Dave
Carpenter
Bassist Dave Carpenter has been working in the
Los Angeles studios for over twenty years. He
is recognized internationally for his recordings
and tours with Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, Eddie
Daniels, Peter Erskine, Kenny Werner, Dave Grusin,
Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, and many more. He is
also an educator having served as a clinician
for the Henry Mancini Institute, the Musicians
Institute of Los Angeles, North Texas University,
the Jazz Academy in Princeton, New Jersey, and
has served on the faculty at Cal Arts and currently
teaches at USC. Dave was an adjudicator for the
3rd Next Generation Festival in 2007.
Terri Lyne Carrington
Drummer, producer and composer Terri Lyne
Carrington is a full-time professor at
the Berklee College of Music in Boston.
Born in Medford, Massachusetts in 1965,
her storied musical career began at age
7. By age 11, she was awarded a scholarship
to the Berklee School of Music. Terri Lyne
was mentored by Jack DeJohnette and studied
with the legendary Alan Dawson, and has
toured and recorded with an endless list
of jazz royalty, including Mike Stern,
Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock
and Wayne Shorter. She was also the house
drummer for the 1990s TV talk shows The
Arsenio Hall Show and Vibe.
Her first solo CD, 1989’s Real
Life Story, was nominated for a Grammy.
Her recent recordings include 2002’s Jazz
Is A Spirit, and a re-release of 2002’s Purple:
Celebrating Jimi Hendrix, by French
guitarist Nguyên Lê, which
features Terri Lyne on drums and vocals.
Her newest solo project, More To Say…Real
Life Story/Next Gen features Nancy
Wilson, George Duke, Patrice Rushen, Kirk
Whalum, Everette Harp, Christian McBride
and more.
Corey Christiansen
Since he joined the Mel Bay Publications, Inc.
team as Senior Music Editor and advisor to
Product Development in 2001, guitarist Corey
Christiansen has over forty publications
with Mel Bay and has conducted countless
guitar clinics and concerts across the country
and beyond. Corey began playing the guitar
at the age of five, with instruction from
his father, Mel Bay author and Utah State
University professor Mike Christiansen. Corey
continued his passion for playing the guitar
at Utah State University, were he received
his Bachelor's Degree and many honors and
awards including the Outstanding Music Student
Award and Outstanding Guitarist Award. Corey
sought out renowned jazz guitar educator
Jack Petersen and began his studies as a
graduate teaching assistant at the University
of South Florida, receiving his Master's
Degree in 1999. When Jack Petersen retired
that same year, Corey became the adjunct
guitar instructor at USF. Corey has visited
Australia for a two-week tour of stores and
conservatories and has performed at many
notable festivals and venues, including John
Pisano's Guitar Night in Los Angeles, the
Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.,
the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy,
the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, the Clearwater
Jazz Festival, the Daytona Beach Jazz Festival,
the Classic American Guitar Show, and the
St. Louis Jazz Festival. He has also performed
and/or recorded with many outstanding jazz
artists including Jimmy Bruno, John Pisano,
Joe Negri, Willie Akins, Chuck Redd, Rob
McConnel, Sid Jacobs, Jack Wilkins, and Danny
Gottlieb.
Paul Contos
A saxophones and woodwinds virtuoso, Santa
Cruz resident Paul Contos has been an active
professional musicians and educator for over
twenty years. In addition to teaching on
faculty at Cal State University Monterey
Bay, Paul directs the Next Generation Jazz
Orchestra, the Monterey Jazz Festival’s
international touring ensemble of top-ranked
high school jazz talent, and teaches for
the MJF Traveling Clinicians Program.
Sal Cracchiolo
Sal Cracchiolo is the trumpeter with the Grammy
Award Winning Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band.
Sal has performed on numerous albums with
the Poncho Sanchez Latin Jazz Band, Bobby
Shew, Brian Setzer’s Big Band, and
many albums with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz
Orchestra backing Diana Krall, John Pizzarelli,
Gladys Knight, Joss Stone, Jamiriquoi, and
others. He has also toured worldwide with
Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, Poncho Sanchez,
Brian Setzer, and Tom Jones. He has played
with Dizzy Gillespie, Freddie Hubbard, Cal
Tjader, Stanley Turrentine, Tito Puente,
Mongo Santamaria, Arturo Sandoval, Eddie
Harris, and Celia Cruz. He has performed
for and with these artists at the Monterey,
Playboy, Concord, and Nice Jazz Festivals
plus many others throughout the U.S., Europe,
Canada, Mexico, South America and Japan.
