February 18, 2004 Millennium Stage

Cynthia Scott, vocalist, began singing in her father's church in El Dorado, Arkansas. She received both her B.A. and M.A. in music from the Manhattan School of Music. Her professional career began as one of the Ray Charles Raelettes, and she has also performed with Lionel Hampton, Cab Calloway, Joe Williams, Oscar Peterson, the Count Basie Orchestra, Lou Donaldson, Wynton Marsalis, and Harry Connick, Jr. Her latest CD, entitled Boom Boom, was recorded live in Japan with the Norman Simmons Trio. For ten years, Scott sang with a big band at New York's prestigious Supper Club, and she has performed throughout Europe, Asia, South America, and Canada. She received a 2002 Grammy Award nomination for her release A La Carte, and was a finalist in the 1998 International Thelonius Monk Jazz Vocal Competition. http://www.cynthiascott.com

Steve Ash, pianist, a native of Pittsburgh, received his B.A. in jazz piano from the Indiana University School of Music. For over twenty years, he has lived and performed in New York City, including steady engagements at the Rainbow Room and Windows on the World. He has played with many established jazz musicians, such as Frank Wess, Dave Liebman, Rufus Reid, Eddie Harris, Chris Connor, Annie Ross, Mel Lewis, Doc Cheatham, Ruby Braff, Vernell Fournier, Lewis Nash, and Peter Washington. He has toured and recorded with Warren Vache's All Stars. Recordings include Warren Vache's Swingtime, Still Comin' On Up (Metropolitan BoperaHouse), and The Evening Sound with the Neal Miner Sextet.

Alvin R. Atkinson, Jr., drummer, became a student of the drum at age eight and has been playing ever since. Highlights include: a performance at the White House for President George W. Bush in 2002, house drummer for the 2002-2003 season of the Emeril Live television show on the Food Network, the Kennedy Center's 2002-2003 Harlem national tour, performances with the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet at Lincoln Center, and a film score entitled A Tale of Two Pizzas with Freddie Cole. In addition to touring and performing with his own group, he appeared with Tom Browne on the Mo' Jamaica Funk tour, 1996-2001, and with Grammy-nominated Nnenna Freelon on her 2001 Soul Call tour. He created sound effects for the 2002 Kennedy Center production The Red Badge of Courage. Atkinson has been featured in concert with Freddy redd, Benny Green, Ellis Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, Donald Brown, Steve Wilson, Fred Wesley, Mark Elf, Houston Person, Curtis Fuller, Branford Marsalis, Ray Codrington, Harold Ousley, Charlie Byrd, Oscar Brown, Jr., Ernie Andrews, and Vanessa Rubin.

Joseph Lepore, bassist, was born in New York in 1967 and, after moving to Europe with his family, began his formal music training at age twelve in Italy. At fifteen he started playing the double bass and in 1992 graduated with high honors from the Conservatory of Salerno. Though he attended a workshop with Italian bass player Furio Di Castri in 1996, he is mostly self-taught. In 1997, the jazz quartet in which he played won first prize for best musical group in the Europ' Jazz Contest in Brussels. He has played in numerous jazz festivals, including the Gexto Jazz Festival in Spain, the Liegi festival in Belgium, and the Umbria Jazz Festival in Italy. In 1999, Lepore returned to New York and since then has been a member of Trio 65, the house band at the Rainbow Room. He has performed with David Liebman, Steve Grossman, Tony Scott, Elliot Zigmund, Peter Bernstein, Sam Yahel, Jimmy Lovelace, Harry Whitaker, Ronnie Matthews, Eric Lewis, Frank Hewitt, and many others. He has also appeared on recordings with Rosario Giuliani, Claudio Colasazza, Sergio Esposito, Nicola Mingo, and Claire Gobin. Lepore played the jazz bassist in the film The Talented Mr. Ripley.

February 24, 2004
Millennium Stage

Jay Klum, vocalist and pianist, performed from a young age in church and later with local jazz and Latin bands while studying music at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. After completing her studies, she moved to L.A. where she began making a name for herself at jazz venues that included Concerts By the Sea, The Blue Room, and the Candy Store. Klum toured Nigeria, Haiti, and Japan before performing full time in top jazz clubs in Japan for eight years. In 1991, Klum moved to New York City and her career continued to excel with engagements at Fat Tuesdays, the Village Gate, Sugar Hill, Green Avenue Grill, Tatou, Sweetwaters, and others. She was a finalist in the 1992 John Coltrane Competition and a featured vocalist on saxophonist Benny Russell's European tour. Recordings include the soundtrack for the film In the Soup and drummer Leon Parker's Above and Below. With husband and saxophonist Ted Klum, she formed Alltribe Music and Alltribe Records LLC under which her 2002 release Home Cookin' appears.

