Carnegie Hall

Music and spirituality have always been intertwined in the artistic vision of trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator, and activist Sean Jones. Singing and performing as a child with the church choir in his hometown of Warren, Ohio, he switched from drums to trumpet at the age of 10.

Mr. Jones is a musical chameleon, comfortable in any setting or genre. After a six-month stint with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis offered him a permanent position as lead trumpeter of the ensemble, a post he held from 2004 until 2010. In 2015, Mr. Jones was tapped to become a member of the SFJAZZ Collective. During this time, he managed to keep a core group of talented musicians together under his leadership, forming the foundation for groups that have produced and released eight recordings on Mack Avenue Records, the latest being Sean Jones: Live from Jazz at the Bistro in 2017.

Mr. Jones has been prominently featured in recordings and performances with many major figures in jazz, including Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson, and Marcus Miller. He was selected by Mr. Miller, Herbie Hancock, and Wayne Shorter for their Tribute to Miles tour in 2011. He has also performed with the Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Youngstown symphony orchestras, as well as Soulful Symphony in Baltimore and a chamber group at the Salt Bay Chamberfest.

Mr. Jones is an internationally recognized educator. In addition to serving as artistic director of NYO Jazz, he is president of the Jazz Education Network and holds the Richard and Elizabeth Case Chair in Jazz Studies at The John Hopkins University’s Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Previously, he served as chair of the brass department at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.

Over the course of a multifaceted career spanning four decades, Grammy and Tony Award–winning jazz giant Dee Dee Bridgewater has ascended to the upper echelon of vocalists, putting her unique spin on standards and taking intrepid leaps of faith in re-envisioning jazz classics. Ever the fearless voyager, explorer, pioneer, and keeper of tradition, the three-time Grammy winner most recently won a Grammy for best jazz vocal album for Eleanora Fagan (1915–1959): To Billie With Love From Dee Dee.

Ms. Bridgewater’s career has always bridged musical genres. She earned her first professional experience as a member of the legendary Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and throughout the ’70s, she performed with such jazz notables as Max Roach, Sonny Rollins, Dexter Gordon, and Dizzy Gillespie. After a foray into the pop world during the ’80s, she relocated to Paris and turned her attention back to jazz. Ms. Bridgewater began self-producing with her 1993 album Keeping Tradition (Polydor/Verve) and created DDB Records in 2006 when she signed with the Universal Music Group as a producer (Ms. Bridgewater produces all her own albums). All but one in her series of critically acclaimed albums—including her double Grammy Award–winning tribute to Ella Fitzgerald, Dear Ella—have received Grammy nominations.

Ms. Bridgewater also pursued a parallel career in musical theater, winning a Tony Award for her role as Glinda in The Wiz in 1975. Her other theatrical credits include Sophisticated Ladies, Black Ballad, Carmen, Cabaret, and the off-Broadway and West End productions of Lady Day, for which she received a Laurence Olivier nomination for best actress in a musical.

As a goodwill ambassador to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Ms. Bridgewater continues to appeal for international solidarity to finance global grassroots projects in the fight against world hunger. In 2017, she received an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship with honors bestowed at the Kennedy Center. She won an ASCAP Foundation Champion Award in 2017, was named a Doris Duke Artist in 2018, and was inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame in 2019.

Saxophonist, composer, and educator Sharel Cassity (pronounced “Sha-Relle”) is prominent on the New York and Chicago jazz scenes. Listed as an alto saxophone rising star in DownBeat magazine for the past 13 years, she has appeared on the Today Show, Good Morning America, and The Colbert Show; is in the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame; and is a recipient of the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award.

Ms. Cassity has worked with Jennifer Hudson, Natalie Merchant, Aretha Franklin, Vanessa Williams, Trisha Yearwood, Rubén Blades, and DJ Logic. She has also worked with NEA Jazz Masters Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jimmy Heath, and Christian McBride; and she has appeared as a featured soloist with the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. As a bandleader, she has received top-rated reviews for her albums in publications like the Chicago Tribune, The New York Times, JazzTimes, Jazziz, DownBeat, American Indian News, and Saxophone Journal. She runs her record label Relsha Music and directs the educational program Jazz Up.

After moving frequently during her childhood, Ms. Cassity graduated high school in Yukon, Oklahoma. In 2000, she moved to New York City, where she earned her BFA from the New School in 2005 and attended The Juilliard School’s jazz program for a master’s degree. Currently based in Chicago, she is a professor at Columbia College, DePaul University, and Elgin Community College. She is a proud Yamaha and Vandoren Performing Artist.

Quincy Davis was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and comes from a musical family. His parents are musicians who exposed him to instrumental jazz, European classical, gospel, opera, R&B, and jazz fusion. He graduated from Interlochen Arts Academy and studied at Western Michigan University with drum legend Billy Hart.

