Steve Pruitt

Music became the central focus of Steve Pruitt’s life at an early age. After beating on everything in sight, his Dad bought him a drum-set. This only fueled the already ignited passion for music and thus hours and hours of practicing and playing ensued.

In 2000, Steve participated in the Guitar Center Drum Off (which has over 10,000 contestants) and made it to the finals. He lived in Oklahoma City up until 2002, when he decided to pack up his bags and move to Denton, TX to attend the University of North Texas. There he received the Shelley Manne Scholarship and studied under the tutelage of Ed Soph. He also began to play heavily in the Dallas/Fort Worth scene, as well as go on the road all over the country playing everything from Jazz, Rock, Hiphop, Fusion, R&B, and Big Band.

Steve has performed and/or recorded with some of the finest musicians in the world including: Cornell Dupree, Bobby Sparks, Eddie Gomez, Shelley Carroll, Adam Rogers, Miles Okazaki, Alan Jay Palmer, Keith Anderson, Jimi Tunnell, Makoto Ozone, Bernard Wright, Dave Stryker, Blue Lou Marini, Phil Woods, Youngjoo Song, Oz Noy and many others…

Steve was also a member of the Grammy Winning Funk/World music jam band Snarky Puppy. From 2006-2008, he toured with them heavily and can be heard on the records "The World is getting Smaller", "Bring us the Bright" and the live DVD "Reel to Real."

As an educator Steve has presented many clinics all over the world at Universities such as: University of Tennessee, University of Tennesee Tech, University of Texas at Tyler, University of Northern Illinois and Howon University, Seoul Institute of the Arts, Hanyang Women’s University in South Korea. He was also artist-in-residence at Utah State University.

Additionally, Steve is the Artistic Director and content provider for Clesson.net which provides world musical instruction content; look out for the international launch in June 2020!