Meet Alex Jenkins

Alex Jenkins has always been a student of the world, especially its music. Well versed in music styles eastern and western, traditional and contemporary, Alex's sound transcends both traditions and boundaries. His expression of rhythm is most heavily influenced by his study of the tabla, a North Indian classical percussion instrument. This has helped him develop a uniquely creative approach to music and an innate ability to fuse rhythmic styles from various disciplines into one cohesive sound.

Alex has studied music, drums and percussion at California State University Sacramento (CSUS), the Ali Akbar Khan School of Music in San Rafael, and the Drummer's Collective in New York. He also spent three months in Varanasi, India, studying North Indian percussion. He performs and records regularly throughout California and beyond, playing a variety of musical styles on both drum set and tabla. These styles include jazz, Afro-Cuban, rock, blues, fusion, Indian classical and everything in between. Alex heads his namesake, "The Alex Jenkins Trio" which continues to keep a very busy performing and touring schedule, playing more than 100 shows a year.

In addition, Alex keeps a busy teaching schedule which include workshops and clinics for various schools such as CSUS, American River College, Cosumnes River College, California College of the Arts in Oakland, UC Merced and many more. Alex also has an extensive private teaching roster that includes both in-person and Zoom lessons.

Instruments:

I play DW, Gretsch, Craviotto and Ludwig drums, a variety of cymbals including Amedia and Ibrahim Dirl, Vic Firth drum sticks, brushes and mallets and Aquarian drum heads. I also play a set of handcrafted tabla from India and a djembe made in Mali, Africa.

Teachers and/or influences?

Sacramento based drummers Tony Galioto, Dave Haddad and