Living in Minneapolis, Scott Sansby is currently the drummer with the Mick Sterling Band, as well as the percussionist with Scottie Miller & the ReUptake Inhibitors and the Moses Oakland Quintet. He also plays on occasion with Paul Mayasich & the Benderheads, Willie Murphy & the Angel Headed Hipsters, Papa John Kolstad & Clint Hoover, the Lisa Wenger Band, and Charlie Roth. Scott is also a graphic designer who art directed, photographed and designed The Benderheads and Mick Sterling's latest CD covers.
Scott began drumming at the age of 10, and by the age of 12, he was playing with bands at school dances and teen dance clubs throughout the St. Paul/Minneapolis area. During high school he spent as many weekends as possible as an under-aged drummer performing in local bars and nightclubs.
At the age of 20, Scott followed some musician friends to Los Angeles to pursue his musical dreams. In his early 20's, he hooked up with singer, writer, and producer DJ Rogers, who was an artist on Leon Russell's Shelter Records at the time. Scott played on DJ's first record and also on a record DJ produced for another Shelter artist—Mary McCreary, who later married Leon Russell. To promote Mary's record, Scott went on the road performing as Mary's drummer on a Leon Russell stadium tour.
After touring with Mary and Leon during the summer of 1973, Scott returned to Minneapolis to join the band Passage with childhood friends Bobby Schnitzer and Bruce Kurnow (just off the road with Mason Proffit), and Richard Dworsky (having just completed several years as Al Jarreau's keyboardist and writing partner.) Doug Maynard and Gwen Matthews became the group's vocalists, and Scott soon convinced David Miner (Mary McCreary's bass player) to move to Minneapolis to join the band. Throughout the mid 1970's Passage, along with Willie Murphy and the Bumblebees and Pat Hayes Lamont Cranston Band, contributed to the scene that helped spawn what later became known as the "Minneapolis Sound."
Scott returned to the Santa Monica/Venice Beach area in 1977 and did a short-lived stint with T-Bone Burnett, David Mansfield, Steven Soles, David Miner, and Cindy Bullens in a version of the critically acclaimed Alpha Band. During early 1978, a search for his stolen dog led Scott to purchase a pair of outdoor roller skates. These skates changed his life, and after finding his dog a month later, he returned to Minneapolis and started Rolling Soles, the first outdoor roller skate business in the Midwest. Scott owned and operated Rolling Soles for twenty years, before closing the retail store to pursue other interests.
During two decades of running a business and raising a family Scott continued to perform music sporadically with local artists such as Doug Maynard, The Curbfeelers, and Joe Juliano, but it wasn't until after he suffered a heart attack in 2004 that Scott was blessed with the discovery of a rubboard and some rib bones, which motivated him to realign his priorities and helped him return to music as a serious endeavor./P)