2011 Monty Alexander Jazz Festival Artists

Monty Alexander [website] [watch a video]
Piano, Vocals

In a career spanning five decades, Festival Artistic Director Monty Alexander has built a reputation exploring and bridging the worlds of American jazz, popular song, and the music of his native Jamaica. He has performed and recorded with artists from every corner of the musical universe and entertainment world: Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ray Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Clark Terry, Quincy Jones, Ernest Ranglin, Barbara Hendricks, Bill Cosby, Bobby McFerrin, Sly Dunbar, and Robbie Shakespeare, among others.

Born on D-Day (June 6, 1944) and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, he took his first piano lessons at age six, although he is largely self-taught.  As a teenager, he witnessed concerts by Louis Armstrong and Nat “King” Cole at Kingston’s Carib Theater. These artists had a profound effect on Alexander’s aspirations. He formed Monty and the Cyclones in the late 1950s and also recorded on sessions with the musicians who would catapult Jamaican music to international recognition as The Skatalites (Bob Marley’s first backing band).

Alexander and his family came to the United States at the end of 1961. Less than two years later, while playing in Las Vegas with Art Mooney’s orchestra, he caught the eye of New York City club owner Jilly Rizzo and his friend, Frank Sinatra. Rizzo hired the young pianist to work in his club, Jilly’s, where he accompanied Sinatra and others.

There he met Modern Jazz Quartet vibraphonist Milt Jackson, who eventually introduced him to former Charlie Parker collaborator and legendary bassist Ray Brown. Alexander recorded and performed with the two jazz giants on many occasions. Jazz’s greatest luminaries welcomed Alexander to their “musical fraternity” in the mid-1960s. Among these earliest enthusiasts for his playing were none other than Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Miles Davis.

In August 2000, the Jamaican government awarded Monty Alexander the title of Commander in the Order of Distinction for outstanding services to Jamaica as a worldwide music ambassador.  In Hal Leonard’s 2005 book The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time, Alexander was listed among the top five Jazz pianists of all time. Monty Alexander has recorded over 60 albums to date.

Lorin Cohen
Bass Guitar

Lorin Cohen began his involvement with music in a home where artistic pursuit was strongly encouraged. His mother was a music teacher, and Lorin grew up listening to classical music. He began playing alto saxophone but changed to bass guitar inspired by his brother Elliot, an R&B guitarist. Cohen studied at the Manhattan School of Music with Anthony Jackson, pioneering bass guitarist.

After receiving his BA in philosophy from Northwestern, he went on to study acoustic bass with Larry Grey, Joe Guasterfeste (principal bassist with the Chicago Symphony), and legendary Ray Brown, with whom he had two life-changing lessons.

In 1998 Cohen was awarded the Blue Note Records Scholarship at the Skidmore Jazz Festival. He has traveled extensively in Southeast Asia as a Jazz Ambassador with the Chicago Jazz Quartet. Other tours have taken him to Pakistan, Europe, and Canada.

He plays a variety of jazz, Latin, and popular musical styles, and is a sought after acoustic and electric bassist, composer, and arranger.

Winard Harper
Drumset, Balafon

As a child, Winard Harper was encouraged by his father to play the drums. By the age of five he was developing his skills and appearing with his brother Danny’s band. A recording of Clifford Brown and Max Roach inspired him to play jazz. Other influences included Billy Higgins, whose joy and passion and love of playing had a particular impact on him, and inspired him through the African influences and the different instruments used by Higgins.

Harper is a virtuoso on the drum set as well as the balafon, the West Indian equivalent of the marimba. He worked as a sideman to jazz legends such as Ray Bryant, Abdullah Ibrahim, Pharoah Sanders, and Clifford Jordan while preparing the foundation for a band which he launched with his brother Philip. The Harper Brothers Quintet blazed a trail on the charts as well as the international touring circuit.

Currently Harper’s talents as a drummer, composer, and bandleader are in demand in concert halls, jazz clubs, and festivals, both as the Winard Harper Sextet and as a sideman.

