Steve Pruitt
Music became the central focus of Steve Pruitt’s life at an early age. After beating on everything in sight and watching hours of MTV (when it use to have music!) his Dad bought him a drum-set. This only fueled the already ignited passion for music and thus hours and hours of practicing and playing ensued. Steve lived in Oklahoma City up until 2002 when he decided to move to Denton, TX to attend the University of North Texas. There he received the Shelley Manne Scholarship and studied under the tutelage of Ed Soph. He also began to play heavily in the Dallas/Fort Worth scene as well as going on the road all over the country playing everything from Jazz, Rock, Top 40, Fusion, Country, R&B, and Big Band.
Steve has also played and/or recorded with: Cornell Dupree (D’Angelo, Roy Hargrove) , Bobby Sparks (Marcus Miller, Tower of Power) , Eddie Gomez (Bill Evans, Chick Corea) , Shelley Carroll (Sheryl Crow, Mulgrew Miller), Adam Rogers, Miles Okazaki, Jangeun Bae (Korean Sony Jazz Artist) ,Alan Jay Palmer (Jackie Mclean), Jimi Tunnell (Steps Ahead, Michael Brecker), The Ink Spots, Lynn Seaton (Count Basie, George Shearing) , Makoto Ozone (Gary Burton) , Bernard Wright (Miles Davis, Roberta Flack) , Dave Stryker (Ralph Peterson) , Mario Cruz (Jaco Pastorious, Bruce Springstein), Stefan Karlsson (Eddie Gomez) , Phil Woods, Neil Slater, Keith Carlock, Oz Noy and many others…
He has also performed at many different festivals such as Denton Arts and Jazz Festival, Ft.Worth Main Street Festival, Seoul Daejong Film Festival, and Deep Ellum Arts Festival, to name a few, and he has also performed on the EBS SPACE TV show in Seoul, Korea.
As an educator, Steve has been a faculty member of Lone Star Music Academy in Flower Mound, Texas for 3 years. He has also given clinics and masterclasses at: University of Tennessee, University of Tennesee Tech, University of Texas at Tyler, University of Northern Illinois, and in Seoul, Korea at Howon University, Seoul Institute of the Arts and Hanyang Women’s University.
Steve proudly endorses Sonor Drums and Tangereen Percussion.
