Traveling Clinicians Program
For one week a month during each school year since 1984, the Monterey Jazz Festival sends top professional musicians and vocalists, known as the Traveling Clinicians, to work with hundreds of students in public and private classrooms throughout the Monterey County School District, helping them develop their jazz skills. The clinicians recognize the area's top players with a place in the Monterey County High School All-Star Band, the Honor Vocal Jazz Ensemble, and our Middle School Honor Band.
The Traveling Clinicians Program is supported by the AT&T Foundation, Community Foundation of Monterey County, Harden Foundation, Joseph Drown Foundation, Monterey Peninsula Foundation, Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation, Packard Foundation, and generous individual donors. To make a financial contribution to this jazz education program, please click here.
2012-2013 TRAVELING CLINICIANS
Peck Allmond - Trumpet Clinician
Originally from San Francisco, multi-horn player and composer Peck Allmond has lived in New York City for over a dozen years. Aside from leading and writing for his own jazz/world-music unit, the Peck Allmond Kalimba Kollective, he is an in-demand sideman on an unlikely variety of instruments: trumpet, flute, saxophones, valve trombone, bass clarinet, and many other brass and reeds. Peck also plays the kalimba, the African-derived thumb piano to which he brings an unusual amount of virtuosity; his most recent SoniCulture Records disc, Kalimba Collage, showcases his unique abilities on this beautiful harp-like instrument. The Kalimba Kollective toured Europe in May 2006. Allmond is a current member of Me’Shell NdegeOcello’s jazz project The Spirit Music Sextet, and Oliver Lake’s quintet and big band, and travels extensively with those groups. The San Francisco Examiner says Peck is “...a magnificent trumpeter - and a forceful, post-bop modern saxophonist. The music he writes for his group is conceptually brilliant and marvelously played.” Allaboutjazz.com calls him a “formidable talent.”
Robynn Amy – Trombone Clinician
Robynn Amy received her undergraduate degree in Performance from Berklee College of Music, where she is currently an instructor in the Brass Department, specializing in both tenor and bass trombones. Robynn has performed with Syncopation, the “Swingin' Europe” European Jazz Orchestra, Against the Grain, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Maiden Voyage Jazz Orchestra, WAITIKI Orchestrotica, the Artie Shaw Orchestra, and the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra. She has additionally worked with Christian McBride, Patrick Williams, Vince Mendoza, Johnny Mandel, Patti Austin, Eguie Castrillo, Victor Mendoza, Gloria Estefan, Lee Ritenour, Abe Laboriel, Burt Bacharach, Dave Grusin, Donna McElroy, Carmen Branford, and Dee Daniels. Robynn has also traveled for the Berklee College of Music, holding brass and jazz clinics all over the world, including Germany, Puerto Rico, and Israel.
Paul Contos – Director of Education
Paul Contos has been an essential part of the Monterey Jazz Festival's Jazz Education Programs since their inception in 1984, and is active as a saxophone clinician, educator, and performer at various educational festivals, clinics, concerts, and workshops in the United States, Japan, Europe, Canada, and Brazil. His work for the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Traveling Clinician’s Program, Next Generation Jazz Orchestra, (co-director from 1991-2002, and director since 2003) and the Monterey County High School All-Star Band is distinguished.
Since the 1970s, Contos has been involved in jazz performance and education in the San Francisco Bay Area and internationally. He is a faculty member at UC Santa Cruz, has taught at Monterey Peninsula College, and developed the curriculum and pedagogy for the Music Recording/Technology Concentration at Cal State University, Monterey Bay. He has received three performer grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, as well as serving as a three-year term as Artist-In-Residence for the California Arts Council. In 2009, Contos was featured as saxophone soloist at Carnegie Hall as part of New York City’s Distinguished Concerts International, performing a jazz concerto by composer Jeff Beal. Later that year, he was appointed as the Director of the SFJAZZ High School All-Stars.
