Graham Lear
Canadian musician
Graham Lear (born 24 July 1949) is a Canadian rock drummer, best known for his time with Gino Vannelli, Santana and REO Speedwagon.
Background
Lear was born in Plymouth, United Kingdom. In 1952 his family moved to London, Ontario, Canada. He began his professional career at the age of 13 with the London (Ontario) Symphony Orchestra. During his teenage years he practised, played and toured with several bands in Canada and the United States. Gino Vannelli was the first major recording artist to recognize Lear's talents and he recorded with Gino on some of his most important work (Powerful People, Storm at Sunup, The Gist of the Gemini). He has toured and/or recorded worldwide with Carlos Santana, Paul Anka, REO Speedwagon, and Saga. He has also worked with TV and film composers Henry Mancini, Domenic Troiano, Jimmy Dale (pianist and arranger Boss Brass), David Foster, Mexican jazz-fusion group Sacbe, and recorded jingles for Nike, Molson and Avia.
His recordings credits include Moonflower, Inner Secrets, Marathon, Zebop!, Shango and Viva Santana! (Santana); The Swing of Delight, Havana Moon and Blues for Salvador (Carlos Santana); The Gist of the Gemini, Powerful People, Storm at Sunup, Yonder Tree, and Slow Love (Gino Vannelli); Second Decade (REO Speedwagon); Instinct (Tom Grant).
The public source identifies “Graham Lear” as canadian musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Graham, Lear and Canadian.
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Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5593012. VIAF identifies the subject as 79624259. The Library of Congress control number is no2007079167. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949 and 1952.
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This entry incorporates text from “Graham Lear” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.