Peter Dare wanted to play drums because he thought they were the easiest instrument in junior high school. He soon found out they were the easiest to get a sound out from, but among the most difficult to make real music with.

He's spent the subsequent years learning how to do that: to play softly as well as loudly-and to play the closest possible to metronomic time. And since the jobs for solo drummer were scarce, he became an accompanist, learning he'd be rehired when he made the band sound good.

Dare's credits include two records, two big band jazz festivals, numerous club dates and work with small groups and big bands. A student of Alan Dawson of Boston's Berklee School of Music, Dare has lately been reading studio charts and playing grooves with L.A. session great John Guerin.

" Le Jazz Cool is exciting because it plays the modern jazz legacy of the forties through today in ways that extend that legacy," says Dare. "Plus, the band swings like crazy."