ISAIAH SPENCER

With his edgy style and innovative beats, jazz and blues drummer Isaiah Spencer has carved out a unique reputation in Chicago and beyond. Critics have called his sound propulsive, fiery, and incendiary.

A North Side native, Spencer has studied with Dr. Curtis Prince in Chicago’s All-City Jazz Band, with Dana Hall and Ernie Adams in the Ravinia Jazz in the Schools program, at Roosevelt University, and with legendary jazz educator Ronald Carter at Gallery 37, a paid summer job teaching the arts to youth. He has also studied with Ralph Peterson Jr., Kenny Washington, Greg Hutchinson, Ed Soph, Hamid Drake, Albert "Tutti" Heath, and Wilbur Campbell.

Now, Spencer is the one doing the teaching. He is a teaching artist and mentor for a nonprofit organization called Youth Guidance, and a percussion teacher and assistant band director at New Trier High School. He directs his own drum camp program and through his mentoring and volunteer work, he teaches children how music can help them to overcome obstacles and reach greater heights.

He has performed at the Chicago Blues Festival, the Englewood Blues Festival, Jazz Showcase, House of Blues, and Rosa’s, and shared the stage with greats including Fred Anderson, Pine Top Perkins, Eddie Clearwater, Buddy Guy, Clark Terry, Roy Hargrove, Tom Harrell, Donald Harrison, Wynton & Branford Marsalis, James Moody, Cyrus Chestnut, Johnny O'Neil, and Nicole Mitchell. He has toured with William Parker, Ernest Dawkins, and Guy King, among others.