....is currently in his twentieth year of playing the drums. Sirota attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in performance in 1991. While in Boston, Sirota spent much of his time jamming and performing with such other young musicians as Joshua Redman, Mark Turner, Antonio Hart, Roy Hargrove, Jeff Parker, Kurt Rosenwinkle, Seamus Blake, Chris Cheek, Dwayne Burno, Lalah Hathaway, and many other “young lions”. Sirota studied privately with legendary drummer / teacher Alan Dawson and Berklee teacher Joe Hunt.

Sirota eventually relocated to Chicago in the fall of 1992 with the now defunct band, The Last Kwartet (Jeff Parker, Sara Smith, Chris Lopes), and quickly became active on the Chicago jazz scene. Since his move to Chicago Sirota has performed with many of the city’s finest musicians including Von Freeman, the late bassist Fred Hopkins, Lin Halliday, Ira Sullivan, Rob Mazurek, and many others. Sirota has also toured with saxophonist Christopher Hollyday and guitar legend Phil Upchurch.

In the winter of 1993 Sirota began a two-year tenure with blues great Eddie Kirkland. With Eddie Kirkland’s Energy Band, Sirota traveled throughout the U.S. playing blues clubs and festivals. Ted has also performed with other fine blues musicians including pianist Pinetop Perkins, singer Johnny Adams, guitarists Little Smokey Smothers and Dave Specter, and organist Tony Z.

Ted spent the summer of 1994 abroad with the Chicago Jazz Machine performing at Somerset’s Lounge-Singapore’s premier jazz club located in the Westin Hotel.

Sirota has also performed in a handful of professional stage productions including The Song of Singapore, …Always Patsy Cline, and currently Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh an Allan Sherman musical

As a member of the Sabertooth Jazz Quintet (Pat Mallinger, Cameron Pfifner, Dan Trudell), Sirota has spent late night Saturdays for the past four years performing at Chicago’s highly acclaimed jazz club, the Green Mill.

Sirota went on to form his own band, Ted Sirota’s Rebel Souls, in the early part of 1996. The group recorded their debut “Rebel Roots” for the British label Naim in June of ’96, and has received much critical acclaim since the CD’s release in December ‘96. The Chicago Music Awards nominated Sirota for Best Jazz Recording of 1996. Rebel Souls second recording for Naim, “Propaganda”, was released in May ’99.

Cadence magazine declared “Rebel Roots is inspired, adventurous music and is strongly recommended.” Listener magazine says “this young man is a remarkable musician” and “frankly, there have been few jazz debuts in recent years which have shown such ability.” Neil Tesser of the Chicago Reader recently wrote : “Chicago's jazz scene is awash in celebrity: we have a new MacArthur fellow (Ken Vandermark), a perpetual Grammy nominee (Kurt Elling), a breakthrough songwriter and performer (Patricia Barber), and a national radio host (Ramsey Lewis). But so far this year none of these stars has come up with a better album than Propaganda (Naim), by drummer Ted Sirota's Rebel Souls, whose combination of adventurous improvising and driving lyricism stuck in my head for days after I first heard it.” Downbeat magazine states that “Ted Sirota and his fine quintet the Rebel Souls disseminate their jazz ideas with the kind of fun-loving gusto and grit that makes for an immensely satisfying listen. It's that simple: This CD bears repeated spins, which is a rare triumph for any recording these days.” And music critic Peter Margasak of the Chicago Reader claims “with the new-jazz scene's current emphasis on free improv, high-octane blowing, and bold style blending, we don't hear this kind of stuff enough.”