Photography BY Diane King
Since his emergence in 1987, Donald Edwards has played across the globe with some of the
finest musicians in jazz. He has now built a reputation all his own. Donald Edwards has
performed with jazz greats such as Freddie Hubbard, Tom Harrell, Donald Harrison, Jesse
Davis, Kurt Elling, Ralph Bowen, Branford Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Henry Butler, Orrin
Evans, Joey Calderazzo, Wynton Marsalis, The Mingus Big Band, Dynasty & Orchestra,
Charlie Hunter, Russell Malone, Dave Holland Conrad Herwig, Alvin Batiste, Alex Sipiagin,
Seamus Blake, Joe Locke, Dave Holland, George Colligan, Mark Whitfield, Joe Locke and
Diane Schuur.
After winning the Louisiana Arts Ambassador’s Award in 1994 for Music Composition,
Donald Edwards became one of the most sought after drummers on the New Orleans music
scene. He came up playing different kinds of music ranging from marching band, hip-hop
and pop to r&b, jazz, funk and gospel music. As a result, Edwards is now called on to play
many different genres of music and meets them with creative interpretation and virtuosity.
Donald Edwards is among the vanguard of players on the New York scene today.
Edwards has three recordings as a leader -“In The Vernacular” (Leaning House Label),
“Ducktones” (Zoot - T Label), “Evolution Of An Influenced Mind”- (Criss Cross Label) and
“Prelude To Real Life”- (Criss Cross) and is also involved in the production of numerous
recording projects. With skills steeped in and out of the rich and varied traditions of
Louisiana, drummer and composer Donald Edwards is dedicated in his pursuit of creative
improvisation, compositional development, and experimentation with rhythms through
conversing in dialects of a universal language we call music.
Weblinks;
www.donaldedwards.com