Coaches 25/26
Allison Miller
Django Bates
Guillermo Klein
NYC-based drummer/composer/teacher Allison Miller engages her deep roots in improvisation as a vehicle to explore all music.?Described by critics as a Modern Jazz Icon in the Making, Miller won Downbeat magazine?s 67th Annual Critics Poll ?Rising Star Drummer? and JazzTimes magazine?s Critics Poll. Her composition, ?Otis Was a Polar Bear?, is included on NPR?s list of The 200 Greatest Songs by 21st Century Women+. She is also the first recipient of the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation?s Commissioning Grant. allisonmiller.com In January 2020 Miller along with her band, Boom Tic Boom, tap dancer-Claudia Rahardjanoto, and video designer-Todd Winkler premiered this new multimedia suite, In Our Veins, with a seven show tour sponsored by Jazz Touring Network and Mid Atlantic Arts. The project explores multimedia performance as a vital form of knowledge production through the poetic interpretation of historical events and their association with the geography, ecology and flow of specific rivers. Miller, a three time Jazz Ambassador for the U.S. State Department, was Monterey Jazz Festival’s 2019 Artist in Residence, alongside bassist/producer Derrick Hodge. Simultaneously her band, Boom Tic Boom, celebrated it’s 10th anniversary with the release of their 5th album, Glitter Wolf, which was included in many “Best Jazz Of 2019” lists, including NPR, Rolling Stone, Paste, Jazz Times, and Bandcamp. NPR’s Kevin Whitehead says, “All the parts fit together like clockwork on Allison Miller’s new album.” The band has toured extensively throughout the US, Europe and Asia as well as being featured on such programs as NPR’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, Tiny Desk with Bob Boilen, WNYC’s Soundcheck and New Sounds with John Schaefer, and Jazz Night in America with Christian McBride. While breaking from leading Boom Tic Boom, Miller focuses on collaborations, co-directing Parlour Game with Jenny Scheinman and Science Fair with Carmen Staaf. Parlour Game’s debut album also made “Best Jazz Of 2019” lists, including LA Times, Boston Globe, The Nation, and was recently featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition. Miller is also a proud member of the critically acclaimed Bluenote recording supergroup Artemis, and is the musical director for Camille A. Brown’s Ink. As a side-musician, Miller has been the rhythmic force behind such artists as Sara Bareilles, Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, Brandi Carlile, Toshi Reagon, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Patricia Barber, Marty Ehrlich, Ben Allison, and Late Night with Seth Meyers. Allison teaches at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music (where she was recently named a Melba Liston Fellow), Stanford Jazz Workshop, Centrum, Geri Allen Jazz Camp, and is the Artistic Director of Jazz Camp West. She has been appointed Arts Envoy to Thailand for her work with Jazz Education Abroad and endorses Yamaha drums, Zildjian cymbals, Vic Firth heads, Evans drumheads and Sunhouse percussion.
Django Bates is a pianist, Eb horn player, and composer who credits the variety of musical influences in his work to his childhood. His father is a collector of Jazz, and Romanian and African folk music. Django was a founder member of Loose Tubes, the legendary British Big Band that was at the forefront of the 1980's European Jazz renaissance. This early involvement with large ensembles inspired Django to create his own orchestras Delightful Precipice 1991–1997 and stoRMChaser 2005–2010. These groups toured extensively throughout Europe to critical acclaim. The Dutch Metropole Orchestra, Brodsky Quartet, Joanna MacGregor, Absolute Ensemble, Britten Sinfonia, and Duisburg Philharmonic are amongst the bands that have commissioned new works from Django. As performer he has appeared alongside Sidsel Endresen, Michael Brecker, Dudu Pukwana, Bill Bruford, Wynton Marsalis, and Ronnie Scott. In 1997 Django was awarded the prestigious Danish Jazzpar prize, dubbed the Nobel Prize of Jazz. Django was the inaugural artistic director of FuseLeeds04, a new festival celebrating the wealth and diversity of today's vibrant music scene, for which he commissioned Radiohead¹s Jonny Greenwood to write a new work for two Ondes Martenots and the London Sinfonietta. In honour of saxophonist Evan Parker’s 60th birthday, Django commissioned sixty composers including Gavin Bryars, Sir Patrick Moore, Manfred Eicher, and John Zorn, to write one bar each, and then he quilted these into the piece Premature Celebration which was performed by The Sinfonietta with Evan Parker and Paul Lytton. Django's theatre music work includes Baby Doll, (Birmingham Rep, RNT, Albery Theatre), The Postman Always Rings Twice (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Whitehall Theatre), Tonight at 8:30 (Chichester Festival Theatre), Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens (Shakespeare's Globe). As You Like It and Julius Caesar (RSC), House of Games (The Almeida), and Campbell Graham's Out There! In 2005 Django Bates became the first Professor of Rhythmic Music in Denmark, at the RMC in Copenhagen. Here he created stoRMChaser whose weekly rehearsals allowed for the experimentation and development that resulted in his album Spring is Here (Shall We Dance?) – LM003. Since 1979 Django has run a smaller band, Human Chain which toured five continents and forms the core of many of Django's larger projects. This November a Swiss version humanCHain with nine students and alumni of HKB, will perform new material at Sarajevo Jazz Festival’s 20th anniversary. In 2010 Django released Belovèd Bird – LM004: a celebration of his childhood hero Charlie Parker. For this he invited Petter Eldh and Peter Bruun to form his first piano trio, the classic constellation so beloved of jazz listeners and players everywhere. Django later expanded his Parker arrangements to present this music with Norrbotten Big band at The Royal Albert Hall and with Monash Ensemble in Australia. Django is currently writing for the Big Band of Hessischer Rundfunk, arranging the entire Beatles album Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. Django Bates is currently a professor of jazz at University of the Arts, Bern, Switzerland.
