Today we’d like to introduce you to Evan Hyde.
Hi Evan, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I am a professional jazz musician (primarily a jazz drummer and educator), currently based in New York City, but still maintaining my Michigan roots. I was born and raised in Grand Rapids, and both of my parents are professional musicians (Edye Evans Hyde and Mike Hyde). Back when I was a kid, my parents began hiring me to play drums for some local gigs around the area, and through those experiences, I began to really fall in love with the instrument, as well as the feeling of performing with people in real-time and developing relationships through music.
My interest in music and percussion was nurtured throughout my high school years, where I was a member of East Kentwood High School’s band program which was directed by James Ross and James Sawyer. During that time, I studied privately with local greats including Tim Froncek, William Vits, and Don Raaymakers, and performed as a member of the local performance group, Strike Percussion Ensemble, directed by Raaymakers. After being accepted to Western Michigan University, my passion for jazz drumming came into focus, and my mentors at the time, Keith Hall and Billy Hart, helped me to hone in on my skills and create performing opportunities for myself. From there, I studied briefly at William Paterson University in Wayne, NJ, where I got my first experiences breaking into the New York jazz scene. Although I stayed for only one year, that was a pivotal time as I began to understand what being a professional musician looks like in a big city such as New York. After a brief pause from school, I moved to Miami, Florida where I finished my Master of Music degree in jazz performance.
During my time in Miami, I was selected as one of 24 young musicians worldwide under the age of 25 to attend the Betty Carter ‘Jazz Ahead’ residency at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. During my two weeks at the program, I connected with many future movers and shakers of the jazz scene in NYC and beyond. The impact of that program allowed me to gain the confidence to push further and continue to pursue jazz performance as a career. Shortly after, I moved to New York City, and I’ve been based there since 2016.
Today I continue to establish myself in New York City, and I am thankful to have been able to perform many of today’s greatest jazz musicians, including Freddy Cole, George Coleman, Russell Malone, Kenny Barron, and others. I continue to perform, tour, and record internationally and domestically with a number of different projects that are meaningful to me, and I have released music under my own name. Although I am based in New York, I return to Michigan often to perform and teach as well (most often at the Keith Hall Summer Drum Intensive in Kalamazoo, where I’ve been teaching staff since 2008).
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
After I finished college, I found myself having some confusion as to where to go next. My gut at the time had told me that I need to move on to something bigger and better, and the only reasonable way to do this was to go back to school immediately. After graduation from WMU, I moved right on to graduate school at William Paterson University in New Jersey the following semester. Looking back on that decision now, I realize that my decision to go I think was based on fear of getting lost and losing momentum, but I also know now that I was not ready to make a move like that. The school was not a good fit for me, I was unclear about what I wanted to do, and that experience led to me doubting my interest in music overall. I moved home to Grand Rapids after one year in New Jersey to reassess. After some time away from school, and allowing myself time to address some of my doubts about music and where my life was heading, I made the decision to go back to school the following year, which led me to Miami. My experience there felt like it was what I needed to put me back on course after falling off for a couple years, and I’m thankful I’ve been able to maintain that momentum ever since.
Moving to New York City was definitely a tough decision as well, as I wasn’t prepared professionally or financially to handle such a move at the time. Starting over in a new city is always a hard choice, but New York City seemed to amplify all of the concerns I’ve always had about money, consistency of work, and lifestyle preferences. It took a lot of work for me to teach my ego to understand the process of creating an identity as an artist; I had to learn to be ok with making mistakes, and I had to learn how to cope with being underappreciated. It can often feel soul-crushing being a musician in a city like this, where we are consistently underpaid, and underrepresented, these feelings still come and go. However, I’m thankful to be in a place in my career (particularly during the pandemic) that I am able to work on projects that I feel passionate about, travel, and consistently feel like I’m moving forward with the work that I do. We all are always a work in progress, but I believe it’s important for everyone to look at where we are as individuals in that moment and find the beauty within that as well.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a professional jazz musician, primarily a jazz drummer, educator, and composer and I’ve been working throughout the United States and abroad since 2007. As a freelancer, I work mostly as a sideman for projects led by other musicians, and these projects have allowed me to travel to various parts of the world, record on a number of commercially-released albums, and perform on stages to large and small crowds domestically and internationally. I specialize in interpreting original music; composers look to me often for ways to add color, texture, groove, and other elements to their music that would otherwise not written on the sheet music. Jazz drummers are often given a lot of freedom in how they can create soundscapes within a piece of music, but it also can be a challenge in that we shouldn’t allow our ideas to interfere with the composer’s original intent; this is something that I feel I excel at when it comes to performing creative music.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Success is definitely a relative term that means something different for everyone. However, I do think there are certain factors that play important roles in my ability to maintain my work relationships and consistency of gigs. Be a nice person, show up early, be prepared, and be communicative. Whatever a musician can do to make the client feel more at ease, whether it is a bandleader, club owner, or event planner, it is our job to do that. Even the most talented musicians can find themselves without work if they build the wrong professional reputation for themselves. Being professional and personable are key qualities to being hired, there is no substitute for those things.
Contact Info:
- Website: evanhydedrums.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/evanhydedrums/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evan.j.hyde/
- Other: evanhydedrums.bandcamp.com