In 2000, Mr. Davis moved to New York City, where he frequently played at famous jazz venues that included the Village Vanguard, Blue Note Jazz Club, Smalls Jazz Club, Jazz Standard, Birdland, the Iridium, Dizzy’s Club, and Smoke Jazz Club. In 2013, he released his debut recording as a leader, Songs in the Key of Q, which rose to number one on JazzWeek’s radio jazz chart. His sophomore release, Q Vision, was ranked third for five weeks. Both albums feature all-original music written by Mr. Davis.

Mr. Davis can be heard on more than 50 albums playing with many notable jazz artists that include Tom Harrell, Gretchen Parlato, Benny Golson, Steve Nelson, Ted Rosenthal, Marcus Printup, Dave Stryker, Walt Weiskopf, Stefon Harris, Randy Napoleon, Benny Green, Aaron Diehl, Frank Wess, Bobby Watson, Xavier Davis, Danny Grissett, Vincent Gardner, Darmon Meader, Sachal Vasandani, and many others.

Mr. Davis teaches at the University of North Texas, where he is currently associate professor and chair of the drum set department. In addition, he has become an esteemed online jazz drumming pedagogue with a considerable following on YouTube and Instagram. He is a proud endorser of Zildjian cymbals, Tama drums, and Vic Firth drumsticks.

Recognized by The New York Times as “a trumpeter of versatility and poise,” Tatum Greenblatt is widely regarded as one of New York City’s most in-demand trumpet players. He appears frequently with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in performances at Rose Theater, and on tour domestically. His recent recordings include The Fifties: A Prism, Big Band Holidays II, and Ted Nash and Glenn Close’s Transformation. He was a member of the Grammy Award–winning Mingus Big Band for more than 15 years, performing regularly in New York and touring internationally. From 2010 to 2016, he toured with legendary bassist and singer Richard Bona, traveling to more than 60 countries across six continents, and has also performed and/or recorded with Blood Sweat & Tears, George Gruntz, Dr. John, Christian McBride’s Big Band, Jimmy Heath, Sachal Vasandani, Christian Sands, Ulysses Owens, Emmet Cohen, Macklemore, Bastille, Grizzly Bear, Shaina Taub, Orrin Evans, Roy Hargrove’s Big Band, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He is also active on Broadway, having played on more than 20 productions, including three years on Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. As a bandleader, he has released three albums to critical acclaim. His most recent, Imprints, was named a critics’ pick by DownBeat magazine. In addition to his performance career, he is a dedicated educator. He currently serves on faculty at The Juilliard School. He also performs many roles in the education department at Jazz at Lincoln Center, including serving as director of the award-winning Jazz at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra.

Bassist, vocalist, producer, label owner, and now filmmaker Mimi Jones has reigned supreme for more than two decades, appearing as a side woman to an impressive coterie of musicians and as a leader with three albums on her own label, Hot Tone Music, featuring the Mimi Jones Band. Her newest release for the label, Feet in the Mud, is her most powerful recording to date and refers to being true to oneself. She is supported by an engaging and ingenious collection of musicians including pianist Jon Cowherd, drummer Jonathan Barber, and saxophonist Samir Zarif.

Born in New York City of parents from Barbados and raised in the Bronx, Ms. Jones is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, and she has studied with Lisle Atkinson, Ron Carter, Linda McKnight, Milton Hinton, and others. She has toured extensively throughout Africa, Asia, Europe, South America, and the Caribbean Islands and is recognized as a US Jazz Ambassador. Her vast work as a side woman includes gigs with Kenny Barron, Frank Ocean, Dianne Reeves, Tia Fuller, Ingrid Jensen, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Marc Cary, Toshi Reagon, Rachel Z, Sean Jones, Ravi Coltrane, and Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy Award–winning Mosaic Project.

Ms. Jones also serves as co-director with Arcoiris Sandoval of The D.O.M.E. Experience, a multimedia project created to inspire its audience to become aware of environmental and social issues within the community and globally through choreography, composition, and cinematography.

Javier Nero is a jazz trombonist, composer, arranger, and educator whose musicianship has received significant recognition. He has won first place in the 2011 International Trombone Association’s Carl Fontana Competition, the ITA’s 2013 J. J. Johnson Competition, the 2014 American Trombone Workshop National Jazz Solo Competition, and the 2015 Texas State Trombone Symposium Jazz Trombone Competition.

Currently based in Washington, DC, Dr. Nero is busy as both a bandleader and sideman in the greater DMV area. He moved there in 2021 from New York City after winning the lead trombone position in the US Army Band’s premier musical unit: “Pershing’s Own.” He has also recently joined the faculty of the Peabody Institute. This summer, he is slated to release his debut album for jazz orchestra, Kemet, which features special guests Randy Brecker, Sean Jones, Warren Wolf, and Tim Green. He also leads the Javier Nero Septet and the Javier Nero Jazz Orchestra.

Dr. Nero’s classical training and versatility have enabled him to perform in various styles and genres that range from small jazz combos to symphony orchestras. He has also performed and arranged music for a special performance at Carnegie Hall that featured the music of Stephen Sondheim with singer Titus Burgess, as well as a more recent concert with vocalist Audra McDonald.

