Working Drummer

Peter Erskine has played the drums since the age of four and is known for his versatility and love of working in different musical contexts. He appears on over 600 albums and film scores, and has won two Grammy Awards, plus an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music (1992). Peter graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan and studied at Indiana University under George Gabe...

Todd Strait was into jazz from the very start and has played with some of its biggest names over his a 35-year career. After studying with Ed Soph and Joe Morello, he made New York his home base and built an impressive resume there which included Marian McPartland and Woody Herman. In the 1990s, he relocated to Kansas City where he became the drummer for Eldar as well as two of the most celebrated...

Zack Albetta grew up in Santa Fe, NM, where he began drum lessons at age 8. Music was the focus of his high school years and he went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Percussion Performance from Ball State University. In 2003, Zack entered graduate school at The University of Missouri-Kansas City and in four years, Zack earned Master’s degrees in Percussion Performance and Jazz & Studio Performanc...

Wes Anderson recently became the drummer for the U.S. Army Jazz Ambassadors, the military’s premier touring jazz ensemble. Born and raised in Phoenix, AZ, Wes graduated from Arizona State University and marched drum corps with The Arizona Academy. In 2012, he landed a gig at Disneyland and moved to L.A. A few months after moving, he joined pianist Eric Reed‘s trio, with whom he continues to perfor...

Dave Harrison is a graduate of West Virginia University School of Music. He performed with the world famous Percussion ’90 under the direction of Phil Faini where he served as arranger and featured performer. Dave moved to Nashville in 1990 and started working in the studios. He joined the Edwin McCain Band in January 1996 and over the next 10 years, recorded 6 albums with the group, co-producing...

Ryan Lee was born and raised in Kansas City, MO, and earned a bachelor’s degree in music from The Conservatory at The University of Missouri-Kansas City. New York, Nashville and LA are established as places from which to launch an international performing career, but Ryan has stayed in Kansas City and found many opportunities to perform around the world with artists including Jose James, Tony Tixi...

Scot Corey is a freelance drummer/percussionist who has performed as an ‘extra’ with the Nashville Symphony for over 17 years, including NSO’s Carnegie Hall Debut (2000), their Naxos recording of Piazzola’s Sinfonia Buenos Aires and their return to Carnegie Hall. He has served as adjunct percussion faculty at Trevecca Nazarene University since 2000 and is a founding member of the Matrix Percussion...

L.A.based drummer Jamey Tate has been solidly busy for almost 15 years. He studied under Peter Erskine as a grad student at USC and has put Erskine’s lessons, musical and otherwise, to good use since then. He has made a name for himself touring and recording with two of the biggest names in smooth jazz, David Benoit and Mindi Abair, as well as being in demand for studio work around LA on creative...

Establishing himself in Nashville as one of the top studio drummers, Eddie Bayers has worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry, including Vince Gill, George Strait, Alan Jackson, Steve Winwood, Peter Frampton, Bob Seger, Trisha Yearwood, Garth Brooks, Kenny Chesney, Uncle Kracker and the list goes on and on. Playing on hundreds of gold and platinum albums and numerous movie soun...

Marlon Patton was born and raised in the Atlanta area, attended college down the road at The University of Georgia in Athens, then returned home to Atlanta where he has lived and worked ever since. He is a true genre-hopper, in terms of the many types of music he plays and the many types of work he does. Any given day could find him mixing a jazz record in his studio, tracking a rock record in som...

Rick Malkin has made a career for himself by combining his passion for drumming and photography. Growing up in Pittsburgh, Rick learned photography at an early age from his father who was a full time photographer. At the age of 10, Rick discovered the drums and at the age of 14 he was already playing drums in musical theater. After meeting Eddie Bayers for a Modern Drummer cover shoot, Rick moved...

Josh Heffernan is the drummer for Dustbowl Revival, an eight-piece outfit based in LA. Their most recent album, With A Lampshade On is their biggest yet, and their touring schedule is keeping them busy all over North America and Europe, and most recently, China. Josh grew up in Seattle and got some of his first professional experience in an Army band before moving to LA. He attended the Los Angele...

Troy Luccketta entered his musical career at 17, and by the time he was 23 he was touring with The Eric Martin Band (lead singer for Mr. Big), and found himself on Dick Clark’s “American Bandstand.” For more than 30 years, he has been the drummer for the multi-platinum rock band Tesla, with whom he still tours with to this day. Troy started working with Marc Bonilla in 1991, and after playing drum...

