAL GODS" OF THE 1980's Metal Church.
Back from Europe,and blown away by Thunderheads live shows Metal Church vocalist David Wayne called upon Bell ,Zampa and Franco to join him in his new project called David Wayne's Metal Church .The album was released by Nuclear Blast records and sold 30,000 units world wide topping metal charts in Japan and Europe.
With the success of David Wayne's Metal Church, Zampa decided to call ex (Malmsteen -Loudness) front man Mike Vecera to start another album this time using Thunderhead /David Wayne's Metal Church shredder Jimi Bell on guitar to create a heavier sound for the new M.V.P. album. Vecera also recruited ex (Malmsteen keyboardist) Mat's Olausson , ex (Michael Schenker - Malmsteen bass player) Barry Sparks,"Metal" Mike Chlasciak (Rob Halford guitarist) and many others. The album is called The Altar and was released in Europe and Japan by Avalon/Marquee and once again made a bunch of noise in the "metal world".
Other artist Zampa has worked with include:
Mark Diglio guitar XYZ , John Aldrete bass Racer X , Randy Jackson bass American Idol / Whitney Houston, Wally Voss bass MacAlpine / Malmsteen, Neil Turbin vocals Anthrax, Robin Beck vocals, Bobby Piper guitar Heaven ,Jon Brion Music producer/composer/ songwriter Aimee Mann / Fiona Apple, and many more.
Bill { BJ } Zampa prides himself on commitment and professionalism and will definitely leave his mark on the "Drumming World" in the years to come.