Biography
An American drummer living in Iceland. A composer with 5 albums as a leader, a podcast, YouTube channel and an eBook about creativity.
Scott McLemore (b. Feb. 1, 1973 Norfolk, VA) is a drummer based in Reykjavik, Iceland. He began playing music professionally at age 16 with a rock band in high school and joined the rock/funk band Ant Man Bee in 1990 with which he recorded an album and toured the east coast playing the college circuit.
McLemore attended the University of Virginia's Writers Workshop in 1990 where he met trumpeter John D'earth.
He attended Old Dominion University 1992-93 where he studied with John Toomey and also studied drums privately with Howard Curtis. He started performing with Toomey and bassist Jimmy Masters around the same time.
In 1993 Scott transfered to William Paterson College and started playing gigs in nearby New York City. It was at WPC that he met his future wife and long-time co-conspirator pianist Sunna Gunnlaugs.
In 1997 he graduated from William Paterson College with a B.M. in Jazz Studies where he studied drums with John Riley, composition with Vic Juris and had various ensembles lead by Rufus Reid et al. While attending WPC he also toured the US with guitarist Tim Reynolds and TR3.
In 1997 he moved to Brooklyn, NY where he played with such talented musicians as: Ben Monder, Michael Kanan, Tony Malaby, Angelica Sanchez, Russ Lossing, Chris Cheek, Amy Kohn, George Colligan, Kerry Politzer, John Hebert, Mark Helias, Drew Gress and Tim Berne.
In 2005 he and Gunnlaugs moved to Iceland, where he quickly became part of the thriving jazz scene, but also began branching out to mainland Europe performing with musicians such as bassist Nicolas Moreaux and saxophonist Angelika Niescier.
He has recorded 5 albums as a leader (Found Music, Remote Location, The Multiverse, Knowing and Live in Reykjavik), 10 albums with Sunna Gunnlaugs and countless more as a sideman or collaborator.