The craft of composition has been a part of Guillermo Klein's life since his childhood in Argentina. Klein's father presented him with a piano when he turned 11 years old and, inspired by the legendary Argentinean composer Astor Piazzolla, he promptly began his experimentation with writing songs. Klein left Argentina to attend Berklee College of Music after hearing a moving speech by the former dean Gary Burton about his relationship working with Piazzolla. Klein intended to study classical music on his arrival but found himself among peers that were passionate about jazz. The music of Wayne Shorter provided the bridge from classical to jazz studies. Being a fan of unique harmonic expression, Klein was easily drawn to the work of this master composer who is deemed to be one of the most intriguing harmonic architects in jazz. Klein was also able to develop a talented network of musical friends, many of which came to Berklee from South America. This group of colleagues provided the framework for what would eventually become Klein's main musical voice, the Big Van large ensemble that would later become Los Guachos. After graduating from Berklee, Klein moved to New York City like many of his fellow graduates. He settled into Greenwich Village and quickly became associated with a jazz club called Smalls where he established a weekly engagement with his 17-piece Big Van band that incorporated musicians living in New York as well as commuters from Boston. Smalls was critical in fostering a community of young artists that would ultimately be some of the most influential voices of modern jazz. Klein later scaled the band down to a more streamlined 11 piece unit that began to be known as Los Guachos (roughly translated, the bastards). The band continued to develop with the help of residences at Smalls and, later, the Jazz Standard. After recording an album that was ultimately shelved, Klein was able to find a home with Sunnyside Records where he as been ever since. The label soon released two CDs by Los Guachos: Los Guachos II (1999) and Los Guachos III (2002). Klein moved back to Argentina in the early fall of 2000 with his wife. While in Argentina, Klein made a recording alongside local musicians, Una Nave (Sunnyside, 2005). Since then he has released a series of critically-acclaimed CDs with Los Guachos including: Live in Barcelona (Sunnyside, 2005), Filtros (Sunnyside, 2008) and his latest, Carrera (Sunnyside, 2012). Other important recordings include his work as a composer and/or arranger on " Solar Return Suite (with the MIT Wind Ensemble), Domador de Huellas (Sunnyside, 2010), Bienestan (Sunnyside 2011) with Aaron Goldberg and Miguel Zenon's Grammy-nominated, Alma Aldentro. In addition to teaching composition in Buenos Aires, Klein has given master classes and seminars throughout Europe, including the Jazz Institut Berlin, Sibelius Academy in Helsinki, Jazz Schule Basel, and Le Mirail in Toulouse.
Ingrid Jensen
Ingrid Laubrock
Wolfgang Muthspiel
Artistic Director
Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Ingrid Jensen has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1989, she went on to record three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA record label, soon becoming one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the global jazz scene. www.ingridjensen.com After a teaching stint in Europe in her early twenties – as the youngest professor in the history of the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria - Ingrid settled in New York City in the mid-1990s where she joined the innovative jazz orchestras of Maria Schneider (1994-2012) and Darcy James Argue. More recently, Ingrid has been performing with the Grammy-winning Terri-Lyne Carrington and her Mosaic Project. Ingrid is a featured soloist on the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra’s Juno-award-winning album, Treelines (2011), and its successor, Habitat (2013). She has performed with a multi-generational cast of jazz legends ranging from Clark Terry to Esperanza Spalding; Ingrid has also performed alongside British R&B artist Corrine Bailey Rae on Saturday Night Live, and recorded with Canadian pop icon Sarah McLachlan. In addition to her busy sideman and featured soloist schedule, Jensen leads her own quintet, quartet and organ trio. Her own bands have garnered glowing reviews and a loyal fan base in Australia, South Africa, almost every country in Europe, across Canada, the US, South America (including Brazil, Peru and Chile), Japan and Mexico. Jensen is also a dedicated jazz educator, having taught trumpet at the University of Michigan and Peabody Conservatory, performing and lecturing as a guest artist with the Thelonious Monk Institute High School group featuring Herbie Hancock, and performing and teaching at the Centrum Jazz Workshop, The Dave Brubeck Institute, the Banff Centre Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music and the Stanford Jazz Camp and the Geri Allen Jazz Camp for young women. She is currently on faculty at both Purchase College and at the New School in New York. Since her victory at the Carmine Caruso Trumpet Competition in 1995, Jensen has since sat on the judges’ panel twice for said competition. She is regularly invited to trumpet festivals around the world, including a prestigious invitation in 2011 to work with classical trumpet maestro Håkan Hardenberger and the Swedish Wind Orchestra. Ingrid plays a custom Monette trumpet, built personally by the master builder Dave Monette. One of Ingrid’s most frequent and closest collaborators is her sister, the saxophonist and composer Christine Jensen. In addition to recent performances with the Christine’s Jazz Orchestra of their revamped version of Porgy and Bess, the sisters released an exciting small group recording entitled, Infinitude, on the Whirlwind label featuring the brilliant guitarist Ben Monder. Other projects Ingrid has been invited to lend her voice to include: David’s Angels (Sweden), Kari Ikonen (Finland), Marianne Trudel (Montreal), Ellen Rowe (USA), Adam Birnbaum (USA), Sharel Cassity (USA), Dwight Adams (USA) ,Tobias Meinhart (Germany/US), numerous all-star groups including a recent European tour with Renee Rosnes, Cecile Mclorin Savant, Allison Miller, Anat Cohen and Melissa Aldana.
