Sean Jones
Music and spirituality have always been intertwined in trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator, and activist Sean Jones. Growing up in the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, Jones is a musical chameleon and comfortable in any musical setting no matter the role or genre. He has released eight albums with Mack Avenue Records, the latest being 2017’s Sean Jones: Live from Jazz at The Bistro.
Jones is an internationally recognized educator and serves as President of the Jazz Educators Network. He holds the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair of Jazz at John Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute and is Artistic Director for Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz ensemble. He was previously Chair of the Brass Department at the Berklee College of Music. Jones was lead trumpet for Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the SFJAZZ Collective and is now with Baltimore Jazz Collective. He is featured on three GRAMMY® nominated albums by Dianne Reeves, Nancy Wilson, and Gerald Wilson.
Summer Camargo
Summer Camargo was born and raised in Hollywood, Florida. She is a member of the Saturday Night Live Band, and Jerome L. Green Fellowship recipient, majoring in Jazz Studies at the Juilliard School. Summer has won several prestigious awards including the Essentially Ellington Festival’s Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Soloist Award, the Dr. J. Douglas White Student Composition Contest, an Outstanding Trumpet Soloist Award at the Jack Rudin Championship, and third place in the International Trumpet Guild’s Ryan Anthony Trumpet Memorial Competition.
Summer also participated in the Vail Jazz Workshop, Carnegie Hall’s NYO Jazz, and the Monterey Jazz Festival Gala and played as a guest artist at the Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala and the Midwest Clinic. Summer is currently a member of the Ulysses Owens, Jr. Big Band, a member of the Gluck Community Service Fellowship Program, and the recipient of the 2020 Laurie Frink Career Grant.
Bryan Carter
With confidence reflecting an instrumental and compositional maturity that both belie his age and announce the arrival of remarkable talent, Bryan Carter exudes what promises a highly successful career. Shortly after completing his training at The Juilliard School in New York City and still, at the very outset of his career, Carter has already played and/or recorded with many notable artists including Clark Terry, McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Kenny Barron, Michael Feinstein, and Kurt Elling.
Currently, Carter serves as a founding teaching artist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center, “Jazz for Young People” program in New York City. As a proud member of the LGBTQIA+, Bryan is committed to creating safe spaces for young musicians from all walks of life. When Bryan is not on-stage or in the studio, he can be found expanding audiences for jazz via written publications, YouTube, and as a presenter on television.
Jaleel Shaw
Alto & Soprano saxophonist Jaleel Shaw has been a long-standing member of the Roy Haynes Quartet, the Mingus Big Band, and recently joined Tom Harrell’s Color of a Dream band.
Jaleel has performed and recorded with the likes of Clark Terry, Roy Hargrove, The Mingus Big Band, Christian McBride, Chick Corea, Jason Moran, Jeff "Tain" Watts, Arturo Sandoval, Nicholas Payton, Dave Holland, Jimmy Cobb, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, and the Count Basie Orchestra.
Christian Sands
Steinway Artist, Christian Sands, is an acclaimed American jazz pianist and composer. Born on May 22, 1989, in New Haven, Connecticut, he began playing the piano at a young age and received mentorship from pianist Billy Taylor. Sands studied at the Manhattan School of Music and later joined bassist Christian McBride's band, Inside Straight. Sands' album "Be Water" earned a Grammy nomination in 2020.
Yasushi Nakamura
Yasushi Nakamura is praised for imaginative, quicksilver bass lines that deepen the groove. His blend of guitar-like precision and gut-level blues has sparked collaborations with artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, Dave Douglas, Steve Miller, etc. With his charismatic stage presence and artful, hard-swinging melodic touch, Nakamura is a first-call performer capturing new audiences and fans around the world.
Born in Tokyo, Nakamura moved to the United States at age 9 and considers both places home. He began with clarinet and tenor saxophone, but his older brother’s study of guitar and drums drove him to pick up the bass. His love of rock and funk aside, the music of Charlie Parker, Ray Brown, and Miles Davis was a potent influence on him. Nakamura received a BA in Jazz Performance from the Berklee School of Music in 2000 and was awarded a full scholarship to The Juilliard School for his Artist Diploma in 2006. He credits Myron Walden as an early champion and keeps close ties to Juilliard mentors Victor Goines, Wycliffe Gordon, and Carl Allen, Ben Wolfe all of whom maintain him in their bands.
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Cecil McBee
From the time he first arrived in New York City in 1964, Cecil McBee has remained one of the most in-demand bassists in jazz, appearing on hundreds of influential recordings as well as in clubs and concert halls throughout the world. During this same span of five decades, McBee has also become a celebrated composer and teacher, leading his own ensembles and earning a distinguished professorship at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where he has taught for over 25 years.
Cecil has recorded and toured with many of the greatest contemporary jazz artists, including Miles Davis, Yusef Lateef, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Alice Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Mal Waldron, Kenny Barron, Joanne Brackeen, Abdullah Ibrahim, Art Pepper, Anthony Braxton, Elvin Jones, Clifford Jordan, Chet Baker, and Johnny Griffin. McBee has also recorded seven albums as a leader of his own ensembles. In 1988 he received a Grammy Award for his performance on the tribute recording, Blues for Coltrane, a sextet that also featured Pharoah Sanders, David Murray, McCoy Tyner, and Roy Haynes.