* En anglais uniquement
Drummer
Kendrick Scott is a technically proficient and intuitive modern jazz drummer, composer, arranger, and bandleader with a bent toward expansive post-bop. Steeped in the lineage of
Roy Haynes,
Tony Williams, and
Elvin Jones, he is best known as the leader of the
Kendrick Scott Oracle, and has also toured and recorded with a host of jazz all-stars including
Terence Blanchard,
Herbie Hancock,
the Crusaders,
Kenny Garrett,
Gary Burton,
Roy Hargrove,
Pat Metheny, and many others. His playing style is at once imaginative, lyrical, and versatile. As a bandleader, he arrived in 2007 with the
Oracle's The Source, issued by his own World Culture Music label, and he's garnered an abundance of attention for his canny senses of swing and groove. Since then, he has recorded under his own name with his longstanding
Oracle band that includes pianist
Taylor Eigsti, reed and woodwind ace
John Ellis, guitarist
Mike Moreno, and bassist
Joe Sanders.
Scott's Blue Note debut, 2015's
We Are the Drum, was produced by the
Robert Glasper Experiment's
Derrick Hodge; it made most jazz critics' best-of lists for the year.
Born in Houston, Texas in 1980,
Scott grew up in a musical family who encouraged his interest in drumming from a young age. A member of his church and junior high school music ensembles,
Scott eventually attended a performing arts high school and later the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Since graduating from Berklee in 2003, he has performed with a variety of name artists including
the Jazz Crusaders, guitarist
Pat Metheny, saxophonists
Joe Lovano and
Kenny Garrett, vocalist
Dianne Reeves, and trumpeter
Terence Blanchard. He released his debut album with his
Oracle group on World Culture Music in 2006. In 2007 he performed on
Blanchard's landmark score for director
Spike Lee's
A Tale of God's Will (A Requiem for Katrina), and continued to work with vocalist
Gretchen Parlato.
Scott signed to Concord in 2012 and
Conviction, his sophomore effort with
Oracle, appeared on the label in March of 2013. It was produced by
Derrick Hodge of
the Robert Glasper Experiment. In 2015 he returned with his third album with
Oracle,
We Are the Drum, which included an appearance by vocalist
Lizz Wright. Four years and many tours later, the drummer returned with his sophomore Blue Note date,
A Wall Becomes A Bridge, a 12-song cycle about overcoming obstacles and personal responsibility. Again produced by
Hodge, the set featured turntablist
Jahi Sundance as a sixth member of the
Kendrick Scott Oracle and was released in early April of 2019. ~ Matt Collar