Marcus Gilmore

Marcus Gilmore is a multi-Grammy award winning drummer, composer, producer, and educator.

The New York based musician has been recognized with numerous awards, residencies, and fellowships - including becoming a 2018 - 2019 Protege in the Annual Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative.

Gilmore, in all his playing, integrates a unique style where he is musically expanding rhythm, while supporting the great musicians with whom he plays. He has had the distinct privilege of performing/recording with Mulatu Astatke, Chick Corea, Pharoah Sanders, Savion Glover, Pat Metheny, Ambrose Akinmusire, Gonzalo Rubalcaba ,Clark Terry, Wynton Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Common, Flying Lotus, Robert Glasper, Natalie Cole, Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Derrick Hodge, Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, Thundercat, Brad Mehldau, Cassandra Wilson, Nicholas Payton, Jill Scott, Talib Kweli, Queen Latifah, Norah Jones, Black Thought, Zakir Hussain, The Cadillacs, Bilal, Terrence Blanchard, Roy Hargrove, Terrace Martin, Taylor Mcferrin, and Fred Armisen.

Marcus was featured on the cover of Modern Drummer Magazine for their June 2019 issue.

He was chosen as a primary artist to contribute to the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, for the 2020 Oscar Award Winning Disney-Pixar film, “Soul”.

He was also commissioned by the American Composers Orchestra to write his first Orchestral work which debuted in 2020 with members of the Cape Town Philharmonic. In June 2023, Marcus premiered his full composition with the American Composers Orchestra, in NYC.

With 23 years as a professional musician and performances in over 60 countries throughout his career – Marcus is just getting started.

Upcoming projects include: the release of his highly anticipated debut album, his innovative Marcus Gilmore Solo, Trio, and Quintet engagements, and the continued exploration of percussion with new sound compositions and rhythms thrilling music audiences worldwide.

Awards

Multi-Grammy Award Winner

2018 - 2019 Protege in the Annual Rolex Mentor and Protégé Arts Initiative

Sullivan Fortner: Southern Nights

Read "Southern Nights" reviewed by Pierre Giroux

by Pierre Giroux
May 17, 2025

On Southern Nights, pianist Sullivan Fortner sets out to capture lightning in a bottle and succeeds with radiant charm. Joined by the impeccable Peter Washington on bass and the restless Marcus Gilmore on drums, Fortner opts for total spontaneity: no rehearsals, no retakes, no isolation. The result is a recording that feels alive and as richly human as a live club set, yet marked by an almost telepathic cohesion. The album opens with the title track ...

Album Review

Jason Palmer: The Cross Over: Live in Brooklyn

Read "The Cross Over: Live in Brooklyn" reviewed by Troy Dostert

by Troy Dostert
February 5, 2025

For a label that just got its start in 2018, it has quickly become evident that Giant Step Arts brings a potent, focused discipline to its documentation of some of the most distinctive jazz talents of our time. Rather than covering the field with as many different musicians as possible, the label's founder, Jimmy Katz, has chosen instead to cultivate close relationships with a relatively modest number--foremost of whom is trumpeter Jason Palmer, who has released three discs on the ...

Album Review

Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch

Read "Breaking Stretch" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
September 7, 2024

On her first two albums, vibraphonist Patricia Brennan worked with a quartet comprised of three percussion instruments, herself on vibes and marimba, joined by percussionist Mauricio Herrera and drummer Marcus Gilmore, with a bassist Kim Cass. Momentum in large part, is the name of the game. For Breaking Stretch she expands her musical universe, adding trumpeter Adam O'Farrill and saxophonists Mark Shim and Jon Irabagon. This proved a good move; her musical universe in this septet setting has an energy ...

Album Review

Patricia Brennan: Breaking Stretch

Read "Breaking Stretch" reviewed by Mike Jurkovic

by Mike Jurkovic
August 30, 2024

Wild-willed vibraphonist Patricia Brennan gets straight down to business without any fanciful mission declaration with the Afro-Cuban, effusively powered, clear-the-dancefloor and blow-the-ceiling-off this joint “Los Otros Yo (The Other Selves)," the opening cut of her third album Breaking Stretch. She does so in a captivatingly, wickedly good way. Brennan--who has added much vitality to music by such other big thinkers as Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Anna Webber, Michael Formanek--began her musical education at 4 years old listening to ...