Ingrid Laubrock is an experimental saxophonist and composer, interested in exploring the borders between musical realms and creating multi-layered, dense and often evocative sound worlds. ingridlaubrock.com A prolific composer, Laubrock was named "one of the most distinctive rising compositional voices" by Point Of Departure and a "fully committed saxophonist and visionary" by the New Yorker. Her main projects as a leader are Anti-House, Serpentines and Ingrid Laubrock Sextet. Laubrock has performed with Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Jason Moran, Kris Davis, Tyshawn Sorey, Mary Halvorson, Tom Rainey, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas and many others. Laubrock has composed for ensembles ranging from duo to chamber orchestra. Awards include Fellowship in Jazz Composition by the Arts Foundation in 2006, the 2009 SWR German Radio Jazz Prize and the 2014 German Record Critics Quarterly Award. She won best Rising Star Soprano Saxophonist in the 'Downbeat Annual Critics Poll in 2015 and best Tenor Saxophonist in 2018. Laubrock is one of the recipients of the 2019 Herb Alpert Ragdale Prize in Music Composition and has received composing commissions by The Shifiting Foundation, The Jerwood Foundation, American Composers Orchestra, Tricentric Foundation, SWR New Jazz Meeting, The Jazz Gallery Commissioning Series, NYSCA, John Zorn's Stone Commissioning Series and the EOS Orchestra.
In the Fall of 2016 Wolfgang Muthspiel releases an album of Quintet music for the ECM label. "Rising Grace" features Wolfgang's current trio with Larry Grenadier and Brian Blade as well as the pianist Brad Mehldau and the trumpet player Ambrose Akinmusire. wolfgang.muthspiel@facebook As internationally acclaimed guitarist / composer, Wolfgang Muthspiel is commanding attention worldwide as an artist of deep integrity, intelligence and daring musicality. A contrast of quiet charisma and elegance with dazzling technique and risk-taking musicality distinguishes a Muthspiel performance. His highly personal musical language embraces openness with a compositional structure beyond derivatives. The record label material records – which publishes both Muthspiel´s own projects and the works of other artists in jazz and classical genres – released its 29th album in spring 2010 “Life at the Jazz Standard” a Duo with his former teacher Mick Goodrick. In addition to his jazz projects, Muthspiel is active composing for contemporary classical ensembles. He received commissions from the Ensemble for New Music/Zürich, the Austrian Ministry of Arts, Klangforum Wien, the Boston-based ensemble Marimolin, violinist Beni Schmid and most recently the Austrian Esterházy foundation (Haydn Year 2009). Thanks of this wide range of activities Wolfgang Muthspiel was named Jazz Musician of the Year in Austria, 1997 and awarded the "European Jazzprize“ in 2003. Among his current projects is the Duo „Friendly Travelers“ with drummer Brian Blade, the Wolfgang Muthspiel 4tet (with the Swiss piano player Jean-Paul Brodbeck), MGT “From a Deam” with Slava Grigoryan and Ralph Towner, the „drumfree trio“ (with Larry Grenadier and Chris Cheek) as well as an ever-changing Solo Performance incorporating many different guitars and loops. The son of an amateur choirmaster, Wolfgang Muthspiel was born in the small town of Judenburg, Austria in 1965. He began studying the violin at age six, then switched to guitar at age 15. Muthspiel studied both classical and jazz guitar at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Graz, Austria. He won various national competitions for classical music as well as the International Guitar Competition in Mettmann, Germany. Muthspiel developed an interest in improvisation early on. In 1986 Muthspiel left Austria and emigrated to the United States, first settling in Boston to study at New England Conservatory with Mick Goodrick and David Leisner. Later he attended Berklee College of Music on a full scholarship, graduating "Magna Cum Laude" in 1989. At Berklee he met Gary Burton, who invited him to fill the guitar chair in the Gary Burton Quintet, left vacant since the departure of Pat Metheny 12 years earlier. From 1995 until 2002 Muthspiel lived in New York where he co-operated in a huge variety of musical projects with Rebekka Bakken, Trilok Gurtu, Brian Blade, Dhafer Youssef, Youssou N’Dour, Maria Joao, Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, Paul Motian, Marc Johnson, Bob Berg, Gary Peacock, Don Alias, Larry Grenadier, John Patitucci, Dieter Ilg. The albums with Rebekka Bakken and his brother Christian Muthspiel were the first ones to be released on Muthspiel´s own label material records, founded in 2000. Since 2005 he is a guest professor at JazzCampus Basel, Switzerland.
