About Randy Drake

Yamaha Music Foundation certified instructor

Randy Drake recently earned a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology with a Doctoral Emphasis Program in Feminist Studies at University of California, Santa Barbara. He received his B.M. in Jazz Studies at the University of North Texas and his M.M. in Jazz Studies at California State University, Long Beach. He has worked as a Teaching Associate and Assistant for Music and Popular Culture in North America, World Music, and for the Feminist Studies course Women, Society, and Culture. He has presented papers at events such as the 2013 and 2012 conferences of the Society for Ethnomusicology (SEM), the 2011 Southern California and Hawaii Chapter of SEM, and the Critical Sexualities Graduate Symposia at UCSB.

Randy is also an accomplished drum set and percussion performer. He has performed with Dan Siegel, Bill Watrous, John Novello, Pat Kelley, and Gregg Karukas. Between 1990 and 1992, he performed and recorded with artists including Birds of a Feather, the Mark Masters Jazz Orchestra, Uncle Festive, Ralph Carmichael, and many other Los Angeles artists. Randy recently toured Japan with Japanese guitarist Tak Matsumoto and the United States with Englebert Humperdinck, and he has performed, recorded, and toured with jazz-pop artist Daniel Ho and Kilauea. Recently, he has been performing and recording with Daniel Ho, Jennifer Leitham, and San Gabriel Seven.

Randy has been teaching drum set at California State University, Long Beach for over fifteen years. His research interests include the intersections of race, class, age, and gender (particularly trans identity) in several genres of music as well as sound studies and popular music. His dissertation considers music’s ability to open up spaces for underrepresented forms of embodiment and identity.