What is Jazz?

Jazz music is a uniquely American music that has its roots in many cultural traditions. The earliest forms of jazz originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, one of the world’s first truly multi-cultural cities.

Multi = Many

Cultural = Ideas and customs of people from all over the world New Orleans was home to a colorful mix of French, Spanish, Caribbean, African, Native American, Irish and German people. In a city with so many rich cultural traditions to draw upon, it only seems natural that jazz would contain some ingredients from all of them. Like America itself, jazz is also a uniquely democratic music. Everyone is included and everyone has their say because jazz is for everyone.

Democratic = Of the people, by the people and for the people

Jazz Goes Global

As jazz music’s popularity grew through the 20th century and traveling by airplane became more common, American jazz musicians began touring and performing all over the world.

Often inspired by all the different sounds and rhythms they would hear in the many countries they would visit, American jazz musicians began experimenting by blending some of these exciting new sounds and rhythms into their own music. As a result, these experiments began to expand the possibilities of what jazz could be.

In the meantime, the sound of jazz spread around the world. Curious-minded musicians from other countries began learning how to play jazz by listening to, studying and imitating their favorite American jazz stars.

As modern civilization moved quickly through the 20th century and into the 21st, exciting hi-tech inventions like TV, movies, cell phones and especially the internet, have brought the world closer together. This technology made our collective human experience more common and universal.

As a result of all this progress, our world has gotten smaller and the sound of jazz is global and continues to unite us all through rhythm and tune and inform us that, where the human imagination is concerned, there are no boundaries or borders. Anything is possible. Today, there are many creative musicians from all over the world who have studied and learned the American jazz tradition but who are also deeply rooted in their own countries’ musical traditions. As a result, they’re changing the sound of jazz and making it their own just by simply being themselves and celebrating who they are. There has never been a more exciting time in jazz history than right now!

Featured Composers

Miguel Zenon From: Puerto Rico Plays: Alto Saxophone Just nominated for a 2009 Grammy Award for his brilliant recording “Esta Plena” (Marsalis Music), Miguel Zenón was born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, he studied classical saxophone at the famed Escuela Libre de Musica. His formal jazz training began at the Berklee School of Music. After graduating from Berklee, Zenón received a scholarship to attend Manhattan School of Music and in 2001, he received a Masters in Saxophone Performance. In 2004 Zenón was asked to become one of the founding members of the SF Jazz Collective; an octet whose members include Joshua Redman, Bobby Hutcherson, Nicholas Payton, Joe Lovano, Dave Douglas and Brian Blade. The SF Jazz Collective has toured in the US, Canada, Asia, and Europe and to date, have released five critically acclaimed live recordings. Miguel has released five recordings as a leader. His debut CD, “Looking Forward” was selected by the New York Times as the number one independent jazz record of 2002. In 2005 Zenón was honored by Billboard magazine as one of the “Faces to Watch - 30

Under 30: Top Young Acts and Executives.” In 2006, the readers of Jazz Times Magazine voted him the Best New Artist of the Year. “Awake”, his fourth recording as a leader (and third for Marsalis Music) was released in April 2008. Also in 2008, Zenón received a fellowship from the prestigious Guggenheim Foundation to work on his current project. Later that year he was one of 25 distinguished individuals chosen to receive the coveted MacArthur Grant, also know as the “Genius Grant”.

Rudresh Mahanthappa

From: East Indian Heritage Plays: Alto Saxaphone

Guggenheim fellow and 2009 Downbeat International Critics Poll Winner (“Rising Star-Jazz Artist” and “Rising Star-Alto Saxophone”) Rudresh Mahanthappa is one of the most innovative young musicians and composers in jazz today. Named Alto Saxophonist of the Year for 2009 by the Jazz Journalist Association, Rudresh has incorporated the culture of his Indian ancestry and has fused myriad influences to create a truly groundbreaking artistic vision. As a performer, he leads/co-leads seven groups to critical acclaim. His recent release for Pi Recordings Kinsmen featuring Carnatic saxophone legend Kadri Gopalnath (September 25, 2008) has been named one of the Top Jazz CDs of 2008 by numerous news sources including the New York Times, NPR, BBC, Boston Globe, slate.com, JazzTimes, and the Village Voice to name just a few. His previous quartet release for Pi “Codebook” (September 26, 2006) was named one of the Top Jazz Albums of 2006 by The Village Voice, Jazztimes, and The Denver Post and received rave reviews from Downbeat, wired.com and Science Magazine. In Europe, Codebook received the esteemed “CHOC DE L'ANNÉE” (album of the year) for 2007 in France’s Jazzman, 4 stars in the UK’s Jazzwise, and received the “Bollino di Marzo” from Italy’s Musica Jazz.

As a saxophonist, Mahanthappa has achieved international recognition performing regularly at jazz festivals and clubs worldwide. As a composer, Rudresh has received commission grants from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, American Composers Forum, Chamber Music America, and the New York State Council on the Arts to develop new work. Mahanthappa holds a Bachelors of Music Degree in jazz performance from Berklee College of Music and a Masters of Music degree in jazz composition from Chicago's DePaul University. He now teaches at The New School University. Rudresh Mahanthappa currently lives in New York where he is clearly regarded as an important and influential voice in the jazz world. Rudresh K. Mahanthappa uses Vandoren reeds exclusively. Mahanthappa is also a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellow.