Sal and singer Melanie Jackson have recently
teamed up for the CD Fly and have
performed at the Playboy Jazz Festival, the
Vancouver International Jazz Festival, among
others. In January 2006, Sal and Melanie
flew to Bangkok, Thailand to perform for
the American School of Bangkok in a tribute
to the King of Thailand and to raise money
for the tsunami victims.
George Duke
Legendary Grammy-winning pianist, producer
and jazz-fusion pioneer George Duke has been
nominated for 14 Grammys, and has received
10 Gold and 5 Platinum Album awards. Born
in San Rafael, California in 1946, he began
his piano studies at age seven. Influenced
by Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of
Les McCann and Cal Tjader, he attended the
San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He received
his Bachelor of Music degree in 1967, after
which George and a young Al Jarreau formed
a group which became the house band at San
Francisco's Half Note Club, where he worked
with such artists as Sonny Rollins and Dexter
Gordon. In subsequent years, George has worked
with the royalty of jazz and pop, including
Jean-Luc Ponty, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy
Wilson, Joe Williams, Dizzy Gillespie, Frank
Zappa, Stanley Clarke, Billy Cobham and many
more. As a producer, George has steered numerous
musical hits to the top of the pop, adult
contemporary, and R&B charts, including
multiple Grammy nominations for his productions;
a short list includes Deniece Williams, Jeffrey
Osborne, A Taste Of Honey, Dianne Reeves,
Miles Davis, and Al Jarreau, Natalie Cole
and many, many more. George has also acted
as musical director for numerous artists
and television specials, including the Soul
Train Music Awards NBC's Sunday
Night Show and Anita Baker, to name
a few. George has released some thirty albums
as a leader and has appeared on, and produced,
hundreds of others.
Rosana Eckert
Rosana Eckert teaches vocal jazz at the University
of North Texas and is quickly gaining wide
recognition as a dynamic jazz singer, composer,
arranger, and educator. She has performed
and/or recorded with many outstanding jazz
musicians including Kenny Wheeler, Kevin
Mahogany, Marvin Stamm, Jon Faddis, and Lou
Marini, and her quintet performs regularly
at concert venues and jazz festivals around
the country. Her vocal arrangements and original
songs have been performed by vocal groups
around the U.S. and abroad, and her music
has been published by Hal Leonard Corp. She
is also on the faculty of the UNT Summer
Vocal Jazz Workshop and the Texas All Star
Jazz Camp. 2008 is Rosana's third year as
a Next Generation Festival adjudicator.
Matt Falker
Matt Falker is currently on the jazz faculty
at Cal State Northridge and MiraCosta College,
where he directs vocal jazz ensembles and
teaches jazz piano and other related classes.
His previous positions include the University
of Southern California, Cal State Fullerton,
Fullerton College and Purdue Musical Organizations
at Purdue University. He also taught at Hamilton
High School Academy of Music (a Los Angeles
music magnet program) and directed Jazz Incorporated,
the Academy's award-winning vocal jazz ensemble.
The ensemble released three CD's and received
two consecutive Down Beat Magazine "DB" national
awards for best high school vocal jazz ensemble.
Mr. Falker also teaches private jazz piano
and voice.
A native of northern Michigan,
Mr. Falker received his undergraduate degree
from Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo
in jazz piano and his graduate degree from
the University of Southern California in jazz
voice. An active performer and clinician internationally,
he served on the vocal jazz faculty for the
2006 IAJE Teacher Training Institute, and was
the vocal jazz representative on the Southern
California Vocal Association Executive Board.
He has served as the guest conductor for both
the All-State Collegiate Vocal Jazz Ensemble
and the LAUSD Middle School Honors Chorus.
His vocal arrangements are published by UNC
Jazz Press and he has also published an instructional
DVD entitled “Jazz Piano For Singers,
Volume 1”. Matt also plays keyboards
for the Los Angeles Chapter of the Gospel Music
Workshop of America.
Lynne Fiddmont
Vocalist Lynne Fiddmont was raised in St. Louis,
Missouri and began singing at a young age.
