Jay
began studying with saxophonist Phil Woods and Pianist Michael Wolf.
He continued working and learning in the Latin Jazz world and began
to study flute with Julius Baker at the time principle flautist with
The New York Philharmonic. Jay went on to study at the New School for
Jazz and Contemporary Music at it’s inception under a full
scholarship. The Jazz and Contemporary music program had just been
founded by Arnie Lawrence and David Levy. During that time he studied
with Sir Roland Hanna, Barry Harris, George Coleman, Kenny Werner,
Gil Goldstein, Walter Davis Jr., John Gilmore, Jim Pepper and Joe
Henderson. His classmates at the time included Roy Hargrove, Larry
Goldings, John Popper and Brad Meldau.
Jay
co founded the NYC phenomenon of the early 90’s the Groove
Collective which influenced bands like the US 3, Roots, a Tribe
called Quest and Modern Hip Hop and Dance music.
He has performed, produced recorded and or
arranged for artists like Elvis Costello, Medeski, Martin and Wood,
Roy Hargrove, Fred Wesley, George Porter Jr, Teruo Nakamura, Bobby
Sanabria, Musiq Soulchild, Natalie Cole, Little Louie Vega, Dennis
Ferrer, Melissa Manchester, Film Directors Godfrey Reggio, Shawn
Batey and Michele Stephenson, Mino Cinelu, Alex Foster, Alex Blake,
Patti Labelle, Sara Dash,Guru, DJ Nicodemus, DJ Premiere, Chucho
Valdez, Victor Jones, Arturo O Farrill, Bernie Worrell, Roy Hargrove,
The Roots, The Mingus Big Band, Al Macdowell, Widespread Panic, Mike
Clark, Kenny Barron, Dave Schools, Widespread Panic, Irakere, Mongo
Santamaria, Eddie Palmieri, Selah Sue, Jerry Wonda, The Gil Evans
Band, Celia Cruz, Doc Cheatham, Miles Davis, Prince amongst many. He
has taught/lectured all over the world including the Royal Academy of
Music in Denmark, Berlin, Estonia, Japan, University of Cairo,
Uninorte in Colombia and Unam in Mexico. Some
of Jay Rodriguez’s achievements have been recorded in Leonard
Feather-Ira Gitler’s The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz.
Jay
currently is busy as a TV, film/documentary composer, arranger and
soloist on his respective instruments. He has been a guest on the
Jimmy Fallon Show with the Roots as a soloist for English sensation
singer song writer Michael Kiwanuka and Jim James of my Morning
Jacket.
The Harvard University Ph.D. is a
scholar and an in-demand lecturer as well as a composer and an
arranger who leads the Harlem Arts Ensemble. Washington has performed
with many of New York’s finest musicians, including Randy Weston,
Pharoah Sanders, John Hicks, Hilton Ruiz, Charles Tolliver, Oliver
Lake, David Murray, and Billy Bang. His body of work—spanning three
decades, from Mozambique to Mexico—has been lauded as one of the
most compelling modern voices in jazz. Dr. Cornel West celebrates
Salim’s work as a “new synoptic vision of what jazz can be and
do. The fundamental spirit behind this music…lives on in new ways
and novel sounds.”
Salim Washington has emigrated to
Durban, South Africa, after many years of following the music,
culture and history of that nation, starting in 1976 at the time of
the Soweto rebellion. Finally arriving as a Fulbright Senior
Scholar/Artist in 2009 (would not be an "honorary white" in
the 70s, supported the boycott in the 80s, was raising children in
the 90s) he experienced the great potential of this country. Salim
has accepted a position in musicology at the University of
KwaZulu-Natal, but also teaches for the Centre of Jazz and Popular
Music. He has led workshops in various townships, including Soweto,
Thembisa, KwaMashu, and others, performed in various cities,
including Grahamstown, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Irini, and
leads a big band built primarily of orphaned youths at the Durban
Music Centre. Washington will also be participating in the 8th Pan
African Congress to be held in Joburg in January 2014.
Livio Almeida is a young emerging voice on saxophone. A Brazilian native, Livio has already played with renowned figure in the jazz scene such as Grammy winner Arturo O'Farrill, Boris Koslov, and Reuben Rodriguez among others. His approach and sound are a promising and refreshing blend of international musics that have earned him much recognition from the jazz press.
“Almeida delivers his most impressive
solo work on the album here, perfectly capturing the soul and energy
that dwells in this piece…”.(All About Jazz review of Giant
Peach)
“Saxophonist Livio Almeida appeared
to paint his incessant signature as the element of change as he
inadvertently sprayed streams of brilliant colors on the canvas to
improvise a sonically unblemished montage of melodies on “Face It.”