Kendrick Scott
Kris Davis
Lionel Loueke
Kendrick Scott was born in Houston, Texas and grew up in a family of musicians. By age 8 he had taken up the drums and he later attended Houston?s renowned High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, a school which has produced an impressive array of musical talent including Scott?s label mates Jason Moran and Robert Glasper, as well pop star Beyonc? and many others. kendrickscott.com While still attending HSPVA, Scott won several DownBeatMagazine student awards, as well as the Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Award from the International Association of Jazz Educators. He was later awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music, where he majored in music education. Scott has toured with Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd, The Crusaders, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kurt Elling, and Terence Blanchard, also appearing on several of the trumpeter’s Blue Note albums including Flow (2005), A Tale Of God’s Will (2007), and Magnetic (2013). Kendrick has released three albums as a bandleader including two previous album with Oracle: The Source (2007) and Conviction (2013). Scott is a member of the Blue Note Records 75thAnniversary all-star band that includes Ambrose Akinmusire, Robert Glasper, Derrick Hodge, Lionel Loueke and Marcus Strickland.
Pianist-composer Kris Davis was named 2017 Rising Star Pianist/2018 Rising Star Artist in Downbeat magazine and dubbed one of the music?s top up-and-comers in a 2012 New York Times article titled "New Pilots at the Keyboard", with the newspaper saying: "One method for deciding where to hear jazz on a given night has been to track down the pianist Kris Davis." krisdavis.net To date, Davis has released twelve recordings as leader. Her 2016 release, Duopoly, made The New York Times, Pop Matters, NPR, LA Times, and Jazz Times best albums of 2016. Davis works as a collaborator and side person with artists such as John Zorn, Terri Lyne Carrington, Craig Taborn, Tyshawn Sorey, Eric Revis, Michael Formanek, Tony Malaby, Ingrid Laubrock, Julian Lage, Mary Halvorson and Tom Rainey. Davis received a Doris Duke Impact award in 2015 and multiple commissions to compose new works from The Shifting Foundation, The Jazz Gallery/Jerome Foundation and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is the Associate Program Director of Creative Development for the Insitute Jazz and Gender Justice at Berklee College of Music.
Originally from the small West African nation of Benin, guitarist Lionel Loueke has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past ten years. Starting out on vocals and percussion, Lionel Loueke picked up the guitar late, at age 17. After his initial to exposure to jazz in Benin, he left to attend the National Institute of Art in nearby Ivory Coast. In 1994 he left Africa to pursue jazz studies at the American School of Modern Music in Paris, then came to the U.S. on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. From there, Loueke gained acceptance to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, where he encountered his Gilfema bandmates Biolcati, Nemeth, Parlato and other musicians with whom he would form lasting creative relationships. In 2008 and 2009, Lionel Loueke was picked as top Rising Star guitarist in Down Beat magazine's annual Critics Poll. www.lionelloueke.com Praised by his mentor Herbie Hancock as "a musical painter," Lionel Loueke combines harmonic sophistication, soaring melody, a deep knowledge of African music, and conventional and extended guitar techniques to create a warm and evocative sound of his own. JazzTimes wrote "Loueke's lines are smartly formed and deftly executed. His ear-friendly melodicism draws both from traditional African sources and a lifetime of closely studying the likes of Jim Hall and George Benson, and his rhythmic shifts come quickly and packed with surprises." After graduating from Berklee College of Music, Lionel Loueke was accepted to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles where he had the opportunity to study his greatest mentors: Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard. Soon after his time at the Monk Institute, Lionel Loueke began focusing exclusively on nylon-string acoustic guitar, an instrument on which he's developed a signature voice. Lionel Loueke released his first album In a Trance (2005) on Space Time Label, then three albums on Obliqsound Label as a leader (Virgin Forest - 2006) and with Gilfema (Gilfema - 2005, Gilfema + 2 - 2008) His first release on Blue Note Label Karibu (2008), featuring the trio with Hancock and Wayne Shorter as special guests, won widespread critical praise. His sophomore release for Blue Note, Mwaliko (2010), follows up acclaimed Karibu offered a series of searching, innovative, intimate duets with Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Richard Bona and Marcus Gilmore - artists and allies who continue to have a profound impact on Loueke's vision as a bandleader. Hailed as a "gentle virtuoso" by Jon Pareles of The New York Times, guitarist/vocalist Lionel Loueke follows up with Heritage (released in August 2012) , co-produced by piano great and Blue Note label mate Robert Glasper. Lionel Loueke, long known for his nylon-string acoustic guitar, releases here a more electric album. In 2015, Loueke chose to record Gaía, his remarkable rock-infused fourth Blue Note album, live in the studio with an intimate audience in attendance. Loueke has appeared on numerous standout recordings such as Terence Blanchard’s Grammy-nominated Flow (2005) and Hancock’s Grammy-winning River: The Joni Letters (2008). Lionel appeared on recordings by such legends as Jack DeJohnette (Sound Travels), Charlie Haden (Land of the Sun), Kenny Barron (The Traveler) and Gonzalo Rubalcaba (XXI Century). He has also appeared on recordings by Esperanza Spalding, Joe Lovano, Gretchen Parlato, Avishai Cohen, Kendrick Scott and other leading peers. He has also toured the world as a member of Hancock’s band for more than ten years and will start touring with Chick Corea this year after recording on his last album to be released. Lionel Loueke is also a member of Blue Note’s 75th anniversary all-star band with Robert Glasper, Derrick Hodge, Kendrick Scott, Ambrose Akinmusire and Marcus Strickland. These experiences all inform Loueke's extraordinary work as a leader.
