Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 18, 2001

KENNEDY CENTER– DEPARTMENT OF STATE

TOURING JAZZ AMBASSADORS CELEBRATE THE “BLUES” Bill Heid Trio

Lenny Robinson’s Organic Trio Newsome / Sewell / Harris Trio Bergson / Jain / Koehler Trio

Bob Dorough Trio

TWO TRIOS CELEBRATE LOUIS ARMSTRONG’S 100TH ANNIVERSARY

Baum / Wessel / Harris Trio Gilmore / Allen / Peterson Trio

Department of State Sponsored Tours include Africa, East Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America

All Seven Trios to Perform a Free Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Concert August 15; September 5, 20, 26; October 3, 7, and 10, 2002

(WASHINGTON, DC) The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the United States

Department of State, now engaged in the fifth year of their cooperative “Jazz Ambassadors” project,

announce the Fall 2002 Millennium Stage concerts and tours of five exemplary jazz trios. These trios, all

selected through highly competitive auditions, will tour in countries across Africa, Latin America, Central

and South Asia with programs representing American “blues” music. Each group — the Bill Heid Trio,

Lenny Robinson’s Organic Trio, the Newsome/Sewell/Harris Trio, the Bergson/Jain/Koehler Trio and the

Bob Dorough Trio — will open its tour with a performance on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage.

Jazz Ambassador tours by both the Baum/Wessel/Harris Trio and the Gilmore/Allen/Peterson Trio

were postponed in the Fall of 2001. Their tours celebrating the 100th anniversary of jazz great Louis

Armstrong have been rescheduled and the trios will also appear on the Millennium Stage later this year.

The seven free Kennedy Center Millennium Stage concerts, at 6 p.m., are as follows: Thursday,

August 15 – Baum/Wessel/Harris Trio; Thursday, September 5 – Bill Heid Trio; Friday, September 20 –

Lenny Robinson’s Organic Trio; Thursday, September 26 – Newsome/Sewell/Harris Trio; Thursday,

October 3 – Bergson/Jain/Koehler Trio; Monday, October 7 – Bob Dorough Trio; and Thursday,

October 10 – Gilmore/Allen/Peterson Trio.

Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 2

Background

The Kennedy Center plans and supervises the Jazz Ambassador audition process funded by a grant from the Department of State. Each selected group is brought to the Center at the beginning of its tour to give a free performance on the Millennium Stage. These performances, which become part of the daily 6 p.m. Millennium Stage schedule, are also broadcast worldwide on the Internet. The Department of State provides the trios with overseas traveling expenses and a modest honorarium for each Jazz Ambassador. The tours, which usually last four to six weeks, are designated for countries that are not often visited by American musicians. In addition to public concerts, the visiting Jazz Ambassadors will conduct master classes and lecture-recitals for local musicians.

The Kennedy Center

The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, under the leadership of James A. Johnson, chairman, and Michael M. Kaiser, president, is the nation’s performing arts center and a Presidential Memorial. The Center’s programs reflect the institution’s commitment to the recognition and celebration of the rich heritage of the American people through the presentation of the finest and most diverse performing arts offerings from the United States and throughout the world. To nurture the continued vitality of the arts in America, the Center’s Education Department, under the direction of Derek E. Gordon, vice president for education and jazz programming, holds as its mission the provision of opportunities for people of all ages and backgrounds to learn about and to experience the performing arts. For more information about the Kennedy Center and its programs, please visit its web site: http://kennedy-center.org. Jazz Ambassador applications and information may be obtained from: http://kennedy-center.org/ambassadors.

U.S. Department of State

The U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, under the leadership of Assistant Secretary for Educational and Cultural Affairs Patricia S. Harrison, fosters mutual understanding between the United States and other countries through international educational and training programs. The bureau does so by promoting personal, professional, and institutional ties between private citizens and organizations in the United States and abroad, as well as by presenting U.S. history, society, art and culture in all of its diversity to overseas audiences. Further information is available at http://exchanges.state.gov.

Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Concerts Live Internet Broadcasts

The Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors’ concerts will be broadcast live on the Internet, as are all concerts on the Kennedy Center Millennium Stage. These 6 p.m. broadcasts are available for viewing by anyone with Internet access. In addition, past Millennium Stage performances are stored in the archives of the Website. Both live and archived performances are available at kennedy-center.org or at washingtonpost.com . ATTACHED: Kennedy Center-Department of State Jazz Ambassadors Fall 2002 Schedule with

biographical information for each member of each trio.

PRESS CONTACTS: KENNEDY CENTER PUBLIC INFORMATION:

Millennium Stage performance information: (202) 467-4600; 1-800 444-1324 Mary Johnson (202) 416-8445 Kennedy Center Press Office mejohnson@kennedy-center.org

Specific Jazz Ambassador tour information: Nicole Deaner (202) 203-7613 Public Affairs Specialist

Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 3ndeaner@pd.state.gov

Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 4

Kennedy Center-Department of State Jazz Ambassadors Fall 2002 Schedule

Millennium Stage Concerts Live Internet Broadcasts

Internet broadcasts of Millennium Stage events allow anyone with Internet access to view both live and past performances, in the archives of the Website, by visiting kennedy-center.org or washingtonpost.com.

Thursday, August 15, 2002: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. – Baum/Wessel/Harris Trio Flutist Jamie Baum, guitarist Ken Wessel, and bass guitarist Jerome Harris celebrated the 100th birthday of Louis Armstrong during their March-April tour of Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and India, a trip postponed from October 2001. They reprise their tour performances in tonight’s Millennium Stage concert.

Flutist and composer Jamie Baum’s first tour as a Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassador took place in Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Colombia, and the Dominican Republic in October 1999. She has lived in New York for twelve years, working as a leader, as well as a band member for others including Paul Motian, Randy Brecker, Billy Hart, Mick Goodrick, and George Russell. Baum has developed a powerful personal style from her many influences of jazz, blues, and Latin cultures. As a teacher she focuses on improvisation, ear training, compositional techniques, and flute technique. She has also developed two very successful workshops: “A Fear- free Approach to Improvisation for the Classically -Trained Musician” and “A Jazz Flute Survey/Retrospective.” Guitarist Ken Wessel has performed at major jazz festivals, concert halls and on radio and television throughout 21 countries. He has toured and recorded as a member of Ornette Coleman’s Prime Time group since 1988. He has also worked with Gloria Lynne, Arthur and Red Prysock, Steve Turré, Pat Metheny, David Leibman, Lou Reed, Laurie Anderson, and Johnny Hartmann. He performed Skies of America, Ornette Coleman's seminal work for symphony orchestra and jazz ensemble, with the Philharmonia of London and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur. Wessel, who leads and composes for his own jazz quartet and jazz trio, also is co-leads a trio with jazz tabla master Badal Roy and bassist Stomu Takeishi, an ensemble that combines jazz with North Indian music. As a teacher, Wessel is a member of the faculties of Rutgers University and the Music Conservatory of Westchester, and he has given clinics and master classes at numerous institutions, including Yale University, Columbia University and the Manhattan School of Music. Bass guitarist and composer Jerome Harris , a native of Flushing, New York, now living in Brooklyn, is known for his warm, full sound. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard University and his Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has performed with creative jazz stylists ranging from Sonny Rollins and Jack DeJohnette to Bill Frisell and Bobby Previte. He toured on behalf of the United States Department of State with Oliver Lake & Jump Up in 1982 and with Jay Hoggard in 1985. His latest album, Rendezvous (issued by the audio magazine Stereophile), includes six original works by Harris. In October 2002, Harris will join soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome and guitarist Marvin Sewell as Kennedy Center Jazz Ambassadors on a Blues Tour to Africa. Thursday, September 5, 2002: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. – Bill Heid Trio Keyboardist Bill Heid, bassist Patrick O’Leary, and drummer Mike Petrocino preview their Blues Tour to Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia.

