Category: Featured News

Producer Larry Klein visits College Program, shares decades of musical experience

Posted on by Will Ramsey

Renowned bassist and producer Larry Klein visited the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance earlier this month to conduct a seminar and discussion with the Class of 2018. The GRAMMY Award® winner listened to the students perform their original compositions and offered feedback from a producer’s perspective.

Larry Klein (center) with the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance Class of 2018. Photo: Natasha Patamapongs

Klein also discussed his past experience and current work with artists in and beyond jazz, including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Joni Mitchell, Kurt Elling, and many more.

Klein listens as the students perform an original composition. Photo: Natasha Patamapongs

An accomplished jazz bassist, Klein began his career performing with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Carmen McRae, and Joe Henderson, later branching out to work with artists as diverse as Bob Dylan and Don Henley. He became well-known as a producer in the 1980s and ’90s for his work on multiple albums with singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell, notably her Turbulent Indigo, which won the 1995 GRAMMY for Best Pop Album. Today, he heads the Strange Cargo record label, an imprint of Universal Music Group, and produces a range of artists including pianist Billy Childs and vocalist Madeleine Peyroux.

As part of their two-year, tuition-free course of study, the students of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance frequently interface with high-profile artists and music industry figures like Klein. Intimate classroom sessions give the students the opportunity to gain valuable insight directly from the source. Regular guest instructors include Institute Chairman Herbie Hancock and Institute Trustee Wayne Shorter – the program’s Distinguished Professors – along with record executive Don Was, saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi, artist manager Karen Kennedy and others.

Click here to learn more about the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance.

2015 Competition winner Jazzmeia Horn featured at PyeongChang Olympics

Posted on by Will Ramsey

2015 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Vocals Competition winner Jazzmeia Horn was featured as part of the closing exhibition gala for the PyeongChang Olympics on Sunday. Olympic gold medalist and figure skating phenom Alina Zagitova delivered a striking routine, dubbed “priestess of fire,” to the tune of Horn’s haunting rendition of “Afro Blue.” Horn’s distinctive arrangement, which features the singer improvising in vocalese accompanied only by drummer Jerome Jennings, served as a fitting backdrop to Zagitova’s captivating and athletic final performance.

“Afro Blue” appears on Horn’s Grammy-nominated debut album, A Social Call, released in 2017 on Concord Music’s Prestige label. For nearly a decade, Monk Institute Competition winners have enjoyed a guaranteed recording contract with Concord Music Group. For many, a first-place win at the competition represents their first major exposure among the listening public, and is instrumental in taking their burgeoning career to the next level.

This is not the first time Institute artists have been represented at the 2018 winter games. On February 18, Institute teaching artist and International Jazz Day All-Star Dianne Reeves saw her original composition “Tango,” from the 2013 album Beautiful Life, back Canadian ice dancers Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje in their short skate program. This choice jives with the International Skating Union’s selection of “salsa, samba, bachata and/or meringue” as the official dance options for PyeongChang.

Check out video of Zagitova’s routine on NBC’s website.

Institute of Jazz Performance Fellows to Tour Phoenix Public Schools

Posted on by Will Ramsey

The students of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance will visit Phoenix, Arizona public schools next week as part of a four-day jazz education tour. Supported by the Arizona Community Foundation’s Black Philanthropy Initiative, the tour brings the Institute’s Class of 2018 to work with thousands of students at five schools:

Carl Hayden High School
Herrera School for the Fine Arts and Dual Language
Moon Valley High School
North High School
Thunderbird High School

Students Luca Alemanno (bass), Alex Hahn (alto saxophone), Jon Hatamiya (trombone), Anthony Fung (drums), Julio Maza (tenor saxophone) and Simon Moullier (vibraphone) will share their talents with the next generation of jazz musicians, as well as students yet to be introduced to the music. Each visit begins with an assembly for the entire school, featuring an “informance” (informational performance) on the history and theory of jazz. The Institute group then meets with each school’s student jazz band, where they workshop improvisation and ensemble skills and provide one-on-one and sectional instruction by instrument. Renowned jazz drummer Lewis Nash, a Phoenix native, will join the Institute’s musicians at one of the high schools.

Class of 2018 bassist Luca Alemanno works with a student during the Institute’s February 2017 jazz education tour in Phoenix.

