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Paul Peress | |
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| Born | New York, New York, U.S. |
| Genres | Jazz, Latin jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, composer, record producer, fiction writer |
| Instrument(s) | Drums |
| Years active | 1988–present |
| Website | paulperess |
Paul Peress is an American drummer, composer, and record producer.
Peress grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas. He started on violin when he was six years old, then played trumpet when he was twelve. His family moved after his father, Maurice Peress, became music director for the Kansas City Philharmonic. He attended Hunter College, then Columbia University, achieving a BA in Economics. After college, He went on to study drums privately with Kenwood Dennard and Kim Plainfield. [1] In 1987, he formed a jazz rock band with his sister, singer Anika Paris; they released an album in 1990. Peress took a departure from music from 1992 to 1998: Peress was Director of Commercial Leasing for the firm Walter & Samuels in New York City. [2] He returned to Music full-time in 1998, as composer, drummer, and bandleader of The Paul Peress Project, and began touring almost immediately.
The Paul Peress Project–with Peress as Music Director/Drummer–has been the backing band for Chaka Khan, Moby, Regina Belle, Brenda Russell, Deniece Williams, Tom Scott, Phil Perry, and sideman with Mary Wilson (The Supremes). The Paul Peress Project has appeared internationally: at the Standard Bank Joy of Jazz festival in Johannesburg SA, St. Kitts Music Festival, Saint Lucia Jazz Festival, Jamaica Jazz and Blues Festival, Berkeley Jazz Festival, Heineken Jazz Festival, Kaslo Jazz Etc. Festival, Puerto Rico's Festival Internacional de Jazz Latino, and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. Peress has lent his services to Foundation Fighting Blindness, Farm Sanctuary, In Defense of Animals, and Humane USA, performing with Moby, The B-52's, Stephen Bishop, and Eileen Ivers. [3]
Peress has co-written songs with Grammy winners Brenda Russell, Bill Champlin, & Deniece Williams. [4]
New-York Historical Society : Peress produced four concerts in 2005 and 2006 paralleling NYHS's groundbreaking exhibit, "Slavery in New York". The 2005 concerts were coined, "The Influence of Enslaved Peoples on Music in and About the Americas", and featured Arturo O'Farrill, Candido Camero, David Amram, and Guy Davis. In 2006, the series continued with two more concerts, one with Jimmy Heath and the other with Candido Camero. All four concerts were designed to show the evolution of the respective genres (Afro-Cuban, blues, jazz, Latin jazz) and demonstrated the music's development from its earliest forms to the present. [5]
Lincoln Center: Guy Davis, Michael Hill, and Paul Ossola were featured in a "Routes of the Blues" concert at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, demonstrating the history of the blues. [6]
Merkin Concert Hall: Peress was commissioned by Donald Maggin in 2007 to co-produce a concert titled "Jazz, The Religious Roots". It featured Carla Cook and Arturo O'Farrill with guests, Michael Mossman, and Chembo Corniel. [7]
Concert for Haiti: Peress performed at the Hard Rock Hotel Punta Cana on April 30, 2011, in a concert benefiting Wyclef Jean's Yéle Haiti Foundation to raise funds for Haitian earthquake victims. Guests included Gerald Veasley, [8] the Manhattans lead singer, Lee Williams, and Grammy winner Deniece Williams. [9] [10]
His sister, singer and pianist Anika Paris, wrote Making Your Mark in Music about performing. [11] His aunt, Jane Velez-Mitchell, wrote about addiction in iWant. [12]
The Modern Jazz Quartet (MJQ) was a jazz combo established in 1952 that played music influenced by classical, cool jazz, blues and bebop. For most of its history the Quartet consisted of John Lewis (piano), Milt Jackson (vibraphone), Percy Heath, and Connie Kay (drums). The group grew out of the rhythm section of Dizzy Gillespie's big band from 1946 to 1948, which consisted of Lewis and Jackson along with bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke. They recorded as the Milt Jackson Quartet in 1951 and Brown left the group, being replaced on bass by Heath. During the early-to-mid-1950s they became the Modern Jazz Quartet, Lewis became the group's musical director, and they made several recordings with Prestige Records, including the original versions of their two best-known compositions, Lewis's "Django" and Jackson's "Bags' Groove". Clarke left the group in 1955 and was replaced as drummer by Connie Kay, and in 1956 they moved to Atlantic Records and made their first tour to Europe.