Omer Avital

From: Israel Plays: Bass

Bassist and Composer, Omer Avital was born in the small Israeli town of Givataim where his formal training began at age 11 when he entered the Givataim Conservatory to study classical guitar. He grew up in Tel Aviv, in a Moroccan-Yemenite family, where evidence of his Middle Eastern and Spanish influences came together with jazz and blues. While attending Israel's leading arts high school, he switched his focus to the acoustic bass. By his senior year at age 17, he was playing professionally, but then spent less then a year in the Israeli Army. After discharge, Avital moved to New York City playing with Roy Haynes, Jimmy Cobb, Nat Adderley, Walter Bishop, Jr., Al Foster, Kenny Garrett, Steve Grossman, Jimmy Lovelace, and Rashied Ali. But his big break came in 1994, not playing with giants, but leading his own groups and big band during the after-hours sessions at Smalls Jazz Club in Greenwich Village. In 1997, the Impulse record label released Jazz Underground: Live at Smalls, featuring Avital's quartet. Avital continues to compose for his own groups and projects and play with an array of renowned musicians such as, Joshua Redman, Aaron Goldberg, trumpeter Avishai Cohen and the clarinetist, Anat Cohen.

Lionel Loueke

From: Benin Plays: Guitar

Originally from the small West African nation of Benin, Loueke has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past several years. Praised by his mentor Herbie Hancock as “a musical painter,” he has appeared on numerous standout recordings such as Hancock’s Grammy-winning River: The Joni Letters (2008) and Terence Blanchard’s Grammy-nominated Flow (2005). Loueke’s 2007 Blue Note debut, Karibu, established him as a one of the brightest new stars on the scene, and prompted The New York Times to declare him “a startlingly original voice” and “one of the most striking jazz artists to emerge is some time.” Lionel was born to parents that he describes as “intellectual,” adding that “music was part of everyday life, but not in the family”. Fortunately an older brother played guitar and was part of a band that played Afro-Pop music in the style of Fela Kuti and King Sunny Ade. “I remember when I was 11 or 12, I was going to see my brother perform. I would be listening from 10pm to 3am in the morning, just looking at him playing, listening to the music.” Finally when Loueke was 17 years old, his brother let him pick up his guitar, and he quickly realized that he had a great talent on the instrument. Besides the Afro-Pop music that he heard his brother performing, Loueke also began to be enamored with the traditional African music of Benin, as well as Nigeria, Congo, Zaire, Mali and Senegal. However, it was an encounter with Jazz music that would set Loueke on a different course. Loueke finally decided to pursue music more seriously and left Benin to attend the National Institute of Art in the Ivory Coast. In 1994, Loueke left Africa and moved to Paris to pursue Jazz studies, enrolling at the American School of Modern Music, a small conservatory run by several alumni of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After graduation, Loueke was awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee, and so he left Paris and moved to the United States. After graduating from Berklee, Loueke was accepted to the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz in Los Angeles

Before even graduating from the Monk Institute, Loueke began touring in Terrence Blanchard’s sextet, a highly-creative band that recorded two albums for Blue Note (Bounce and Flow) and allowed Loueke to begin expressing his own voice as a soloist and composer. Since leaving Blanchard’s band, he has been hired by Hancock and become a prominent member of his current quartet. On February 9, 2010, Blue Note Records will release Lionel’s “Mwaliko” (pronounced mwah-LEE-koh and which is Swahili for “invitation”), the album comprises a series of searching, innovative, intimate duets with special guests vocalist Angelique Kidjo, vocalist/bassist Esperanza Spalding, vocalist/bassist Richard Bona and drummer Marcus Gilmore, as well as three new tracks featuring his longtime trio with Massimo Biolcati on bass and Ferenc Nemeth on drums.

Yosvany Terry From: CUBA Plays: Saxophone, Chekere Born in Cuba, he received his earliest musical training from his father, Eladio "Don Pancho" Terry , violinist and Cuba's leading player of the Chekeré. His father was also known as the founder and director of the "Orquesta Maravillas de Florida," one of Cuba's most important charanga bands. Mr. Terry went on to receive his classical music training and graduated from both the prestigious National School of Art (ENA) and Amadeo Roldan Conservatory. While in Cuba, Yosvany was known for his musical innovation performing with the likes of legends, such as Chucho Valdez, Silvio Rogriguez, Fito Paez, and Cubanismo, as well as forming the influential group, Columna B. Their work represented the new voice of young Cuban jazz players. " Columna B became this limitless work-shop, where everything could be tried and experimented with. We learned how to polish and develop our craft in a very special and intuitive sense ", comments Terry. Columna toured throughout the US and Europe, and in 1998 premiered their Inroads Commissioned-piece by Arts International (through the Ford Foundation) at Stanford Jazz Festival.

Yosvany came to New York in 1999 and was immediately recognized as a "spectacular talent" in the Jazz scene, playing with Roy Hargrove, Steve Coleman, Eddie Palmieri, Dave Douglass, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, and bassist Avishai Cohen. " My move to New York represented an incredible time of growth as a musician, the move gave me access to so much information, and the opportunity to meet and work with talented musicians from all over the world." Always a student, Mr. Terry has absorbed and incorporated American jazz traditions with his own Afro-Cuban roots to produce compositions and solo work that flow from the rhythmic and hard driving avant-garde to sweet sounding lyricism. His voice and style are unique and complex, and with his new Quintet he has married Cuban and American musical traditions to create a new and exciting sound.