Her first professional gig in the late 1970s
was touring with the Crusaders across the
United States. After Lynne attended Drake
University and then Boston University, she
accepted a scholarship to Berklee, but then
moved to Los Angeles in 1985 to pursue a
career in the performing arts. She has landed
backup vocalist gigs with Bill Withers, Lou
Rawls, Seal, Babyface, Gloria Estefan, Stevie
Wonder Phil Collins, and more. She has appeared
on record with the Rippingtons, the Zawinul
Syndicate, Johnny Mathis, Madonna, Norman
Brown, Stevie Wonder, and many others. In
2005, Lynne decided to establish her own
label, MidLife Records, and released her
debut recording Flow, in 2006. Encompassing
the contemporary adult sound that earned
her the reputation as being a consummate
singer, songwriter and producer, Lynne performed
at the 50th Monterey Jazz Festival in September
2007.
Mike Galisatus
Michael Galisatus is the Director of Bands
at the College of San Mateo in San Mateo,
California. Prior to his appointment at the
college, Mr. Galisatus was the band director
at Aragon, El Camino, and South San Francisco
High Schools where his musical ensembles
consistently received top honors. Michael
has been the recipient of various teaching
accolades including the Peninsula Arts Council
Arts Educator of the Year for 2007, the Otter
Distributors 2004 Jazz Educator Award for
the state of California, and the Gil Freitas
Memorial Award for music education. He is
in demand as an adjudicator and guest conductor
throughout California, and currently holds
the office of President-Elect of the Bay
Section of the California Association for
Music Education.
As a freelance trumpeter in the San Francisco
Bay Area, Michael has recorded with Pete Escovedo
and Queen Ida, and has performed with a variety
of artists, including Frankie Valli, Gladys
Knight, Natalie Cole, Louis Bellson, Johnny
Mathis, Mel Torme, The Temptations and a host
of others.
Billy Harper
Saxophonist Billy Harper was born in 1943 in
Houston, Texas. At age 5, he was singing
at sacred and secular functions and picked
up the saxophone at age 11. By age 14, he
formed his first quintet as a high school
student. Billy attended the North Texas State
University where he studied saxophone and
music theory and received his Bachelor of
Music degree. Harper moved to New York in
1966 and began performing with some of the
icons of jazz, including Gil Evans, Max Roach,
Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Lee Morgan and Art
Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Since then,
he has performed, recorded and toured Europe,
Japan, Africa and throughout the United States
with these groups, as well as his own Billy
Harper Quintet. As a music educator, Billy
has taught at Livingston College, Rutgers
University and the New School and has received
numerous educational and composition grants
from the National Endowment for the Arts,
the New Jersey State Council and Creative
Arts Program and has released an educational
CD-ROM entitled "The Creative Process of
The Jazz Musician." He has released sixteen
albums as a leader on the Black Saint, Soul
Note, Evidence and Denon labels, and has
won multiple awards and accolades for his
recorded work, including the International
Critics Award for tenor saxophone.
Jon Nordgren
Jon Nordgren is the Producing Artistic Director
for Cabrillo Stage and has served as the
Director of Bands at Cabrillo College in
Aptos, California since 2002. He received
his B.A. and M.A. degrees from California
State University Hayward and was formerly
Director of Jazz Studies and Director of
Bands at San Joaquin Delta College in Stockton,
an instructor at Las Positas College in Livermore,
Monte Vista High School in Danville, and
James Logan High School in Union City. He
has served as Jazz Representative and Newsletter
Editor of the Bay Section of the California
Music Educators Association and the Newsletter
Editor for the California Unit of the International
Association of Jazz Educators. He is also
a member of the Brubeck Institute Advisory
Board at the University of the Pacific and
currently serves on the board of the Santa
Cruz Jazz Festival. Mr. Nordgren is listed
in Who's Who Among American Teachers and
has adjudicated at Band, Jazz, and Solo & Ensemble
Festivals throughout California. He has also
presented clinics at the California Music
Educators Association Bay Section Conference,
the Santa Cruz Jazz Festival and for the
United States Academic Decathlon program.
As a professional musician, he has enjoyed
a rewarding career as a freelance woodwind
musician, conductor, arranger, and copyist.
