ABOUT
Bio
Drummer. Producer. Session musician. Three decades in the room.
JT Bates is a Minneapolis-based drummer, producer, and session musician whose work spans jazz, folk, indie rock, ambient, and pop — often within the same week. Called "the hardest-working drummer in the Twin Cities" by the Star Tribune, Bates has spent three decades building one of the most distinctive and quietly indispensable careers in American music.
Music was never a choice for Bates — it was the environment. His father Don spent 33 years as a trumpeter and public school band director; his older brothers Chris and David are a respected jazz bassist and music producer respectively. Before JT was allowed near a drum, his father insisted on a year of piano lessons — a decision he credits to this day for sharpening his ears and deepening his feel for harmony and melody.
The artistic turning point came at 16, when Bates saw Paul Motian perform. "I saw Max Roach the same year," he's recalled, "and both were just so spatial and so comfortable not playing." That philosophy of space, texture, and restraint runs through everything Bates plays.
In the Twin Cities, he co-founded Fat Kid Wednesdays, a jazz trio that earned a rave in the New Yorker, and launched JT's Jazz Implosion — a Monday night residency that ran for nearly two decades, first at the Clown Lounge, then at Icehouse.
On the recording side, Bates has become one of the most in-demand session drummers in the country. His credits include Taylor Swift's Grammy Record of the Year Folklore (on "the last great american dynasty," "epiphany," and "seven") and its follow-up Evermore; the Grammy-nominated debut by Bonny Light Horseman; and critically acclaimed albums by Bon Iver, Big Red Machine, The National, Ed Sheeran, Andrew Bird, Beth Orton, Maya Hawke, and Cassandra Jenkins.
As a producer, Bates has co-produced records for Pieta Brown, David Huckfelt, and others. As a solo artist, he has released Open Relationships (2015, Totally Gross National Product) and Not Other Stuff (2021). He is an Innovative Percussion-endorsed artist, based in Minneapolis, where he continues to record, perform, produce, and mentor the next generation of Twin Cities players.
Music was never a choice for Bates — it was the environment. His father Don spent 33 years as a trumpeter and public school band director; his older brothers Chris and David are a respected jazz bassist and music producer respectively. Before JT was allowed near a drum, his father insisted on a year of piano lessons — a decision he credits to this day for sharpening his ears and deepening his feel for harmony and melody.
The artistic turning point came at 16, when Bates saw Paul Motian perform. "I saw Max Roach the same year," he's recalled, "and both were just so spatial and so comfortable not playing." That philosophy of space, texture, and restraint runs through everything Bates plays.
In the Twin Cities, he co-founded Fat Kid Wednesdays, a jazz trio that earned a rave in the New Yorker, and launched JT's Jazz Implosion — a Monday night residency that ran for nearly two decades, first at the Clown Lounge, then at Icehouse.
On the recording side, Bates has become one of the most in-demand session drummers in the country. His credits include Taylor Swift's Grammy Record of the Year Folklore (on "the last great american dynasty," "epiphany," and "seven") and its follow-up Evermore; the Grammy-nominated debut by Bonny Light Horseman; and critically acclaimed albums by Bon Iver, Big Red Machine, The National, Ed Sheeran, Andrew Bird, Beth Orton, Maya Hawke, and Cassandra Jenkins.
As a producer, Bates has co-produced records for Pieta Brown, David Huckfelt, and others. As a solo artist, he has released Open Relationships (2015, Totally Gross National Product) and Not Other Stuff (2021). He is an Innovative Percussion-endorsed artist, based in Minneapolis, where he continues to record, perform, produce, and mentor the next generation of Twin Cities players.
4 BILLION
STREAMS
934
ALBUM CREDITS
20+
YEARS
TOP 0.1%
GLOBALLY
TEACHING & STUDIO
Lessons & Sessions at 8VB
JT teaches drums and mentors the next generation of Twin Cities players, and records remote and in-person sessions out of 8VB Recording Studio in the North Loop.
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