Born: August 17, 1976 Primary Instrument: Drums
Peter Auret (born 17 August 1976, Johannesburg, Gauteng) is a South African drummer. Peter is a versatile musician who has performed an toured with many of South Africa's great groups and musicians. He also works as a producer, recording engineer and occasional composer at his Sumo Sound recording facility. His distinctive performances and musical ideas can be heard on his, and many others' records.
Peter Auret grew up in Johannesburg listening to his parents' Rock 'n Roll and Folk Music records without much exposure to Jazz and African music, in the then still very segregated and isolated South Africa. Although both his mother and grandfather played musical instruments, a career in music was never encouraged by his parents. The largely self- taught drummer began playing at the age of seventeen. While in high school he played in the Witwatersrand Youth Orchestra and the school marching band under direction of South African Pipe Band Champion Jeff Owen. After high school graduation, Auret attended Park Town College in Johannesburg studying fine arts and design whilst holding down regular club gigs with his own band. He then transferred to the National School of Arts where he studied drums with Garth Farrant. During that time he started performing with other bands and artists as a freelancer, and also played in a student musical theatre production at the Cairo International Arts Festival and the Grahamstown Arts Festival in 1996.
After college, Peter developed an interest in Jazz and improvised music. He was fast building a reputation as a Pop/Rock musician, gaining wider recognition with singer/songwriter Riku Lätti and the then South African Pop sensation Henry Ate (Karma), where he met future collaborator, guitarist Max Mikula. Auret and Mikula went on to record two SAMA (South African Music Awards) nominated albums with their Afro Jazz/World Music group Tsunami. Peter worked with Tsunami from 2001 to 2004, while also working more and more with local jazz outfits. In 2004 Peter's musical horizons expanded, when guitarist Jonathan Crossley booked him to play on a Jazz record featuring local jazz heroes: Marc Duby, Carlo Mombeli, Marcus Wyatt, Kevin Davidson and Sidney Mnisi. Peter continued to work with Crossley from 2004 to 2007, performing and recording on another album and a live DVD. This association led to Peter meeting pianist Roland Moses who would later become part of Auret's trio. In 2007 Peter joined South African Pop/Rock group Watershed, where he was reacquainted with bass player, James Sunney with whom he had occasionally performed over the years.
2010 sees the release of the Peter Auret Trio debut album “Turn the Tide” featuring Roland Moses (Piano) and James Sunney (Bass). Peter features as band leader, composer and producer of this energetic and dynamic South African Jazz trio, as they explore traditional and contemporary jazz concepts within their original compositions. More recently Peter has recorded with Jazz saxophonist Kevin Davidson on his soon to be released “Breathing Winston, living John”
“..What a great album, production quality is amazing, its fantastic to hear a trio sound so full bodied” -Nothemba Madumo, Metro FM
