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Pianist Bill Mays’ career as a professional musician spans the last 55 years and includes a multitude of musical endeavors. Following four years as a bandsman in the U.S. Navy, Bill spent 15 years as a session player in the Hollywood studios. In 1984 he re-located to New York City, firmly establishing himself as an in-demand sideman and leader of his own ensembles. He has worked with jazz legends

Benny Golson, Shelly Manne, Red Mitchell, Gerry Mulligan, Bud Shank, Frank Sinatra, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Sarah Vaughan, and Phil Woods. His many recordings as a leader (solo, duo, trio and sextet) are well-documented on the Chiaroscuro, Concord, DMP, Palmetto, and Steeplechase record labels.

A prolific composer and arranger, Mays has written many extended suites for bass, flute, woodwind septet, and pieces for big band and orchestra (New York Philharmonic, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Turtle Creek Chorale, WDR Big Band, U.S. Air Force Airmen Of Note). His latest recordings include Phil & Bill (with saxophonist Phil Woods), Side By Side: Sondheim Duos (with bassist Tommy Cecil), Life’s A Movie (with cellist Alisa Horn and trumpeter Marvin Stamm), and Front Row Seat (solo piano). Mays’ songs have been used in the movies Anamorph, Burn After Reading, Hamlet, Looker, and The Fifth Estate. His keyboard work has been heard on hundreds of film soundtracks, among them Fargo, Fur, Godfather II, Hail, Caesar!, Jaws 2, Julie & Julia, Rocky 2, Superman, The Big Lebowski, and The Spanish Prisoner.

Last year Mays received rave reviews with the publication of his first book, Stories Of The Road, The Studios, Sidemen & Singers: 55 Years In The Music Biz.

Gerry Mulligan Tribute Band

Sunday, June 27 at 4pm

enJOY Jazz with Party of Four

Monday, July 19 at 7pm

enJOY Jazz with Al Hamme’s

8 Alarm Fire Jazztet

Monday, August 16 at 7pm

607.772.2404 x 301

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General Operating Support is provided to the Goodwill Theatre

by a grant from the Broome County Art’s Council’s United Cultural Fund.

This project is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

All Tickets

$10

All Tickets

$10

The

Gerry Mulligan Tribute Band

Sunday, June 27 at 4pm

Bill Mays - Piano

Marvin Stamm - Trumpet

Scott Robinson - Saxophone

Ron Vincent - Drums

Dean Johnson - Bass

The Band:

Throughout his distinguished career, Marvin Stamm has been praised for both the art and the craft of trumpet playing. Leonard Feather stated that Mr. Stamm is an accomplished performer whose technical skill is used as a means to stimulating original ends. While attending North Texas State University, a school noted for its innovative lab bands, Mr. Stamm was discovered by Stan Kenton. After

graduation, he joined Kenton’s orchestra as his Jazz trumpet soloist, touring with him in 1961-1962 recording five albums with the orchestra. In 1965-1966, he toured worldwide with Woody Herman.

Settling in New York in late 1966, Marvin Stamm quickly established himself as a busy Jazz and studio trumpeter. New York was bustling with jazz activity during that period, and Stamm performed at key venues with many of the significant players in the business. He gained considerable recognition for his playing with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (1966-72) and the Duke Pearson Big Band (1967-70), as well as performing with Frank Sinatra (1973-74) and the Benny Goodman Sextet (1974-75) among others. Stamm was also a recognized first call studio player (1966-89), and he recorded with: Bill Evans, Quincy Jones, Oliver Nelson, Duke Pearson, Thad Jones, Wes Montgomery, Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Patrick Williams, Michel Legrand, Frank Foster, Paul Desmond, George Benson and many more.

Eschewing the lucrative studio scene in the late 80’s, Mr. Stamm has focused his attention on his first love, playing Jazz. Since that time, he has been a member of John Lewis' American Jazz Orchestra, the Bob Mintzer Band, the George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Louis Bellson's big band and/or quintet and, on many occasions, performed with the big band of composer Maria Schneider.

One of today's most wide-ranging instrumentalists, Scott Robinson has been heard on tenor sax with Buck Clayton’s band, on trumpet with Lionel Hampton’s quintet, on alto clarinet with Paquito D’Rivera’s clarinet quartet, and on bass sax with the New York City Opera. On these and other instruments including theremin and ophicleide, he has been heard with a cross-section of jazz’s greats representing nearly every imaginable style of the music, from Braff to Braxton.

Primarily a tenor saxophonist, Scott once placed directly below the great Sonny Rollins in the DownBeat Readers Poll. Scott has been heard numerous times on film, radio and television, and his discography now includes more than 250 recordings. His releases as a leader have garnered five-star reviews from Leonard Feather, DownBeat Magazine and other respected sources worldwide, and have appeared in many “Best of the Year” lists. Scott’s collaborators on disc have included Frank Wess, Hank Jones, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, and Bob Brookmeyer, and he has performed with the Grammy-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra for more than 25 years.

