Ronald Bruner Jr.

Ronald Bruner Jr. is a Grammy award winning drummer, composer and producer.

Early life

Bruner has been playing the drums since the age of two. His earliest influence was his father, Ronald Bruner Sr., a drummer who has performed and recorded with Diana Ross, The Temptations, Randy Crawford, and Gladys Knight. He is the older brother of bassist Thundercat and Jameel Bruner of The Internet.

Professional career

Bruner began his professional career at the age of 13, at the Thelonious Monk Institute, which opened the door for him to perform with artists such as Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, and Ron Carter. A few years later he became a regular member of Kenny Garrett's band. Over the years his style has diversified, including hardcore punk/crossover thrash with the band Suicidal Tendencies.^[1]

His other credits already include Wayne Shorter, Kenny Garrett, Stanley Clarke, Roy Hargrove, Suicidal Tendencies, Marcus Miller, Tribal Tech, Lee Ritenour, Michael Landau, Kirk Whalum, Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Patrice Rushen, Ron Carter, Melvin Lee Davis, Clark Terry, Dianne Reeves, Johnny Griffin, Raphael Saadiq, Bobby Rodriguez, The Heath Bros. Horace Tapscott, Tracy Spencer, Black Rice, The Young Jazz Giants, Gerald Albright, J.K. Kleutgens, Mike Phillips, Johnathan Butler, Al Jareau, Q-Tip from Tribe Called Quest, J*Davey, Rachelle Ferrell, Chaka Khan, Patti LaBelle, Jeffrey Osbourne, BeBe Winans, James Ingram, Erykah Badu, Alan Holdsworth, Stevie Wonder, Vanessa Williams, Jennifer Hudson, Doug E. Fresh, Tony Grey, Cheryl Lynn, Ray Parker Jr. Prince, Thundercat, Kendrick Lamar.

Ronald now is currently finishing his first solo album.

He worked with the bassist, composer Marcus Miller on the "Tutu revisited" tour in 2010, and played with Prince at the Dakota Jazz Club in Minneapolis in 2013 .

In 2015, Bruner appeared on Kamasi Washington's solo debut The Epic.^[2] and also performed live with Lee Ritenour & Dave Grusin (alongside Melvin Davis (b) in the UK).

References