Robert Thomas Jr.
Percussion

Robert “Bobby” Thomas Jr. creates the most unique approach to percussive instruments in music today by combining traditional playing styles of many lands and instruments, both ancient and contemporary. Known worldwide for his work with Weather Report, Thomas converses melodically, harmonically, and rhythmically by incorporating the use of cymbals, cowbells, and skins in a systematic concept. Thomas, a two-time Grammy nominee and native Floridian, has shared the bandstand with David Sanborn, Stan Getz, Herbie Mann, Monty Alexander, and his friend Jaco Pastorius.

Grace Kelly [website] [watch a video]
Alto Saxophone

"She is not an artist for Jazz lovers only but one for the whole world." - Monty Alexander

Returning to the Monty Alexander Jazz Festival this year is 19 year old Grace Kelly, an alto saxophonist hailed as a rising star in the jazz world. She has performed and recorded with the likes of Dave Brubeck, Wynton Marsalis, Phil Woods, Harry Connick Jr., Jamie Cullum, Frank Morgan, Esperanza Spalding, Toots Thielemans, Hank Jones, Jerry Bergonzi, Adam Rogers, Chris Potter, Rufus Reid, Kenny Barron, Dianne Reeves, Billy Hart, Ann Hampton Callaway, Cedar Walton, James Cotton and Terri Lynn Carrington among others.

Voted "Best Jazz Act” in Boston three consecutive years in the FNX/Phoenix Best Music Poll, Kelly received the ASCAP Foundation’s Young Jazz Composers Award in 2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011 and won "Jazz Artist of the Year” at the Boston Music Awards in both 2008 and 2010. 

Since age 12, Kelly has released seven full-length albums and performed over 500 concerts as a leader at prominent venues such as the Montreal Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Apollo Theater, Birdland, and Boston’s Symphony Hall. Currently a senior on full scholarship at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, she plans to graduate this December.

Jason Palmer
Trumpet

A native of High Point, N.C., Palmer studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and, while there, was a regular at Boston’s highly regarded “Wally’s Café,” where his quintet served as the house band. He has shared the stage with icons such as Roy Haines, Wynton Marsalis, Ravi Coltrane, Greg Osby, Clarence Penn, and many others at venues including the Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, and numerous jazz clubs. He has performed with Grace Kelly at jazz festivals around the world.

Palmer is also a busy educator. He is a faculty member at Aquinas College Jazz Camp and teaches trumpet at the NYC New School and the New England Conservatory Preparatory Division. He has given master classes throughout Europe.

Awards include recognition as one of the “Top 25 trumpeters of the Future” by Downbeat Magazine and winning first place in the 2009 Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. Palmer’s debut recording, “Songbook,” appeared on several “Best of 2008” lists.

Doug Johnson
Piano

Both a classical and a jazz musician, he attended the New England Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Dave Holland, William McKinneley, and George Russell, while working on his MM degree.

Originally from Michigan, Doug was a member of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra. He has also been artist-in-residence at the Banff Festival in Canada and at the Sandpoint Festival with Gunther Schuller. For many years he was a regular pianist at the Bristol Lounge in Boston.

A versatile pianist, Johnson plays a wide selection of music ranging from the “Great American Songbook” and Latin music to classical piano selections from Chopin, Schubert, and Mozart. He is an Associate Professor of Music at the Berklee College of Music and Wellesley College. He performs and tours Europe as a solo piano player, in his own trio, and with the Grace Kelly Quintet. His recordings include Game Theory and March of Time with the Doug Johnson Trio.

Evan Gregor
Electric Bass

Evan Gregor began studying electric bass at age 13 and became exposed to jazz through the artistic community in and around Delaware Water Gap, PA. He attended Berklee College of Music on a scholarship, majored in composition, and during this period received awards for both performance and composition. He represented the college at many events and festivals, and performed with visiting artists, most notably at Gary Burton’s retirement concert.

Gregor graduated Summa Cum Laude and went on to receive an MA in acoustic bass from William Patterson University. He works regularly with Grace Kelly, as well as with Phil Wood’s big band. He is in demand by other artists as a sideman, which has taken him all over the world. Evan also teaches and coordinates ensembles for CampJazz in Delaware Water Gap, PA, and recently released "From Student to Jazz Artist" - a unique 3+ hour interview/discussion with David Liebman on developing as a young artist.

