Marcus Gilmore

Marcus Gilmore is an award-winning American jazz drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator. The grandson of legendary jazz drummer Roy Haynes, he is a sensitive, melodic player influenced equally by Tony Williams and Milford Graves, and he's interested in percussion traditions from across the globe. His approach weds nuanced grooves and expanding rhythms to waves of improvisation. Gilmore's many credits include a decade with Vijay Iyer while concurrently playing with guitarists Gilad Hekselman and Lage Lund. Gilmore's several years with Chick Corea netted them four acclaimed albums, among them 2013's Latin Grammy-winning The Vigil. In 2018 he joined In Common alongside Walter Smith III, Matthew Stevens, Joel Ross, and Harish Raghavan, and issued an eponymous album. In September 2023, Gilmore, pianist Jason Moran, and electronicist BlankFor.Ms released the experimental Refract. He followed in December with the lush jazz ballad "For Loved Ones," leading a quartet with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, David Virelles, and Burniss Travis.

Gilmore was born into a musical New York family. His father played sax and his mother was a vocalist -- they led their own gospel group. In addition to his grandfather, master drummer Roy Haynes, Gilmore's uncle, Craig Haynes, also a drummer, lived upstairs. Another uncle, Graham Haynes, was a founding member of the M-Base Collective.

Certainly swayed by familial example, Gilmore claims that he wanted to be a professional drummer at age seven, but his family didn't take him seriously for three years. On his tenth birthday, his grandfather gifted him a drum kit he'd been playing on bandstands across the globe. Unlike his primarily self-taught grandfather, however, Gilmore is formally trained. He attended the arts magnet LaGuardia High School, The Juilliard School's Music Advancement Program, and The Manhattan School of Music. Gilmore began sitting in with his grandfather while still a junior in high school. In 2002, Haynes' Fountain of Youth band was closing a week-long stand at Birdland. After the set, Haynes introduced the audience to Gilmore and summoned him on-stage to take a solo. Though they only recorded four albums together, Gilmore's relationship with Corea was a long one. Introduced by Haynes, he began informally jamming with the pianist. Corea also sang his praises to other musicians, resulting in live and/or recording gigs with Ravi Coltrane, Clark Terry, and Rachel Z, among many others.

In 2005, he formally joined pianist Vijay Iyer's band. Over the next decade, they recorded five albums together including the acclaimed Historicity and Accelerando. During his tenure with Iyer, Gilmore often worked in the studio as a sideman. He cut several albums with Steve Coleman and Five Elements, including Harvesting Semblances and Affinities, Full Circle with uncle Graham Haynes, Avatar with Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Into the Blue with Payton, Hearts Wide Open with Hekselman, and Four with Lage Lund.

Gilmore made his recorded debut with Corea on The Continents: Concerto for Jazz Quintet and Chamber Orchestra. Issued by Deutsche Grammophon, the set included a work in which a jazz quintet builds a major composition from the pianist in dialogue with a classical chamber orchestra. The following year, Gilmore joined Hekselman for This Just In and Donald Brown for Born to Be Blue. He also appeared with Corea's quintet on The Vigil for Concord. The latter peaked at number four on the jazz albums chart and took home the Latin Grammy for Best Latin Jazz album.

The following year Gilmore joined the studio band of Cuban pianist David Virelles on the universally acclaimed Mbókò, for ECM. That year the drummer made another appearance on the label as part of saxophonist Mark Turner's band on Lathe of Heaven.

Gilmore played on four seminal recordings in 2015: Break Stuff (with Iyer), Synovial Joints by Steve Coleman and the Council of Balance, Homes by Hekselman, and Charlie by Rubalcaba.

He rejoined Virelles for 2016's wildly experimental Antenna EP (the only 10" vinyl release in ECM's history), playing alongside the pianist/electronicist and saxophonist Henry Threadgill. He also joined pianist/keyboardist/composer Kris Davis on her ambitious Duopoly set. The year was capped by triumph when DownBeat magazine chose Gilmore as one of its "25 for the Future." The following year, the drummer toured with various artists and appeared with saxophonist/composer Chris Potter on The Dreamer Is the Dream for ECM.

In 2018, Gilmore was selected for the biannual Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative, a philanthropic program that pairs gifted young artists with internationally recognized master/mentors in architecture, dance, film, literature, music, theater, and visual arts for a year of creative collaboration in a one-on-one mentoring relationship. Gilmore's mentor was globally renowned Indian tabla master and composer Zakir Hussain. He also appeared on several recordings that year, including Ambrose Akinmusire's Origami Harvest. 2018 marked the year the In Common quintet (saxophonist Walter Smith III, guitarist Matthew Stevens, vibraphonist Joel Ross, bassist Harish Raghavan) came together and recorded an eponymous offering for Whirlwind Recordings.

Over the next two years, Gilmore branched out considerably. He appeared on Shafiq Husayn's The Loop, Marquis Hill's crossover jazz gem Love Tape, and with Corea on the Latin Grammy-winning The Antidote. The latter featured an all-star lineup of singers and players interpreting songs from Corea's My Spanish Heart and Touchstone albums. He was also selected for the cover story in the June 2019 issue of Modern Drummer. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Gilmore appeared on several recordings completed the year before including Lakecia Benjamin's Pursuance: The Coltranes and Gerald Clayton's Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard. In August, he appeared with Bilal in live streaming sessions to benefit musicians hit hard by the pandemic.

Gilmore appeared on three of 2021's most celebrated albums: harpist Brandee Younger's Somewhere Different, Pat Metheny's Side Eye NYC V1.IV, and Melanie Charles' Y'all Don't (Really) Care About Black Women. He joined vibraphonist Patricia Brennan's studio band on More Touch, and pianist Samora Pinderhughes on Grief.

Gilmore teamed with pianist Jason Moran and electronicist/composer/tape manipulator BlankFor.Ms to release Refract, an improvised work combining electronics, piano, and drums performed in real time. He also appeared on pianist Jacques Schwarz-Bart's The Harlem Suite and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson's auspicious Les Jardins Mystiques, Vol. 1. In December, Gilmore switched it up considerably. The lush, seven-minute single "For Loved Ones" appeared on Dream Gold Soul. Performed by a trio of drummer Gilmore, bassist Burniss Travis, and Atwood-Ferguson (strings), it wed modal jazz balladry and crossover classical. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi