Joe Locke

The reemerging popularity of swing in all its forms is just one of the factors in the recent ascendancy of the Count Basie Orchestra. Another is the strength of the ensemble itself. After back-to back-Grammy awards for 1997 and 1998, the Basie band, directed during the last four years by Grover Mitchell, is crackling with musical vibrancy. With drummer Butch Miles back at the center of the rhythm section, the band has roared through a 1999 itinerary that lists multiple trips to Europe, two weeks in Japan and stops in such exotic locations as Istanbul and Brazil. But the orchestra is most busy here in the U.S. with performances in towns running the gamut from Baltimore, New York, Detroit, Chicago and Atlanta to Fort Wayne, Lubbock, Savannah, Worster and Morgantown.

Barry Harris

Dr. Barry Harris receives frequent request to appear as a guest lecturer by Universities and various musical venues all over the world. His lectures and interactive instrument and vocal workshops focus on the complete aspects of music including improvisation, harmonic movement and theory. His schedule includes lectures in the United States, Holland, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and Japan. When he is not travelling, Dr. Harris holds weekly music workshop sessions in New York City for vocalists, students of piano other instruments. http://www.barryharris.com

His six recordings featuring his original music - Buzz (2004), Peace Pipe (2002), Riding the Nuclear Tiger (2001), Third Eye (1999), and Medicine Wheel (1998) on Palmetto Records, and his 1996 debut Seven Arrows on the Koch Jazz label - showcase Ben's forward-thinking vision as a producer, composer, arranger, and bassist, and his hands-on approach to his craft.

John Menegon, bassist, composer, arranger, a resident of Upstate New York for thirteen years, started his career as a jazz bassist in Montreal. After having worked for several years on the Canadian jazz scene with the great guitarist Sonny Greewich and saxophonists Steve Grossman and Pat LaBarbara, he then went on to hone his skills in New York City in the mid-80s. There he met saxophonist Pete Yellin, the Director of Jazz Studies at Long Island University in Brooklyn, who offered John a full scholarship to study in the jazz department.

John is an integral member of both the Dewey Redman Quartet and the David "Fathead" Newman Quintet. Redman helped change jazz history playing in the avant-garde groups of Ornette Coleman, Charlie Haden, and his own Old and New Dreams, with Don Cherry, Haden, Ed Blackwell and Keith Jarretts. Newman was Ray Charles' main tenor man for ten years and his playing is heavily steeped in blues and R&B. These jazz legends have taken John around the world, playing at jazz festivals in South Africa, Argentina, Turkey, Brazil, Europe and the U.S., and have been a major influence in his playing and compositions.

In 2003 Menegon debuts his CD Search Light. The CD is a selection of his original compositions and arrangements, and features one of jazz's greatest living legends, Dewey Redman (sax), along with John Gunther (sax/flute), Mark Dziuba (guitar), Mark McLean (drums), Tani Tabbal (percussion) and Teri Roiger (voice). This family of musicians express themselves through Menegon's music with unabandoned emotion and playfulness. The music is soulful, passionate and uncompromising. http://johnmenegon.com

From 1990-2001, Rufus Reid co-led a Quintet with Akira Tana. They released five CD's during their tenure: Yours and Mine and Passing Thoughts on Concord Records; Blue Motion, Looking Forward, and Back To Front are available on Evidence Music. Rufus also has four duo CD's. Two in cooperation with Michael Moore, released by Double Time Records: Double Bass Delights and Intimacy of the Bass. Rufus and Ron Jackson did Song for Luis for Mastermix Records, and Peter Ind and Rufus recorded Alone Together for Wave Rcords.

Rufus Reid's major professional career began in Chicago and continues since 1976 in New York City. His extensive jazz background and discography reads literally like the Who's Who in jazz. He has traveled, performed and recorded with many of the great Jazz Masters. He was privileged to share many musical moments with some that have passed on: Gene Ammons, Kenny Dorham, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, Don Byas, Philly Joe Jones, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Dexter Gordon, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Dizzy Gillespie, and Art Farmer. http://www.rufusreid.com

Teri Roiger

Teri recorded and co-produced her first CD, Misterioso, with John Menegon on bass, Kenny Burrell on guitar, and Jack DeJohnette on drums. The title song, Misterioso, has been changed to Listen To Your Soul, as a result of the Thelonious Monk family giving Teri permission to record her own lyrics to this jazz master's tune, an uncommon privilege. Teri is also featured on Menegon's 2003 release Search Light which features the legendary saxophonist Dewey Redman. http://www.teriroiger.com

Joe Locke is regarded by many to be the most gifted vibraphonist of his generation. In addition to his strengths as an instrumentalist, the recent recordings and live performances by his current quartet, 4 Walls of Freedom, offer evidence of his ever-growing stature as a band leader, composer and conceptualist. 4 Walls of Freedom began not as a band, but as a suite in six movements for quartet. The title is based on a quotation from Thomas Merton. In his famous autobiography, The Seven Storey Mountain , Merton recounts the spiritual journey which led him to become a Trappist monk, calling his new home in the monastery, "the four walls of my new freedom".

The past year has been a busy one for Locke. Besides his work with 4 Walls of Freedom, he premiered new music for big band and voices with Jazz Band Classic in New York City, commissioned by The Commission Project. He was a guest soloist with the Jeff "Tain" Watts expanded ensemble for 3 nights at Lincoln Center's Stanley Kaplan Penthouse, and performed a 3 night engagement in duo with piano master John Hicks, also at the Penthouse. Another highlight for Locke was a week-long engagement at the Village Vanguard in NYC, playing alongside Al Foster and Buster Williams, as a member of the Renee Rosnes Quartet, performing original music by this brilliant pianist/ composer.

New recordings this year find him guesting with Russell Malone, Geoffrey Keezer, Eddie Higgins, Vic Juris, The New York Quartet (featuring Billy Childs, Idris Muhammed and Cameron Brown) and Tim Garland's Storms/Nocturnes chamber trio. While maintaining a busy touring schedule, Locke also found time to work with students. An educational tour of Texas, culminating in a concert with the Texas Lutheran University Big Band, gave him the opportunity to share his knowledge and love of music with younger musicians and band directors alike. A concert in Rochester, NY with the School of the Arts jazz ensemble (through The Commission Project) proved to be a memorable and rewarding experience. "I worked with the students for several weeks leading up to the concert, and real friendships were forged in that time. The name of the event was Pass it On! - the implication of the title being that I was passing on my knowledge and experience to a new generation of musicians. But it was such a mutual exchange... I learned as much from them as they did from me. The experience put me back in touch with one of the reasons I fell in love with music in the first place, namely, the sense of community that comes from creating something with others. http://www.joelocke.com

Russell Malone was born on November 8, 1963 in Albany, Georgia. Before he was five, his mother bought him a toy guitar, and he began copying the Church players. At ten, Russell developed an interest in the blues and country music after seeing such musicians as Chet Atkins, Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, Roy Clark, B.B. King and, specially, George Benson perform on television. Ultimately, it was Jazz that Russell chose to play: sitting next to the record player and playing along, that's how I learned Jazz, he notes. He became a self-taught player influenced by players such as B.B. King, Wes Montgomery, George Benson, Kenny Burrell, and dozens of others whom he discovered through voracious research.

Russell first worked with master Jazz organist Jimmy Smith in 1988, and between 1990 and 1994 toured with Harry Connick Jr. During the late nineties Malone toured internationally with Diana Krall, receiving critical acclaim in his role as Diana's right hand both in concert and on her recordings. Russell has also shared the stage with artists of the caliber of Eddie Cleanhead Vinson, Claude Fiddler Williams, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jack McDuff, John Hicks, Clarence Carter, Little Anthony, Freddie Cole, Mulgrew Miller, Kenny Barron, Roy Hargrove, Cyrus Chestnut and Patti Austin. Malone was also a featured performer in Robert Altman's 1996 film Kansas City.

His first recordings as a leader were made for Columbia: Russell Malone (1992), Black Butterfly (1993) and Wholly Cats (1994). Later, he became exclusive with Impulse-Universal: for them he has done Sweet Georgia Peach (1998) and Look who's here! (2000). He has also played a prominent part in some of Benny Green's latest recordings, like Kaleidoscope (1997) and These are Soulful days (1999). Russell played a very important role in Diana Krall's recordings, like the Grammy-nominated All For You and Love Scenes. He has also recorded, amongst many others, with Harry Connick Jr., Brandford Marsalis, Don Braden and Etta Jones.

The hvyjo is the brainchild of Kingston High School musical director Robert Shaut, who'd observed that in youth jazz competitions the odds were stacked in favor of schools with a specific performing arts focus. "There are maybe two or three kids in any given district with the interest and talent levels that competition demands," observes the band's managing director, Richard Wixom. "Pull those kids together, and you get magic." Eighteen of the best of the best—"a music director's dream, these kids," says Wixom—have paid $150 tuition and pledged alternate Sundays to rehearsal.

At a recent rehearsal at the Hurley Reformed Church, the room initially resembles a discordant beehive as students grouped into trios and quartets run through tunes or perfect riffs. Stand close enough to any given subgroup, though, and discordance disappears—your body starts to move despite itself. There's a focus among these teens that's far too intense to be ruffled by the presence of strangers. Parents sit with needlework and newspapers, but when Shaut draws all 18 together to run through a number, conversation stops and the room fills with the seductive, ample sounds of Duke Ellington's I've Just Seen Her. Squint a little and you can almost see Bogey and Bacall swaying together in a corner. The music is rich and nuanced. The musicians—none of whom were even close to being born when it was written—seem to draw it out of their very souls, perhaps out of some innate archetypal sense granted only to the few. Ryder's solo is pure passion.