Born: September 20, 1990 Primary Instrument: Drums
Tyler Scott is a Jazz musician from Fort Wayne, IN. In his short 19 years, he has taken advantage of every opportunity to come his way. Scott started playing drums in church at the age of nine. His middle school band director, Jerry Farrington, played an important role in introducing him to Jazz music. During his seventh grade year, he met a local drummer, Todd Harrold, who taught him the importance of keeping the groove. This significant lesson set the tone for him to win every top drummer award at every jazz festival he competed in up through his senior year of high school.
Scott had the fortunate opportunity to study with the world-renowned Jazz drummer, Perry A. Wilson, who has played with the likes of Sonny Rollins and Von Freeman. Wilson taught him the value of technique and control. This ultimately led Scott to win the “Ball State University Dimensions in Jazz, Frank Mantooth (Outstanding Overall Musician) Award 2009.
Scott has won many other awards from various Jazz festivals around Indiana. These include: “Ball State University Dimensions in Jazz, Outstanding Drums 2006 and 2007”, “Purdue University Jazz Festival, Outstanding Drum Soloist 2006-2009”, “North Side Jazz Festival, Outstanding Soloist 2006-2009”, and the Sterling Sentinel Award Scholarship in Music/Instrumental 2009,” which is one of his proudest accomplishments. He was fortunate enough to be selected to play in the in 2008 and the 2009 Indiana All-State Big Band that was sponsored by International Association of Jazz Educators. He also was a part of the 2008 Indiana All-State Jazz Choir Backup Band.
Scott’s father has a background in computer technology and is also an audio engineer at Pilgrim Baptist Church so from a very young age he grew up around technology and it seemed almost natural to merge music and technology together. Out of that merger, he developed an interest in audio engineering and recording. In 2005 he purchased a Pro Tools LE system that enabled him to get his feet wet in the recording field. Later, Scott began recording local artists and bands. During the summer of 2009, he designed and installed a state of the art live digital sound system for Pilgrim Baptist Church, Inc., that consisted of the Allen & Heath iLive-T Digital Mixing System, JBL Continuous Line Arrays, DBX Speaker Management, Crown Amplifiers, and a Pro Tools recording system.
In the summer of 2009, Scott worked as a marching band pit instructor for Concordia Lutheran High School. He was responsible for teaching technique, music, perfecting parts, and changing parts where need be. By the end of the season the band made it to the Indiana State Finals and received a ranking of 9th in the state.
Scott started playing professionally in 2005 with his band “Intro to Groove”. Since then he has played with local professionals Jim Steele, Michael Paterson, Brian Derek, Eric Clancy, David Carter, Millennium Jazz Orchestra, Little Big Band, IPFW Big Band, Farrell Vernon, Phil Schurger, Tim Beeler, and many more. Scott has had three different types of groups, The Tyler Scott Organ Quartet, The Tyler Scott Jazz Quartet, and The Tyler Scott Jazz Quintet.
In January of 2009, Scott and his sister co-founded a small business called Groove Productions that focuses on record production and live music promotion. Groove Productions hosted its first event in February 2009 called, “Jazz Like Me”, that drew 250 audience members and 5 sponsors. The event was focused on bridging cultural and generational gaps between members of the greater Lafayette community in Indiana.
In 2009 Scott was accepted on scholarship to the world-renowned Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee, he has had the opportunity to study with the famed Neal Smith. Mr. Smith has shared his invaluable experience as a musician in the modern day music industry and has given Scott the knowledge of how to differentiate himself from the rest. Scott has also had the opportunity to study with Alberto Netto, who has taught him the nuances of Brazilian and Latin music. Although he has been very focused on his music and production skills, Scott has not let his academic work slide, he was an Honor Roll student all through high school and graduated with an Academic Honors Diploma. While at Berklee he has maintained that work ethic and has earned a place on the Dean’s list for the Fall 2009 semester.
Scott was accepted to the Music Production & Engineering major, but while waiting, Scott has engineered, observed, assisted, and preformed over 70 hours in the Berklee studios since his Fall 2009 arrival on the campus. His future goals are to go on the road with a fresh innovative group that is able to explore and perpetuate the boundaries of Jazz music along with creating a record label to house his group and other groups that have their own authentic identifiable sound ” much like ECM Records did in the 70’s and still does till this day.
