Cliff Martinez

Cliff Martinez (born February 5, 1954) is an American musician and composer. Early in his career, Martinez was known as a drummer notably with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Captain Beefheart. Since the 1990s, he has worked primarily as a film score composer, writing music for Sex, Lies, and Videotape (1989), Traffic (2000), Solaris (2002), Drive (2011), Contagion (2011), Only God Forgives (2013), and The Knick (2014).

Martinez was born in the Bronx, New York, and raised in Columbus, Ohio; his first assignment as a composer was for the popular television show Pee Wee's Playhouse. At the time, however, he was more interested in rock bands, and played drums in a variety of them, mostly in a temporary capacity.

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