John Jessel has been working with Toto in some capacity since the Toto IV days. He toured with the band as David's keyboard tech and played second keyboards behind David until 2003. He currently works in David's studio.
Paich on JJ (Frank Achmann, 1999):
Now what JJ's doing, JJ's not playing really keys, what he's doing is certain sound effects and certain horn things that we try and cover for the record, so he sits playing a couple of horn samples here and there, and by singing - he's also singing - and playing some samples.
As a two-keyboard band until Steve Porcaro left, JJ filled in on stage for Steve P to keep the authentic Toto sound live. In addition to playing and singing, JJ's responsibilities also included:
- checking David's set-up (before the show)
- third hand keyboardplaying when necessary (complex songs as Rosanna or the normal parts during solo's)
- singing backgroundvocals
- triggering recorded background-vocals (start in time and keeping the measure so they don't play the exact rhythm every night)
- doing the pre-mix of the keyboards
JJ played behind David Paich on the stage, surrounded by David's soundmodules, two keyboards (Yamaha KX88 and Clavinova (Paich uses that pianosound on stage)), a and lesliebox (model 147).
During the "vacation-concert" july '96 in the Paradiso theater (Amsterdam), the Netherlands, Toto opened the floor to the audience for requests. Because David and Luke couldn't sing the "high parts" and couldn't remember lyrics from the older albums like Isolation or Turn Back, JJ came on stage, grabbed a mic, and sang old favorites like "Manuela Run" and "White Sister" perfectly, just like Bobby.
Related Pages
David Paich
Steve Porcaro
