Cindy Blackman-santana Band

lackman’s introduction to the drums happened at the age of seven in her hometown of Yellow Springs, Ohio. At a pool party at a friend’s house she saw a drum set and began playing them. “Just looking at them struck something in my core, and it was completely right from the second I saw them”, says Blackman. “And then, when I hit them, it was like, wow, that’s me.”.Soon after, Blackman began playing in the school band and persuaded her parents to get her toy drums.

When Blackman was 11, she moved to Bristol, Connecticut and studied at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut.Blackman began to have an interest in jazz at age 13 after listening to Max Roach and got her first professional drum set at 14.

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