Using ever-changing combinations of drumset and hand percussion, Colin Agnew has developed an earthy, organic signature sound that has made him indispensable to artists and producers of many stripes. He is the rare musician who can come up with creative ideas but use them judiciously in support of the music. Colin grew up in Savannah, GA, where he began studying classical percussion, piano and dru...

Ben Jackson is a Nashville based drummer/producer, primarily working in Nashville’s top studios, as well as touring with a wide variety of artists and songwriters in the country, pop and indie genres. A versatile musician, producer and engineer, Ben maintains a busy recording schedule, playing sessions in the studios of Music Row, as well as his own East End Studio. As a producer, Ben can be found...

Dan Schnelle was born and raised in New York and came to LA to attend college at USC. While in school, he studied with an impressive succession of teachers; Ndugu Chancler, Aaron Serfaty, Peter Erskine and Terri Lyne Carrington, each of whom presented him with a boot camp of different concepts. After graduating, Dan stayed in LA where he has been one of the busiest drummers in town for over a deca...

John defines what it means to be a working drummer in Nashville Tennessee. Since his move to Nashville in 1993 from Connecticut, John has covered it all from international touring to studio work to maintaining a steady stream of work in Nashville’s lower broadway district. John’s early influences include Neil Smith, Nigel Ollsen, Jim Keltner, Hal Blaine, Billy Cobham, Bill Bruford and all the Moto...

“My father’s side was musicians, my mother’s side was singers and preachers.” This sums up Charles LaMont Garner’s musical pedigree. The Charleston, SC native lives in Atlanta where he works as a drummer and producer when he’s not on tour with India Arie. Gospel music was his gateway to drums, and presented him with his first opportunity to play professionally at age 15. Since then, he has played...

Based in Columbus Ohio, drummer Reggie Jackson built a reputation from an early age as a powerful drummer who could cover many styles such as be-bop, latin, big band, fusion, pop and gospel. Over the last two decades Reggie expanded his reach beyond the Columbus scene through world wide tours with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee Dr John as well as the Grammy Award winner Diane Schuur. Thro...

As a freshman in high school, Kassandra Kocoshis was studying classical percussion in a collegiate program, and went on to DePaul University in Chicago to study with members of the Chicago Lyric Opera and Chicago Symphony. But while there, she got turned on to Chicago’s Flamenco scene, and became obsessed with hand percussion and world music. She pursued them further in graduate school at The Cali...

Originally from Detroit, Jack White is best known for his work world wide with singer/songwriter Rick Springfield in 1976, 1980-84, and 1990-2002. In the 40 plus years that Jack has been playing drums, he has worked with many other artists including Mitch Ryder, Ike and Tina Turner, Sam The Sham, Rare Earth, Redbone, The Knack, Steppenwolf and Roger Miller just to name a few. At the age of sixteen...

Willie McNeil came to LA barely out of high school in the early 1980s. He got busy quickly and hasn’t stopped since, playing with bands across the musical spectrum, sometimes as a sideman but more often as a leader. These days, he’s most widely known as the drummer and frontman for Big Willie’s Burlesque, a troupe of musicians and dancers that appears weekly at LA’s hottest clubs including No Vaca...

Originally from Memphis, Tennessee, Marshall Richardson moved to Nashville in 2000 after graduating from the University of North Texas with a BA in Music. As a sideman, Marshall has worked with a diverse list of artists, ranging from country legends to roots rockers, including Jo Dee Messina, Lorrie Morgan, Webb Wilder, Bernie Leadon, Joe Nichols, and Johnny Reid. His career in Nashville is a bala...

The Los Angeles jazz scene has been coming on strong in recent years and Tina Raymond is right in the middle of it. She performs regularly in the city’s top jazz clubs as well as internationally, with artists ranging from relative newcomers like Cathlene Pineda and Jon Armstrong to long-established greats like Bobby Bradford and Vinnie Golia. She is a graduate of the California Institute of the Ar...

Chad Cromwell is known as one of the most respected studio drummers in Nashville. Even before his move to Nashville, Chad had a strong history of live and recording experience with legends like Joe Walsh, Neil Young and Mark Knopfler. Chad Started recording and touring with Joe Walsh in 1986. In 1987 as well as collaborating with songwriter Neil Young that lead to several recordings and tours with...