Keyboardist/vocalist Bill Heid, a native of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, now living in Bethesda, Maryland, has performed throughout the Unites States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and Singapore. He has led his own groups as well as played with such jazz artists as Jimmy Ponder, Bruce Foreman, Grant Green, Sonny Stitt, and David “Fathead” Newman, and with blues artists including Son Seals, Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, Fenton Robinson, Ko Ko Taylor, and Roy Buchanan. In Detroit in the late 1980s through the 1990s, Heid performed and recorded with blues legends Johnnie Basset, Joe Weaver, and Alberta Adams. Heid has appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and his blues and jazz piano and Hammond Organ keyboard work has been heard on European and American television programs including NBC’s Dateline. His recordings are on the Muse/Westside, Black Magic, Fedora, and

Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 5Savant labels. Bill Heid Trio (continued)

Bassist and bass guitarist Patrick O’Leary, born in Buffalo, New York, and now living in Elmhurst, New York, studied piano and bass at Potsdam State University's Crane School of Music, where he received a bachelor’s degree. He has toured the U.S. with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, the Illinois Jacquet Orchestra, the Hal Galper Trio, and Teri Thornton. He also toured the world with Hampton, including a 1986 State Department tour of South America, and recorded such CDs as the Grammy-nominated Sentimental Journey with the vibraphonist. Other leading artists with whom O’Leary has played include saxophonists Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, and James Moody, pianist Marian McPartland, trombonist and conch shell artist Steve Turré, vocalists Joe Williams and Marlena Shaw, and vocalist/pianist Diana Krall. He is regularly heard at jazz festivals throughout the world. As a Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassador, O’Leary toured several African countries with the Jubilee Jazz Trio (which included Scott Robinson and Larry Ham), May-July 2001. In October, after returning from his tour with the Bill Heid Trio, O’Leary will join the Bob Dorough Trio, for its Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors tour of the Caribbean, Central and South America.

Drummer Michael Petrosino, a native of Auburn, New York now living in Brooklyn, began his professional career at the age of eighteen, playing gigs in the Toledo, Ohio, and Detroit, Michigan metropolitan areas. He moved on to perform on cruise ships plying the world’s oceans, backing such entertainers as The Fifth Dimension, Lou Rawls, Ben Vereen, The Temptations, and Gladys Knight. Returning to dry land, he landed in Cleveland, Ohio, where he played with local artists and touring artists such as Jeannie Bryson Rick Margitza, and Gerri Allen. Since moving to New York, Petrosino has become a fixture in the city’s jazz clubs, including Visiones, Birdland, The Blue Note and others. He has led his own groups at The 5 Spot, Kavehaus, The @ Café, SMF, and Auggie's, and the Mike Petrosino Trio appears every Tuesday at Dizzy’s in Brooklyn, featuring guest artists such as Bruce Barth, Xavier Davis, Joe Barbato, and Randy Johnson, to name a few.

Friday, September 20, 2002: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. – Lenny Robinson’s Organic Trio Lenny Robinson on drums, saxophonist Marshall Keys, and organist Harry Appelman preview their Caribbean, Central and South American Blues Tour.

Drummer Lenny Robinson, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and a current resident of Columbia, Maryland, studied at the Peabody Conservatory of Music and Morgan State University, both in Baltimore, Maryland. He toured Europe, including the Montreux, North Sea, and Oslo jazz festivals with the Pamoja Experience, a group chronicling the evolution of jazz. During his four-year military service he was a member of the 26th Army Band of New York, and rose to percussion section leader. He has also toured with R&B artist Jean Carne, progressive jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, and was a member of Vanessa Rubin’s European touring band in 1994. Robinson was a member of the Bill Cosby “You Bet Your Life” TV show band directed by keyboardist Shirley Scott (1991). He has also appeared at the New York’s Village Vanguard with Lou Donaldson, with whom he also toured Europe and the U.S. In Washington, D.C., he performed with Roy Hargrove, Betty Carter, and Wynton Marsalis, and is a member of Marsalis’ “How To Listen To Jazz” program, introducing inner-city children to jazz.

