Home » Jazz Musicians » Devin Drobka
Devin Drobka
Devin Drobka, drummer, composer and educator has been playing drums for the past 20 years. Devin is currently one of the most in-demand Performers and Educators in the Midwest.
Devin decided to further his education and applied to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. Devin received his BMA in Jazz Drumming Performance from Berklee College of Music in 09' where he had the chance to study with Terri Lynn Carrington, Bob Tamigni, Skip Hadden, Jamey Haddad, Kenwood Dennard, Jon Hazilla, Ralph Peterson Jr, Ian Froman, and the master drummer Bob Moses. While at Berklee Devin performed with legends of the Jazz world such as Joe Lovano, Jerry Bergonzi, Greg Osby, Cecil McBee, Dave Santoro, Ed Tomassi, and Phil Grenadier.
While in Devin's last year at Berklee he was asked to play drums in the world famous Jerry Bergonzi Quartet which featured Phil Grenadier on Trumpet, Bruce Barth on Piano and Dave Santoro on Bass.
Devin moved to New York in 2010 to further his musical knowledge. While in New York he performed at Kitano's, Douglass St. Music Collective, Sycamore, Setai, Way Station, Branded Saloon, Barbes, and the Shapeshifter lab.
Devin has performed at the Tanglewood Jazz Fest, Eastside Jazz Fest, and Salem Jazz Fest, CMJ Festival NY.
Devin has performed with with Bruce Barth, Jeff Parker, Jeremy Pelt, Russ Johnson, Johannes Wallmann, Dayna Stephens, Dave Miller, John Tate, Jerry Bergonzi, Tony Malaby, Joe Solomon, Dave Santoro, Mario Pavone, Matt Wilson, Tadataka Unno, Dan Tepfer, Josh Berman, Joe Martin, Tom Chang, Chris Tordini, Lena Bloch, Kyle Wilson, Ben Wendall, Jorge Roeder, Dan Blake, Tyler Blanton, Dmitry Ishenko, Sean Conly, Melissa Aldana, Will Slater, Joe Lovano, Dayna Stephens, and Dennis Carroll.
Devin moved back to Milwaukee, WI in 2013 and quickly established himself as a go-to educator. Currently, Devin teaches out of his under the Devin Drobka Drum Studio. Devin is also teaching drumset and helping coach the combos at UW-Whitewater.
In 2015 Devin began recording for the Hal Leonard Corporation. Devin is playing drums on the Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and Trumpet Ballads play along series.
Devin is also the founder of UnrehearsedMKE which is one of the longest-running local improvised music series.
You can catch Devin performing with his group Bell Dance Songs, Field Report, Lesser Lakes Trio, Johannes Wallamann Group, Paul Silbergliet Trio, Dim Lighting, Argopelter, Lady Cannon, Dave Miller, John Christensen's Atlas, Soft Alarm and Many others.
Tags
Paul Dietrich's Elemental Quartet: A Small Patch of Earth
by Richard J Salvucci
Anyone who spends much time watching contemporary instrumentalists on the internet is bound to come away impressed. Modern players, it sometimes seems, can do just about anything. And that is particularly true of some instruments in the brass family, where the advances in technique and range over just a half-century are particularly impressive. There are many trumpet athletes, able to leap impossible intervals in a single bound and circular breathe their way smoothly through half a concerto and generally play ...
Continue ReadingKenny Reichert: Switch
by Mark Corroto
Chicago guitarist Kenny Reichert works extremely hard to make his sound come across as casual on Switch. If you do not count the numerous discs with his partner Sara d'Ippolito Reichert, this is his third release as a leader. It follows Deep Breath (Shifting Paradigm Records, 2023) and returning from that previous outing are vocalist Alyssa Allgood and drummer Devin Drobka. Anchored by the rock steady pulse of bassist Ethan Philion, the title track opens with Reichert and ...
Continue ReadingPrecarious Towers: Ten Stories
by Jack Bowers
Precarious Towers is a Midwestern-based quintet whose second recording, Ten Stories, is as bare-bones an album as one could imagine: a plain CD (without name or artwork) resting in a pale-blue jacket (no tray or protective sleeve) that includes a list of songs, composers and personnel plus recording details. That's it. From a reviewer's point of view, however, such cosmetic details are irrelevant, as the only component that matters is the music itself. Judged solely on that ...
Continue ReadingArman Sangalang: Quartet
by Jack Bowers
Chicago-based tenor saxophonist Arman Sangalang, still in his mid-20s, makes his recording debut with Quartet, wherein his talented four-member ensemble uses delicate textures and shadings in lieu of heated fire and brimstone to amplify its even-tempered musical purpose. That was clearly Sangalang's idea, as he wrote all save one of the album's ten by and large tranquil themes (chaperoning the lone standard, Johnny Burke and Jimmy Van Heusen's “Polka Dots and Moonbeams"). Sangalang's unaccompanied intro to that ...
Continue ReadingKenny Reichert: Deep Breath
by Richard J Salvucci
Kenny Reichert is a Chicago-based guitarist of broad background, Berklee training, and wide-ranging tastes in pop and jazz. He has self-released one studio album, Interpretations (2015). Reichert records mostly originals. If you are looking for influences, “Spears" (a play on “Sphere"?) sounds Thelonious Sphere Monk-ish enough, with plenty of solo space for saxophonist Tony Barba woven in. Barba can hold his own with anyone. Reichert does not shy away from vocals either. His lyricist and singer is Alyssa ...
Continue ReadingJohannes Wallmann: Precarious Towers
by Dan McClenaghan
Pianist Johannes Wallman set himself up with a hard act to follow when he released 2021's Elegy For an Undiscovered Species (Shifting Paradigm) an ambitious set of the leader's distinctive compositions played by an all-star quintet and string orchestra. It is a jazz with strings that leans to a spirited jazz side--cerebral and approachable at the same time. Precarious Towers, Wallmann's 2022 offering, finds the pianist bringing in a different quintet, one which proves itself as adept as ...
Continue ReadingDaniel Thatcher: Waterwheel
by Dan McClenaghan
The two electric guitars, bass and drums ensembles played a big part in shaping popular music. The early 1960s saw the Beatles walk this road. The Rolling Stones rolled that way, too. And prior to that British Invasion, we had the “instrumental rock sound” of groups like The Chantays in 1964 with “Pipeline," The Surfaris, Dick Dale and the Del-Tones, and The Ventures, all groups that fit into the surf rock genre. From there we can go back to Link ...
Continue ReadingPhotos
Music
Deep Moraine
From: Dave MillerBy Devin Drobka