(Rob Young, music author and journalist)
He has played with diverse cross-section of leading New York City jazz musicians, such as Fred Ho, Arturo O’Farrill, and Frank Lacy, and has performed at New York's leading musical institutions such as the Guggenheim Museum, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and Lincoln Center. He regularly performs at and curates the music program for the iconic Red Rooster and Ginny's Supper Club in Harlem. Ben does not separate culture from politics and considers cultural work to be essential to the construction of a revolutionary project for the 21st century. His influences are drawn from the world over but he owes a special debt to the music of African American artists. Currently he is working on a revival of the work of activist-musician Calvin Massey, an overlooked 1960s composer who worked with the Black Panther Party as well as John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and who left a deep legacy on his musical generation. Ben is a member of the revolutionary collective Scientific Soul Sessions, and its sister project, Ecosocialist Horizons. He lives in Harlem, where he engineers and hosts the radio show The Ecosocialsit Horizons Hour.
Soon
after, he witnessed Dizzy Gillespie and Jon Faddis trading solos on
'Groovin High' on a 1986 Grammy Awards telecast. A 1991 graduate of
Gateway Regional High School in southern New Jersey, Mr. Byrd has had
a career more like his forbears than his contemporaries; like jazz
musicians of the mid-20th century, he developed his chops and style
on the road in bands big and small, rather than in the classroom.
Planning to go New York University to study Clinical Psychology, he
detoured to go on the road (initially with the Stylistics), and never
returned to college.
Enamored
of high note playing, he worked at being able to articulate in the
'stratosphere', and then the young trumpeter became a multi-talented
improviser in swing, hard-bop, bebop, funk, smooth jazz as well being
versed in studies of classical trumpet. He earned gigs as a lead
trumpeter in big bands including those of Illinois Jacquet, David
Murray, Slide Hampton, Louie Bellson and Oliver Lake, as well as the
Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra and Blood, Sweat and
Tears. Trumpeter Jon Faddis became an early role model and mentor,
and Mr. Byrd has played in the trumpet section of the Faddis-led
'Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band'.
Another
influence and current mentor is Arturo Sandoval. Winston has also
performed, recorded, and/or toured with a myriad of big name jazz and
pop artists and orchestras including The Chi-Lites, Patti Austin, The
Dells, The Grateful Dead, Lionel Hampton, Michael Bolton, Illinois
Jacquet Big Band, Roy Hargrove Big Band, Pieces Of A Dream, Claudio
Roditi, David Murray, Oliver Lake Big Band, Larry Coryell, Aretha
Franklin, Charles Tolliver Big Band, The Stylistics, Natalie Cole,
Arturo Sandoval, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Mary Wilson (of the
Supremes), Chucho Valdes, Louie Bellson, T.S. Monk, David 'Fathead'
Newman, Chaka Khan, Clark Terry (who suprise-guested with Winston on
his All-Star 31st birthday concert!), James Moody, The Dramatics,
Shirley Horn, Paquito d' Rivera, Lucky Peterson, Bernard Purdie,
Diane Schuur, Don Rickles, Usher, Abbey Lincoln and the Charles
Mingus Big Band among others!
For the
last three years, Mr. Byrd, who leads his own band (one in New York,
one in Los Angeles) has just recorded his first CD, 'Soul Searchin',
which is currently available in stores and on the internet at
www.winstonbyrd.com and his compositions can be heard here and on
T.S. Monk's latest release, 'Higher Ground' in which Mr. Byrd is a
former member of the T.S. Monk Band. Since moving to Los Angeles (as
well as keeping a base in New York City as well), Winston has been
keeping busy with even MANY more artists on the West Coast as well
such as the Gerald Wilson Orchestra, the Frank Capp Juggernaut, the
Buddy Collette Big Band, Steve March Torme, Eric Benet, The Don Ellis
Reunion Big Band, Craig Robinson (of the NBC hit show, The Office),
Ernie Andrews and also performing on the L.A. based award shows such
as the Grammys & the B.E.T. awards!!! Along with these many
attributes, Mr. Byrd has organized his Los Angeles based Jazz
Orchestra which has been leaving audiences speechless since being
formed just a year ago with some of L.A.'s finest and hottest
players!!!
Jon
Mark McGowan, from Oakland,
CA, is a second generation trumpeter, one of the most brilliant of
his generation, who has worked with Barry Harris, David Murray,
Lionel Hampton, the Ellington Band, Mulhal Richard Abrams, Harold
Vick, Rodney Kendricks, and many well known musicians in the tristate
area. He also writes and arranges his own distinctive songs.
