Luigi Waites is a jazz drummer and vibraphonist from Omaha, Nebraska. He currently performs weekly gigs in the Omaha area both solo and with ensembles such as Luigi, INC. He has been serving the Omaha music community for over 60 years. He has toured Europe twice and performed with jazz legends such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. Luigi, Inc. has shared the stage with Jean-Luc Ponty, James Brown and Dizzy Gillespie.
Luigi W...
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Luigi Waites is a jazz drummer and vibraphonist from Omaha, Nebraska. He currently performs weekly gigs in the Omaha area both solo and with ensembles such as Luigi, INC. He has been serving the Omaha music community for over 60 years. He has toured Europe twice and performed with jazz legends such as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Dinah Washington. Luigi, Inc. has shared the stage with Jean-Luc Ponty, James Brown and Dizzy Gillespie.
Luigi Waites was born Lewis Waites on July 10, 1927 in Omaha, Nebraska. Waites began playing drums at age twelve, and soon after began playing local nightclubs around Omaha. While Waites served in the U.S. Army at Camp Lee, Virginia, he met jazz drummer Elvin Jones, who gave Waites further drum instruction.
In 1960, Waites founded The Contemporaries, a multicultural, independent marching corps that featured jazz rhythms, lyres and modern dance steps. Then, during the 1970s, Luigi Waites was a solo artist in The National School Tours program where he...
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