Saxophonist Marshall Keys, native to and a current resident of Washington D.C., has appeared at the East Coast Jazz Festival in Rockville, Maryland, the 1999 Norway Jazz Festival and Cruise, the 1983 Kool Jazz Festival, the DC Jazz Festival, and in jazz festivals in St. Croix, St. Lucia, Acapulco (Mexico), Mainz (Germany), and in Holland. A regular touring partner of the great blues organist Jimmy McGriff since 1984, Keys has also played with Jimmy Witherspoon, Clark Terry, Hank Jones, Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, Buck Hill, and Keter Betts. He was a featured soloist with the Branford Marsalis Quintet in the 1986 Tribute to Jazz Master Thelonius Monk at the Kennedy Center, and also took part in the Kennedy Center’s Tribute to Lionel Hampton. He also appeared with his Quartet as part of Miriam Makeba’s 1981 performance at the Kennedy Center. A dedicated teacher, Keys gives mentoring classes throughout the metropolitan area to aspiring young performers.

Organist Harry Appelman, a native of Downers Grove, Illinois, now living in Silver Spring, Maryland, is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a master’s degree in music from the New England Conservatory of

Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 6Music. He performs frequently with nationally known headliners in Washington, D.C. metropolitan area jazz venues such as Blues Alley, One Step Down, The Willard Hotel, Wolf Trap, and The Kennedy Center. He also leads his own jazz piano and organ trios. He toured the U.S. and Canada with the Woody Herman and Artie Shaw Orchestras, and played in New York with Dakota Station and numerous other artists at such clubs as The Village Gate, Birdland, and Visiones. Appelman also passes on his expertise by teaching privately in the Washington metropolitan area. Thursday, September 26, 2002: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. – Newsome/Sewell/Harris Trio Soprano saxophonist Sam Newsome, guitarist Marvin Sewell, bass guitarist Jerome Harris preview Blues to Africa Tour.

Saxophonist Sam Newsome , a native of Salisbury, Maryland now living in Brooklyn, New York, spent the first four years of the 1990s as the featured tenor saxophonist around the world with Donald Byrd’s band and Terence Blanchard’s quintet. He made the liberating switch to his soprano saxophone in mid -decade. Leaving behind his well-known recordings with those bands and his own Sam I Am on the Criss Cross label, Newsome departed from the BeBop scene and founded Sam Newsome & Global Unity (first called Motivic Development). He has now established himself as a leading player on a ticklishly difficult instrument, in the process transforming earlier blues sounds and writing tunes that include Japanese, Moroccan, and Indonesian scales. His recordings on soprano sax include the self-titled Sam Newsome & Global Unity on the Columbia/Sony label. Guitarist Marvin Sewell, Chicago-born Brooklyn resident, started out playing blues, gospel, soul, rock and fusion music on the guitar in Chicago “basement bands,” as well as acoustic guitar in a church guitar band. After playing in the Malcolm X Community College Big Band, he began to perform with famous Chicago musicians including Von Freeman, Ramsey Lewis, Billy Branch, Jody Christian, Big Time Sarah, and Barbara LaShore, and continued his studies at Chicago’s Roosevelt University. After moving to New York in 1990, Sewell absorbed many musical styles, performing on both acoustic and electronic guitars. He played jazz with Jack DeJohnette’s Special Edition, and recorded with DeJohnette, Deirdre Murray and Gary Thomas. He performed blues slide guitar in Hannibal Peterson’s African Portraits with three symphony orchestras, including the St. Louis Symphony. He has also performed and recorded with David Sandborn, Joe Lovano, George Benson, Peter Herborn, and many others. Since 1995, Sewell has appeared regularly with Cassandra Wilson.