He went on
to receive a BM at the Eastman School of Music and MA from New York
University. He has participated in the Thelonious Monk Institute's
Jazz Aspen and its Jazz Gala at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
He was a featured soloist with the Rochester Pops Orchestra and
toured with the José Limon Dance Company. Nabaté has performed
and/or recorded with numerous esteemed musicians such as James
Newton, Mike Longo, Charli Persip, Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane,
Buster Williams, Grady Tate, Uri Caine, Jay Hoggard, Marty Ehrlich,
Christian McBride, David Gilmore, and the Mingus Big Band. He has
also composed scores for 3 short films.
Ever since
then, he has had many achievements in the world of music. He has had
the privilege
of playing in many well-known venues, such as Birdland Jazz Club, the
Jazz Standard,
Mount Fuji Jazz Festival 2009, the White House, Madison Square
Garden, and
Symphony Space. He has had the opportunity to perform with critically
acclaimed artists
such as Stefon Harris, Curtis Fuller, Randy Weston, Arturo O’Farrill,
and Benny Golson. He
received the Outstanding Soloist Award at the 1st and 2nd Annual
Charles Mingus
Competitions, was chosen to participate in the 2010 GRAMMY Jazz
Ensemble, and was
commissioned to write a piece for Arturo O’Farrill’s Afro-Latin
Jazz Orchestra in the fall
of 2009. He has studied with Jim Seeley, Michael Rodriguez, Bobby
Shew, and Nathan
Warner, and is a student at Laguardia High School for the Performing
Arts and the
Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, where he received the
2009-2010 Jazz
Scholarship.
Born in
Brooklyn N.Y. Earl received his
first musical training from his father (a very gifted amateur musician) who saw to it that the entire family became proficient at playing brass instruments. While attending the High School of Music & Art he studied trombone with John Clark, Jack Jeffers, Alan Raph and Benny Powell. It was during this period that he also developed relationships with composer William S.Fischer and tubaist Howard Johnson. At Mannes College of Music he studied Bass trombone with Simone Karasick and tuba with Thompson Hanks, and later studied arranging with Slide Hampton and Bob Brookmeyer. He also studied privately with the famous brass teacher Carmine Caruso. Since then he has played with Gil Evans, the Apollo stage band, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, Lester Bowie, The Band, Stevie Wonder, McCoy Tyner, Carla Bley, George Russell, Lou Rawls, Jeffrey Osborne, Deniece Williams, the Count Basie Orchestra, the Ellington Orchestra, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra (with whom he was associated for over 20 years), Slide Hampton, George Gruntz, the Mingus Big Band, Cecil Taylor, the Carnegie Hall Jazz band, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Chico O'Farrill, Renée Manning and others.
first musical training from his father (a very gifted amateur musician) who saw to it that the entire family became proficient at playing brass instruments. While attending the High School of Music & Art he studied trombone with John Clark, Jack Jeffers, Alan Raph and Benny Powell. It was during this period that he also developed relationships with composer William S.Fischer and tubaist Howard Johnson. At Mannes College of Music he studied Bass trombone with Simone Karasick and tuba with Thompson Hanks, and later studied arranging with Slide Hampton and Bob Brookmeyer. He also studied privately with the famous brass teacher Carmine Caruso. Since then he has played with Gil Evans, the Apollo stage band, Charles Mingus, Miles Davis, Taj Mahal, Lester Bowie, The Band, Stevie Wonder, McCoy Tyner, Carla Bley, George Russell, Lou Rawls, Jeffrey Osborne, Deniece Williams, the Count Basie Orchestra, the Ellington Orchestra, the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra (with whom he was associated for over 20 years), Slide Hampton, George Gruntz, the Mingus Big Band, Cecil Taylor, the Carnegie Hall Jazz band, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, Chico O'Farrill, Renée Manning and others.
McIntyre
served as guest conductor for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, directed and
wrote large ensemble compositions for the Musicians of Brooklyn
Initiative Big Band (an organization founded by Lester Bowie, Oliver
Lake and others). Mr. McIntyre was musical director for Town Hall's
"Ragtime to Broadway" featuring music from 1900-1909. His
arranging and orchestrating credits include Roberta Flack, Luther
Vandross, the "Saturday Night Live" band, Lester Bowie's
Brass Fantasy, Johnny Copeland, Renée Manning, the Mel Lewis
Orchestra, The Mingus Big Band, Elvis Costello, Steve Turré, Bob
Stewart, Jon Faddis, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (for whom he's
edited and arranged a catalogue of big band orchestra and small group
compositions), arrangements for the "Big Man" tribute to
Cannonball Adderley at the JVC Festival in 1976, and others. He has
composed an orchestra work called "Sketches for Dunbar"
which he conducted at a Town hall premiere. He also arranged and
conducted Lester Bowie's Brooklyn Works (Behind The Rainbow). His
compositions include a large work for Nat Adderley and Jazz orchestra
(which was played at the Cannonball Adderley Festival in Tallahasee
Florida). He wrote and conducted orchestral arrangements for McCoy
Tyner and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. He served as musical supervisor,
copyist, and orchestrator on J.J. Johnsons's Brass Orchestra CD.
