Shirazette Tinnin

Shirazette Tinnin is an author, health coach, music director, drummer, composer and bandleader. She is a full-time Associate Professor of Percussion at Berklee College of Music. Tinnin is the American Drummer for Dee Dee Bridgewater and freelances with other artists including Deborah Cox, Lea Delaria (OITNB), Endea Owens, Yuri Juárez’s Afro-Peruano, Afrikkanitha, Alan Harris, Alicia Olatuja, Nicole Mitchell, Taylor Mac, Tia Fuller, Mimi Jones, Orange Coffee, Alicia Keys and Black Girls Rock. She leads her own projects – “Shirazette & Sonic WallPaper Band” and “Moods of Her”.

Tinnin was music coordinator for Zawolé Zollar’s “Urban Bush Women” (2017 – 2023), musical director for Alan Harris’s “Cross That River” and curator of “Jazz Women” at Little Island (2021). With a background in drum set, marching, classical and world percussion, Tinnin’s primary instrument is drum set. She serves on the advisory board of her alma mater Appalachian State University and earned a master’s in music from Northern Illinois University in Jazz Pedagogy under saxophonist Ron Carter. She is a 2022 Latin Grammy Nominee for Andean-Funk’s “The Sacred Leaf”, 18th St. Make Jazz Fellow, and Fulbright Scholar, Tinnin’s third album “The Cards That Life Can Deal” released in 2021 and has new music featuring bassist Christian McBride underway (2024).