Howard Lee first picked up a pair of drumsticks when he was 9, and since then he has studied with Alan Browne, David Jones, Colin Hoorweg, Edu Ribeiro and John Riley in Australia, U.S.A. & Brazil.
In 1997 he released the CD roovin?At Studio G?with his quartet omethin?Else?and quintet elisma? omethin?Else received the award forest Jazz Band?from Empire Records as part of the first youth recording competition held in Melbourne by Empire Records.
He has performed with Dale Barlow as part of the Jazz Works finale concert at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1998, The Wangaratta Jazz Festival (1998) with the Canberra Youth (Jazz) Orchestra, the Old Australian Parliament House (1998), the Australian National Press Club with Phil Slater (1999) and the Manly Jazz Festival (2000) in Sydney.
He graduated from the jazz course at the Canberra School of Music (part of the Australian National University) in 2000 with a Bachelor of Music (Jazz). While at CSM he was under the tuition of Colin Hoorweg (Nat Adderley), Miroslav Bukovsky (Wanderlust, Ten Part Invention), Eric Ajaye (Freddie Hubbard, Barry White) and Dave Panichi (Buddy Rich, Blood Sweat & Tears). Between December 2000 and 2002 he has successfully organised and performed from Australia to Hong Kong with such musicians as Anton Delecca, Nick Freer, Julie Oara, Glenn Cannon (Australian National Jazz Awards Finalist), Ben O?Loghlin (Wynton Marsalis), Tim Mark Wilson and Martin Breeze (Australian National Jazz Awards Finalist) at such venues as the Hong Kong Jazz Club, Brown, Fringe Club, Cubana, the Hong Kong Exchange Square, FCC, The Macau Jazz Club and Manhattan Ing.
To further his studies and knowledge of jazz music, he travelled to U.S.A. in 2002 where he studied with Johnny Vidacovich (James Booker, Professor Longhair, Astral Project) in New Orleans and John Riley (Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, John Scofield, Stan Getz) in New York.
From 2003-2004 he undertook a 14 month trip to South America through Argentina & Brazil. Cities included Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Salvador, Belo Horizonte and Buenos Aires to source for the best musicians from these cities for his company Freelance United Music. To further his studies in Brazilian music he also took the time out studying with local percussionists such as M嫫cio Bahia (Hermeto Pascoal) and Samba jazz drummer Edu Ribeiro.
