Brandon Draper graduated from Bethany College in Lindsborg, Kan., with a degree in music and then getting his master’s in percussion from the University of New Mexico.
Brandon was 14 when his father took him on the road for a string of shows. "I was better than the other drummers around, and I was easier to manage. I didn’t drink or get into any of that other stuff. (...) I said to my dad, ‘This is awesome. I want to do more.’ He got kind of quiet, and then he turned off the TV, and he sat down and said, ‘Brandon, this isn’t the life. You don’t want to live in a motel every night on the road. You need to go to school'."
Brandon Draper drummed with Micah Herman of the local funk troupe the Pope of Dope, Bill Stewart, flamenco guitarist Ottmar Liebert and the Kevin Hays Trio.
Brandon Draper and his wife, Teryn, moved to Kansas City from Albuquerque, N.M., in 2006. Their years in New Mexico had been somewhat idyllic. He’d become a go-to drummer in the jazz scene, and he’d made inroads into other local music cultures, including a marimba band. He’d also started experimenting with DJs and electronic music, fusing it with live percussion. And he was running the music program he’d built at a charter school.
So they moved to Kansas City. Draper had already secured one teaching gig, at Shawnee Mission West High School. He now has four. He also teaches contemporary music and world percussion at the Kansas City Academy and is an adjunct jazz faculty member at the University of Kansas and the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
The timing was good. Jazz drummer Todd Strait recently had left Kansas City, which opened up opportunities. He eventually put together his own ensemble, the Brandon Draper Quintet, which included Rich Wheeler on saxophone.
Recent projects include Electric England and the Draper/Lowrey Hip-Hop Experiment, "Vinyl Live: An Electric/Acoustic Collaboration,” with DJ Bill Pile, hip-hop musical "Venice", and loop-and-drum act Organic Proof.