Vocalist, bass guitarist and composer Jerome Harris, a native of Flushing, New York, now living in Brooklyn, is known for his warm, full sound. He received his B.A. degree from Harvard University and his Bachelor of Music degree from the New England Conservatory of Music. He has performed with creative jazz stylists ranging from Sonny Rollins and Jack DeJohnette to Bill Frisell and Bobby Previte. He toured on behalf of the United States Department of State with Oliver Lake & Jump Up in 1982 and with Jay Hoggard in 1985. His latest album, Rendezvous (issued by the audio magazine Stereophile), includes six original works by Harris. In March and April 2002, Harris joined flutist Jamie Baum and guitarist Ken Wessel on a Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassador’s tour to Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and India in celebration of the 100th birthday of Louis Armstrong during their March-April tour, a trip postponed from October 2001. Thursday, October 3, 2002: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. – Bergson,/Jain/Koehler Trio Guitarist/vocalist Chris Bergson, organist Kyle Koehler, drummer Sunny Jain preview Blues to Africa Tour.

Guitarist Chris Bergson, a native New Yorker, works as a blues and jazz guitarist throughout the city, where he is also known as an innovative composer. Bergson, who has headlined at the Fat Cat Jazz Club with bassist Doug Weiss and Drummer Al Foster, has also performed as a leader and sideman at many of New York’s other top venues including Birdland, the 55 Bar, the Jazz Standard, Joe’s Pub, Small’s, Smoke, and Terra Blues. In Philadelphia he has appeared at Chris’ Jazz Café ad Ortleib’s Jazzhaus. Bergson has worked with such artists as Joel Frahm, Dena DeRose, Dennis Irwin, Norah Jones, Joe Magnarelli, Wynton Marsalis, Annie Ross, John Webber, and Grant Stewart. He is prominently featured on Ross’s CD Cool for Kids (Juniper Records) and recorded the CD Reunion of Souls with bassist Ashley Turner and fellow Jazz Ambassadors, guitarist Sheryl Bailey and drummer Sunny Jain. His CDs as a leader are Wait for Spring and Blues for Some Friends of Mine (both on the Juniper label).

Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 7Drummer Sunny Jain, a native of Rochester, New York, now living and working in New York City, has been influenced from childhood by the music of India, and the native tablas (drums). A trained musician from his youth, he went on to earn a Bachelor of Music degree in jazz performance from Rutgers University and a Master of Arts from New York University. Jain has performed with many great musicians including Eric Alexander, Kenny Barron, Ralph Bowen, Ray Drummond, Ted Dunbar, Earl May, Ugonna Okegwo, Larry Ridley and Buster Williams. In New York, Jain has appeared at the Blue Note, Birdland, and The Jazz Standard, as well as in various festivals and clubs in Canada, Europe, and Japan. He is leader of the Sunny Jain Collective, which fuses jazz with Indian music. Jain and his colleagues have just released their debut album on NCM East Records.

Bergson,/Jain/Koehler Trio (continued)

Organist Kyle Koehler, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, now based in Brooklyn, New York, is a graduate of the jazz performance program of William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. He studied with Rufus Reid, Harold Mabern, and many others. He has performed with leading jazz and blues artists including Bobby Watson, Steve Turré, Eric Alexander, Donald Harrison, Bootsie Barnes, Peter Bernstein, Mark Whitfield and Robin Eubanks. His numerous festival appearances include the East Coast, Mellon, and Cape May jazz festivals. His club dates include performances at Zanzibar Blue and Smoke (New York City), Blues Alley (Washington, D.C.), and The Blue Room (Kansas City). Monday, October 7, 2002: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m. – Bob Dorough Trio Keyboardist Bob Dorough, guitarist Steve Berger, and bass guitarist Patrick O’Leary preview their Caribbean, Central and South American Blues Tour.

