Bay area native Will Kennedy started as a kid interested in music and has become a percussion standout.

Kennedy, whose older brother, Hershall, was a keyboardist for San Francisco area funk bands, was playing his first drum set by age 4. Will liked to hang out and watch Hershall’s bands, which progressed to jamming with his brother in the family garage. The boys also enjoyed their father’s extensive record collection. By age 10, Will had a private instructor, Bill Nawrocki.

Kennedy studied music in college, and he was soon playing with a group called Rhythmus 21. Through this all-star group of Bay area musicians, Kennedy met Andy Narrel, with whom he would later record several records and participate in a number of touring engagements. Around the same time, Kennedy grew more heavily involved in writing music, and became a partner in his first successful publishing company.

Though Kennedy was already experiencing success, he knew a can’t-miss opportunity when he saw it. When saxophonist Marc Russo – a member of the Yellowjackets, an accomplished jazz fusion group that had just lost its drummer – hooked Kennedy up with the group for a jam session, a longstanding match was made. Kennedy would play with the Yellowjackets for more than nine years, recording 10 records with the group and helping the quartet earn 14 Grammy nominations.

Kennedy left the Yellowjackets in 1999, but stayed active and prominent on the music scene. He drummed for the house band on ABC’s “The Wayne Brady Show,” and worked with that group’s bandleader, Peter Michael Escovedo, in the “Demographically Correct Orchestra” on UPN’s “Martin Short Show.”

Kennedy also is involved in educating new and developing drummers. He has conducted clinics worldwide and participates in educational events organized by his sponsors, which include Pearl, Zildjian, Promark, Evans, Shure and Drumframe.