An inspiration and active in the formation of the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz (where he serves as Artist-In-Residence in 2010 and 2011), Paul has performed and conducted performances in concert with Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, the Heath Brothers, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Maceo Parker, Christian McBride, Kurt Elling, Dianne Reeves, Joe Lovano, Regina Carter, McCoy Tyner, Billy Childs, Bobby Hutcherson, Gary Burton, Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard, John Faddis, David “Fathead” Newman, John Clayton, Joshua Redman, Urbie Green, Cal Tjader, and many others. He has recorded with Dave Liebman, Peter Erskine, John Patitucci, Richie Beirach, Alan Broadbent, Terence Blanchard, Charlie Haden, Don Cherry, John Abercrombie, and Alex Acuna. In 2011, Paul was named as Education Director of the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Julia Dollison – Vocal Clinician
Vocalist Julia Dollison has been described as “deeply musical virtuoso with an airy, luminous voice” by the Washington Post. The Wall Street Journal and Jazz Times magazine praised her debut CD, Observatory, as “richly imaginative” and “rare ... fresh and substantive,” respectively. The Sacramento Bee described her singing as “subtle, spontaneous and breathtaking.” Named DownBeat’s Best Jazz Vocalist in 2000, she has shared the stage with such acclaimed performers as Christian McBride, Dianne Reeves, and Jon Secada, and has delighted audiences throughout the United States and Canada. She is currently the applied jazz voice instructor at Sacramento State University, whose program has won five DownBeat Student Music Awards for Best College Vocal Jazz Ensemble.
Milton Fletcher – Piano Clinician
Born and raised in Seaside, California, pianist Milton Fletcher began studying classical music at age four. By the time he was ten years old, Milton was participating in the Monterey Jazz Festival's education programs, including the Traveling Clinicians Program and the Festival’s Summer Jazz Camp. As a teenager, Milton held the piano chair in the Monterey County High School All-Star band for five years, and traveled to Japan to perform with the group each summer. Milton is also the only five-year pianist in the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Star Band (now the Next Generation Jazz Orchestra), and has performed with the group at major jazz festivals in Switzerland, Italy, France and Spain. In addition, Milton was awarded the 1999 Youth Benefactor of the Arts Prize by the Cultural Council for Monterey County, and was selected for the 1999 and 2000 California All-State Honor Jazz Ensembles. In 2000, Milton won a fellowship at the Vail Jazz Workshop and was awarded the Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to the Berklee College of Music. Milton graduated from Berklee in 2003 with a degree in Music Business and Management and now resides in Southern California, where he plays with the rock, reggae, pop and ska band, the Fabulous Rudies. Equally comfortable performing jazz, classical, hip-hop and Gospel music, Milton rejoined the Monterey Jazz Festival community in 2007 as the newest jazz artist/educator in the Traveling Clinicians Program. “The Clinicians gave me so much,” says Milton. “You’d think you could do it because they believed in you—and one day you’d be able to do the same for someone and help keep jazz alive.”
Bruce Forman – Guitar Clinician
Guitarist extraordinaire, composer, author, recording artist, and jazz educator Bruce Forman has performed at most major jazz festivals and clubs around the world and has shared the stage with such jazz luminaries as Stanley Turrentine, Grover Washington, Freddie Hubbard, Ray Brown, Eddie Jefferson, and Richie Cole. His many recording titles include the critically acclaimed Forman On The Job on Kamei Recordings (which features Joe Henderson), In the Still Of The Night (Kamei), Pardon Me, There Are Times, Full Circle, and Dynamics (Concord Jazz) just to name a few. In addition, Bruce has recorded with the likes of Bobby Hutcherson, Tom Harrell, George Cables, Mark Murphy, Jimmy Knepper, and more. Famed guitarist Barney Kessel said in JazzTimes Magazine that “Bruce Forman is one of the great lights of our age on guitar right now.” Labeled a “composer of merit” by Leonard Feather and praised by JazzTimes for his harmonic sophistication and improvisational finesse, Bruce has taught at music workshops and universities across the globe. In addition to his role as guitar clinician for the Monterey Jazz Festival, Bruce founded the JazzMasters Workshop, scribed an instructional guide, The Jazz Guitarist’s Handbook and produced the popular video, Jazz Guitar Soloing.
