Researched musician profile
About Tariq Gardner
Kerrytown Concert House identifies Gardner as a Detroit drummer, composer, bandleader, producer, and educator. Its biography documents his University of Michigan jazz and contemporary improvisation training and teaching work alongside his performing practice.[1]
Gardner leads Evening Star, a Detroit ensemble whose official biography combines jazz improvisation with neo-soul, Afro-Cuban rhythm, hip-hop, and contemporary Black American music. The group generally works as a compact touring ensemble that can expand for larger performances.[2]
WDET selected Evening Star for its 2025 Sounds Like Detroit showcase and profiled Gardner’s Detroit upbringing and bandleading. The group’s artist Bandcamp hosts Gateway Drug, released in 2023, and the five-track Vice Tape featuring poet Joel Fluent Greene, released in 2025.[3][4][5]
Evening Star
Gardner’s Detroit ensemble connects improvisation, neo-soul, hip-hop, Afro-Cuban rhythm, and an Afrofuturist presentation.[2]
Sounds Like Detroit
WDET named Evening Star to its 2025 local showcase and interviewed Gardner about the group’s musical path.[3]
Gateway Drug and Vice Tape
The artist-run catalog documents the ensemble’s 2023 full-length project and its 2025 collaboration with Joel Fluent Greene.[4][5]