The Institute has led jazz education programs in Arizona for years. The 2018 visit marks the second for our current college class. The Institute’s Peer-to-Peer program has also made a positive impact in the state. Most recently in 2015, vocalist Charenee Wade and guitarist Bobby Broom, along with a quintet of talented high schoolers from the Booker T. Washington High School for the Arts, presented workshops at schools across Phoenix and Tucson.

Class of 2018 saxophonists Julio Maza (center) and Alex Hahn (right) perform at Phoenix, AZ jazz club The Nash as part of the Institute’s February 2017 jazz education tour in Phoenix.

Interactive, public school-based initiatives are a hallmark of the Institute’s approach, which stresses students’ direct interaction with accomplished jazz musicians and jazz masters through informances, clinics and—best of all—putting instruction into practice through performance.

Click here to learn more about the Arizona Community Foundation’s Black Philanthropy Initiative.

Peer-to-Peer All-Star featured on CNN’s “Turning Points”

Posted on by Will Ramsey

Trumpeter, New Orleans native, and Thelonious Monk Institute Peer-to-Peer All-Star alumnus John Michael Bradford was recently featured on CNN’s program “Turning Points,” which profiled the talented young musician’s experience after the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.

Bradford, who was just seven years old when his family was forced to evacuate, credits his relationship with legendary trombonist, bandleader and fellow evacuee Big Sam Williams for inspiring his choice of music as a career. Reflecting on his experience, Bradford notes, “I think music can turn a tragedy into something that’s beautiful, because it can touch so many people, and I think everyone can relate to it.”

Trumpeter John Michael Bradford (far right) performs with the 2014 Peer-to-Peer All-Stars at the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Trumpet Competition in Hollywood, California. Photo: Steve Mundinger

After returning home, Bradford took up the trumpet and went on to attend the prestigious New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA), one of 12 partner institutions in the Institute’s National Performing Arts High Schools program. While at NOCCA, he was selected as a member of the Institute’s 2014 Peer-to-Peer All-Star group, an ensemble of talented high school jazz musicians from across the nation, and performed with vocalist Kellylee Evans at the 2014 Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz International Trumpet Competition & Gala in Hollywood, California.

Bradford currently attends the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and recently released his debut album, “Something Old, Something New.”

Watch the video here via WGNO.

UNESCO Announces 2018 & 2019 Global Hosts for International Jazz Day

Posted on by Will Ramsey

UNESCO is pleased to announce that the International Jazz Day Global Host Cities for the next two years will be Saint Petersburg, Russian Federation, in 2018 and Sydney, Australia, in 2019.

International Jazz Day is celebrated annually on 30 April in more than 190 countries. The day pays tribute to the art form of jazz and its power to promote dialogue among cultures, embrace diversity, and deepen respect for human rights and all forms of expression. The cities of Saint Petersburg and Sydney were chosen for their unique contributions to the development of jazz. The jazz scene in Russia was born in 1927 in Saint Petersburg with the appearance of the “First Concert Jazz Band” in the concert hall of the St. Petersburg State Capella, followed by the creation of the first jazz collective in 1929. Saint Petersburg is the only city in Russia to have a Jazz Philharmonic Hall, founded in 1989.

Festivities are set to take place in some of Saint Petersburg’s most significant venues, such as the Mariinsky Theatre. Saint Petersburg’s bid to become a host city was supported by renowned Russian saxophonist Igor Butman.

In Australia, jazz is a flourishing art form, which in recent years has seen an increasing number of players and growing audiences. Australia is host to the world’s largest youth jazz festival, “Generations in Jazz,” which is held in the city of Mount Gambier.

Sydney plans to hold the flagship All Star-Global Concert in the iconic Sydney Opera House, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the streets of the city will come alive with jazz through a daylong programme of “Jazz in Squares,” featuring school bands and jazz combos. Other cities across Australia expected to join in the multi-day celebration include Adelaide, which is a UNESCO Creative City for Music. Australia’s celebrated jazz musician James Morrison was instrumental in the effort to secure Sydney’s bid to host International Jazz Day 2019.

Each year, the All Star-Global Concert, which features UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and iconic jazz pianist Herbie Hancock and dozens of other internationally acclaimed musicians from around the world, is the culminating event of International Jazz Day.

In addition to the main events in Saint Petersburg and Sydney, UNESCO will continue to encourage the participation of schools, universities and non-governmental organizations, as well as public radio and public television around the world. Various performing arts venues, community centres, artists, arts organizations, libraries and educational institutes will also organize activities around jazz.

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is the lead nonprofit organization charged with planning, promoting and producing the annual celebration of International Jazz Day.

Visit JazzDay.com for more information.