Barrett Martin

Barrett Martin (born April 14, 1967) is an American drummer, composer, producer, award-winning writer, and Zen artist. He was the drummer for the Seattle, Washington groups Skin Yard and Screaming Trees, as well as the supergroups Mad Season and Tuatara. A multi-instrumentalist and producer, he does recording session work in Seattle and Los Angeles and has played on, or produced, over 100 albums to date. In 2014, he was awarded the ASCAP Deems Taylor award for excellence in writing for his liner notes in the Mad Season Deluxe Reissue. He is primarily known for his powerful tribal drumming style, which includes the use of the tom toms as a rhythmic component that replaces the traditional hihat and ride cymbal. He credits the jazz drummers Art Blakey, Max Roach, and Elvin Jones for inspiring this approach to his drumming style, as well as the rock drummers John Bonham, Keith Moon, and Neil Peart. He has also stated that the heavyweight boxer Muhammad Ali inspired his drumming at a young age, saying, Ali was so incredibly fast on his feet, and his hands were both light and heavy at the same time. Float like a butterfly, sting like bee, thats the way a great drummer should play – light and heavy, the way Ali boxed. Martin has been featured on dozens of albums and several film soundtracks, and notable collaborations include work with REM guitarist Peter Buck, Iraqi master musician Rahim Alhaj, West African Griot and master musician Foday Musa Suso, delta bluesman CeDell Davis, Rumi scholar and poet Coleman Barks, and Native American poet and songwriter Joy Harjo. The PBS short documentary on Barretts drumming and Zenga painting, titled Zenga and the Art of Percussion, won a 2009 Emmy in the New Media Arts category.

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