About:

Video Interview

Biography

Randy Gelispie is instructor of jazz drums at the Michigan State University College of Music.

He has been a professional jazz drummer since he started playing with a 10-piece band in the ninth grade.

Gelispie has traveled on the road with Wes Montgomery, Sonny Stitt, Dinah Washington, Etta Jones, Lou Donaldson and Gene Ammons. In the Detroit area, he has performed with Joe Williams, Nancy Wilson, Dizzy Gillespie, Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Oliver Jones, O. C. Smith, Al Hibbler and most recently with Geri Allen.

He has worked with several blues musicians including Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, and Big Maybelle. Locally, he has played with many great jazz musicians, including Donald Walden, Marcus Belgrave, Perry Hughes, Rodney Whitaker, Gary Schunk, Rick Roe, Marian Hayden, Bill Heid, Andrew Speight and Wycliffe Gordon.