Nigel Sifantus’ introduction to jazz came mostly from the NPR “Eric in the evening” jazz radio program which was the only avenue for hearing jazz on the radio growing up in the Boston in the 80’s, a town still dominated by rock (mostly of the classic variety). He, at the time, mostly had dreams of playing the music he had been exposed to at the time but when given the opportunity in junior high school to play in the high school jazz big band, he took it as a much needed opportunity to play the drum set in a band format, though jazz was not his main interest at the time. He recognized immediately that these musicians were all highly skilled and had the ability to play all forms of music with a proficiency higher then almost any other kind of musician (certainly most basic rock musicians). This was enough for him to delve deeply into the study of jazz and the deeper he got into the practice, the more he gained an understanding and appreciation, and thus the music became an integral part of his identity.

He has studied with many respected master teachers, some of them living legends in the jazz world. In his youth in Boston, he studied at the Berklee School of music privately with Skip Hadden of “Weather Report” and later Casey Scheuerell of “Jean-Luc Ponty”.

In the 90’s Nigel moved to New York city to prove himself as a legitimate Jazz artist. He attended the New School University’s school for Jazz and Contemporary music, then part of the Mannes School of music and received a BFA in Jazz Performance in 2001. While there, Nigel had the fortune of studying, playing, and performing with a vast variety of older Jazz legends such as Reggie Workman, Charlie Persip, and Richie Byrack, as well as the cream of the crop of aspiring jazz musicians from all around the world including Robert Glasper (Blue Note artist) Marcus Strickland, Danny Zamir (Tzadik records), Aaron Dugan (Matisyahu) and countless others. His main drum instructor was John Riley, author of the classic drum textbooks “the Art of Bop Drumming” and “Beyond Bop Drumming”. He also studied stick control with legendary Dave Brubeck drummer and stick control master Joe Morello, and improvisation with countless other teachers from Billy Hart, to Joe Chambers, Hal Galper and others.

Although he has always played many alternative forms of music on the drum set, Nigel has always applied his Jazz inspired and educated approach to each project he has taken on. Respectively he has always brought all of his other influences to his approach to playing all forms of Jazz from straight-ahead Be-bop to modern, more modal Jazz.