Garrett Dawson
Drummer/Percussionist/Educator
About
"To say Garrett Dawson is exceptional would be an understatement. His mastery of various styles, combined with his core-level love of music as a form of expression and the ability to perform equally proficient live and in the studio combined with his passion for teaching what he’s learned, place him in a class of his own"
SIESTA SAND NEWSPAPER
"Garrett Dawson and I really get along well. He is the first percussionist other than Jaimoe and Marc Quiñones that I've played with where we don’t get in each others way, where we really compliment each other"
BUTCH TRUCKS drummer and founding member of THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND
"Great drums are the backdrop for any great recording. Garrett has been my backdrop time and time again for years"
BUD SNYDER producer/engineer- JEFF BUCKLEY, THE ALLMAN BROTHERS BAND, GOVT MULE
"Garrett comes in with just a bass drum, snare and a hi hat and he sets it up and I look at him and say where is the rest of your drums? And he says 'this is all I need' and he continued to blow the room away. He is an amazing drummer"
GENERATION X/96.5 WSLR RADIO
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Garrett Dawson is a drummer, percussionist, music educator, studio musician and composer. Born to an extremely musical family and raised in the woods of northern New Jersey, Garrett has been playing drums and percussion since the age of three. As a young child Garrett became heavily influenced by Rock n Roll, Jazz, Reggae, Classical and Folkloric music from Africa, the Caribbean, and South America. He began playing drums at local venues and began studying under legendary New York City Jazz percussionist Armen Halburian and African drumming icon Babatunde Olatunji before he was 10. As a successful music educator, Garrett excels at authentically uplifting and inspiring his students to bring their drumming to new heights. His live performance and studio background on drum kit and hand percussion can only be summarized as extremely vast and eclectic.
Garrett has been touring member of both Butch Trucks and the Freight Train Band and Dickey Betts and Great Southern. He has performed with many iconic southern rockers such as "Dangerous" Dan Toler, The Artimus Pyle Band, Col. Bruce Hampton and the North Mississippi Allstars. He was the first ”outsider” to be accepted by and work with many top Garifuna (African Carib-Arawak native people) artists, playing Reggae, Punta, and Paranda with Rolando ‘Ideal’ Castillo, Gadu Nunez, Dayaan ‘Nuru’ Ellis and Marcony Star. He has also worked with popular artists throughout many diverse genres such as the Florida West Coast Symphony (Classical}, James Peterson (Blues), Pedro Arevalo (Global/Blues), Benny Yurco (Indie Rock), The Bird Tribe (Rock/Sacred Steel), Eddie Watkins Jr (Soul/New Thought), and Robert Mirabal (Native American). As a session drummer Garrett has been featured on over 50 releases.