At thirty years of age, Ted Sirota is currently in his twentieth year of playing the drums. Sirota attended the world-renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated in 1991. While in Boston, Sirota spent much of his time jamming and performing with such other young musicians as Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, Antonio Hart, Roy Hargrove, Jeff Parker, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Seamus Blake, Chris Cheek, Dwayne Burno, Lalah Hathaway, and many other "young lions." Sirota studied privately with legendary drummer/teacher Alan Dawson and Berklee teacher Joe Hunt.
Sirota eventually relocated to Chicago in the fall of 1992 and quickly became active on the Chicago jazz scene. Since his move to Chicago, Sirota has performed with many of the city's finest musicians including Von Freeman, Fred Hopkins, Lin Halliday, Ira Sullivan, Rob Mazurek, Kurt Elling, and many others. Sirota has also toured with saxophonist Christopher Hollyday and guitar legend Phil Upchurch.
In the winter of 1993, Sirota began a two year tenure with blues great Eddie Kirkland. With Eddie Kirkland's Energy Band, Sirota traveled throughout the U.S. playing blues clubs and festivals. Ted has also performed with other fine blues musicians including pianist Pinetop Perkins, singer Johnny Adams, guitarists Little Smokey Smothers and Dave Specter, and organist Tony Z. As a member of the Sabertooth Jazz Quintet, Sirota has spent late night Saturdays for the past four years at Chicago's best-known jazz club, the Green Mill.
Sirota went on to form his own band, Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, in the early part of 1996. The group recorded their debut Rebel Roots for the British label Naim in June of '96, and has received much critical acclaim since the CD's release in November '96. Rebel Souls second recording for Naim, Propaganda, was released in May '99.
The group currently consists of: Kevin Kizer - Tenor Sax, Rob Mazurek - Cornet, Jeff Parker - Guitar, and Noel Kupersmith - Bass.
The Chicago Music Awards nominated Sirota in the categories of Best Jazz Artist and Best Jazz Album/CD of 1996. Neil Tesser of JazzTimes magazine stated that "Rebel Souls offer an especially good representation of young jazz in Chicago." Cadence magazine said, "Sirota has a loose yet commanding sense of swing," and declared "Rebel Roots is inspired, adventurous music and is strongly recommended." Listener magazine says "this young man is a remarkable musician" and "frankly, there have been few jazz debuts in recent years which have shown such ability."
