Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Cindy Blackman was born November 18, 1959 in Yellow Springs, Ohio into a musical family. Her mother and grandmother were classical musicians, an uncle was a vibraphonist and her dad was into jazz. Her first introduction to the drums happened when she was seven years old at a friend’s house she sat down at a drum set starting hitting and knew it was for her. Following this was joining the school band and convincing her parents to get a set of her own. By age 11 she was in Bristol, Connecticut, studying at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford and gaining an interest in jazz two years later after listening to Max Roach. It was at this time she got her first professional drum kit at fourteen.

One of her early influences was drummer Tony Williams who was the first drummer she ever saw perform live, later having the opportunity to participate in a William’s drum clinic. She soon moved to Boston, studying at the Berklee College of Music. She left after three semesters and moved to New York in 1982, became a street performer and got a chance to watch and learn from drummers like Billy Higgins, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Philly Joe Jones and Art Blakey who became her mentor and major influence.

Blackman initially encountered resistance to a woman playing drums in the jazz world, both racial and gender prejudice along with her musical opinion and hairstyle. But persistence paid off in 1984 when she was showcased on Ted Curson’s “Jazz Stares of the Future”, then in 1987 her first compositions appeared on Wallace Roney’s Verses album, then Muse offered her a contract and in ’88 lead her debut session “Arcane” with Joe Henderson, Wallace Roney, Tony Williams, Clarence Seay, Kenny Garrett and Larry Willis.

Cindy has immersed herself in both jazz and rock leaving the former for a period recording and touring with Lenny Kravitz but returned to her love of jazz. She has recorded several straight-ahead jazz sessions since her 1994 release of “Telepathy” and continues to evolve the music playing with a who’s who list of luminary jazz musicians. In her own words, “To me, jazz is the highest form of music that you can play because of the creative requirements”.

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