Marcus Gilmore's Actions Speak

In an article entitled “Five Drummers Whose Time Is Now,” Ben Ratliff of The New York Times describes the drummer Marcus Gilmore’s style with the following phrase: “it sounds natural and never looks easy.”
The winner in the “Rising Star Drummer” category of the 2012 DownBeat Critics’ Poll, Marcus is one of the music’s most in-demand drummers. He has already toured the world as a regular member of some of today’s most important jazz groups, including Steve Coleman & Five Elements, the Vijay Iyer Trio, and the Gonzalo Rubalcaba Trio, and has performed with countless other luminaries including Chick Corea, Ravi Coltrane, Nicholas Payton, and many others.
Marcus got his start on the drums as a child under the mentorship of his grandfather Roy Haynes, “jazz’s most important living drummer” (The New York Times). At fifteen, the drummer began to work with Steve Coleman, who he met through his uncle, the cornetist/trumpeter Graham Haynes. Before graduating from LaGuardia High School, Marcus had already internalized the saxophonist’s complex and highly personal language well enough to perform in Five Elements, and had also joined the quartet of the pianist-composer Vijay Iyer. He is also the drummer for Chick Corea and The Vigil.