At the
Brooklyn Conservatory, Earl McIntyre & Renée Manning unveiled
Unsung Heroes a 15 piece World Beat Jazz ensemble featuring
compositions by Earl, Renée, and notable composers from the African
Diaspora. WBGO's children series included Earl McIntyres & Renée
Manning's group Jazzimon. The two of them are preparing a much
anticipated children's album and debuting their web site. Earl has
received the National Endowment for the Arts grants for jazz study,
jazz composition, and instruction. He is a receipient of grants from
the New York State Council of the Arts, Meet the Composer, and
others. He has been nominated for the "Most Valuable Player of
The Year" award from the NARAS, as well as sitting on various
arts and grants panels. Mr McIntyre's broadway credits include: "My
One and Only", "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", "Anything
Goes", "Meet Me In St. Louis", "Shogun",
"Nick & Nora", "Guys & Dolls", "Rosa",
"Steel Pier", and "Ragtime". He has been on the
faculty at Long Island University, The New School for Social
Research, and SUNY at Purchase. He does performances for young
audiences and clinics through various arts organizations. Currently,
he serves as producer for the Jazz at The Conservatory series at The
Brooklyn Conservatory, presenting artists like Jimmy Heath, Benny
Golson, and Roy Hargrove, and serves as the Director for the Jazz
division.
Richard
Harper has played keyboard,
trombone, baritone horn and vocals with artists such as Makanda
McIntyre, James Jabbo Ware, Fred Ho, Bill Laswell, Miles Griffith,
and Anthony Braxton.
He has
served as musical director for Off-Broadway and regional theater as
well as arranged for numerous original dance, theater and musical
productions. Formerly Chair of the American Music, Dance and Theater
Program at SUNY Old Westbury, he has been honored with three
distinguished teaching awards.
Masterfully
blending the indigenous rhythms and melodies of their native
Veracruz, Mexico with the intricate harmonies of jazz and classical
music, the Villalobos Brothers deliver an intoxicating brew of
musical brilliance, cadence and virtuosity that awakens the senses as
it redefines the notions behind Latin music. The Villalobos Brothers
have been acclaimed as one of today’s leading World Music and
Contemporary Mexican ensembles. A trio of virtuoso violinists,
singer-songwriters, composers, and arrangers, they were the winners
of the Vox-Pop Award at the 2013 Independent Music Awards in the Best
Song-World Beat category for their song, “El Pijul”.
Fighting
against all odds, in April of 2013 they became the Borough Winners
and representing band for the borough of Manhattan at the “2013
Battle of the Boroughs”, one of National Public Radio’s flagship
competitions sponsored by The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space,
WNYC and WQXR’s in New York City. In June of 2013, the Villalobos
Brothers went on to win the “Ultimate Battle” at this same
competition, defeating the top picks from Brooklyn, Queens, Staten
Island and The Bronx in a grand finale at the Greene Space in SOHO.
Following
their victory at the “2013 Battle of the Boroughs”, they became
the first band from Mexico to ever play at the Apollo Theater as
“featured guest artist” at “Amateur Night at the Apollo”. In
addition, they have performed at the Latin Grammy Awards, Carnegie
Hall, the Guggenheim Museum, Lincoln Center, the Metropolitan Museum
of Art, the 60th Anniversary of the United Nations, Rockefeller
Center, the New York Mets field at Shea Stadium, John F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts, New Victory Theatre, and Teatro
Amadeo Roldán in Havana among other historic venues.
The
Villalobos Brothers have collaborated and recorded with legendary
musicians, including Grammy winners Paddy Moloney and The Chieftains,
Dolly Parton, Pierre Boulez, and Eddie Palmieri. Other collaborations
include Morley, Graciela, Leni Stern, Lila Downs, Adam Feder and the
Shul Band, Ramón Ponce and Mariachi Real de México, and Dan Zanes
and Friends. In 2005 award-winning guitarist Humberto Flores joined
the band and they debuted together at Carnegie Hall. In recognition
of their artistic contribution, in late 2012 the Villalobos Brothers
were granted a Proclamation by the Council of the City of New York
and a Diploma by the President of the Borough of Brooklyn.
