Drummer, composer, and bandleader E.J. Strickland is most noted for his work with The Ravi Coltrane Quartet, The Marcus Strickland Quartet & Trio, & The Russell Malone Quartet. He currently leads his own bands The E.J. Strickland Quintet & The E.J. Strickland Project. His playing has been described as emitting “fields of cumulative energy, clouds of feather-touch and heavy-handed syncopations, latent with power like an oncoming storm” (Thomas Conrad, Downbeat Magazine). He attended high school at New World School of the Arts in Miami, Florida and then The New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music for his college years. His style is one of versatility, drawing from many different genres: Jazz, World Music, Hip-Hop, Afro-Cuban Music, etc.. His discography includes over 30 albums with various recording artists, as well as his long-anticipated debut album In This Day (Strick Muzik), released in 2009: “Far from a simple collection of tracks, In This Day is a unified and thoughtful work, the songs’ elegant trajectory creating a logical thematic progression… Not purely a straight ahead drummer, Strickland distills a variety of styles to propel equally diverse compositional influences” (Ken Micallef, Downbeat Magazine).