Andrew Drury / The Forest
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant Recipient
Recipient Information
Location
Brooklyn, New York
Year of Award
2021
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Creative Residencies Grant
Grant Amount
$40,000
About the Project
Drury's The Forest will rehearse and perform work in three regions to include venues, Cornish College (Seattle), Roulette (NY), and Tuckaway Farm Music Studio (MA). Community improvisations will take place at the US/Mexico border fence and rural NH for participatory drumming, soup, sauna and ice skating.
Residency Location
Conway MA; Seattle, WA; Los Angeles, CA; San Diego, CA; New York, NY
About the Artist
Andrew Drury is a drummer, composer, improviser originally from Seattle who mentored for eight years with Ed Blackwell, an experience that animates his artistic being to this day.
Drury has recorded seven cds as a bandleader, performed in 30 countries, and appears on 80 recordings. He has worked closely with Myra Melford, Wadada Leo Smith, Roswell Rudd, Annea Lockwood, Kris Davis, Tomeka Reid, Satoko Fujii, Butch Morris, Elliott Sharp, Robert Dick, and more. He collaborates with Jason Kao Hwang, Ingrid Laubrock, Frank Lacy, Aruán Ortiz, and JD Parran. Current projects include his tentet, quartet, Earth Series (improvisation/rituals addressing colonialism and ecological destruction in western landscapes), and a duo video with Warren Smith.
One of few percussionists worldwide who plays drums as wind instruments, and a pioneer of extended techniques, Drury has been called “one of the most innovative and bold drummers on the modern music scene” (AllAboutJazz) and “a phenomenon to watch perform as his playing often transforms the instrument itself” (Paul Acquaro).
Drury has performed at the Vancouver and Copenhagen Jazz Festivals, NO Jazz Festival (Zagreb), Jazzin Tondela (Portugal), University of the Andes (Bogotá), FIMAV (Victoriaville), Autumn Jazz (Krakow), Jazztopad (Wrocław). US festival appearances include Lincoln Center, Earshot Jazz, PDX Jazz, the Chicago World Music Festival, Discover Jazz (Vermont), and Winter Jazzfest (NYC). He was the featured artist in 2017 at Edgefest (Ann Arbor) and has performed many times at Roulette, the Vision Festival, and the Stone. He has received grants and commissions from Lincoln Center, Artist Trust Foundation, and Brooklyn and Seattle Arts Councils.
In 2015 Drury founded Continuum Culture & Arts, a non-profit organization that supports the creation of innovative music, facilitates international cultural exchange, and presents education programs. Continuum has presented 130 Soup & Sound performances in Drury’s home, 20 on video, and dozens with diverse communities in underserved Brooklyn neighborhoods. Continuum has ongoing partnerships with Lincoln Center, Jazztopad (Wrocław), Orchard Hill School, and received a 2021 New Music USA Capacity Building grant. Drury has led 1,500 workshops at seventeen universities in the US and abroad, in Guatemalan and Nicaraguan villages, and with Kurdish refugees. He received a Jubilation Foundation Fellowship in 2017 for his ability “to spread joy through rhythm.”