Jazz & African American Music Studies Faculty

Jeffrey W. Holmes

Professor, Director of Jazz & African American Music Studies, Composition, Conductor

Jeffrey W. Holmes.
Holmes plays keyboards with the Paul Winter Consort, leads the Jeff Holmes Big Band featuring his wife, vocalist Dawning Holmes, and plays lead trumpet with the New England Jazz Ensemble. Recent recordings as performer and/or composer/arranger include the Jeff Holmes Quartet release "Of One's Own," the New England Jazz Ensemble’s “Peter and The Wolf“, HGTS’s “…and then they played…” and projects by Paul Winter, colleague Felipe Salles, and Earl MacDonald. He continues to appear as a guest conductor/clinician/adjudicator and performer/composer/arranger.
Jeffrey W. Holmes.
Felipe Salles

Professor, Jazz Studies, Composition, Conductor, Saxophone

Felipe Salles holding three music instruments including a saxophone.
A native of São Paulo, Brazil, Felipe Salles has been an active musician in the US since 1995, where he has worked and recorded with prominent jazz artists, including Randy Brecker, Paquito D’Rivera, David Liebman, Melissa Aldana, Lionel Loueke, Jerry Bergonzi, Chico Pinheiro, Magos Herrera, Sofia Rei, Yosvany Terry, Jovino Santos Neto, Oscar Stagnaro, Luciana Souza, and Bob Moses. He has toured extensively in Europe, North and South America, India and Australia, as a sideman and as a leader of his own group.
Felipe Salles holding three music instruments including a saxophone.
Fumi Tomita

Associate Professor, String Bass (Jazz)

Fumi Tomita holding a bass instrument.
Bassist, composer, and educator Fumi Tomita was active in the New York jazz scene for over fifteen years. His 2019 recording, The Elephant Vanishes: Jazz Interpretations of the Short Stories of Haruki Murakami, was released to critical acclaim by Origin Arts records and was listed in the top ten records of 2019 by Jazziz. He also appears as a member of HGTS on their debut release And Then They Played… released in April 2020 by Summit Records. Celebrating Bird: A Tribute to Charlie Parker, a collaboration with saxophonist David Detweiler, was released in September 2020 by Next Level Music.
Fumi Tomita holding a bass instrument.
Thomas Giampietro

Senior Lecturer, Jazz Studies, Drum Set

Thomas Giampietro holding a cup and about to play a cymbal outside on the UMass Amherst campus.
As a drummer, Giampietro was an original member of Grammy-winning saxophonist Jeff Coffin's eclectic jazz group the Mu-tet. Giampietro has played on 31 commercially released recordings, and has recorded or performed with such artists as Tim O'Brien, Casey Driessen, Rod McGaha, Scott Robinson, Lee Konitz, Tom Harrell, The Middle Tennessee Jazz Orchestra, Victor Wooten, Beegie Adair, Ben Monder, Chris Walters, Liz Johnson, Pat Bergeson, The Chris Merz X-tet, Ricky Woodard and Peter Erskine. He has also been active in leading his own group in and around the Nashville area.
Thomas Giampietro holding a cup and about to play a cymbal outside on the UMass Amherst campus.
Mitch Chakour

Director of Vocal Jazz Program; Interim Lecturer

Mitch Chakour
Mitch Chakour is a keyboardist, guitarist, vocalist, song-writer and arranger. You may have recently seen him sit in on keyboards with the Tedeschi Trucks Band at the Green River Festival and Red Rocks in Colorado...or with Warren Haynes at the Calvin Theater.

Mitch was Joe Cocker’s music director, keyboardist and vocalist in the 70’s and 80’s. He has toured with The J. Geils Band singing with Peter Wolf, opening the House of Blues and performing at Fenway Park in Boston along with Aerosmith. He played in the house band for Joe’s Place in Boston early in his career, where he played with the best of the blues: Howling Wolf, Big Momma Thornton, Hubert Sumlin, Koko Taylor, Muddy Waters, Freddie King and many other blues’ greats. He has a diverse resume that includes dates with B.B. King, James Brown, Bonnie Raitt, Chuck Berry, Buddy Miles, Matt Guitar Murphy, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Peter Wolf and he also is a member of Shaboo Allstars. Mitch’s Mission Band was an acclaimed regional band for many years.

Mitch has supported the musicianship and aspirations of many young musicians, who have gone on to successful careers in music.


Mitch Chakour
Robert Ferrier

Adjunct Faculty, Jazz Studies, Jazz Guitar

Robert Ferrier playing jazz guitar in a music classroom.
Robert Ferrier holds a BM in Performance from Berklee College of Music and an MM in Jazz Composition/Arranging from UMass Amherst. A freelance guitarist and teacher, Ferrier has performed with Jon Faddis, Randy Brecker, Eddie Bert, John Fedchock, Claudio Roditi, Yusef Lateef and Peter Erskine. His teachers have included John Laporta, William Leavitt, Herb Pomeroy, Bill Pierce and George Garzone.
Robert Ferrier playing jazz guitar in a music classroom.
Haneef N. Nelson

Adjunct Faculty, Jazz Trumpet

Haneef Nelson holding a trumpet.
Born in Brooklyn, NY and raised in Uniondale, NY, Haneef N. Nelson has been a lifelong lover of music. His original music and Big Band arrangements have been featured around the world and on the records of the New London Big Band as well as Dr. Emmett Goods album Another Level.
Haneef Nelson holding a trumpet.