Keyboardist-vocalist and trio leader Bob Dorough was born in Cherry Hill, Arkansas in December 1923. His formal education was interrupted by a nearly three-year stint in the U.S. Army (Feb. 1943 – Dec. 1945), during which he served in a Special Services Band, entertaining troops as a singer at bases across the United States. He returned to North Texas state Teacher’s College (now University of North Texas), where BeBop was the reigning music, studied composition, received a bachelor’s degree in music, and went on to do graduate work at New York’s Columbia University. He served as musical director for the Sugar Ray Robinson Shows in the U.S., Canada, and France, with boxer Robinson performing as a tap dancer and Dorough appearing as the pianist and bandleader. After Robinson returned to the ring, Dorough remained in Paris, performing as a singing pianist at the Mars Club. Since then, his wide -ranging career has taken him through Los Angeles, St. Louis, commercial work on the East Coast, a stint as the composer, director and performer of recorded music for ABC-TV’s Schoolhouse Rock, numerous jazz festivals, and club dates throughout the United States and Europe as well as Mexico and South Africa where he was a featured artist at the 2000 Davidoff International Vocal Jazz festival in Cape Town. A frequent winner of Down Beat Magazine’s “Favorite Male Singer” poll, Dorough records for the Blue Note Label. Guitarist Steve Berger, born in Orange, New Jersey, attended both the City College of New York and New York University, and studied with Barry Harris and Tal Farlow, among others. He has worked as an accompanist, sideman and leader in New York for two decades, appearing at the Blue Note and other clubs with such groups and artists as the Buck Clayton Band, David Allyn, The Ink Spots, and Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks. He has performed and toured as member of the Bob Dorough Trio for the past seven years. Berger was house bandleader for 16 years at Arturo’s in Greenwich Village. Bassist and bass guitarist Patrick O’Leary, born in Buffalo, New York, and now living in Elmhurst, New York, studied piano and bass at Potsdam State University's Crane School of Music, where he received a bachelor’s degree. He has toured the U.S. with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, the Illinois Jacquet Orchestra, the Hal Galper Trio, and Teri Thornton. He also toured the world with Hampton, including a 1986 State Department tour of South America, and recorded such CDs as the Grammy-nominated Sentimental Journey with the vibraphonist. Other leading artists with whom O’Leary has played include saxophonists Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, and James Moody, pianist Marian McPartland, trombonist and conch shell artist Steve Turré, vocalists Joe Williams and Marlena Shaw, and vocalist/pianist Diana Krall. He is regularly heard at jazz festivals throughout the world. As a Kennedy

Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 8Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassador from May-July 2001, O’Leary toured several African countries with Scott Robinson and Larry Ham (The Jubliee Jazz Trio). In September 2002, O’Leary will tour East Asia as a Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassador with the Bill Heid Trio.

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Kennedy Center/Department of State Jazz Ambassadors, Summer-Fall 2002, page 9

Thursday, October 10, 2002: Kennedy Center Millennium Stage at 6 p.m.- Gilmore/Allen/Peterson Trio Guitarist David Gilmore, trumpeter Eddie Allen, and bassist Mark Peterson celebrate the 100th birthday of Louis Armstrong this year, in tonight’s concert. The concert, and the trio’s recently completed tour to the Central Asian countries of Krygyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia, were both postponed from September 2001. Guitarist David Gilmore, born in Boston, Massachusetts, and now living in Brooklyn, New York, is a graduate of New York University. A musician known for his versatility and unique rhythmic sensibilities, while still in school, he joined the emerging saxophonist Steve Coleman to form the group 5 Elements, and the group later toured Europe. His creative projects include The M-Base Collective, which serves to showcase his bent for new exploration in music. An accomplished and inspiring teacher, Gilmore received an award for outstanding service to jazz education from the 21st Annual International Association of Jazz Educators Convention (1994). Trumpeter and composer Eddie Allen studied music theory in Wisconsin before moving to New York. He has performed and recorded with such jazz greats as Art Blakey, Billy Harper, Dizzy Gillespie, Bobby Watson, Etta Jones, Houston Person, Jon Faddis, Panama Francis, Henry Threadgill, and Joe Henderson. As leader, his groups include a quartet, a quintet, an Afro-Cuban-Brasilian group, and a 16- piece big band, all of which feature Allen’s own compositions and arrangements. Bassist and composer Mark Peterson, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and now living in Brooklyn, New York, had his first professional job as a musician on a six-month Caribbean tour as bassist and chief musical director for the Americana Orchestra. During his tour, Peterson was influenced by the diverse music history of the Caribbean Islands. He also performed in the pit orchestra for the Broadway musical, Miss Saigon. In 1999 he released his first recording as a leader, entitled The Blue Room. Peterson can be heard on Alain N’Kossi Konda’s recently released first CD.