Jost Nickel is one of the new breed of drummers emerging from Germany. A top session and tour player, like his friends and contemporaries Benny Greb, Marco Minnemann and the newly emerging Anika Nilles (one of Jost’s students), Jost is taking contemporary drumming in new directions.

His name appears in the credits of many hit records at home as well as abroad where Jost has played drums alongside Abe Laboriel Jr. and Manu Katché on some top-selling albums. In the nineties, Jost's career got a real boost when he joined the German fusion band Matalex. He recorded all but one of Matalex's albums (two of them featured Randy Brecker on trumpet), the first one being the exception, which instead of Jost featured the one and only Steve Smith.

Jost began to expand beyond his native homeland when he toured with the great guitar player Barry Finnerty, whose studio lineage and tenure with Miles Davis helped draw substantial audiences. Most recently, Jost began a creative relationship with German supergroup Jan Delay & Disko No.1 whose last Cds all went straight to Number #1 in the charts.

In addition to touring and recording, Jost, who studied at Drummers Collective in New York, is a tutor at the highly acclaimed University of Pop in Mannheim and the Music Academy in Hamburg. He made his international debut as a clinician and educator with performances at the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC) in America and the Montreal Drum Fest in Canada, as well as with feature articles and workshops in Modern Drummer (USA), Drummer (UK), Drums & Percussion (Germany) and other publications.

Jost is known for his punchy, articulate drum sound, which he counterbalances with a jazzy, exotic cymbal wash. It's sort of a "shadows and light" vibe that reflects a cutting edge drummer who keeps one foot steeped in tradition.

In 2015 Jost's first drum book entitled "Jost Nickel's Groove Book" was published world wide.
www.jostnickel.com

Jost Nickel uses:
Sonor Drums, - Meinl Cymbals & Percussion, - Vic Firth Sticks,
Aquarian Drumheads - Ahead Armor Cases & Beyerdynamic Microphones.