Dr. Nero holds a bachelor’s degree from The Juilliard School, a master’s degree from the University of Miami, and graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a cognate (minor) in classical trombone performance from the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami.

Helen Sung is an acclaimed pianist and composer. Born and raised in Houston, TX, she studied classical piano and violin and attended Houston’s renowned High School for the Performing & Visual Arts (HSPVA). Continuing her classical piano studies at the University of Texas at Austin, a chance meeting with jazz music caused an eventual course change: she went on to graduate from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (at the New England Conservatory) and win the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition.

Now based in New York City, Helen has worked with such luminaries as the late Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis (who named her as one of his “Who’s Got Next: Jazz Musicians to Watch”), MacArthur Fellows Regina Carter and Cecile McLorin Salvant, and Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy-winning “Mosaic Project.” Helen and her band have performed at major festivals/venues including Newport, Monterey, SFJAZZ, Disney Hall, and Carnegie Hall. Internationally, her “NuGenerations” Project toured southern Africa as a U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassador, and recent engagements include debuts at the London Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, Blue Note Beijing, and the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival. In addition, she currently performs with fine ensembles including the Mingus Big Band and McLorin Salvant’s Ogresse.

Helen followed her jazz chart-topping Concord Jazz release Anthem For A New Day with Sung With Words, a collaborative project with the celebrated American poet Dana Gioia, supported by a Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation New Jazz Works grant. In 2020 she was awarded an NYC Women’s Fund grant for Quartet²: a project combining her jazz quartet with a string quartet. Helen has also completed composition commissions for the West Chester University Poetry Conference, North Coast Brewing Company, JazzReach, and a composer residency at Flushing Town Hall.

Inspired by her experience at the Monk Institute, she stays involved in music education through residencies and workshops, and also produced a Jazz Week program benefiting underserved youth in Camden, NJ. In 2017, the University of Texas College of Fine Arts awarded her its most prestigious honor – the E. William Doty Distinguished Alumna Award, and HSPVA inducted her into its Jazz Hall of Fame. She has served on the jazz faculties at the Berklee College of Music, the Juilliard School, and Columbia University, where she also was the inaugural jazz artist-in residence at Columbia’s prestigious Zuckerman Institute in 2019. Helen was named a Steinway Artist in 2020.

Reginald Thomas can be seen fronting his own groups—the Mardra/Reggie Thomas Ensemble and organ trio OGD—on both piano and Hammond organ, and performing as sideman with great artists that include Hamiet Bluiett, Ann Hampton Callaway, and the Carl Allen / Rodney Whitaker ensemble. He often performs with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra as accompanist at the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.

Mr. Thomas appears as guest artist at collegiate jazz festivals around the country, including those at Lawrence University, the University of South Florida, and Texas Tech University. He has also performed internationally, in Tokyo, Bangkok, Macau, Jakarta, Calgary, Milan, Warsaw, Poznan, Senegal, and London. In recordings, he has collaborated with Clay Jenkins, Kim Richmond, and Clark Terry / Mike Vax. His latest recording with his wife, Mardra—Matters of the Heart (MRT Jazz)—was released in 2015. Mr. Thomas has been awarded the Excellence in the Arts Award from the Arts and Education Council of St. Louis, and was named best jazz artist by the Riverfront Times in 2005.

After almost 20 years as professor of music at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and three years at Michigan State University as professor of jazz piano, Mr. Thomas now leads the Northern Illinois University School of Music’s jazz studies program. He also works as consultant and clinician with Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Program and Band Director Academy. He is an active member of summer jazz faculties in the US and abroad, and a frequent director of all-state jazz bands, combos, and choirs. Mr. Thomas earned his master’s degree in music education from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and his bachelor’s degree from Western Illinois University.

Growing up in Akron, Ohio, Dan Wilson spent his youth in the church community, where his musical path began. Traces of his major guitar influences—including Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian, Joe Pass, and George Benson—can be discerned in his playing, but his musical identity has been shaped by everything from gospel and blues to traditional jazz, hip-hop, and horn players like Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.

After graduating from Hiram College, Mr. Wilson made his recording debut with pianist Joe McBride and performed with Joey DeFrancesco and Christian McBride’s Tip City to worldwide acclaim. He eventually recorded his debut as a leader on To Whom It May Concern. Mr. Wilson has had the honor of sharing the stage with jazz greats who include Eric Marienthal, Russell Malone, Les McCann, René Marie, Jeff Hamilton, David Sanborn, and Dave Stryker. He also teaches jazz guitar and music theory through private lessons.

Notable collaborations include performances with jazz great Joey DeFrancesco in his trio and on his album Project Freedom, which was nominated for a Grammy Award. This collaboration allowed Mr. Wilson to insert his own dialect into DeFrancesco’s highly respected musical idiom. He has additionally toured with Christian McBride’s trio Tip City. McBride served as producer on Mr. Wilson’s album Vessels of Wood and Earth and released the recording on his own Brother Mister Productions through Mack Avenue Music Group. Released in 2021, the album is available on all platforms.