Miguel Zenón
Jaleel Shaw
Michael Mayo
Multiple Grammy Nominee and Guggenheim and MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenón represents a select group of musicians who have masterfully balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered as one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a composer and as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between Latin American Folkloric Music and Jazz. miguelzenon.com Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Zenón has released ten recordings as a leader, including the Grammy Nominated Típico (2017) and Identitites Are Changeable (2014). As a sideman he has worked with jazz luminaries such as The SFJAZZ Collective, Charlie Haden, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, David Sánchez, Danilo Perez, The Village Vanguard Orchestra, Guillermo Klein & Los Guachos, The Jeff Ballard Trio, Antonio Sanchez, David Gilmore, Paoli Mejias, Brian Lynch, Jason Lindner, Miles Okazaki, Ray Barreto, Andy Montañez, Jerry Gonzalez & The Fort Apache Band, The Mingus Big Band, Bobby Hutcherson and Steve Coleman. Zenón has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe and The Chicago Tribune as well as gracing the cover of Downbeat Magazine on two occasions (2010 and 2014). In addition, he topped both the Jazz Artist of the Year and Alto Saxophonist categories on the 2014 Jazz Times Critics Poll and was selected as 2015 Alto Saxophonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association. As a composer he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, The New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, Logan Center for The Arts, The Hyde Park Jazz Festival, The John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, MIT, Jazz Reach, Peak Performances, PRISM Quartet and many of his peers. Zenón has given hundreds of lectures and master classes at institutions all over the world, and is a permanent faculty member at New England Conservatory of Music. In 2011 he founded Caravana Cultural, a program which presents free-of-charge Jazz concerts in rural areas of Puerto Rico. In April 2008 Zenón received a fellowship from the prestigious John Simon Guggenheim Foundation. Later that year he was one of 25 distinguished individuals chosen to receive the coveted MacArthur Fellowship, also known as the “Genius Grant”.
Alto & Soprano saxophonist and bandleader, Jaleel Shaw, won the 2014 Downbeat Critics Poll's for Rising Star Alto Saxophonist. He is a longtime member of the Roy Haynes Quartet, Tom Harrell’s “Colors Of A Dream” and has performed with Christian McBride, Jason Moran, the Mingus Big Band, Pat Metheny, Stefon Harris, Roy Hargrove, Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Jimmy Cobb and several others. jaleelshaw.com Born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, Shaw picked up the alto saxophone and surrounded himself with music at an early age. Immersing himself in the local jazz scene, he studied and performed with many of the city's great musicians and educators and, following high school, received a full-tuition scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he received a dual degree in Music Education and Performance. While at Berklee, Shaw was awarded the Billboard Endowed Scholarship for Outstanding Academic and Musical achievement (1998), Woodwind Department Chair Awards (1998 & 2000), The Boston Jazz Society Award (1999) and The Outstanding Student Teacher Award (2000). He later received a scholarship to Manhattan School of Music in New York, where he obtained a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance. Shaw's debut album, Perspective (2005), received rave reviews from The New York Times and Jazzwise Magazine and All About Jazz named the album one of the top five debut albums of 2005; his composition “The Heavyweight Champion” received an ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award. In 2006, Jaleel joined the Roy Haynes Quartet and was featured on the legendary drummer’s Grammy-nominated album Whereas. Two years later (2008), Shaw founded his record label, Changu Records, on which he released his second album entitled Optimism. The album received reviews from The New York Times, Downbeat and All About Jazz among others. That same year, he received his second ASCAP Young Composer Award for his composition “The Flipside” and was nominated for the Jazz Journalist Association’s “Up-And-Coming Jazz Artist” award. Shaw was among the musicians listed in the 2011 JazzTimes Magazine’s Readers Poll for Alto Saxophonist of the Year, sharing the honor with Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Bunky Green and Kenny Garrett. In 2013, he released his third album of original compositions entitled The Soundtrack of Things to Come (Changu Records). The album features his current working quartet, and has been favorably received by various publications including the New York Times, New York City Jazz Record, and All About Jazz.