Album Review

Andy Ezrin: I Was Here

Read "I Was Here" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
May 17, 2024

Pianist Andy Ezrin should be heard more often, and by a far wider audience. Like all commanders of the keyboard, he can make his chosen instrument sing, sigh, sway or soar, as he does the Fender Rhodes and Hammond B3 organ whenever he so chooses. On I Was Here, Ezrin doubles as composer, performing thirteen of his charming compositions in groups ranging from trio to quintet before playing the last one, “Cascades," alone. Saxophonist Donny McCaslin sits ...

Album Review

BlankFor.ms: Refract

$Read "Refract" reviewed by Neri Pollastri$

by Neri Pollastri
December 11, 2023

Uscito il primo settembre, nove mesi dopo From the Dancehall to the Battlefield, lo splendido lavoro dedicato a James Reese Europe, questo Refract illustra l'altra faccia di un autore geniale e poliedrico qual è Jason Moran. Di fatto diretto da BlankFor.ms, alias Tyler Gilmore, artista elettronico già allievo di Moran che usa nastri degradati e sintetizzatori analogici per produrre “musica emotiva," il disco sviluppa un'originalissima e assai variegata integrazione elettroacustica, mettendo materiali elettronici predeterminati a disposizione del pianista e del ...

Album Review

BlankFor.ms - Jason Moran - Marcus Gilmore: Refract

$Read "Refract" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel$

by Pat Youngspiel
October 6, 2023

Electroacoustic music gains a new modern perspective with the sonic marvel that is Refract, a collaborative effort between degraded tapes artist Tyler Gilmore, aka BlankFor.ms, pianist Jason Moran and Marcus Gilmore on drums. An experimental series of sketched shapes featuring hovering loops turned sound- blankets, drum-set turned beat-machine and piano turned keyboard-impressionism, Refract's largely improvised fabric makes for one of the year's most adventurous and intriguing listens. Recorded with producer Sun Chung, the sonic properties are a focal ...

Music Industry

Bianca Love Releases 'Time (Reprise)' Ft. Marcus Gilmore, The Highly Anticipated Follow-Up To Her Debut Hit

Source: Bianca Love
October 10, 2023

After the tremendous success of her last single, “Time,” Bianca Love is back with her latest masterpiece, “Time (Reprise)" featuring the renowned drummer Marcus Gilmore. This captivating release marks a significant moment in the career of the talented singer and multi-instrumentalist hailing from New Orleans and now residing in NYC, who is rapidly gaining recognition in the music world. “Time (Reprise)" is a sonic journey that transcends boundaries, inviting listeners to immerse themselves in a melancholic, yet hopeful and energetic ...
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Recording

GPS2: "Orange Afternoons" - Dave Douglas, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Linda Oh, Marcus Gilmore

Source: Dave Douglas / Greenleaf Music
August 31, 2011

New music for a special quintet, GPS2: Orange Afternoons with Dave Douglas, Ravi Coltrane, Vijay Iyer, Linda Oh, and Marcus Gilmore. Tracklist:

The Gulf 9:01Valori Bollati 7:22Solato 8:18Orologi 11:38Orange Afternoons 8:24Frontier Justice 4:13

Orange Afternoons is the second volume in the Greenleaf Portable Series. The GPS is a nod to the shorter, more informal sessions that were for many years the backbone of jazz recording. The series also explores new formats for music to be released and distributed, as well ...
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Performance / Tour

Dekel Bor Trio featuring Francois Moutin & Marcus Gilmore tonight at LOUIS

Source: All About Jazz
November 9, 2006

The Dekel Bor Trio will be performing tonight Thurs. Nov. 9th at

Louis 649 E9th st. corner of Ave. C 9pm-12am

No cover

Dekel Bor - Guitars Francois Moutin - Bass Marcus Gilmore - Drums

“Dekel Bor's evocative live guitar playing ... a fresh taste in music"--John Rockwell, New York Times

The Dekel Bor trio is one one of the most prominent and visible groups of the New York jazz scene. At ...
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In 2009, New York Times critic Ben Ratliff included Gilmore in his list of drummers who are "finding new ways to look at the drum set, and at jazz itself", saying, "he created that pleasant citywide buzz when someone new and special blows through New York clubs and jam sessions".

"It’s hard to think of an under-40 drummer who manifests experimental imperatives and idiomatic mastery of a global array of rhythmic codes and admixtured dialects — call it Afro-Cuban meets Carnatic meets North African meets second line meets swing — more elegantly, efficaciously and bodaciously than Marcus Gilmore."