Jazz: Art Lillard Quartet

Art Lillard is a musician with many gifts. In each of his musical roles — drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator — he shares with us his unique and refreshing contribution to our musical culture.

Art Lillard grew up in Miami, where his jazz roots include playing with the great master Ira Sullivan and studying with pianist/composer Wally Cirillo. After beginning his college music studies in Florida, Art transferred to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in jazz composition and arranging, as well as several Faculty Association Awards for Performance.

A professional drummer since 1970, Art has had a rich performing career, leading and co-leading various jazz ensembles, and as a sideman in groups of various musical genres, including jazz, country & western, cabaret, rock, and show music. He has recorded with swing/blues band Groovalaya, with vocalist Cleve Douglass (“Duke Ellington Boulevard”), and with flutist Jan Leder (“Passage to Freedom” on Monad Records and “Nonchalant” on A-Records).

He performed at the Greenwich Village jazz Festival in 1983 with the Amy Duncan Trio (at the Blue Note), at Finland’s Pori Jazz Festival in 1993 with the New York All-Stars, and at the Hunter Mountain Festival with Slicker in 1993, ’94 and ’95. During the 1990s he also played at the Hudson Riverfest in Yonkers with his Heavenly Big Band, with the Dixieland band the 9th Street Stompers, and several times with the Jan Leder Quartet. Art’s own ensembles include the Heavenly Big Band, the Blue Heaven swing sextet, the On Time trio/quartet, and the Art Lillard Duo. He has produced eight professional recordings with these bands.

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