Robby Ameen

Robby Ameen (born December 7, 1960) is an American drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator who resides in New York City. Although he is of Lebanese Druze origin, Ameen is best known for the unique and powerful Afro-Cuban style he has created. He is regarded as one of the world's most prominent drummers in the area of Latin Jazz.[1]

In 1985, he became a member of Ruben Blades’ Seis del Solar band. Other long-term band memberships include Dave Valentin, Conrad Herwig's "Latin Side of… All Stars", Kip Hanrahan, and Jack Bruce and the Cuicoland Express. In 2011, Ameen won a Latin Grammy for best Salsa record with Ruben Blades and Seis del Solar, "Todos Vuelven Live, Vol. 1 and 2." As a sideman he has recorded on other Grammy winning records including Ruben Blades and Seis del Solar's “Escenas” and Brian Lynch's “Simpatico”.[2]

Ameen was the drummer from the inception of the Paul Simon album Songs from The Capeman, as well as having been the drummer throughout "The Capeman" show's run on Broadway in 1997-1998. In 2012, Ameen was the subject of an episode of the Emmy Award-winning Detroit Public Television series "Arab American Stories".[3]

Ameen was born in 1960 in New Haven, Connecticut.[4] He first studied drum set with CJ Everett at a local music school. At the age of twelve, he performed the Edgar Varese percussion piece Ionisation under the baton of conductor Nicolas Slonimsky.

When Ameen was fifteen, he learned that the jazz drummer Ed Blackwell was teaching nearby at Wesleyan University and started going to his house for the next couple of years. While at Yale University, he studied classical percussion with Fred Hinger, longtime principal timpanist with the Metropolitan Opera. He earned a BA in Literature from Yale University in 1982.

Robby Ameen has currently recorded ten records as a leader or co-leader. As a sideman, he has appeared on hundreds of records with such artists as Ruben Blades, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Valentin, Eddie Palmieri, Paul Simon, Jack Bruce, Kip Hanrahan, Conrad Herwig, Carly Simon, Mongo Santamaria, Hilton Ruiz, Kirsty MacColl, and many others. As a session musician Ameen has recorded numerous jingles, film scores, and TV music, including the popular HBO series Sex and the City.

As an educator, Ameen is the co-author with bassist Lincoln Goines of the best-selling instructional book “Funkifying the Clave: Afro-Cuban drums for Bass and Drums” (Alfred Music), and the follow-up DVD, “Funkifying the Clave: Afro-Cuban drums for Bass and Drums” (Alfred Music). He is an international clinician and percussion/drum festival participant, including the Modern Drummer Festival and PASIC and also serves as a faculty member of Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University.

Ameen began playing professionally as a teenager in New Haven and moved to New York City in 1981. He joined Dave Valentin's band in 1983, with whom he recorded and toured until Valentin's death in 2017. In 1985, Ruben Blades decided to add drums on his second Seis del Solar record, Escenas, whereupon Blades asked Ameen to become a permanent member of his band. This was one of the first salsa bands to incorporate a drumset in what was primarily a percussion-based rhythm section.[citation needed] In the same year, Ameen started his longtime relationship with Kip Hanrahan with whom he would tour and record 17 records. Through Hanrahan he worked with Jack Bruce, eventually joining Bruce's Cuicoland Express band in the 2000's.

Ameen has also collaborated with trombonist Conrad Herwig, whom he met at the Interlochen Center for the Arts in 1975. While Ameen continues to work steadily as a session drummer and sideman, he has also been focusing on composing and working as a bandleader.

• Robby Ameen Live at the Poster Museum (2024) Origin Records
• Robby Ameen Diluvio (2020) Origin Records
• Robby Ameen Days in the Night (2015) Two and Four Records
• Robby Ameen Days in the Life (2009) Two and Four Records

• Horacio "el Negro" Hernandez and Robby Ameen Robby and Negro at the Third World War (2006) American Clave/Enja
• El Negro and Robby Onto the Street (2003) EWE
• El Negro and Robby Band Live at Umbria Jazz (2004) Il Manifesto
• Seis del Solar Decision (1992) Messidor
• Seis del Solar Alternate Roots (1995) Messidor
• Overproof Three Guys Walk into a Bar (2004) EWE

Ameen uses Pearl drums, Istanbul Mehmet cymbals, Latin Percussion, Vater drumsticks, and Remo Drumheads.

Drums: Pearl Masters Maple Gum in hand rubbed natural maple:

• Bass drum 22"x16"
• Rack tom 10"x7"
• Rack tom 12"x8"
• Floor tom 14"x14"
• Floor tom 16"x16"

Cymbals: Istanbul Mehmet:

• Legend Dark hi-hats 13" or Hamer hi-hats 15"
• Turk crash 17" or Traditional thin crash 17"
• X-Ray 6 crash 18"/X-Metal 12" splash (stacked)
• X-Jazz splash 10"
• Session splash 10"
• 61st Anniversary flat ride 22"
• X-Rubbish crash 17"
• Turk crash 18"
• Turk china 18" or X-Ray Random Turk crash 18"

• Pearl Redline Eliminator kick pedal
• Vater Los Angeles 5A wood (16"x.570" shorter taper) drumsticks
• Vater Session wood (16"x.570" longer taper) drumsticks

• Website
• Discography on All Music
• Latin Grammys
• Durmmerzone Biography
• Drummer World
• Downbeat March 2010 May 2020 September 2024

• Modern Drummer February 2023, January 2010, January 2004, April '94
• All About Jazz Home Jazz Articles Robby Ameen