Ray Gallon
(Piano)
Vocal Program

Jazz pianist/composer Ray Gallon has performed, recorded and toured the world with many of the leading artists of jazz, including Ron Carter, Lionel Hampton, Art Farmer, T.S. Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson, Sweets Edison Wycliffe Gordon, Les Paul, Benny Golson. Frank Wess, Lew Tabakin, George Adams and the Mingus Big Band. He has performed at most of the major jazz festivals and venues throughout North and South America, Europe, and Japan and has appeared in gala concerts at the White House and the Kennedy Center. Ray has also accompanied many vocal greats, including Sheila Jordan, Jon Hendricks, Chaka Khan, Grady Tate, Nnenna Freelon, Gloria Lynne, Dakota Staton, Joe Williams, and Jane Monheit. In addition, he also leads his own trio as well as performs solo concerts. His compositions have been recorded by T.S. Monk, the Harper Brothers, and George Adams. Ray has appeared on numerous recordings, including Lionel Hampton’s Grammy-nominated Cookin’ In the Kitchen. His broadcast appearances include NBC’s The Tonight Show and Today as well as several nationally broadcast concert performances on BET-TV and NPR. Ray is a fulltime jazz faculty member of the City College of NY and also an adjunct in the jazz program at The New School and holds both BFA and MA degrees in performance & composition from CCNY.

top of page

Winard Harper
(Drummer)

Website

Drummer WINARD HARPER is passionate about jazz. "This music is powerful," he says. "It can do a lot of good for people. If they'd spend some time each day listening to it, we would see many changes in the world."

Inspired by the musicianship of greats such as Clifford Brown, Max Roach, Jackie McLean, Cannonball Adderley, Dr. Billy Taylor, Art Blakey and Billy Higgins, Harper has been the leader and musical inspiration for a vibrant sextet for almost a decade. The group appears regularly all over the United States from the Kennedy Center in Washington , D.C. to Yoshi's, the legendary West Coast jazz club. Although clearly the dominant force behind this extraordinarily gifted ensemble, Harper has surrounded himself with superbly talented young guardians of the jazz tradition (including Lawrence Clark, Ameen Saleem, Josh Evans, Stacy Dillard and Alioune Faye), who are as entertaining to watch as they are to listen to.

Constantly in reverence of his predecessors while remaining innovative in his own right, Harper has become one of the most celebrated drummers in jazz. He is a virtuoso on the drum set as well as the balafon, the West African equivalent of the marimba. Critics have written that Winard is as pleasing and entertaining to watch as he is to hear. "As tasteful a drummer as one could ask for," according to Jeff Kaliss of JazzTimes. Franz Matzner recently wrote in All About Jazz that the sextet's performance "culminated in an evening of fireworks with a sustained display of percussive pyrotechnics by Harper so rapid fire, so mind bogglingly dexterous, and so expressively diverse, as to be truly awe-inspiring." And in a Washington Post review, Mike Joyce said, "Winard Harper's wonderfully orchestrated solos alone might have forced a corpse to grin!"

top of page

Willie L. Hill, JR.
(Saxophone)
Director, Fine Arts Center
Website

"Jazz improvisation is the art of creating melody, harmony and rhythmic patterns in a very spontaneous fashion without the benefit of written notes. I teach the art of improvisation to my students through a daily routine that includes listening, analyzing, transcribing solos, chords, scales, licks & tricks, and above all, memorizing standard tunes."

B.S., Grambling State University; M.M., Ph.D., University of Colorado-Boulder. President, International Association of Jazz Educators, President-Elect, Southwestern Division Music Educators National Conference, Past-President Colorado Music Educators Association and Pi Kappa Lambda. Member, writing team MENC's Vision 2020, National Board of Directors for Young Audiences. Guest soloist/performer with George Burns, Liza Minneli, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Ben Vareen, Lola Falana, Johnny Mathis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Dizzy Gillespie, James Moody, Jon Faddis. Woodwind specialist/faculty member Clark Terry Great Plains Jazz Camp; Founder/director Rich Matteson-Telluride Jazz Academy and Mile High Jazz Camp, Boulder, CO. National artist/clinician Yamaha Musical Instrument Company. Co-author Learning to Sight-Read Jazz, Rock, Latin, and Classical Styles (Ardley House Publication); author The Instrumental History of Jazz (N2K, Inc.), Approaching the Standards (Warner Brothers Publication, 1999). Former faculty member, University of Colorado-Boulder; Teacher & Music Supervisor, Denver Public Schools; Director of Education, Thelonious Monk Institute.

top of page

Genevieve Rose is a freelance acoustic/electric bassist who performs regularly with Jazz, Big Band, Dixieland, Vocal and Latin ensembles. National and International performances and tours include Benny Waters, Claude "Fiddler" Williams, Tradewinds, the Benny Goodman Tribute Orchestra, The Sammy Kaye Orchestra and her own trio, quartet and quintet. A Magna Cum Laude graduate of the University of Massachusetts , she has been a faculty member of the University of Massachusetts Summer Music Programs since 1997, teaches private lessons at Amherst College and is the music director for Orchard Hill Elementary School in South Windsor , CT. She is also the director of the Smith College Jazz Ensemble.

top of page

Honesty. Clarity. Dignity. These are words that come to mind when you listen to the music of bassist-composer Avery Sharpe. In an age of ephemeral pop stars and flavor-of-the-month trends, Sharpe is a reminder of the lasting value of steadfast dedication and personal integrity. As the title of one of his tunes asserts, "Always Expect the Best of Yourself." In 1972, Sharpe enrolled at the University of Massachusetts, where he majored in Economics and minored in music, and continued to play electric bass in gospel, funk, and rock groups. While at UMass, he met the jazz bassist Reggie Workman, who encouraged him to learn the acoustic bass. Sharpe adapted quickly to the big instrument, and within a few years he was performing with such notables as Archie Shepp and Art Blakey. Shepp and Max Roach, his professors at the time, had a major influence on him. Sharpe also performed in orchestra and chamber groups at UMASS, and completed one year of graduate school in Music Performance. In 1980, he auditioned with McCoy Tyner and won a spot in the pianist's group. He has worked with Tyner almost continuously since then, playing hundreds of live gigs and appearing on more than 20 records with him. Sharpe's credits also include sideman stints with many other jazz greats, from Dizzy Gillespie to Pat Metheny, as well as leading his own groups. His first recording as a leader was the 1988 album Unspoken Words on Sunnyside Records, which was praised by critic Jim Roberts as "a diverse, challenging record that rewards repeated listening." In 1994, he recorded Extended Family, the first CD of a trilogy that includes Extended Family II: Thoughts of My Ancestors (1995) and Extended Family III: Family Values (2001). All three were released on Sharpe's own label, JKNM Records.

top of page