Jack Gold-Molina
Drums and Percussion
Influences: Ringo Starr, Keith Moon, Bill Ward, Ian Paice, John Bonham, Charlie Watts, Mitch Mitchell, Cozy Powell, Alex Van Halen, Elvin Jones, Rashied Ali, Buddy Rich, early Tony Williams, Bruce Lee, Hawkwind, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Frank Wright, Obo Addy, Los Munequitos de Matanzas, Farafina, Alan White, Bill Bruford, Carmine Appice, Vinnie Appice, The Yardbirds, Cream, The Stooges, Black Flag, Motorhead, The Ramones

Jack Gold-Molina, who plays drums and percussion, began his studies with Ghanaian master drummer Yacub Addy and with legendary Pacific Northwest trumpeter/band instructor Walt Cole. Pursuing his education in traditional African music, avant-rock, jazz and free improvisation, he went on to study with Russ Kammerer, then at the Seattle Drum School with founder Steve Smith and original Santana drummer Michael Shrieve. He studied and performed traditional Nigerian music and African Highlife with master drummer and Yoruba Chief Adebisi Adeleke at the University of Washington, studied traditional Afro-Cuban folkloric music with Arturo Rodriguez at his independent music school Ethnic Percussion and Music, and studied jazz with Mark Ivester at Cornish College of Music. He has also attended educational workshops led by Babatunde Olatunji, Jack DeJohnette, and Roscoe Mitchell, and completed the 2009 and 2011 Sky Academy seminars led by Scorpions and Electric Sun guitarist Uli Jon Roth.
At a young age Jack started playing jazz with his school bands and playing gigs with blues-rock band The Opening. Through high school Jack continued performing with The Opening and also started playing with the instrumental avant- rock group Quantum. As well as performing live, shows that included countless wild parties and a benefit concert for homeless kids, there were also numerous jam sessions, some that included the late Tom Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival either playing guitar or sitting in on drums. Jack also played with friends from high school at that time, but there was nothing that gelled the way The Opening and Quantum did.
Influenced by the music of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and Led Zeppelin and, in particular, the creativity of the music of Black Sabbath and Uli Roth, after seeing Elvin Jones at a festival Jack became deeply influenced by jazz, in particular the music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. This growing passion for jazz as well as African music and rock and roll took Jack through high school and college. It was during this time that he began to study seriously the traditional musics of Latin America and Africa, becoming involved in studio sessions and performing with various jazz, rock, rhythm and blues, and folkloric musicians.
During the late 1980s Jack started working with the lead guitarist from his former group Quantum and they formed the hard-hitting instrumental rock trio Power Source. Through the early 1990s, Jack performed with this band recording the underground EPs Power Source and London Music/Live. Throughout the 1990s and into the next decade Jack continued to do session work, recording the suite for djembe and bells entitled Meditation/Shelter Prayer, and performing solo and with folk music groups playing African percussion. During this time, Jack also worked briefly with Seattle-based singer Brandi Carlile at the start of her career.
From 2001-2002, Jack worked closely with guitarist Daniel Gerard in the reformation of his band Axcraft, out of Los Angeles. With an international release by the original lineup, the ambition was to reform the band as a trio, playing brilliant power rock songs written by Daniel as well as blistering renditions of such classic rock tunes as Cream's Sunshine of Your Love.
Jack is the producer and bandleader of free improvised jazz group The Acoustic Reign Project. Their self-titled debut CD, engineered by Heart's Roger Fisher who also performs on guitar, was released in February 2003. The musicians on this album, including trumpeter Jim Knodle, saxophonist Brian Kent, and acoustic bassist Reuben Radding, bring influences from classical, jazz, and folk to blues, rhythm and blues, and rock and experiences from recording and performing improvised music, jazz, and traditional folk music in clubs and at festivals to recording and touring worldwide in major rock groups.
In 2004, Jack released Daylight by the Jack Gold Quartet. Free improvised jazz, music that coalesces via abstractions in style, Daylight features Michael Monhart playing saxophones, Jim Knodle playing trumpet, and Michael Bisio playing acoustic bass. This group had never played together prior to the recording session for this CD, a performance that was originally a Sonarchy Radio broadcast for Jack Straw Productions in Seattle.
Jack is also the founder of Sol Disk, the outside music label on which The Acoustic Reign Project and Daylight, among several other excellent releases by other artists, were released. Through Sol Disk, Jack also organized Northwest Free Jazz Festival 2005, a festival that consisted of 10 performances on five nights at three separate venues in Seattle over the course of four weeks in May and June 2005.
Currently Jack is working with acclaimed free jazz guitarist/avant-garde classical composer Chris Pugh. Their first release, entitled Penumbra/Heqat, is a CD in two parts. The first section, entitled Penumbra, features two extended improvisations for guitar and drums. The second section, entitled Heqat, is an avant-garde classical composition written by Chris and performed by the highly acclaimed, award winning Trio Recherche at the Wien Modern music festival in Vienna, Austria.
Jack's most recent releases, Colored Houses by the Jack Gold-Molina Trio, which features Michael Monhart playing saxophones and Michael Bisio playing acoustic bass, and One Hundred Years of Abstraction -- a symphonic composition for guitar and drums by Chris Pugh -- are currently receiving international acclaim in the press and media.

To hear musical samples, click here. 
Don Don Rapin: (left to right) Chata Addy, Adebisi Adeleke, Jack Gold-Molina, Abdulai Diop

The Acoustic Reign Project: (clockwise from left) Jim Knodle, Jack Gold-Molina, Reuben Radding, Brian Kent
The Jack Gold Quartet: (left to right) Michael Bisio, Michael Monhart, Jack Gold-Molina, Jim Knodle
At Northwest Free Jazz Festival 2005 with his Quintet
The reformation of Axcraft: (left to right) Jack Gold-Molina, Daniel Gerard, Ted Pickett