Scott Latzky Home Page

Scott Latzky Bio

I got my professional start around age 15, where I played some gigs near where I grew up, in Hartsdale, NY. Around this time, I was studying with Joe Morello, but I must also give credit to one of my early teachers, Ralph Pace and my Band directors, Bill Ellington and Mitch White.

It was Mitch and my father (and reading something about one of my favorite drummers, Peter Erskine) that led me to Indiana University where I had the good fortune to study with William Roberts, Dominic Spera and David Baker. I had a great time, but was ready to go back to NY after 4 years which I did, but connections led me oddly enough, back to Indiana and then to a stint in Yokohama, Japan. I eventually settled in NYC in 1990 where I've been freelancing and teaching percussion ever since.

I've played and recorded with lots of folks, but the thing I'm most proud of at the moment is a "collective" of sorts where I get to combine my skills on drums with my interest in melodic percussion (I'm a frustrated pianist!). I had originally conceived of the idea to have sort of an improvising percussion quartet, and call it 4skin (please laugh). It evolved more into a quartet with two percussionists (myself and John Hollenbeck, an awesome musician/composer) along with two other great musicians, composers, band leaders, bassist Stephan Crump and woodwind virtuoso (and currently my boss at school) Tom Christensen.

Click on the LISTEN link to hear a sample of the 4skin demo. You can also hear something from a demo I did way back in the day for the Thelonious Monk competition. I didn't make it into the competition, but I did win the "Cognac-Hennessey Jazz search" in 1996 as a member of pianist/composer Mike Holober's Quintet. We played at the Playboy Jazz festival at the Hollywood Bowl (I never got to meet Hef). Also, thanks to Mike, I was a finalist in Jazziz magazine's "Drummers On Fire" competition. You can listen to one of his tunes as well.

Besides my playing, I'm also really proud of my role as a composer and teacher, whether teaching privately or doing clinics for students around the world. I'm on faculty at a summer Jazz workshop in Groznjan, Croatia, have been teaching at The Fieldston School in Riverdale NY since 1992, have taught at Hartwick College in Oneonta NY and am the musical director and composer for a "Stomp" type show called "Trash Time" at Hershey Park, PA.