The American Music Program Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra is a nationally known jazz band in Portland, Oregon and magnet school program, professionally training young musicians from 7th-12th grade, under the direction of jazz saxophonist Devin Phillips.
The band was founded in 2005, by Thara Memory and LeAnn Kritz. Many of the original members came from his previous band program at Beaverton's Arts and Communication Magnet Academy and from the jazz orchestra he led within Portland's Metropolitan Youth Symphony. Currently the band draws from all over the Portland metropolitan area, including students from Portland Public Schools as well as from surrounding communities such as Battle Ground, Washington. [1]
The band performs in competitions across the country, including the Essentially Ellington Competition at Lincoln Center, [2] [3] [4] [5] the Next Generation Jazz Festival in Monterey, [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] the Charles Mingus Festival and Competition, [11] [12] Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, Swing Central at the Savannah Music Festival, and locally at events such as the Mt. Hood Jazz Festival and the (newly formed in 2015) PDX Jazz Forward Competition. [13]
They have performed with or opened for Obo Addy, [14] (alumnus) Patrick Lamb, Bennie Maupin, [15] Chuck Redd, Curtis Salgado, [16] (alumna) Esperanza Spalding, [17] Terell Stafford, and Randy Weston [18] among others.
Many students go on to attend (frequently with significant scholarship support) some of the country's top music colleges, such as The Juilliard School, [19] [20] Berklee College of Music, [21] [22] Manhattan School of Music, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, USC Thornton School of Music, [23] [24] California Institute for the Arts, Oberlin College Conservatory, and others. [25] Students in the band have been selected for the Jazz Band of America, The Grammy Band, [26] and The Monterey Next Generation Jazz Band. [27] [28] Younger band members often get scholarships to attend the Berklee 5-Week Summer Program and the Vail Jazz Workshop. [29] Students in the band often also participate in the Metropolitan Youth Symphony, Portland Youth Philharmonic, PDX Jazz Project, or Alan Jones Academy of Music.
Notable alumni include Aubrey Cleland, [30] Esperanza Spalding, Hailey Niswanger, [31] and Patrick Lamb, among others.
On May 9, 2015, the group won Jazz at Lincoln Center's Essentially Ellington high school jazz band competition, playing Ellington's Tattooed Bride from memory. [32]
Charles Mingus Jr. was an American jazz double bassist, pianist, composer, and bandleader. A major proponent of collective improvisation, he is considered to be one of the greatest jazz musicians and composers in history, with a career spanning three decades and collaborations with other jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Herbie Hancock.
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and leader of a jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life.
Charles Lloyd is an American jazz musician. Though he primarily plays tenor saxophone and flute, he has occasionally recorded on other reed instruments, including alto saxophone and the Hungarian tárogató. Lloyd's primary band since 2007 has been a quartet including pianist Jason Moran, acoustic bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Eric Harland.
PDX Pop Now! is a local annual music festival held in Portland, Oregon, and a 100% volunteer-run registered 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that organizes and promotes the festival event. It consists of a two-disc compilation released in spring; a multi-day, free, all-ages music festival in the summer; and school and community outreach programs throughout the year. The organization and the event are dedicated to "celebrating, promoting, and enhancing Portland’s vital and diverse music community." The festival was first held in 2004, and has occurred every year since that time.
The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jazz disc jockey Jimmy Lyons.
Plano West Senior High School is a public high school in Plano, Texas serving high school juniors and seniors. Plano West is named after its geographic location of the west side of Plano. The school is part of the Plano Independent School District, and enrolls students based on the locations of students' homes. Students at Plano West attended one of two high schools: Jasper or Shepton.
Money Jungle is a studio album by pianist Duke Ellington with double bassist Charles Mingus and drummer Max Roach. It was recorded on September 17, 1962, and released in February 1963 by United Artists Jazz. All but one of the compositions were written by Ellington, with four of the seven on the original LP being recorded for the first time on this album. Later releases on CD added eight tracks from the same recording session.
Joe Temperley was a Scottish jazz saxophonist. He performed with various instruments, but was most associated with the baritone saxophone, soprano saxophone, and bass clarinet.
Miguel Zenón is a Puerto Rican alto saxophonist, composer, band leader, music producer, and educator. He is a multiple Grammy Award nominee, and the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and a MacArthur Fellowship. Zenón has released many albums as a band leader and appeared on over 70 recordings as a sideman.
Arthur John Baron is an American jazz trombonist. He also plays didgeridoo, conch shell, penny-whistle, alto and bass recorder, and tuba.
Helen Sung is an American jazz pianist.
Jimmy Owens is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, arranger, lecturer, and educator. He has played with Lionel Hampton, Charles Mingus, Hank Crawford, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie, Herbie Mann, among many others. Since 1969, he has led his own group, Jimmy Owens Plus.
The Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival is an annual high school jazz festival and competition that takes place every May at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. The festival is aimed at encouraging young musicians to play music by Duke Ellington and other jazz musicians.
Sue Graham Mingus is an American record producer and band manager. She is the widow of jazz composer and bassist Charles Mingus.
MusicfestNW (MFNW) was a multi-venue music festival that took place every fall in Portland, Oregon from 2001 to 2018. In 2014 the format of the festival changed to a two-day waterfront music festival. The festival was organized by the alternative weekly Willamette Week. Its sister festival, TechfestNW (TFNW), was founded in 2012.
Mingus at Monterey is a live album by the jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus, recorded in 1964 at the Monterey Jazz Festival and originally released on Mingus's short-lived mail-order Jazz Workshop label but subsequently released on other labels.
Thara Memory was a trumpeter and educator from Eatonville, Florida. He attended Alabama State University and Marylhurst University. He lived in Portland, Oregon, United States from the 1980s until his death in 2017.
David Schiff is an American composer, writer and conductor whose music draws on elements of jazz, rock, and klezmer styles, showing the influence of composers as diverse as Stravinsky, Mahler, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy and Terry Riley. His music has been performed by major orchestras and festivals around the United States and by soloists David Shifrin, Regina Carter, David Taylor, Marty Ehrlich, David Krakauer, Nadine Asin and Peter Kogan. He is the author of books on the music of Elliott Carter, George Gershwin and Duke Ellington. His work has been honored by the League-ISCM National Composers Competition award and the ASCAP-Deems Taylor award for his book on Elliott Carter.
Kenji Bunch is an American composer and violist living in Portland, Oregon. Bunch currently serves as the Artistic Director of Fear No Music and teaches at Portland State University, Reed College, and for the Portland Youth Philharmonic.
Melton "Shakir" Mustafa Sr. (November 23, 1947 – December 28, 2017) was an American jazz musician, music educator, and arranger who played the trumpet and flugelhorn.