Kai Porterfield

Kai Porterfield is an up-and-coming drummer, composer, and educator based in the New York City Area. Born and raised in Santa Cruz, California, Kai grew up immersed in a unique combination of styles of music, from surf rock, punk, rock to contemporary jazz highlighted at the prestigeous Kuumbwa Jazz Club. Kai's music blends these styles to create something unique and refreshing. 

Discovering at the age of 10, he has steadily developed and expanded through experiences with in the local marching band, concert band, and bagpipe corps, and Jazz band,  taking 1st place at numerous competitions in the Bay Area, and being awarded the Louis Armstrong Jazz Award. Kai has also performed regularly in Santa Cruz as a member of the band, 3 Hole Punch, and The Voice contestant Anthony Arya where he would regularly perform in local venues, including San Francisco clubs. Kai was a member of the Kuumbwa Jazz Honor Band for two years, before moving to New York City to attend the New School in 2019 for Jazz and Contemporary Music. 

There, he has worked with giants such as Amir Ziv, Ulysses Owens Jr., Ari Hoenig, Kendrick Scott, Matthew Wilson, Buster Williams, Reggie Workman, Jimmy Owens, and more. More recently, Kai was chosen to perform at the Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland, alongside gigs at New York City hotspots like Silvana, Shrine, Fiction, Radegast Biertgarden, Marians, and more.

Kai can currently be found performing regularly throughout New York City. For booking inquiries, click here.