photo by Dave Carter
BIO
Drummer Alan Emert was born May 5, 1966, in Grapevine, Texas, and except for a couple of childhood years in northern New Mexico, he has spent his life in Texas. Alan's early influences were early, indeed: His parents are professional jazz musicians.
Always musically inclined, Alan played trumpet and saxophone in elementary school bands. When he was 12, Alan was introduced to the music of Led Zeppelin and the drumming of John Bonham, which sparked his interest in drums. He got his start as a drummer on a used drum set that was purchased from a neighborhood friend and spent the next two years learning just about every Led Zeppelin and Rush song ever recorded. Alan's parents gave him a new drum set at age 14, and also arranged for him to study with international jazz great Colin Bailey. He spent his first couple of years with Colin learning the basics.
Alan was admitted to the prestigious Arts Magnet High School in Dallas at 14 and continued to hone his drumming skills while studying jazz, classical, and general music theory. Awards began to accumulate: He led the percussion ensemble to first place in contests and received Down Beat Magazine awards in the high school division for outstanding soloist as well as record of the year in 1982 with A.M.H.S. Jazz Combo. At age 15, Alan began playing in the house band on weekends at Calm Eddy's Comedy Club where he played original fusion jazz as well as the music for the comedians. His career had officially begun.
Alan attended North Texas State University (now University of North Texas) in Denton before returning to Dallas and getting very busy. He worked in a variety of bands ranging from R and B to pop and jazz, he played everywhere from weddings to cruise ships. One of his favorite gigs, though, was the Phyllis Emert Jazz Trio — headed up by his mom.
The deep Ellum scene was all the news in the late 1980's, and Alan played and recorded with many of the seminal bands of the time, including Goodfoot, Billy Goat, MC 900 Ft. Jesus, The Joint Chiefs, and Ten Hands.
In 1994 Alan was approached by Brave Combo and asked to join the band. While with the legendary group, Alan has performed on and co-produced 14 recordings including their two Grammy award-winning albums Polkasonic (1999) and Let's Kiss (2004), and Alan has worked on a variety of projects, cool gigs, and international tours. The band has received numerous awards and appeared on The Simpsons and The Jerry Lewis Telethon.
Alan currently resides in Denton, Texas. When he's not playing or touring with Brave Combo, Alan stays busy working on a variety of projects. He has recently recorded CDs with Rodney Ides and Noah Caveny, and he performs with Bonnie & Nick Norris whenever he can.