Skoota Warner
Encyclopedia
Skoota Warner is an American
musician and was the former drummer
from rock
band
Ra
. Warner is currently working on The Emeril Lagasse Show
on The ION Network, Hot Tuna
, G.E. Smith, Screaming Headless Torsos
, KIF, Patrick Stump
, Cyndi Lauper
and completing his solo record due to be released early 2011.
, Georgia
. At the age of nine, his interest in playing drums led him to the church. Gospel played a soulful foundation for "The Funky Drummer". By the age of eleven he was touring the South with various then up-and coming Gospel groups.
During high school he improved his percussive skills and played at school social functions and local clubs. Graduating from high school, he decided to go where musicians who wanted to make it went: New York City
. After only a few weeks, Skoota was spotted playing with street breakdancers by Pepeu Gomes
and Baby Consuelo
, Brazil
's top pop artists at that time. At age 18, Skoota left for Brazil with Pepeu and Baby where he lived for two years, playing live rock shows and recording several albums with Pepeu and other Brazilian artists.
When Skoota returned to New York, he landed gigs with blues
musicians Johnny Copeland
and Johnny Johnson
. The following year, Skoota joined the Apollo Theater
's Amateur Night House Band with whom he backed such R&B, funk, and hip-hop stars as Keith Sweat
, Guy
, and Big Daddy Kane
. Skoota's impromptu rhythm breaks incited live on-stage jams with guest hip-hop artists like Biz Markie
, Doug E. Fresh
, and Special Ed
among others.
1989 hallmarked Skoota's ascending career when New York's premier studio drummer, Omar Hakim
, chose him to be his drummer for the Rhythm Deep Project. Omar said "Skoota nails it! He's a drummer's drummer."
Since 1990, Skoota has played with such established artists as Santana
, The B-52's
, Arto Lindsay
, Lionel Richie
, Cyndi Lauper
, Matisyahu
, and Mary J. Blige
.
Warner was a member of Dave Koz
& The Kozmos, the house band of The Emeril Lagasse Show
.
Since 2009 Warner has also been touring with Jefferson Airplane founding members, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers bassist Jack Casady
and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen
in the enduring American blues-rock band Hot Tuna
. He has recently been revealed as a member of the touring backing band for Fall Out Boy
singer Patrick Stump
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician and was the former drummer
Drummer
A drummer is a musician who is capable of playing drums, which includes but is not limited to a drum kit and accessory based hardware which includes an assortment of pedals and standing support mechanisms, marching percussion and/or any musical instrument that is struck within the context of a...
from rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band
Band (music)
In music, a musical ensemble or band is a group of musicians that works together to perform music. The following articles concern types of musical bands:* All-female band* Big band* Boy band* Christian band* Church band* Concert band* Cover band...
Ra
Ra (U.S. band)
Ra is an American alternative metal band from Los Angeles, California, taking their name from the Egyptian sun god. The band has been around since the 1990s, but did not actually evolve into its current form until 2002...
. Warner is currently working on The Emeril Lagasse Show
The Emeril Lagasse Show
The Emeril Lagasse Show is a weekly talk show starring Emeril Lagasse. It aired on Sundays at 5:00PM Eastern on Ion Television. The program originally premiered on April 18, 2010, airing at 8:00PM....
on The ION Network, Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
, G.E. Smith, Screaming Headless Torsos
Screaming Headless Torsos
Screaming Headless Torsos or SHT are an experimental jazz/funk band formed in 1989 consisting of guitarist David Fiuczynski, vocalist Dean Bowman, bassist Fima Ephron and percussionist Daniel Sadownick. The band's original drummer was Jojo Mayer, but he was replaced by Gene Lake for their 2001...
, KIF, Patrick Stump
Patrick Stump
Patrick Vaughn Stump is an American singer-songwriter, composer, record producer, and music critic. He is the composer, lead singer, and multi-instrumentalist of Fall Out Boy, an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, and is also a solo artist...
, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
and completing his solo record due to be released early 2011.
Biography
Warner was born and raised in NewnanNewnan, Georgia
Newnan is a city in Coweta County, Georgia, about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta. The population was 16,242 at the 2000 Census. Newnan is one of the fastest growing cities in Georgia, with an estimated population of 27,097 in 2006 and 33,293 in July 2008...
, Georgia
Georgia (U.S. state)
Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...
. At the age of nine, his interest in playing drums led him to the church. Gospel played a soulful foundation for "The Funky Drummer". By the age of eleven he was touring the South with various then up-and coming Gospel groups.
During high school he improved his percussive skills and played at school social functions and local clubs. Graduating from high school, he decided to go where musicians who wanted to make it went: New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. After only a few weeks, Skoota was spotted playing with street breakdancers by Pepeu Gomes
Pepeu Gomes
Pedro Anibal de Oliveira Gomes, better known as Pepeu Gomes is an accomplished Brazilian guitar player and composer...
and Baby Consuelo
Baby Consuelo
Baby Consuelo is a Brazilian performer, singer and composer....
, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...
's top pop artists at that time. At age 18, Skoota left for Brazil with Pepeu and Baby where he lived for two years, playing live rock shows and recording several albums with Pepeu and other Brazilian artists.