Mark Walker

No biography yet - check back soon!

Dominick Farinacci [website] [watch a video]
Trumpet

Dominick Farinacci, who opened for British rock stars Jamie Cullum and Jeff Beck at the famed O2 in London, has gained recognition from Quincy Jones who says "this kid is 360 degrees!" When he was only 17 years old, Wynton Marsalis heard him play in Cleveland and invited Dominick to New York City to perform with him on a special PBS broadcast "Live from Lincoln Center." Shortly after that Dominick was one of 18 artists worldwide invited to be a part of the inaugural class of the Jazz Studies Program at The Juilliard School.

While in school, Dominick balanced his studies with his professional career, touring in Japan and winning the "International New Star Award," an honor previously awarded to Diana Krall and Christian McBride.  While enjoying success abroad, here in America he was awarded 1st place honors in the Carmine Caruso International Trumpet Competition, received from Disney the "New Star Award," and has continued to make a name for himself, touring the country headlining the major clubs and festivals.

Aaron Diehl [website] [watch a video]
Pianist

Aaron Diehl, who toured with the Wynton Marsalis Septet, is known for his interpretations of the music of Scott Joplin, "Jelly Roll" Morton, Art Tatum, Duke Ellington, and other masters. Diehl has also performed with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Hank Jones, Wycliffe Gordon, Wessell Anderson, Benny Golson, Loren Schoenberg, and has been featured on Marian McPartland's NPR radio show “Piano Jazz”.

His international touring includes major European jazz festivals as well as performances in South America and Asia. A 2007 graduate of The Juilliard School, he received the Lincoln Center's prestigious Martin E. Segal award in 2004, he won the 2003 Jazz Arts Group Hank Marr Jazz Competition, and he placed as Outstanding Soloist at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington Competition in 2002. Diehl currently resides in Manhattan where he serves as music director of St. Joseph of the Holy Family Church in Harlem.

Chuck Redd [website] [watch a video]
Vibraphone, Drums

Chuck Redd joined the Charlie Byrd Trio in 1980 at the age of 21. The same year, he joined the Great Guitars (Barney Kessel, Charlie Byrd and Herb Ellis). To his credit are thirteen extensive European tours and five tours of Japan. He was the featured vibraphonist for the Mel Torme Quintet from 1991-1996 and was a member of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra for 15 years. He served as the Artist-In-Residence at the Smithsonian Jazz Café in Washington DC for 2004-2008. He is currently on the faculty of the University of Maryland School of Music.

Nate Najar [website] [watch a video]
Jazz Guitar

Heavily influenced by Charlie Byrd, Nate Najar is one of the few guitarists to play jazz on the classical guitar.

He has performed at international jazz festivals as well as alongside jazz greats including Clark Terry, Ken Peplowski and Ray Kennedy. In 2008, Nate was invited to perform in a Kennedy Center event celebrating Charlie Byrd and other DC area jazz notables.

Dave Robinson
Trumpet, cornet, valve trombone, vocals

Dave has directed the Capital Focus Jazz Band since its formation in 1988.  He is an active jazz performer, historian, and educator.  On trumpet, cornet, valve trombone, and vocals, he has performed and toured with the top traditional and swing bands in the Washington DC area.  He is the founder of the Traditional Jazz Educators Network is Past President of the American Federation of Jazz Societies and has produced the Smithsonian's Jazz Concert Series. 

Dave helped to launch the Traditional Jazz Youth Band Festival in Sacramento, where he serves as clinician, lecturer and adjudicator, and he also has served on the faculties of the STJS Trad Jazz Youth Camp in the Sierra Nevada mountains and the National Jazz Workshop at Shenandoah University.  Dave hosted "The French Quarter" on XM Satellite Radio for three years, drawn from his huge archive of trad jazz recordings. 

He is currently producing the Traditional Jazz Curriculum Kit for national distribution in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution, the National Endowment for the Arts, and various foundations.