Tag: Berklee College of Music

After Hours featuring Christian Jacob, air date Feb. 23, 2022

On By Charles BinghamIn Arranger, educator, Featured guest, Keyboards, PianoLeave a comment

Join me for After Hours Alaska at 9 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 23, on KRBD public radio in Ketchikan, Alaska, as I’m joined in conversation with jazz pianist Christian Jacob.

Christian is a multi-Grammy-nominated pianist and arranger and first gained widespread exposure as music director for Maynard Ferguson and later as leader of the Christian Jacob Trio and co-leader of the Tierney Sutton Band.

“A post-bop modernist touched by the souls of Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett. … Pianist Christian Jacob is a wonderful player whose crystalline melodies and expansive harmonies mark him as someone to keep an ear on.” ~ JAZZ TIMES

Born in Lorraine, France, Christian fell in love with classical music at age 4 and discovered jazz at age 9. After graduating with “First Prize” from the Paris Conservatory, Jacob came to America to focus on improvisation at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.  While attending Berklee, Christian won a number of awards, including the Oscar Peterson Jazz Masters Award, the Great American Jazz Piano Competition and “Downbeat” magazine’s distinction as Top Collegiate Jazz Soloist. He went on to teach at Berklee, tour with Maynard Ferguson, perform and record with a number of jazz legends and was listed by The Japan Times as one of the best-selling foreign jazz pianists in Japan. His extensive discography includes five critically acclaimed trio recordings and seven Grammy nominations from his alliance with vocalist Tierney Sutton, drummer Ray Brinker and bassists Trey Henry and Kevin Axt. Christian also received a Grammy Nomination as an arranger with The Phil Norman Tentet.

While Christian performs year round, his arranging skills are also highly sought after. He has been arranging for the Swiss Youth Jazz Orchestra since 1990 and The Scottish National Jazz Orchestra since 2005, featuring such talented artists as John Scofield, Billy Cobham, Charlie Haden, Phil Woods, Joe Lovano, Ron Carter and Gary Burton. Christian’s latest collaboration has been with renowned Japanese composer Kunihiko Murai and Maestro Jorge Calandrelli.

In 2014, Christian released his first solo piano recording, Beautiful Jazz: a private concert, aptly titled as this intimate solo recording is a dedication to the music that drew him away from the classical world and introduced him to the beautiful world of jazz. Recorded in pure analog and available as a limited edition vinyl LP.

In 2016, the original score to director Clint Eastwood’s box-office smash “Sully”, was created by Christian, The Tierney Sutton Band and Clint Eastwood. It was a fulfilling moment, to orchestrate his and the band’s music for a 70-piece orchestra and hear it live with the brilliant Conrad Pope conducting. The following year Eastwood asked Christian to compose the music for his next film, “The 15:17 to Paris.”

Click this link to go to Christian’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Steve Hass, air date March 17, 2021

On By Charles BinghamIn Drums, Drums/Percussion, Featured guestLeave a comment

Join me for the March 17, 2021, edition of After Hours on KRBD Rainbird Radio (and later on KSTK and KCAW Raven Radio) as I’m joined in conversation with jazz drummer Steve Hass.

Receiving a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Steve was inspired enough to learn every style of music he could, including checking out the music from Cuba, Africa, India, and the Middle East. Steve continues this philosophy today from jazz to hip-hop, from world to rock all the while traveling around the world offering a vast musical knowledge originality and genuine feel within every rhythm he creates.

In 2003 Steve began touring and recording with multiple Grammy winners and Atlantic recording artists, The Manhattan Transfer. He remains the first-call drummer for The Manhattan Transfer, and works with them as his schedule permits. He is the first touring drummer in the history of the band to actually record with them.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Steve Hass, originally broadcast on March 17, 2021. Click here to visit Steve’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Ingrid Jensen, air date Jan. 20, 2021

On By Charles BinghamIn educator, Featured guest, TrumpetLeave a comment

Join me for the Jan. 20 edition of After Hours on KRBD Rainbird Radio (and later on KSTK and KCAW Raven Radio) as I’m joined in conversation with Canadian trumpet player, Ingrid Jensen.

Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Ingrid has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1989, she went on to record three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA record label, soon becoming one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the global jazz scene.

After a teaching stint in Europe in her early twenties – as the youngest professor in the history of the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria – Ingrid settled in New York City in the mid-1990s where she joined the innovative jazz orchestras of Maria Schneider (1994-2012) and Darcy James Argue (2002-present). More recently, Ingrid has performed with the Grammy-winning Terri-Lyne Carrington and her Mosaic Project, Helen Sung’s Sung with Words project and the highly acclaimed all-star ensemble, Artemis.

Ingrid is a featured soloist on the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra’s Juno-award-winning album, Treelines (2011), and its successor, Habitat (2013). She has performed with a multi-generational cast of jazz legends ranging from Clark Terry to Esperanza Spalding; Ingrid has also performed alongside British R&B artist Corrine Bailey Rae on Saturday Night Live, and recorded with Canadian pop icon Sarah McLachlan. In addition to her busy sideman and featured soloist schedule, Jensen leads her own quintet, quartet and organ trio. Her own bands have garnered glowing reviews and earned her a loyal fan base around the globe.

Jensen is also a dedicated jazz educator, having taught trumpet at the University of Michigan and Peabody Conservatory, performing and lecturing as a guest artist with the Thelonious Monk Institute High School group featuring Herbie Hancock, and performing and teaching at the Centrum Jazz Workshop, The Dave Brubeck Institute, the Banff Centre Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music and the Stanford Jazz Camp and the Geri Allen Jazz Camp for young women. She is currently on faculty at both Purchase College, and is serving as Interim Associate Dean and Director of Jazz Arts at Manhattan School of Music.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Ingrid Jensen, originally broadcast on Jan. 20, 2021. Click here to visit Ingrid’s personal website.

After Hours featuring Caterina Zapponi, air date March 9, 2020

On By Charles BinghamIn Vocals2 Comments

Join me for the March 9, 2020, edition of After Hours on KCAW Raven Radio as I’m joined in conversation with the fabulously gifted Italian-French multi-lingual jazz vocalist Caterina Zapponi, who also is an actress.

Caterina was born and raised in Rome, the daughter of celebrated Italian screenwriter Bernardino Zapponi, a collaborator and longtime friend of Federico Fellini. Her mother was a French-born chanteuse and instilled in Caterina her love of the French repertoire. Caterina is married to veteran jazz pianist Monty Alexander, who was interviewed for the After Hours show that aired on Jan. 13, 2020.

The film High Society helped introduce Caterina to jazz while fueling a desire to move to the United States, which she did upon receiving a scholarship from Berklee College of Music. She graduated in two years and won the Berklee Cleo Laine Award for vocal achievement and performance.

Caterina was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Vocal Jazz Competition and has since performed at prestigious venues including New York’s Birdland, and The Blue Note, and internationally at the Verbier and Saint Barthelemy festivals. She has also performed internationally with pianist Monty Alexander at numerous venues including London’s Ronnie Scott’s, Marseille Jazz Festival, Paris’New Morning and Theatre des Champs Elysees, Tokyo’s Blue Note and Cotton Club, Switzerland’s Cully and Bern Festivals, Russia’s Moscow International House of Music, and at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Click this link to listen to the After Hours show featuring Caterina Zapponil, originally broadcast on March 9, 2020. Click here to visit Caterina’s personal website.