Jerome Jennings is a drummer, bandleader, sideman, and Emmy Award winning composer. His debut recording ‘The Beast’ was named one of the top three jazz releases by NPR, received a four star rating in Downbeat Magazine, and was nominated for the prestigious French ‘Grand Prix du Disque’ award for Album of the Year in 2016. Jerome’s sophomore recording, ‘Solidarity’, released November 2019 was recognized by NPR as best music that spoke truth to power of 2019. Jerome performs and tours around the United States and internationally with his groundbreaking musical group, Jerome Jennings & iLL Philosophy. Jerome served as music supervisor and composer for Louis Massiah’s film TCB: The Toni Cade Bambara School of Organizing. The film debuted at the 2025 Black Star Film Festival and received the Best Feature Documentary Jury Award. He has performed, toured and recorded with legendary musicians like Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Christian McBride, Ron Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis (J@LC), The Count Basie Orchestra, Philip Bailey, Henry Butler, and countless others. Jerome has made recordings and shared the stage with contemporary musicians, Lakecia Benjamin, Camille Thurman, Jazzmeia Horn, Christian Sands, and Thembelihle Dunjana, to name a few. He has been a member of piano master, George Cables’ trio since 2021. Spring of 2007 Jerome earned a MM from the prestigious Juilliard School in Manhattan NY. He was the Resident Director of The Juilliard Jazz Orchestra from fall 2017 to 2021.   Jerome is a jazz scholar. Since 2022, he has been a professor of graduate jazz history at Montclair State University. He is a lecturer, professor of jazz drums at Princeton University. Jerome has taught, conducted clinics, designed courses nationally and internationally. Jerome has been an artist-in-residence and has lectured at dozens of Universities and Academic institutions, nationally and internationally, including UNC Greensboro, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University, John Hopkins Peabody Institute, Rutgers University, The Juilliard School, Jazz Music Institute JMI (Brisbane, AU), Sydney Conservatory of Music, Xavier College (Melbourne, AU), The Ohio State University, Aspen Colorado, Brigham Young University, University Of Ghana- Legon School Of Performing Arts, Rockport Jazz Workshop, and the Universidad Sergio Arboleda (Bogota Colombia) and The National Taiwan University of The Arts.