Vince Lateano – Drum Clinician
Renowned Bay Area drummer Vince Lateano began his professional career as a jazz drummer in the ninth grade. At the age of eighteen, Vince went on the road with pianist Carmen Cavallaro, and on his return to the Bay Area, Vince established himself in San Francisco playing with the likes of Eddie Duran and Vince Guaraldi. He has toured with the Woody Herman Band (a band that included Alan Broadbent and Sal Nistico) and eventually joined the Cal Tjader group with whom he played until Cal’s untimely death in 1982. Vince has appeared on six recordings with Cal including the Grammy Award winning La Onda Va Bien! and the Grammy nominated Gozame! Pero Ya. Other recording credits include albums with Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, Tania Maria, Tom Harrell, Al Cohn, Clare Fischer, Mark Murphy, Eddie Duran, Bill Perkins, Carmen McRae, and Bruce Forman, among others. In addition, Vince has performed with numerous artists including Scott Hamilton, Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Charlie Byrd, Bill Berry, Benny Carter, John Handy, Chet Baker, Mundell Lowe, and Marlena Shaw. Vince has been the Traveling Drum Clinician for the Monterey Jazz Festival since the Education Program’s inception in 1984.
Kerry Marsh – Vocal Clinician
Kerry Marsh is a composer and arranger specializing in contemporary music for vocal jazz ensembles. In high demand as a commissioned arranger for many of the nation's top educational vocal and instrumental jazz ensembles, Marsh has a large and varied catalog of music that is performed regularly around the world. Kerry has published arrangements through UNC Jazz Press and Sound Music Publications. Kerry graduated in 2000 from the University of Kansas with a B.M.E. in Music Education and in 2003 with a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas. Marsh's university training included study with Paris Rutherford, Dan Gailey, Simon Carrington, and Rosana Eckert.
Since 2003, Kerry has directed the vocal jazz ensembles at California State University, Sacramento. His ensembles and individual students have earned eleven DownBeat Magazine Student Music Awards, distinguishing it as one of the premier programs in the country. Kerry also serves on the faculty of the JazzSchool Institute in Berkeley, where he directs vocal jazz ensembles. Marsh is also busy year-round as an adjudicator and clinician for jazz festivals and workshops, and serves as a Traveling Clinician and High School Honor Vocal Jazz Ensemble director for the Monterey Jazz Festival. Marsh has directed all-state jazz choirs in California, Arizona, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Wyoming, Illinois, and New York, and will direct the Maine and New Hampshire All-State Jazz Choirs as well as the Nassau County (NY) Honor Jazz Choir in 2012.
Gary Meek – Saxophone Clinician
Born in Encino, California, Gary Meek played piano and clarinet as a child and began playing saxophone in high school. He attended the Dick Grove School of Music, and played in big bands at the Los Angeles Jazz Workshop from 1980-1983. In 1987, he played keyboards and toured extensively with Dionne Warwick, and that same year, Gary began a two-decade association with Brazilian legends Airto Moreira and Flora Purim, forming the band Fourth World with guitarist Jose Neto. Gary has performed worldwide at the North Sea, Montreux, Monterey, Playboy, and Telluride Jazz Festivals, and has recorded or toured with Jeff Lorber, Herb Alpert, Al Jarreau, Dave Weckl, Brian Bromberg, and many others. As a leader, Gary has released five albums, and has conducted clinics and workshops at Philadelphia’s University of the Arts, the Los Angeles Music Academy, University of St. Louis, and more.
Scott Steed – Bass Clinician
After a highly successful 16-year career in the San Francisco Bay Area, jazz bassist Scott Steed now calls the Portland area his home. Scott began his career as a young man in Grand Rapids Michigan where he played with his family’s band. At twelve he joined a local big band, and at fifteen he had a private lesson with bass legend Milt Hinton, an event which he considers to be a turning point for him in his career. After relocating to the Bay Area, Scott began to perform regularly with the Martha Young Trio and backed such prominent performers as Joe Henderson, Buddy Montgomery, and Richie Cole. He was the bassist for the national tour of the Horace Silver Quintet and also toured with Joe Williams, the Norman Simmons Quartet, Rebecca Paris, and Kitty Margolis, among others. Scott has played on numerous recordings, including Kitty Margolis Album (Mad Kat Records), Shanna Carlson (Bout Time Records), Friends (KEDABR) featuring Kenny Hadley and Rebecca Paris, and Mark Murphy’s September Ballads (Milestone Records), which was nominated for a Grammy Award. Some of the artists Scott has performed with include Kevin Mahogany, Bobby Hutcherson, Terry Gibbs, Jessica Williams, Joe Pass, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Ernie Watts, Stan Getz, Tootie Heath, and Tom Harrell. Most recently, Scott serves as the regular bassist for Grammy Award winning vocalist/pianist Diane Schuur. Scott has been the bass clinician with the Monterey Jazz Festival’s Traveling Clinician Program since 1990.