Born and raised in L.A., but a diehard New Yorker for the past five years (drawn by “the music, art and energy, its motivating factor”), 28-year-old Michael Mayo finished work on his debut solo album Bones, on the Artistry Music/Mack Avenue Music Group, just before COVID hit. The tracks were cut live with his band — keyboardist Andrew Freedman, bassist Nick Campbell and drummer Robin Baytas, all of whom he’s played with since high school or college — at Figure8 Recordings in Brooklyn. Eli Wolf, a veteran Grammy®-winning producer of albums by Al Green, Norah Jones and The Roots, did the honors behind the board. “Being from L.A., I really know how to chill, but coming to New York has really kicked me into gear,” says Mayo. michaelmayomusic.com The son of “first-call” session and touring musicians, Michael’s dad Scott Mayo was a saxophonist for Earth, Wind & Fire, among many others, and is currently the musical director for Sergio Mendes, while his mom Valerie Pinkston, now a back-up vocalist for Diana Ross, also sang with Beyoncé, Luther Vandross, Ray Charles, Whitney Houston and even alt icon Morrissey. Bones is Mayo’s first full-length album under his own name after studying at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music and the Thelonious Monk Institute — now named after Herbie Hancock, who mentored Mayo, helping him discover the link between sound and technology through a looper pedal, and showcased him as a featured vocalist on a tour of South America in 2018. “Self-transparency is important to me, not trying to placate the expectations of other people,” he says of his genre-defying, highly personal debut. “I wanted to find the things that resonated musically with me, working with people who can bring that vision to life.” Like Bobby McFerrin, one of his major influences (who was a graduate of the same L.A. performing arts high school), Mayo approaches his voice as a musical instrument, but in often unexpected ways — with Brian Wilson-style pop harmonies (“Robot Man”), Stevie Wonder R&B (“Another Love”), drum and bass (“What’s My Name,” inspired by a line from poet e.e. cummings’ “Crepuscule”) and even hip-hop (“About Your Love”). Even with his classical training, Mayo’s music is a seamless blend of alternative and neo-soul elements, a unique combination that defies genre. “I listened to Pet Sounds a lot in college,” he admits, also pointing to Brandy as an early favorite. “But I also grew up on A Tribe Called Quest, the Fugees, Busta Rhymes, Biggie Smalls and J Dilla. I love his beats so much. It feels like home. They all seem inherently connected. I like connecting all these different genres. Why not mix them all together and see what happens?” Bones takes its musical cue not from skeletal remains as much as the foundation of a house, providing a firm base for Mayo’s flights to higher ground. Each of the songs represents a learning experience for Mayo, the building blocks — the titular “bones” that made him the person he is today. The autobiographical “20/20” and video offer a look at instances in his life where he “woulda/coulda/shoulda” done things differently, while “The Way” touches on his own insecurity about expressing an attraction to someone “without being disrespectful.” “You and You” literally splits Mayo in two for the accompanying visual, as he learns to love himself before he can commit to anyone else, before insisting a “solo journey is another way you can be.” Juxtaposing wordless chants with incisive lyrics, Mayo underlines how music itself can provide emotions that transcend literal meaning. “Stolen Moments” sports a single verse, “I don’t want to go. It’s only stolen moments...” surrounded by a wall of 250 vocal parts layered together with a looper pedal into a magical whole. The song was recorded — ironically considering the album’s themes of liberation — “in the closet” of Mayo’s new apartment after moving to New York. “I’ve known since I was a toddler that I wanted to be a singer and tour the world,” says Mayo. “I thought my parents’ job was amazing and something I could do. In the end, though, session work didn’t fill me with the kind of satisfaction that creating my own music does, being able to share a more personal statement, rather than support someone else’s vision.” Part of the process of making Bones involved Mayo admitting to his own bisexuality, accepting that other “You.” “In many ways, this album was a letter to myself,” he