BIO: Born and raised in Havana, Cuba, Grammy nominated pianist and composer Manuel Valera is a Guggenheim Fellow who has recorded 13 CDs as a bandleader with touring projects ranging from his Grammy nominated group New Cuban Express to modern...
BIO: Born in Denver, Colorado, Shamie Royston is, according to JazzTimes, “a vigorous, versatile pianist.” She grew up alongside her sister, the award-winning Tia Fuller, in a musical and academically-minded household. The daughters of two public school teachers, the sisters were...
BIO: Philadelphia-based Orrin Evans has been categorized as a bebop player, one of the “young lions” that emerged in the 1990s. But Evans’ style and repertoire are deeply personal, they are broad-ranging and convey a sense of thoughtful intelligence and...
BIO: Over the course of a seven-decade career, NEA Jazz Master Toshiko Akiyoshi has made a unique and vital contribution to the art of jazz. In 1929, at the time of her birth, Akiyoshi’s Japanese family resided in Manchuria, China...
by Louis Erlanger When I was in college in the early 1970s I had the good fortune to have as a classmate Phil Schaap, whose deep passion for jazz bordered on the weird. Phil had grown up in a neighborhood of...
By Jon Dreyer The Vermont Jazz Center has a knack for presenting world-class musicians who are about to become even more widely recognized. On February 9, 2019, they hosted Sullivan Fortner just one day before he became a Grammy winner for...
By Louis Erlanger Louis Erlanger is a professional guitarist and software designer, and is active in the Brattleboro, VT music community. He hosts two music radio shows on which he interviews local and internationally known musicians: After Hours on WOOL 91.5...
By Julian Gerstin, Ph. D. Julian is a percussionist specializing in the traditional music of Cuba, Martinique and Ghana. Julian's base of operations was California and Martinique prior to moving to Vermont in 2006. He has performed and recorded with numerous...
By Chris Lenois Chris Lenois is a freelance writer and former jazz show host for WWOZ-FM in New Orleans. He can be reached at chris.lenois@gmail.com. Moments before Donald Harrison, Jr. kicked off the 2012-13 Vermont Jazz Center concert season, the crowd...
By Rob Fletcher Rob Fletcher is a chromatic harmonica player based in Erving, MA. He plays chromatic, chord and diatonic in the harmonica trio The Harmaniacs. He also performs throughout New England in a variety of settings on guitar and voice...