Born in San Francisco, California, Elé started imitating the sounds he heard at a young age and first started playing drums when his uncle put a set of bongo drums in front of him. While growing up, Elé’s father, Richard Howell Jazztree, a professional saxophonist, brought him to many of his rehearsals and performances where Elé was mentored by some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s top musicians. Pianist Arthur Khu was crucial in Elé’s development as a musician and drummer, and EW Wainwright, gave Elé his first drum, a djembe, and proceeded to teach him through the call and response method of musical instruction.

As a young child, Elé was heavily influenced by the recordings of West African music that he heard at home by artists such as Yousou ndour, Salif Keita, and Mamady Keïta. The musical community that his father is part of enabled Elé to learn from such greats as drummers Deszon Claiborne, Babatunde Lea, and Larry Vann.

But it was at Oaktown Jazz Workshops that Elé became involved with an organized jazz ensemble for the very first time. Elé joined OJW at the age of 14, and is now a college freshman. He stated, “I always looked forward to Wednesdays at Oaktown Jazz, where other people my age were taking music seriously. My favorite times at OJW were when Jack Dorsey (drum instructor) pulled me aside to say, ‘Here’s how you read this rhythm, and this is this technique, and you hold the sticks like this,’ – that opened up a whole other world for me. So that was one of my favorite parts of going to OJW, not only getting to play, but also getting to learn how to read music!’

Elé Howell is currently studying music performance at New York University and will be on tour as a professional drummer this summer.

Catch Elé performing with his fathers group, The Richard Howell & Sudden Changes, at The Throckmorton Theatre in Mill Valley, CA Saturday, June 3rd at 8PM.