Today we’d like to introduce you to Sean Perlmutter.
Hi Sean, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I grew up in the Grand Rapids area and I started playing music when I was 11, got my first drum set at 12, and started taking classical percussion lessons shortly thereafter. When I was around 15 or 16, I switched to taking jazz lessons with my most important teacher, the great Grand Rapids drummer Randy Marsh. Randy used to have me come out to his jam session and sit in with professional musicians, which was an invaluable experience. Around that time, I began to get into music a lot more seriously and really started to check out jazz, first through fusion albums from the 70s (because it was like the classic rock stuff I knew from my dad’s record collection) and then eventually getting into Miles Davis and John Coltrane’s great ’60s bands. When I heard Afro Blue from Coltrane Live at Birdland, it was all over. I knew I had to pursue the music.
I auditioned for music schools my senior year of high school, but I was still considering going to school for engineering or math or something like that. Wayne State offered me a very generous scholarship, so I moved to Detroit when I was 18. I got a job teaching drum lessons at a studio in Dearborn at the beginning of my 2nd semester at Wayne, so I stayed in Detroit that summer and never left.
When I first moved to Detroit, I was amazed at the amount (and the quality) of music I could hear on a weekly basis. I used to go out five or six nights a week to hear music or sit in at jam sessions. Eventually, people would have to bail on gigs last minute, and I would get the call to fill in. Once word got around that I would show up on time, play with a halfway decent beat and not smell bad, I started working steadily as a drummer and have been ever since.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The pandemic was absolutely brutal for musicians. I went from playing 20 to 25 gigs a month to zero for a few months and then maybe three or four a month at best for about a year after that. We don’t really have the luxury of working from home. You can live stream all you want, but it doesn’t hold a candle to being in the room watching the music be created in real-time.
Between teaching online lessons, a virtual church gig, and a bit of government money, I was able to hold out and not have to get a real job, but not everybody was so fortunate.
Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
The main thing I do is play the drums. I play any kind of music I’m called for (although it’s mostly jazz) with whoever calls me. Often times it’s a band put together on an ad-hoc basis, sometimes with people I’ve never met before. I do play in a healthy handful of long-standing projects, and in a few of those, I play a large role in the repertoire, musical direction, and promotion. My most recent endeavor is my label, Spiritual Slop Records, which I started as a place to release and promote my own projects, as well as projects I work on in collaboration with friends, and music by other Detroit artists who are trying to advance their music and be a part of a multi-genre musical community.
A lot of people in jazz can get pigeon-holed into just working in one style or sub-genre, and while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with being highly specialized, I’m really proud of the fact that my career has put me in a place where I get to work in so many different musical idioms. I’m involved in about seven bands that work regularly, and they include a 10-piece swing band, two modern left-of-center jazz quartets, a 7-piece horn-driven funk band, and a trio that plays everything from Fats Waller to Captain Beefheart.
What matters most to you? Why?
Honesty is really important to me. I don’t want to make music that satisfies the requirements of some focus group or an algorithm. I want to make something I can stand by, something genuinely heard and felt.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://seanperlmutter.net/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanperlmutter/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCU7DqxmZcQnZbNZFAI9kOuA
- Other: https://spiritualsloprecords.bandcamp.com/
Image Credits
Conor Schall
Miles Marie
