Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Irvin Mayfield, Jr. was born on born December 23, 1977 in New Orleans, Louisiana, the youngest of five brothers, three half-brothers and a half-sister. He received his first trumpet when he was in the fourth grade, asking his father for one after seeing the success a friend of his was having with girls by playing the instrument. Early in his public school education, he befriended fellow schoolmate Jason Marsalis. As a young man he attended and graduated from New Orleans Center for Creative Arts, declined a scholarship to Juilliard School of Music to attend the University of New Orleans, then dropped out during his first semester.

Mayfield began his musical career during the latter half of the 1980s, playing with the Algiers Brass Band, shared a New York City apartment with Wynton Marsalis for a brief period and helped found Los Hombres Calientes with Bill Summers, Jason Marsalis, Victor Atkins III, David Pulphus, and Yvette-Bostic Summers. Signing with Basin Street Records, the groups debut album garnerd much success and Irvin received national recognition.

As an educator Mayfield would go on to be an artist-in-residence and establish the Institute of Jazz Culture at Dillard University, found the sixteen-piece New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, accept a one-year appointment as Artistic Director of Jazz at Orchestra Hall, the five-concert jazz series of the Minnesota Orchestra, received The Chancellor’s Award from the University of New Orleans, and awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Dillard University,

Over the course of his still vibrant career, Mayfield has been a part of the Higher GroundHurricane Relief Benefit Concert in the aftermath of Katrina, and was nominated to the National Council on the Arts by President George W. Bush and was subsequently appointed to the post by President Obama in 2010, serving through 2014. He has  performed at the White House and festivals around the country, was made a Cultural Ambassador of the City of New Orleans, has a club named after him in the Royal Sonesta Hotel and has recorded to date, twenty-five albums.

Grammy and Billboard Award-winning trumpeter Irvin Mayfield currently serves as Jazz Artist in Residence for the Apollo Theater, is Artistic Director of the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra and continues to perform, record and tour with his small groups and occasionally with Los Hombres Calientes.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Jacques Lesure was born on December 19, 1962 in Detroit, Michigan. He began playing guitar when he was ten years old, attended Renaissance High School and Interlochen Arts Academy every summer. Started playing in church, he played with the Clark Sisters for many years. He went on to attend Wayne State University.

Signed to WJ# Records, owned by Willie Jones III, he is label mates with Eric Reed and Warren Wolf. He has performed with Kenny Burrell, Oscar Brown Jr., Jimmy Smith, Stanley Turrentine, Freddy Cole, Wynton Marsalis, George Benson, Jack McDuff, Les McCann, Carmen Lundy, Oliver Lake, Paula West and the list goes on and on.

In a career that has spanned 30 years to date, he has collaborated in the creation of and performed in stage plays, movie scores and special projects for television. Active in the Los Angeles, California community where he resides, as an educator he mentors many up and coming musicians. He is the Musical Director for the Living Legends Foundation, President of the African-American Jazz Caucus, is an Artist Teacher for the Monk Institute, Music LA and The Dolo Coker Jazz Foundation, and a national adjudicator, judging student competitions nationwide. Guitarist Jacques Lesure continues to perform and tour with his group and as a sideman.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Joris Teepe was born in the Hague, Netherlands on November 27, 1962. He studied the bass at the Conservatory of Amsterdam and in 1992 the left-handed bassist moved to New York City. He recorded his debut album as a leader the following year, with co-leader tenor saxophonist Don Braden, trumpeter Tom Harrell, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and Carl Allen on drums.

A second album was released in 1996 followed by his playing and recording with the Intercontinental Jazz Trio, with Shingo Okudaira and Tim Armacost, with Randy Brecker and Chris Potter and groups that almost always included Don Braden.

In the past years he started working with larger big bands like the Groningen Art Ensemble, Brian Lynch and trombonist Conrad Herwig, and the Joris Teepe Big Band. He composes, plays and records are original compositions, but also arranges other people’s material, such as Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn and John Coltrane and has written for larger ensembles and symphonic orchestras.

Teepe has collaborated with Joey Berkley, Ron Jackson, Darrell Grant, Antonio Ciacca, Mathilde Santing, Deborah Brown, and Fay Claassen. Active in jazz-education heading up the jazz department at the Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen, teaches bass at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center and continues to compose, arrange, perform, record and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Terell Stafford was born on November 25, 1966 in Miami Florida and raised in Chicago, Illinois and Silver Spring, Maryland. Originally a classical trumpet player, he soon branched out to jazz with the University of Maryland jazz band. He went on to get a degree in music education from the University of Maryland in 1988 and a degree in classical trumpet performance from Rutgers University in 1993.

Soon afterwards his career in jazz picked up and playing with McCoy Tyner, Christian McBride, John Clayton, Steve Turre, Dave Valentin and Russell Malone. In 1995 he released his debut album Time To Let Go on the Candid label. Not one to settle for the status quo of who’s who, he has found other up-and-comers such as bassist Derrick Hodge, who appears as a sideman on his 2003 MaxJazz release New Beginnings.

As an educator Stafford is the current Director of Jazz Studies at the Boyer College of Music and Dance at Temple University, has worked with the Juilliard School’s jazz program at the Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington program, and with the 2006 All-Alaska Jazz Band.

In between his teaching responsibilities trumpeter Terell Stafford has performed at Carnegie Hall, has been a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, recorded nine CDs, performed as a sideman with Stephen Scott, Shirley Scott, Bobby Watson, Lafayette Harris, Cecil Brooks III, Tim Warfield, Ed Wiley, Cornell Dupree, Herbie Mann, Victor Lewis, Marc Cary, Melissa Walker Ferit Odman, Jack cooper, Bruce Barth and the Arkadia Jazz All Stars as he continues to perform, record and tour.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mark Shim was born on November 21, 1973 in Kingston, Jamaica but raised in Canada from the age of eight months to five years. Then his family moved to Richmond, Virginia. He started playing tenor saxophonist in the seventh grade through high school. Graduating in 1991 he attended Virginia Commonwealth University and William Patterson College.

1994 saw Shim moving to Brooklyn, New York where he played and recorded with Hamiet Bluiett in Harlem. He then played with Elvin Jones, Mose Allison, Betty Carter, Greg Osby and the Mingus Big Band.

He recorded his debut album Mind Over Matter for Blue Note Records in 1998, with his sophomore project New Directions with Stefon Harris, Jason Moran and Greg Osby and Turbulent Flow released in 2000. Tenor saxophonist Mark Shim continues to perform, record and tour.

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