Billy Canty was born on the Bayou just south of New Orleans La. Billy has the swamp groove in his blood and the drumming chops of a hungry gator! Billy began playing drums at the age of 4 when his family purchased a red Bugs Bunny drum set for his birthday. After his family relocated to Fort Myers FL, Billy took advantage of the opportunity to serve as an instructor for area high school drumlines, and a private lesson teacher, and gigged professionally while pursuing higher education in music. During this period, he studied with some of the best drum & bugle corps instructors in the country.
A few years later he was fortunate to meet the world-famous master, West African percussionist, Ayib
Dieng, who would serve as Billy’s teacher and mentor, eventually joined Ayib’s band on the drum set.
Through Ayib, Billy was introduced to the legendary teacher/author/clinician, Jim Chapin, who would
serve as a mentor for Billy for several years. Jim Chapin was also a great promoter for Billy which would help lead to countless high-profile performance and recording jobs such as The Coasters, The Drifters, The Platters, legendary guitarist Michael Angelo Batio, award-winning songwriter Amanda Hunt Taylor, master percussionist/recording artist Aiyb Dieng, Grammy award-winning producer/bassist Lee Brovitz (Shadow of Night), and a long list of others.
In 1991 Billy met Bo Davis, the owner of Sonic Recording Studio in Cape Coral, Fl. Bo took Billy under his wing and taught him the ins and outs of session drumming as well as mixing and mastering techniques. He then met Anthony Iannucci, the owner of Unity Gain Recording Studio in Fort Myers, Fl. where he began a career as a session drummer for Unity Gain and bounced around several studios around the gulf coast region in Florida.
Billy proudly endorses Pearl Drums, Sabian Cymbals, Offworld Percussion practice pads, Hansenfutz
pedals, and American Drum mallets.
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Contact Information:
Melissa Love-Band Manager
P 574.993.4654
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