The
Villalobos Brothers were born and raised in Xalapa, Mexico. They
spent their childhood listening to their grandmother Cristina Vásquez
play music for enjoyment after a day’s work. They took up the
violin as children and soon learned to sing and play other
instruments, including guitar and piano. They eventually moved on to
specialize in classical violin and composition, studying under Vienna
Philharmonic veteran Carlos Marrufo. The eldest brother developed his
own style of playing, called “Fast-Chatting Violin” consisting in
a rapid succession of notes and percussive sounds.
A graduate of Juilliard and Harvard University, Mr. Fisher appears regularly at New York venues such as Symphony Space, Joe’s Pub, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and the Jazz Standard. As a cello sideman, he has lent his unique flexibility to projects ranging from Octavio Brunetti's traditional Tango Orchestra to Fred Ho’s avant-jazz big band to “None More Eleven, a Spinal Tap Tribute”, for which he composed rock string quartet arrangements of Spinal Tap classics. He was a featured composer on the inaugural season of the Flea Theater's "Music With a View" series, and has performed his original compositions at Carnegie Hall. As a vocalist, he leads his own band, Adam and the Argentinians, performing his hilarious and poetic animal songs. He lives in Harlem with his two children.
He has performed in some of New York
City's most prestigious jazz venues such as the Jazz Gallery, Dizzy's
Club Coca-Cola, Cornelia Street Café, and Birdland, and has played
around the world in clubs and festivals in Spain, Japan, Switzerland,
and Cuba. Zack and his brother, Adam, have recently released their
second CD "Sensing Flight" with their group, The O'Farrill
Brothers Band, on Zoho Records.
A dedicated teacher, he has been on the
faculty of Samba Meets Jazz, the Afro Latin Jazz Alliance, the Flynn
Center Jazz Camp, and afterschool programs in the New York City
public schools.
His drum teachers have included Dave
Meade, Vince Cherico, Victor Jones, Kendrick Scott, and Ferenc
Nemeth.
Born in São Paulo, Brazil to a Chilean
mother who loved opera and an Italian father who loved rock n’
roll, Amanda developed an eclectic musical ear at an early age.
Fluent in Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and English, music was one
more language that she learned to used to communicate across
international cultural boundaries. While growing up, there were
always records playing at her house, and Amanda started playing bass
at the age of 12. By age 13, she was already gigging professionally.
While in Brazil, she worked with distinguished Brazilian producers
and arrangers, including Grammy Award-winner Moogie Canazio, Maestro
Jobam and Sony Music Japan's Osny Mello.
Currently, she performs with groups in
a variety of styles, such as Global Noize, and Chris Stover’s
Caetano Veloso Project, as well as with her own band, the Amanda
Ruzza Group. Amanda’s multicultural background has influenced her
passion for composing music that incorporates elements of funk, jazz
and South American rhythms. Her group was formed while she obtained
her dual degree in Jazz Bass Performance and Liberal Arts at The New
School in New York City. In addition, Amanda is also a session
bassist having participated in recordings with Bebel Gilberto, Jason
Miles, Simone Giuliani and Simon Katz (Jamiroquai).
As the recipient of the highly
competitive Latin American World Tour Scholarship, Amanda moved to
the U.S.A to study bass performance and contemporary writing and
production at Berklee College of Music.
Marie Incontrera is a composer and conductor living in Brooklyn, New York. She has been a recipient of the Miriam Gideon Composition Award for women composers, a winner of the Remarkable Theater Brigade Art Song Competition, a winner of the 2011 Vocalessence/American Composers Forum “Essentially Choral” readings, and was a finalist in the Iron Composer 2010 competition. She was awarded a Meet the Composer Metlife Creative Connections award, a Foundation for the Contemporary Arts Grant, a Puffin Grant, and a New York Women Composers Seed Money Grant. Commissions have come from the Young New Yorkers Chorus, Remarkable Theater Brigade, ANALOG arts, Brooklyn Art Song Society, ANIKAI Dance Theater, and The Atlanta Opera. Her work has been performed in Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, the Kaufman Center, Symphony Space, the Meridian Arts Festival in Bucharest, Roulette, Galapagos Art Space, WOW Cafe Theatre, the highSCORE Festival in Italy, and others. Marie has been named the conductor for the Green Monster Big Band for a series of upcoming engagements, for some of which she is also a guest composer and arranger. She currently studies composition and conducting privately with Fred Ho.
