Ernesto Cervini
Drums
44 age
February 25, 1982 Birthday
Toronto, Ontario, Canada Birthplace
ernestocervini.com Website
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About
Ernesto Cervini is a JUNO Award-winning jazz drummer, composer, and bandleader based in Toronto. He leads several ensembles including the Ernesto Cervini Quartet, the sextet Turboprop, the trio TuneTown, and the experimental quartet Tetrahedron. His album Abundance (Turboprop) won the 2020 JUNO Award for Jazz Album of the Year (Group), and his 2024 release A Canadian Songbook celebrates Canadian composers and songwriters. A prolific recording artist with approximately 24 albums as leader or co-leader, Cervini has earned praise from DownBeat, Modern Drummer, and JazzTimes for his dynamic playing and compositional voice. Beyond performing, he co-founded TPR Records with Oded Lev-Ari in 2021, runs the jazz publicity firm Orange Grove Publicity, serves as Artistic Director of the Markham Jazz Festival, teaches drums at the University of Toronto, and hosts the documentary podcast Canadian Songbook.
Trivia
Despite being a JUNO-winning jazz drummer, Cervini plays drums and sings backing vocals in Idioteque, a Toronto-based Radiohead tribute band active since at least 2012, which has performed special shows marking the 30th anniversary of The Bends. His 2022 album Joy was composed entirely as a musical response to Louise Penny's bestselling Gamache mystery novel series, with tracks depicting characters and landscapes from the fictional Quebec village of Three Pines. He also plays Ultimate Frisbee and softball weekly and is a fan of The Smile, the project featuring Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood.
Early Life
Ernesto Cervini was born in Toronto in 1982 into a musical family. His sister Amy Cervini is a New York-based jazz vocalist who has collaborated with him extensively. He began studying classical piano at age 5 at the Royal Conservatory of Music, took up drums at age 9, and also completed classical clarinet studies there. His early exposure to jazz came from listening to his sister practice jazz etudes, which he found far more exciting than classical repertoire. By age 13, he was drumming in the Toronto All-Star Big Band. Cervini earned a Bachelor of Music from the University of Toronto and moved to New York City in 2003 for a Master of Music at the Manhattan School of Music, where he formed lasting partnerships with Joel Frahm and Dan Loomis. He returned to Toronto around 2007.
Ernesto Cervini Solos
2022
Drums solo - The Golden Mean - 2022
4/4 swing in C major at 156 BPM
Drums solo - Outbreak - 2022
4/4 swing in D minor at 299 BPM