From 1983 until 1995 he was a member of the
show orchestra at Steve Silver's musical
revue, Beach Blanket Babylon in San Francisco,
and has additionally performed in concert
with many artists, including Pete Christlieb,
Bob Sheppard, Bob Berg, Ernie Watts, Matt
Catingub, Charles McPherson, Bobby Watson,
Bobby Shew, Arturo Sandoval, Bruce Forman,
Bill Watrous, Conrad Herwig, Steve Smith,
Ed Shaugnessy, Sunny Wilkinson, Kitty Margolis,
The Manhattan Transfer, Smokey Robinson,
the Temptations, Little Anthony, Martha Reeves
and the Vandellas and more.
Lauren Sevian
Baritone saxophonist Lauren Sevian has been
performing professionally since the age of
12. At the age of 16 she won the Count Basie
Invitational soloing competition. By the
age of 17 she had already performed at Carnegie
Hall, Lincoln Center and the Village Vanguard.
Lauren came to New York in 1997 to attend
the Manhattan School of Music where she studied
with Mark Turner, Donny McCaslin, Steve Slagle,
Joe Temperley and Mike Abene. Lauren is a
regular member of the Grammy-nominated Mingus
Big Band, Howard Johnson's “Bear-tones”,
The Big “O” Orchestra, the Grammy-nominated
JC Hopkins Biggish Band, Ada Rovatti's Elephunk,
Travis Sullivan's Identity Crisis,
Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra and
the Todd Londagin Big Band. She has performed
with a variety of different groups including
the Mingus Orchestra, Mario Pavone's Septet,
Benny Rietveld & the Matching Ensemble,
Frank Lacy's Vibe Tribe, Charli
Persip's Supersound, Kendrick Oliver
and the New Life Jazz Orchestra, David Cassidy & “The
Rat Pack is Back”, Mike Smith's Supper
Club Orchestra, the Stan Rubin Orchestra,
Earl McIntyre's Big Band, Diva, the Artie
Shaw Orchestra, the Van Dells, the Benny
Goodman Tribute Orchestra, the Harry James
Orchestra, Steve Slagle's Sax Quartet, and
many more.
George Stone
George Stone has served as Division Chair of
Performing Arts for twelve years at Cuesta
College in San Luis Obispo California, where
he designs both the facility and their courses
and directs and instructs the popular Audio
Technology Program and teaches Music Theory.
George has also a studio musician and composer
for live shows and television, working with
artists and groups such as Maynard Ferguson,
Clare Fischer, David Foster, Dave Grusin,
Tom Scott, the American Jazz Philharmonic
and the Tonight Show Orchestra with Doc Severinsen.
He has composed for industry entities such
as CBS, NBC, HBO and Disney. His extensive
participation as a festival adjudicator and
clinician includes the California Music Educators
Association (CMEA), California Band Director’s
Association (CBDA), Southern California School
Band and Orchestra Association (SCSBOA) as
well as Buchanan, Dos Pueblos, Folsom, and
Westlake high schools. Other institutions
of higher learning employing his skills include
University of New Mexico, CSU Sacramento
and Northridge, Northern Arizona State University,
Bellevue College (WA), and the Reno International
Jazz Festival. In addition, all star and
honor bands he has directed in the past include
the SCSBOA Jr. High and High School bands
as well as groups from New Mexico, Ventura
County, the Fresno-Madera Counties Music
Education Association and Reno. He has two
recordings on the Sea Breeze Jazz label.
Ron Westray
Trombonist Ron Westray was born
in Columbia, South Carolina in 1970. He attended
South Carolina State University as a Music
Major, and in 1991, he met and recorded with
pianist Marcus Roberts. Within two years,
he had been invited to join the Lincoln Center
Jazz Orchestra and additionally won a full
scholarship for graduate studies at Eastern
Illinois University. In 1994, he toured with
the LCJO and performed on Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer
Prize winning oratorio, Blood on the
Fields. He has since served as Artistic
Director of Jazz for Gallery 701 in Columbia,
South Carolina, recorded a solo project,
and recorded with Marcus Roberts and Wycliffe
Gordon, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra,
Wynton Marsalis, Dennis Jeter, Travis Shook,
Veronica Nunn, and others. He has been commissioned
to compose and arrange for the LCJO, which
includes original compositions for Miguel
de Cervantes’ Don Quixote,
along with the works of Charles Mingus and
Ornette Coleman. He also regularly performs
and tours with the Mingus Workshop Band.
Ron was an adjudicator for the 3rd Next Generation
Festival in 2007. |
Jackson Booth, President