confesses. “I was in the closet for years, lying about who I truly was and felt. This album affirms you can live authentically and not be afraid to express it. Bisexuality is still not taken seriously by a lot of the LGBTQ community. I had no black bisexual role models growing up, so maybe I can be that person for someone now. The eventual goal is to not have to come out, for everyone to just coexist with our differences.” There are several notable dualities in Bones: the juxtaposition of a cappella vocals and electronic effects, the “You and You” of bisexuality, the interplay of words and sounds, the tug between R&B, neo-soul and jazz, the spontaneity of improvisation set against the dictates of classical structure. “Technology plays a huge role in what I do,” says Mayo. “I’m just really excited about finding new sounds and using them in a musical way.” A true Renaissance artist, Mayo has taught himself four languages — English, French, Portuguese and Spanish — and is starting to learn Japanese. He is also an avid Twitch player (“It combines my two favorite things: music and video games”), performs in a band called Shrek Is Love, devoted to original songs about the beloved animated character, and actively supports Save Our Stages, designed to aid indie clubs and venues whose survival has been threatened by the pandemic. During the lockdown, Mayo also started giving students vocal, “improvisational ear” lessons and mentoring advice via Zoom, helping singers “find their way.” “From childhood, I’ve always associated music with love and truth,” he says. That connection comes full circle in “Hold On,” the final song on Bones, featuring his mom, who wrote the lyrics and sings on the first half, and his dad, who provides background vocals. “Her lyrics basically tell me the world is a scary place, but to keep my head up because there are people around who love me,” says Mayo. “I always knew I wanted my parents on this album.” With Bones, that number of admirers is likely to increase, as Michael Mayo turns the ideas in his head into a full-fledged sonic universe that reflects an upbringing surrounded by music, and the freedom he has fought so hard to achieve in his work and life. “For me, the goal has always been to make music, travel the world and meet interesting people,” says Mayo. “Living a passionate life.”
Mario Rom
Darcy James Argue
Linda May Han Oh
Mario Rom plays the trumpet as if his life depended on it, writes the Süddeutsche Zeitung; Jazzpodium describes him as an "absolute discovery," and ZEIT believes he plays solos "that are unparalleled in Europe." Born in 1990 in Austria, Mario Rom received his first trumpet lessons from his father, Bernd Rom. From 2004 to 2013, he studied at the Anton Bruckner Private University under Josef Eidenberger and took additional lessons from, among others, Paul Pawluk, Hedi Milek, Laurie Frink, Paul Mayes, Thomas Gansch, Ralph Alessi, and Jörg Engels. In 2011, he founded the band Mario Rom's Interzone together with Lukas Kranzelbinder and Herbert Pirker, which has released four albums to date. The band has been invited to numerous international jazz festivals, including the Montreal Jazz Festival, and has performed concerts worldwide in the USA, Canada, South Africa, Argentina, India, China, Qatar, Tunisia, and Morocco. In 2022, the band collaborated with the legendary musician Danyèl Waro from La Reunion as part of Glatt und Verkehrt festival. The recording of this concert was released in 2024. Rom is also a member of the band Shake Stew, which won the German Jazz Prize in 2021 for "best international band" and the Amadeus Award in 2023. Additionally, he is part of the bands Memplex and Wolfgang Muthspiel's Chamber Trio and regularly plays with Dhafer Youssef. In 2018, he participated in the SWR New Jazz Meeting and has collaborated with numerous other artists, including Wolfgang Reisinger, Colin Vallon, Shabaka Hutchings, David Murray, Kirk Lightsey, Vienna Art Orchestra, Christoph Cech, Mathias Rüegg, Golnar Shayhar, Lia Pale, Christian Muthspiel, Dave Liebman, Jazzwerkstatt Wien, Christian Reiner and Vlado Dzihan. He was featured in Erwin Wagenhofer's documentary film "But Beautiful" (2019) and, along with Lucia Pulido and Kenny Werner, contributed to the film's soundtrack. Since November 2019, Mario Rom is a professor of jazz trumpet at the Institute for Jazz and Improvised Music at the Anton Bruckner Private University in Linz.