Andrew Charles Cyrille is an American avant-garde jazz drummer. Throughout his career, he has performed both as a leader and a sideman in the bands of Walt Dickerson and Cecil Taylor, among others. AllMusic biographer Chris Kelsey wrote: "Few free-jazz drummers play with a tenth of Cyrille's grace and authority. His energy is unflagging, his power absolute, tempered only by an ever-present sense of propriety."
Eugene Edward "Snooky" Young was an American jazz trumpeter. He was known for his mastery of the plunger mute, with which he was able to create a wide range of sounds.
Charles James Shavers was an American jazz trumpeter who played with Dizzy Gillespie, Nat King Cole, Roy Eldridge, Johnny Dodds, Jimmie Noone, Sidney Bechet, Midge Williams, Tommy Dorsey, and Billie Holiday. He was also an arranger and composer, and one of his compositions, "Undecided", is a jazz standard.
Giovanni Hidalgo a.k.a. "Mañenguito" is a Latin jazz percussionist.
Glen Velez is a four-time Grammy winning American percussionist, vocalist, and composer, specializing in frame drums from around the world. He is largely responsible for the increasing popularity of frame drums in the United States and around the world. Velez is married to Loire.
Cándido Camero Guerra, known simply as Cándido, was a Cuban conga and bongo player. He is considered a pioneer of Afro-Cuban jazz and an innovator in conga drumming. He was responsible for the development of tuneable conga sets, as well as the combination of congas and bongos, and other instruments such as the foot-operated cowbell.
Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill was a Cuban composer, arranger, and conductor, best known for his work in the Latin idiom, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz or "Cubop", although he also composed traditional jazz pieces and even symphonic works.
Guy Davis is an American blues guitarist, banjo player, and two-time Grammy Award nominee. He is the second child and the only son of the actors Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis.
Black, Brown and Beige is an extended jazz work written by Duke Ellington for his first concert at Carnegie Hall, on January 23, 1943. It tells the history of African Americans and was the composer's attempt to transform attitudes about race, elevate American music, specifically jazz, to be seen as on par with classical European music, and challenge America to live up to its founding principles of freedom and equality for all.
Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez is a Cuban drummer and percussionist. He has played alongside Latin jazz pianists such as Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Michel Camilo, Chucho Valdés, Eddie Palmieri and Hilario Durán.
The Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) is a non-profit organization based in Manhattan, New York that was founded in 1989. Its programs seek to help jazz and blues musicians in need of emergency funds and connect them with performance opportunities in schools and the community.
Samuel Torres is a Colombian percussionist composer and arranger. He was born in Bogotá, and started playing at age twelve and became involved with different bands in his hometown. Torres' musician credits includes collaboration for 2013 Latin Grammy nominated Alejandro Sanz "La Música No Se Toca" (2013). Although, he received classical training, Torres was intrigued by the different styles and rhythms of the Latinamerican and jazz sounds. He graduated from the University of Javeriana in Music Composition.
Herbie Lovelle was an American drummer, who played jazz, R&B, rock, and folk. He was also a studio musician and an actor.
Maurice Peress was an American orchestra conductor, educator and author.
Bobby Sanabria is an American drummer, percussionist, composer, arranger, documentary producer, educator, activist, radio show host, and writer of Puerto Rican descent who specializes in jazz and Latin jazz.
Arturo O'Farrill is a jazz musician, the son of Latin jazz musician, arranger and bandleader Chico O'Farrill, and pianist, composer, and director for the Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. He is best known for his contributions to contemporary Latin jazz, having received Grammy Awards and nominations, though he has trained in other forms such as free jazz and experimented briefly with hip hop.
Dafnis Prieto is a Cuban-American drummer, composer, bandleader, and educator.
Chad LB is a New York based saxophonist and recording artist recognized for his work as a soloist in the genres of jazz and pop music. He was a member of the multi Grammy winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra (ALJO) and has toured with popular music icon Taylor Swift. Known for his virtuosic skill and speed and intricate lines as a jazz improviser, he is also an educator and is on faculty at the San Francisco Conservatory as a visiting artist for The Roots, Jazz and American Music program.
Paul Tillman Smith is an American drummer, percussionists, songwriter, artistic director, band leader, and promoter. Smith is a native of Oakland, California, United States. He has written for Pharoah Sanders, LaToya London, and Phyllis Hyman. He is one of the co-founders of the Berkeley Junteenth Festival in Berkeley, California. Smith is the Director of the Bay Area Jazz Society. His record label is Chump Change Records, and his band is 'Park Place'. He has written over 150 songs, and has worked with Levi Seacer Jr., and Norman Connors on many record albums.
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