ohn Rozum is an independent, free-lance jazz drummer who has performed with several big bands and combos throughout the northeast part of the country. He has been playing and teaching professionally for 41 years, placing many students in junior and senior county, district, regional and state band and orchestra, as well as many of the top DCA and DCI drum and bugle corps throughout the country.

Throughout the years, he has been involved in studio recordings and has performed with the Reading Pops, the Reading Philharmonic Orchestra and was the percussionist for over 40 Reading Civic Broadway Musicals. He has been on the road with the Hamid-Morton Shrine circus from Massachusettes and the Garden Brothers circus from Toronto Canada and has backed up such celebrities as Helen O’Connell, Dick Shawn, Phyllis Mcquire, Jack Carter, Myron Floren, Al Cohn, ( Woody Herman ) Richie Cole, ( Buddy Rich ) Johnny Petillo ( The Duprees ) Gerald Veasley and the Day Brothers to name a few. He has performed and adjudicated with former members of the Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Maynard Ferguson, Glenn Miller, Harry James and Tommy Dorsey orchestras as well as Jim Snidero, Chris Vadala, Dave Llama, Dennis DiBlasio, Dave Stahl, Matt Neiss, Bob Curnow and Larry Kershner.

He has instructed over 40 percussion lines for drum corps and marching bands: namely, South Wind from Montgomery, Alabama; the Westshoremen from Harrisburg, Pa.; the Sunrisers from New York; the Buccaneers from Reading, Pa. and the Cadets from Garfield, New Jersey. He has arranged over 700 street beats, solos, interludes and percussion scores for marching band, concert band, jazz band, steel band and drum and bugle corps.

He was the musical director of the marching percussion segment for the NFL animated cartoon “Grunt and Punt” televised for the Fox Network on channel 29 and is the leader of his clinic based group “Percussionology” which ties in rudimental, concert, rock, latin and jazz drumming into an educational, informative and entertaining experience which is guaranteed to inspire and motivate the percussionists and non-percussionists alike.

He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society and has been listed in the International Drum Teachers Guide for Modern Drummer magazine. He is on staff as a percussion arranger for the periodical, “The International Association of Rudimental Percussionists” and is the three time Drum Corps Associates drum set champion.

John has performed with the Reading Big Band, the Sam Peters Swing Band, the Kutztown and West Chester University Alumni Jazz Bands, the West Virginia University Jazz Ensemble, Coastal Carolina University Jazz Band, the Al Raymond Big Band, the Audubon Jazz Explosion, the Jump City Jazz Orchestra, the Myrtle Beach Big Band, the Reading and Boyertown Directors Big Band and The Music Express Bugle Corps out of Cinnaminson New Jersey.

Currently, John is playing with Gamut, a 5 piece Jazz Ensemble, The Last Big Band, the Bone Tom Dixieland Jazz Band, Fancy Brass and is the drum set player for the Swing House Jazz Drum and Bugle Corps out of Carney’s Point New Jersey. He is the percussion arranger and instructor for the Reading, and Oley Valley marching bands. He has been a percussion judge for Drum Corps Associates, the Cavalcade and Tournament of Bands, the Keystone Indoor Drill Association, the Mid-Atlantic Percussion Society, and the USSBA. He has been a guest judge for the OZARKO Band Festival at South West Missouri State University. He is a member of the International Association of Jazz Educators and a jazz band adjudicator for jazz band contests throughout the tri-state area.

He is a jazz and marching band clinician for the Vic Firth drum stick corporation, the Yamaha Drum Company and the Sabian Cymbal Company and has performed clinics for The Percussive Arts Society, The Berks Jazz Festival, The Mid-Atlantic Percussion Society, The Cavalcade of Bands, The Pennsylvania Music Educators Association, West Virginia University, Coastal Carolina University, The Cadets of Bergen County, Elementary, Middle, Junior and Senior High Schools and various music stores in the Reading and Lancaster area.