Darcy James Argue, “one of the top big band composers of our time”(Stereophile), is best known for Secret Society, an 18-piece group “renowned in the jazz world” (New York Times). Argue brings an outwardly anachronistic ensemble into the 21st century through his “ability to combine his love of jazz’s past with more contemporary sonics” and is celebrated as “a syncretic creator who avoids obvious imitation” (Pitchfork). Acclaimed as an “innovative composer, arranger, and big band leader” by The New Yorker, Argue’s accolades include multiple GRAMMY nominations and a Latin GRAMMY Award, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Doris Duke Artist Award, and countless commissions and fellowships. Dynamic Maximum Tension, Argue’s latest album with Secret Society and his label debut on Nonesuch Records, is named after the three words that inventor and futurist R. Buckminster Fuller combined to form his personal brand: “Dymaxion” — a term reflecting Bucky’s desire to get the most out of his materials, the utopian vision of his designs, and his quest to improve the pattern of daily life. The album has been called “his best to date: a work of stunning eclecticism and complexity, but thoroughly accessible, elastic with swing” by Fred Kaplan of Slate, and “simply some of the most exciting music being made right now” by Stereogum’s Phil Freeman. Dynamic Maximum Tensionwas named one of the best albums of 2023 by DownBeat, NPR, and numerous other outlets, and earned Argue his fourth consecutive GRAMMY nomination for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album. Argue’s affinity for blurring genres and deftly weaving sociopolitical ideas into ambitious, culturally resonant work is exemplified in the “stunningly original” (Wall Street Journal) song cycle Ogresse, a collaboration with GRAMMY-winning vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, and in the multimedia performance Real Enemies, a “breathtaking” (JazzNu) production co-created with writer-director Isaac Butler and filmmaker Peter Nigrini that premiered in 2015 at the BAM Next Wave Festival. Celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, Secret Society maintains a busy touring schedule, with European, Canadian, and South American tours, global festival performances, and five appearances at the legendary Newport Jazz Festival. In 2024, Argue was named Composer-in-Residence for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. He has toured with the Metropole Orkest, the Danish Radio Big Band, the NDR Big Band, the Jazzgroove Mothership Orchestra, and many others. His music was featured by the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra in their Contemporary Jazz Masterpieces concert. Argue has topped the Composer of the Year, Arranger of the Year, and Big Band of the Year categories in the DownBeat International Critics Poll. He has been commissioned by the MAP Fund, the Fromm Music Foundation, 92NY, the Newport Festival Foundation, the Jerome Foundation, BAM, and the Jazz Gallery, as well as ensembles including the NDR Big Band, the Danish Radio Big Band, the Canadian National Jazz Orchestra, NYO Jazz, the Hard Rubber Orchestra, the West Point Jazz Knights, and the Orquestra Jazz de Matosinhos. He is the recipient of grants and fellowships from the New York Foundation for the Arts, New Music USA, Composers Now, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Aaron Copland Fund for Music, the Canada Council for the Arts, and MacDowell.
Born in Malaysia, raised in, Perth, Western Australia, Linda began playing piano, bassoon and at fifteen dabbled on electric bass playing jazz in high school bands while playing a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers. Linda studied at the W.A Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA) where she graduated with first-class honors. lindamayhanoh.com She was a James Morrison Scholarship Finalist in 2003 and in 2004 was an IAJE Sister in Jazz and received the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer’s award in 2008. She also received an honorary mention at the 2009 Thelonious Monk Bass Competition and received the 2010 Bell Award for Young Australian Artist of the Year. In 2010 she was nominated for the Jazz Journalist’s Awards for Up and Coming Artist of the Year, and received the award of No. 1 Acoustic Bass Rising Star in the Downbeat Critic’s Poll. This same year she received 2nd place at the BASS2010 Competition in Berlin. Linda completed her Masters at the Manhattan School of Music in 2008 studying with Jay Anderson, John Riley, Phil Markowitz, Dave Liebman and Rodney Jones. She now teaches the precollege division there and is involved in jazz videoconference master-classes for high-schools around the US. As an active teacher she was also involved in creating a series of lessons for the up and coming BassGuru app for iPad and iPhone. Linda has performed with the musicians such as Joe Lovano, Steve Wilson, Vijay Iyer, Dave Douglas, Kenny Barron, Geri Allen, Fabian Almazan, and Terri Lyne Carrington. She is currently the bassist with guitarist, Pat Metheny. Linda is an active double bassist, electric bassist and composer, composing music for various ensembles and short films, also participating in the BMI Film Composers Workshop and Sundance Labs at Skywalker Ranch. Linda composed for Sabrina McCormick’s short film “A Good Egg” which was featured in the New York Shorts Festival. In 2009 her self-released debut trio album “Entry” with Obed Calvaire and Ambrose Akinmusire was listed in Artforum magazine as one of Vijay Iyer’s top ten of 2009. Her second album “Initial Here” released on Greenleaf Records in 2012 features a quartet with Dayna Stephens on tenor sax, Fabian Almazan on piano and Rudy Royston on drums with special guest Jen Shyu on vocals. This album was mentioned several times for album of the year in various jazz polls. “Sun Pictures” is her third release – a quartet album recorded live at WKCR studios featuring Ben Wendel on tenor saxophone, James Muller on guitar and Ted Poor on drums. Her latest release in 2017 "Walk Against Wind" on Biophilia Records, received critical acclaim and was featured on the 2017 NPR Music Jazz Critics Poll. This album features Ben Wendel on tenor sax, Matthew Stevens on guitar, Justin Brown on drums featuring special guests - Fabian Almazan on piano and keys as well as Minji Park on Korean percussion. She will be performing this music for the first time at the distinguished Village Vanguard in New York City. Linda is currently working on her second trumpet trio album and an eight-piece group featuring a string quartet Aventurine– with music that was commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in 2012. She was a recent recipient of the Jerome Foundation Fellowship and is now a member of Pat Metheny’s most recent quartet project which has recently recorded. Stay tuned for the new release.