About
Biography
Known for his versatility and dynamic performances, Austin plays the drums professionally in all styles of music, and is now one of the most recognized and sought-after drummers in Southern California. He has toured and recorded with many established artists in the entertainment industry, including Lauryn Hill, Carlos Santana, Robbie Krieger, Terrence Howard, India Arie, Roy Hargrove, and more recently Willow Smith, Gwen Stefani, Patti LaBelle and Dave Chapelle, to name a few. He has composed for and appeared on numerous TV and film projects, including “Step Brothers” (Sony), “Studio 60” (NBC), “E-Ring” (NBC), “One on One” (UPN/CW); The Cloverfield Paradox (Netflix) and “Truth or Dare” (NBC/Universal). He has also travelled to Iraq and Afghanistan, performing double-duty as tour manager and drummer, entertaining US Troops on numerous Army bases.
Tony is the Drummer, Engineer and Producer for the acclaimed Los Angeles- based group, the West Coast Get Down (WCGD), a collaborative group of musicians born and raised in Los Angeles. Apart, they are some of the most sought after musicians in the world; together they are uninhibited innovators moving effortlessly through multiple genres of music. He Produced, Engineered and was the Drummer on the critically acclaimed WCGD albums: The Epic by Kamasi Washington, a triple CD named one of Rolling Stone’s and Pitchfork’s “best albums of 2015”, with The Epic Tour selling out arenas worldwide for the past three years; and UPRISING, by vocalist/upright bassist Miles Mosley, an album that debuted in Jan 2017 at #4 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart, #2 on the ITunes Jazz Album charts and featured on Apple Beats 1 Radio. He also engineered and performed on trombonist Ryan Porter’s ‘The Optimist’, pianist Cameron Graves’ ‘Planetary Prince’, and Kamasi Washington’s 2017 EP "Harmony of Difference and 2018 release ‘Heaven and Earth’. He also partnered with Kamasi Washington as recording engineer and performer on the Emmy and Grammy Nominated music score for the Netflix documentary - "Becoming", A chronicle of former first lady Michelle Obama's life via her book tour
Currently Tony Austin is touring sold out shows and festivals with the WCGD world wide for Kamasi Washington’s critically-acclaimed new album ‘Heaven and Earth’ (which along with being the drummer he also engineered). The tour started with both weekends at the acclaimed Coachella Festival. When off the road Tony is also currently Producing Miles Mosley’s second album for Universal Music Group/Verve and a duo project, BFI featuring Miles and himself.
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