When Skoota returned to New York, he landed gigs with blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musicians Johnny Copeland
Johnny Copeland
Johnny Copeland was an American Texas blues guitarist and singer.-Career:Born in Haynesville, Louisiana, United States, while Copeland was becoming interested in music, he also pursued boxing, mostly as an avocation, and it is from his days as a boxer that he got his nickname "Clyde." Also as a...
and Johnny Johnson
Johnny Johnson
Johnny Johnson may refer to:* Johnnie Johnson , RAF pilot* Johnny Johnson , Major League pitcher* Johnny Johnson , American football player* Johnny Johnson , a musical by Kurt Weill...
. The following year, Skoota joined the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
's Amateur Night House Band with whom he backed such R&B, funk, and hip-hop stars as Keith Sweat
Keith Sweat
Keith Sweat is an American R&B/soul, singer-songwriter, record producer, radio personality and a major contributor to the new jack swing era.-Music career:...
, Guy
Guy
Guy or guys may refer to:* Guy * Guy, an effigy burned on bonfire night...
, and Big Daddy Kane
Big Daddy Kane
Antonio Hardy better known by his stage name Big Daddy Kane, is an American rapper who started his career in 1986 as a member of the rap group the Juice Crew. He is widely considered to be one of the most influential and skilled MC's in Hip Hop...
. Skoota's impromptu rhythm breaks incited live on-stage jams with guest hip-hop artists like Biz Markie
Biz Markie
Marcel Theo Hall better known by his stage name, Biz Markie, is an American rapper, beatboxer, DJ, comedian, singer, reality television personality, and commercial spokesperson. He is best known for his single "Just a Friend", an American Top 10 hit in 1989...
, Doug E. Fresh
Doug E. Fresh
Douglas E. Davis , better known by the stage name Doug E. Fresh, is an American rapper, record producer, and beat boxer, also known as the Human Beat Box...
, and Special Ed
Special Ed
Special Ed is the performing name of Edward Archer , an American hip hop musician of Jamaican descent. Hailing from Brooklyn in New York City, he was raised in Flatbush before moving to Canarsie, and is identified with East Coast hip hop...
among others.
1989 hallmarked Skoota's ascending career when New York's premier studio drummer, Omar Hakim
Omar Hakim
Omar Hakim is an American jazz, jazz fusion and pop music drummer.Hakim credits jazz vibraphonist Mike Mainieri with giving him his first break in 1980; Hakim appeared in a video with Mainieri called The Jazz Life and began working with singer Carly Simon through Mainieri...
, chose him to be his drummer for the Rhythm Deep Project. Omar said "Skoota nails it! He's a drummer's drummer."
Since 1990, Skoota has played with such established artists as Santana
Santana (band)
Santana is a rock band based around guitarist Carlos Santana and founded in the late 1960s. It first came to public attention after their performing the song "Soul Sacrifice" at the Woodstock Festival in 1969, when their Latin rock provided a contrast to other acts on the bill...
, The B-52's
The B-52's
The B-52's are an American rock band, formed in Athens, Georgia in 1976. The original line-up consisted of Fred Schneider , Kate Pierson , Cindy Wilson , Ricky Wilson , and Keith Strickland . Following Ricky Wilson's death in 1985 Strickland switched to guitar...
, Arto Lindsay
Arto Lindsay
Arthur Morgan Lindsay is an American guitarist, singer, record producer and experimental composer. He is a 1974 graduate of Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida....
, Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie
Lionel Brockman Richie, Jr. , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Since 1968, he has been a member of the musical group Commodores signed to Motown Records...
, Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
, Matisyahu
Matisyahu
Matthew Paul Miller , better known by his Hebrew name and stage name Matisyahu, is an American Hasidic Jewish reggae and alternative rock musician....
, and Mary J. Blige
Mary J. Blige
Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...
.
Warner was a member of Dave Koz
Dave Koz
Dave Koz is an American smooth jazz saxophonist.- Life and career :Dave Koz was born on March 27, 1963 in Encino, California....
& The Kozmos, the house band of The Emeril Lagasse Show
The Emeril Lagasse Show
The Emeril Lagasse Show is a weekly talk show starring Emeril Lagasse. It aired on Sundays at 5:00PM Eastern on Ion Television. The program originally premiered on April 18, 2010, airing at 8:00PM....
.
Since 2009 Warner has also been touring with Jefferson Airplane founding members, and Rock and Roll Hall of Famers bassist Jack Casady
Jack Casady
Jack Casady , is an American musician considered one of the foremost bass guitarists of the rock music era and best known as a member of Jefferson Airplane. First playing as a lead guitarist with the Washington D.C...
and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Kaukonen
Jorma Ludwik Kaukonen Jr. is an American blues, folk, and rock guitarist, best known for his work with Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna.-Biography:...
in the enduring American blues-rock band Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna
Hot Tuna is an American blues-rock band formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. It plays acoustic and electric versions of original and traditional blues songs.- Jefferson Airplane side project :...
. He has recently been revealed as a member of the touring backing band for Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy
Fall Out Boy is an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, formed in 2001. The band consists of vocalist, guitarist and composer Patrick Stump, bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz, guitarist Joe Trohman, and drummer Andy Hurley. The band released five studio albums from 2003–2008...
singer Patrick Stump
Patrick Stump
Patrick Vaughn Stump is an American singer-songwriter, composer, record producer, and music critic. He is the composer, lead singer, and multi-instrumentalist of Fall Out Boy, an American rock band from Wilmette, Illinois, and is also a solo artist...
.