J.P. or Just Pocket depending on who you ask is a church bred drummer from Newport News, Va. Just like so many of today€™s musicians he was born and raised in the church, even sang in the choir, but even while singing he loved the music. J.P. eventually would take his love for music a step further and began playing the guitar until that came to an abrupt end when his guitar was stolen. Even in all that he still longed to be a musician so he tried his hand at the trumpet and was pretty good, but that soon came to an end as well, then one night at church the inevitable happened no drummer showed for church that was his time to see if he had what it took to be one of the few, the proud, the elite drummers. Once he was behind the set it just flowed and the rest they say is history.Since that time over twelve years ago he has become one of the premier drummers in the Hampton Roads area in the gospel, jazz, and R&B arenas. He has gone on to share the stage, perform with, and even sing background for such greats as James Brown, Freddie Jackson, Ronnie Laws, Gerald Albright, Kirk Whalum,Jackiem Joyner, Jeff Lorber, The Temptations, The Four Tops, The Dirty Dozens Brass Band, Angela Bofil, Tom Brown, Phil Perry, Kindred The Family Soul, Silk, James Hall, Hezekiah Walker, Ricky Dillard, Burning Spear, Israel Vibrations, the late Nathan Heathman, and countless others. He has also acted as M.D. (musical director) and sang background for Ms. Jean Carne. J.P. is currently the drummer for saxophonist Jackiem Joyner and record label EMG(Equilibrium Music Group) artists Wynueco Washington and Victor Thompson. Even having played and toured with some of the greatest musicians alive this brother has remained grounded and still depends totally on the Lord from which he knows his help cometh.
