Kendrick Scott Oracle

“Kendrick Scott has become the Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, and Tony Williams of his generation,” says the renowned trumpeter and bandleader Terence Blanchard of his longtime drummer who makes his own Blue Note debut with the release of a remarkable new album, We Are The Drum. “He’s a brilliant mind bringing innovation to the music at the same time as creating a safe place for young talent to develop and grow.”

That kind of musical apprenticeship is key to the development of young jazz artists as Blanchard well knows having himself spent pivotal years with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. In the decade that Scott occupied the drum throne in Blanchard’s band, he had the opportunity to learn first-hand from an established master who gave Scott the space to find his own voice both on his instrument and as a composer. In turn, Scott took that experience and founded one of the premiere new ensembles in jazz: Kendrick Scott Oracle.