Scott has been a staunch advocate for creative music around the world. He was selected by the US State Department to be a Jazz Ambassador for 2001, completing an eight-week, eleven-country tour of West Africa performing his arrangements of the compositions of Louis Armstrong (later featured on his CD Jazz Ambassador). Scott has served as Artist-in-Residence at jazz festivals in Ancona, Italy and Aarhus, Denmark, and as Musical Host at the Louis Armstrong Festival in Hungary.

Since moving to New York in 1984, Scott has been awarded four fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts, and participated in a number of Grammy-nominated and Grammy-winning record-ings. He has been profiled in new editions of the Encyclopedia of Jazz and Grove's Dictionary of Jazz, along with books by Royal Stokes, Nat Hentoff and others. In 1997, a 4-minute CNN program featured Scott and the giant contrabass saxophone which he used on his CD, Thinking Big. Scott has been the winner of a number DownBeat Critics Polls and Jazz Journalists Association awards in

A native of Warwick, Rhode Island, Ron Vincent moved to Boston, MA. in 1969 to attend the renowned Berklee College of Music, graduating with a BA in Music Education in 1973. After touring the U.S. with a variety of jazz groups, and three years in Kansas City (79-82), Ron settled in New York City in 1982. Since then, Ron has become a veteran of the New York City jazz scene.

Working often as a sideman, Ron has been on labels such as GRP, Concord and Palmetto records, the latter where he has been pro-ducer as well as co-producer for a number of projects.

Ron was a member of the Gerry Mulligan Quartet and the Re-Birth of the Cool Tentet from 1989 until Mr. Mulligan’s passing in 1996. He recorded four CDs with Mr. Mulligan and has also recorded with Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Randy Brecker, Bob Brookmeyer, Bill Charlap, John Lewis and Slide Hampton to name a few. Ron has appeared with such notables as Art Farmer, Rob McConnell, Rufus Reid and Dr. Billy Taylor.

As a leader, his own trio and quartet are active in the New York City area and his quartet has toured the U.S. and Europe. As a jazz artist/educator for Sabian Cymbals, Ron has presented workshops at over 100 Colleges and Universities and has been on the faculty of the Jamie Aebersold Jazz Camps and the Stanford Jazz Camp. In 1996 Ron received a National Endow-ment for the Arts grant for jazz performance. Additionally, Ron has co-written, produced and performed in two educational DVDs for the Masterjazz series, Learn To Play Jazz & Becoming an Improviser.

Gerry Mulligan

Gerald Joseph Mulligan (April 6, 1927 – January 20, 1996), also

known as Jeru, was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist,

composer and arranger. Though primarily known as one of the

leading jazz baritone saxophonists—playing the instrument with a

light and airy tone in the era of cool jazz—Mulligan was also a

significant arranger, working with Claude Thornhill, Miles

Davis, Stan Kenton, and others. His pianoless quartet of the early

1950s with trumpeter Chet Baker is still regarded as one of the best

cool jazz groups. Mulligan was also a skilled pianist and played

several other reed instruments. Several of his compositions, such as

“Walkin’ Shoes” and “Five Brothers”, have become standards.

Ron Vincent

Born in Seattle, Washington, in 1956, Dean Johnson studied Bass Violin with a number of bassists, including the renowned Gary Peacock. Dean also studied piano and composition at the Cornish Institute, in Seattle, with James Knapp and from 1974 to 1976, attended the Berklee College of Music, in Boston, studying with bassists Rich Appleman, John Neves, and studying

theory, composition, and arranging with John LaPorta and Herb Pomeroy. Since arriving in New York, in 1980, Dean has been busy freelancing with a wide variety of artists in the Northeast, and has had the opportunity to travel extensively throughout the United States, Canada, and numerous tours of Europe, Japan, Brazil, Australia, Mexico, and Israel. Some of the eclectic array of artists Dean has been and continues to be involved with over that time include: Dave Liebman, Lee Konitz, Bob Brookmeyer, Randy Brecker, Joe Lovano, Phil Woods, Grover Washington, Dave Grusin, Lew Tabackin, Wynton Marsalis, Steve Kuhn, Dave Samuels, Ron Afiff, Dave Douglas, Paul McCandless, Nguyen Le, Art Lande, Ray Anderson, Walter Norris, Maurizio Giammarco, Bill Mays, Vic Juris, Billy Harper, Art Farmer, Nick Brignola, Ronny Cuber, Rob McConnell, Dave Kikoski, Bill Frisell, Albert Dailey, Mike Metheny, John McNeil, Hayes Greenfield, and Vocalists Sheila Jordan, Jackie and Roy, Mark Murphy, Carol Sloane and Helen Merrill.

Gerry Mulligan however is Dean's most prominent association. Dean spent over 10 years with Mr. Mulligan until his passing in 1996 in a variety of musical situations including the Quartet, Nonet, Big Band, and with symphony orchestras, including the Israel Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. Dean performed in these Mulligan ensembles in concerts and jazz festivals all over the world as well as numerous recordings along with a number of well-known pianists that were in the group over that time including Harold Danko, Bill Mays, Bill Charlap, and Ted Rosenthal.

Dean Johnson

Scott Robinson

Marvin Stamm

Bill Mays