Karriem Riggins
Encyclopedia
Karriem Riggins is a jazz drummer
, hip hop
producer
, dj, and sometime rapper
. He is a former member of the Ray Brown Trio
and Mulgrew Miller
trio and currently appears in the Diana Krall
quartet.
Riggins was born in Detroit
, Michigan
. His father, Emmanuel Riggins, is also a musician, and Karriem would often play drums with him as a child. Riggins began producing hip hop in middle school and continued through high school. He studied music at Southfield High School
as well, and joined Betty Carter
's band Jazz Ahead soon after, at 17. When he was 19 (in 1994), Riggins moved to New York City
, and joined the Ray Brown Trio in 1998. Riggins has also recorded and performed with Donald Byrd
, Hank Jones
, Mulgrew Miller
, Milt Jackson
, Oscar Peterson
, Cedar Walton
, Roy Hargrove
, and Bobby Hutcherson
.
Away from jazz, Riggins has done production work for hip hop artists including Slum Village
, Erykah Badu
, Common
, J Dilla
, The Roots
, Talib Kweli
, Phat Kat
, Consequence
, and Dwele
. He has collaborated with the hip hop multi-instrumentalist
Madlib
, performing on his 2007 album Yesterdays Universe
and in collaborations entitled Supreme Team and The Jahari Massamba Unit. He also produced a portion of the soundtrack for the 2007 film Smokin' Aces
.
He currently lives in Los Angeles
, California
.
Jazz drumming
Jazz drumming is the art of playing percussion in jazz styles ranging from 1910s-style Dixieland jazz to 1970s-era jazz-rock fusion and 1980s-era latin jazz...
, hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
producer
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
, dj, and sometime rapper
Rapping
Rapping refers to "spoken or chanted rhyming lyrics". The art form can be broken down into different components, as in the book How to Rap where it is separated into “content”, “flow” , and “delivery”...
. He is a former member of the Ray Brown Trio
Ray Brown (musician)
Raymond Matthews Brown was an American jazz double bassist.-Biography:Ray Brown was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had piano lessons from the age of eight. After noticing how many pianists attended his high school, he thought of taking up the trombone, but was unable to afford one...
and Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller is an American jazz pianist who performs in a number of jazz idioms. He began his career as member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.-Biography:...
trio and currently appears in the Diana Krall
Diana Krall
Diana Jean Krall, OC, OBC is a Canadian jazz pianist and singer, known for her contralto vocals. She has sold more than 6 million albums in the US and over 15 million worldwide; altogether, she has sold more albums than any other female jazz artist during the 1990s and 2000s...
quartet.
Riggins was born in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
. His father, Emmanuel Riggins, is also a musician, and Karriem would often play drums with him as a child. Riggins began producing hip hop in middle school and continued through high school. He studied music at Southfield High School
Southfield High School
Southfield Senior High School is a senior high school located in Southfield, Michigan. Founded in 1953, Southfield High is the oldest of three high schools in the district operated by Southfield Public Schools...
as well, and joined Betty Carter
Betty Carter
Betty Carter was an American jazz singer renowned for her improvisational technique and idiosyncratic vocal style...
's band Jazz Ahead soon after, at 17. When he was 19 (in 1994), Riggins moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, and joined the Ray Brown Trio in 1998. Riggins has also recorded and performed with Donald Byrd
Donald Byrd
Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II, is an American jazz and rhythm and blues trumpeter. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd is best known as one of the only bebop jazz musicians who successfully pioneered the funk and soul genres while simultaneously remaining a...
, Hank Jones
Hank Jones
Henry "Hank" Jones was an American jazz pianist, bandleader, arranger, and composer. Critics and musicians described Jones as eloquent, lyrical, and impeccable. In 1989, The National Endowment for the Arts honored him with the NEA Jazz Masters Award...
, Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller
Mulgrew Miller is an American jazz pianist who performs in a number of jazz idioms. He began his career as member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.-Biography:...
, Milt Jackson
Milt Jackson
Milton "Bags" Jackson was an American jazz vibraphonist, usually thought of as a bebop player, although he performed in several jazz idioms...
, Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson
Oscar Emmanuel Peterson was a Canadian jazz pianist and composer. He was called the "Maharaja of the keyboard" by Duke Ellington, "O.P." by his friends. He released over 200 recordings, won seven Grammy Awards, and received other numerous awards and honours over the course of his career...
, Cedar Walton
Cedar Walton
Cedar Anthony Walton, Junior is an American hard bop jazz pianist.-Biography:Walton grew up in Dallas, Texas. His mother was an aspiring concert pianist, and was Walton's initial teacher. She also took him to jazz performances around Dallas...
, Roy Hargrove
Roy Hargrove
Roy Anthony Hargrove is an American jazz trumpeter. He won worldwide notice after winning two Grammy Awards for differing types of music, in 1997, and in 2002...
, and Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson
Bobby Hutcherson is a jazz vibraphone and marimba player. His vibraphone playing is suggestive of the style of Milt Jackson in its free-flowing melodicism, but his sense of harmony and group interaction is thoroughly modern...
.
Away from jazz, Riggins has done production work for hip hop artists including Slum Village
Slum Village
Slum Village was a hip hop group from Conant Gardens, Detroit, Michigan.The group was formed by three members: rappers Baatin and T3, plus rapper and producer J Dilla . J Dilla left in 2002 to pursue a solo career with MCA Records...
, Erykah Badu
Erykah Badu
Erica Abi Wright , better known by her stage name Erykah Badu , is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, and actress. Her work includes elements from R&B, hip hop and jazz. She is best known for her role in the rise of the neo soul sub-genre, and for her eccentric, cerebral musical...
, Common
Common (rapper)
Lonnie Rashid Lynn, Jr. , better known by his stage name Common , is an American hip-hop artist and actor....
, J Dilla
J Dilla
James Dewitt Yancey , better known by the stage names J Dilla and Jay Dee, was an American record producer who emerged from the mid-1990s underground hip hop scene in Detroit, Michigan...
, The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
, Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli
Talib Kweli Greene , better known as Talib Kweli, is an American hip-hop artist and poet from Brooklyn, New York. His first name in Arabic means "student" or "seeker" ; his in Swahili means "true"...
, Phat Kat
Phat Kat
Phat Kat , is a rapper from the east side of Detroit, Michigan. His career began in the mid 90's as part of 1st Down, which consisted of Phat Kat on vocals and Jay Dee on production...
, Consequence
Consequence (rapper)
Dexter Mills , better known as Consequence, is an American rapper. He is the cousin of rapper Q-Tip of the hip hop group A Tribe Called Quest, and was formerly an affiliate of Kanye West's GOOD Music family. Consequence debuted in 1996 on A Tribe Called Quest's album Beats, Rhymes, and Life...
, and Dwele
Dwele
Andwele Gardner , better known by his stage name Dwele is a soul singer, songwriter and record producer from Detroit, Michigan.-Biography:...
. He has collaborated with the hip hop multi-instrumentalist
Multi-instrumentalist
A multi-instrumentalist is a musician who plays a number of different instruments.The Bachelor of Music degree usually requires a second instrument to be learned , but people who double on another instrument are not usually seen as multi-instrumentalists.-Classical music:Music written for Symphony...
Madlib
Madlib
Otis Jackson Jr. in Oxnard, California, known professionally as Madlib, is a Los Angeles-based DJ, multi-instrumentalist, rapper, and music producer...
, performing on his 2007 album Yesterdays Universe
Yesterdays Universe
Yesterdays Universe is an album released on Stones Throw Records. The album, produced entirely by Madlib, marks the end of the group Yesterdays New Quintet as Madlib's jazz project and the beginning of Yesterdays Universe.-Background:...
and in collaborations entitled Supreme Team and The Jahari Massamba Unit. He also produced a portion of the soundtrack for the 2007 film Smokin' Aces
Smokin' Aces
Smokin' Aces is a 2006 crime film, written and directed by Joe Carnahan. It stars Jeremy Piven as a Las Vegas magician turned mafia informant and Ryan Reynolds as the FBI agent assigned to protect him...
.
He currently lives in Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.