generations*jazz

A grant from the Rea Charitable Trust allows us to offer our engaging school assembly and public library program at a discounted cost of $375. For more information please contact JazzEducation@njjs.org.

For information about Generations of Jazz or to request to have the program presented for your school or organization, please contact our Education Committee Chair James Pansulla at JazzEducation@njjs.org.

LEwis PortEr (narration, piano, scat vocals, Q-and-A leader)

scott robinson (reed and brass

instruments)

KEnny Davis (bass)

chris bEcK (drums and percussion)

JuDi siLvano (vocals)

carriE JacKson (vocals, narration)

raDam schwartz

(keyboard)

GEnE GhEE (saxophone, flute, clarinet)

taKashi otsuKa

(bass)

ErroLD LaniEr Jr (drums)

High School Level Grades 4 through 8

Our team of A-list performers has crafted a program that will make the day a memorable one for your students. Our goal was to rival the top programs similarly offered in other school districts across the country, including those in New York City, Los Angeles and New Orleans. We have used to our advantage the Garden State’s concentration of top-notch college programs and jazz schools, plus the high number of jazz musicians that reside here. Our quintet consists of some of the leading jazz educators and performers to be found anywhere!

The program is usually around 75 minutes in duration but can be slightly longer or shorter, as suits your schedule.

Generations of Jazz delivers the following:n a tour of jazz history both chronologically by decade and stylistically.

n a sampling of the early origins of jazz, including African music, blues and ragtime, then moving through the decades from New Orleans through the Big Band Era, bebop, Latin and modern jazz. Along the way students will learn about some of the leading jazz artists of history and today.

n a review of the instruments and how they are distinctively used in jazz.

| www.njjs.org This program is made possible in part by a grant from the Rea Charitable Trust and Wells Fargo Bank

LEwis PortEr (narration, piano, scat vocals, Q-and-A leader) founded and still directs the world’s only jazz history master’s program at Rutgers University, Newark. As his bio page at Rutgers states: “Dr. Lewis Porter doesn’t just teach about jazz, he performs it, writes about it, discusses it on radio and in newspapers, and basically lives it.” Dr. Porter has written a definitive book on John Coltrane as well as many other publications. He was nominated for a Grammy in 1996. He taught at Brandeis and

Tufts University before Rutgers and has been a global pioneer in securing a place for the study of jazz at the university level. He is a noted pianist who appears in concert and on two dozen CDs with many celebrated jazz artists.

scott robinson (reed and brass instruments) has been heard in some 55 nations and on 250 recordings with a cross-section of jazz greats in every imaginable style, including Bob Brookmeyer, Tom Harrell, Frank Wess, Maria Schneider, Anthony Braxton, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter, Ella Fitzgerald, Ruby Braff and Roscoe Mitchell. Primarily a tenor saxophonist, Scott once placed directly below the great Sonny Rollins in a DownBeat Readers Poll. As a composer, his works range from solo performance

pieces to chamber and symphonic works. He has been a writer of essays and liner notes, an invited speaker before the Congressional Black Caucus, and a Jazz Ambassador for the State Department. Scott and his Doc Savage-inspired Doctette record on Scott’s own ScienSonic Laboratories label.

KEnny Davis (bass) is a faculty member at the Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers, New Brunswick. Another in this group with ties to network television, Kenny worked with the Jay Leno/ Kevin Eubanks version of The Tonight Show Band. He has appeared as a sideman on the Grammy-winning recordings of Cassandra Wilson and also has performed with Freddie Hubbard, Herbie Hancock and Diane Reeves.

chris bEcK (drums and percussion), a native of Philadelphia, was born into a musical family and attended Temple University. He is a busy percussionist, appearing with Duane Eubanks, Freddie Hendrix and the Rufus Reed Big Band, as well as famous pop stars. His explosive drumming can raise the roof at any performance and his goal is to keep students on the edges of their seats!

JuDi siLvano (vocals) has had an illustrious career as a jazz vocalist, composer and teacher. Among her many collaborations is the one with her husband of three decades, saxophonist Joe Lovano. She was born in Philadelphia and attended Temple University. She has taught at Rutgers, at the Newburgh Performing Arts Academy, at the Wallkill River School of Art, and has for many years led a master class entitled, “Freeing The Voice.”

carriE JacKson (vocals, narration), is a Newark native with a decades-long vocal career, appearing at top jazz venues, stages and festivals around the world. She brings an encyclopedic knowledge of the Great American Songbook as well as a wide range of singing styles, including swing, scat, soul, blues and gospel. She has been a featured performer at the Women In Jazz Festival and in a stage production of Ain’t Misbehavin’. She is a producer and founder of C-Jay Productions as well as founder of

The Jazz Vocal Collective, and has mentored many students. She and keyboardist Radam Schwartz helped run the Jazz Institute of New Jersey at which much research was done for this project.

raDam schwartz (keyboard) has spent over three decades as a preeminent jazz performer and music educator. His musical roots go back to touring bands with Arthur Prysock and Al Hibbler. His busy Tri-State performance schedule includes one of the longest-running organ jams in the country, a weekly occurance for 32 years. His credentials as a jazz educator include his leadership positions on the staff of the Jazz Institute of New Jersey in New Brunswick and Jazz House Kids in Montclair.

GEnE GhEE (saxophone, flute, clarinet) is long-time performer and educator. He graduated from NYU with a music-education undergrad degree, from the Manhattan School of Music with an MA for music performance and from Columbia University Teachers College with a Master of Education degree. He has appeared as a sideman with an array of performers from Art Blakey to Stevie Wonder, and is also a recipient of the Daily News Music Teacher Recognition Award.

taKashi otsuKa (bass) A consummate bassist, Takashi also studied composition and arranging with Herb Pomeroy, Bob Freedman and Ken Pullig, and improvisation theory with Gary Burton at Berklee College of Music. Takashi has appeared with a wide variety of performing artists, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Boys Choir of Harlem, Ben E. King, and the Latin Jazz Orchestra.

ErroLD LaniEr Jr (drums) is a graduate of the William Paterson University Jazz Studies program and was a 2012 New Jersey Jazz Society scholar. He continues to be a student of the art form as guided by his mentors, Winard Harper and the late Mulgrew Miller. He is a busy drummer in the Tri-State area and is the driving force behind Synergy, a self-described “jazzy soul,” three-vocal sextet.

High School Level Grades 4 through 8