Bill Heid, vocalist and keyboardist, has performed throughout the U.S., Canada, and Europe with stays in Japan and Singapore. From 1965 to the mid-70s he played the Hammond B-3 organ in clubs with his own groups and artists such as Jimmy Ponder, Bruce Foreman, Grant Green, Sonny Stitt, David “Fathead” Newman, Grachan Monchur III, Eddie Gladden, and Mickey Roker. While based in Chicago from 1975 to 1984, he fronted his own groups and toured with blues artists Son Seals, Jimmy Witherspoon, John Lee Hooker, and Fenton Robinson, and played on several Alligator Records with Robinson, Ko Ko Taylor, and Roy Buchanan. Working and living in Detroit from 1984 until 1999, Heid appeared on numerous records with Detroit blues legends Johnnie Bassett, Joe Weaver, and Alberta Adams. A 2002 Jazz Ambassador, his group toured Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. Recordings as a leader include This is My Rifle (Muse/Westside), Bop Rascal (Savant), Wet Streets (Savant), Dark Secrets (Savant) and many others.

Patrick O'Leary, bassist, studied piano and bass at Potsdam State University's Crane School of Music where he received his B.A. in music. Originally from Buffalo and now living in New York City, he has toured the U.S., Canada, Europe, South America, Australia, and Japan with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, the Illinois Jacquet Orchestra, the Hal Garper Trio, and Teri Thornton. Also with Hampton, he recorded the Grammy-nominated Sentimental Journey (Atlantic). O'Leary has recorded with J.R. Monterose, Mundell Lowe, Mel Lewis, Bucky Pizzarelli, Jerry Bergozi, and Scott Robinson. Other artists with whom O'Leary has played include Diana Krall, James Moody, Junior Cook, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Barry Harris, Junior Mance, Joe Williams, and Marlena Shaw. He regularly appears at The Blue Note, The Village Vanguard, Bradley's, Fat Tuesdays, The Iridium, and has recently performed at the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. As a 2001 Jazz Ambassador, he toured West Africa, and in 2002 toured Southeast Asia and South America.

Michael D. Petrosino, drummer, received the Ralph Faulk Music Scholarship from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He is also a recipient of the Outstanding Performance Award at the Elmhurst Jazz Festival and the Tri C Jazz Festival. Petrosino has performed with Slide Hampton, Gladys Knight, Ron Afif, Bruce Barth, Ralph Lallama, Steve Allen, Gerri Allen, Ben Vereen, Lou Rawls, Jeannie Bryson, Laverne Butler, Chris Potter, Rick Margitza, Dena Derose, The Fifth Dimension, The Temptations, the Toledo Jazz Orchestra, the Bill Mobley Big Band, and the George Andre Brazilian Big Band. Petrosino toured Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia with the Bill Heid Trio as a 2002 Jazz Ambassador.

March 9, 2004
Millennium Stage

May 20, 2004
Millennium Stage

The Kelley Johnson Quartet
Kelley Johnson, John Hansen, Nathan Peck, Jon Wikan

June 8, 2004
Millennium Stage

Roseanna Vitro, vocalist, is due to release her new recording, Tropical Postcards, with pianist Kenny Werner (A-Records/Challenge, January 2004). She performed with Benny Golson and Don Braden at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in May 2003. She appeared at the November 2002 Jazz Yatra Festival in Bombay, India with new and eclectic ensemble, From Bebop To Bombay, fusing jazz and classical Indian music. Last Christmas, Vitro taped a television special with the Maribor Philharmonic Orchestra before concert audiences in Maribor and Ljubljiana, Slovenia. She performed at the AngraJazz Azores Festival on the Portugese Island of Terceira; with Jon Hendricks at New Jersey City University, where she is the Director of the Vocal Jazz Department; and the Davidoff International Vocal Jazz Festival in Capetown, South Africa. On her eighth recording, Conviction, Thoughts of Bill Evans, Vitro worked with Evans' own favorite bass player, Eddie Gomez. Her recording Passion Dance (Telarc Jazz) was critically acclaimed by Jazz Times. Catchin' Some Rays, a tribute to Ray Charles, received attention from Downbeat, Jazziz, and CNN. In June of 1998, Vitro was inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame. In 1978, after moving to New York, she sat in with vibes giant, Lionel Hampton who immediately took her out on the road. She has appeared at the Village Vanguard, Town Hall, The Blue Note, Fat Tuesday's, Birdland and The Five Spot in New York; the Women in Jazz Festival at The Kennedy Center; The IAJE and Jazz Times Conventions; Frank Foster's 70th Birthday Concert for NPR and the IAJE; The Newark Jazz Festival; the Santa Barbara Jazz Festival, the Telluride Jazz Festival recorded live for NPR; BET on Jazz; NPR's "Piano Jazz" with Marian McPartland; and much more. In addition to her third year as Director of the Jazz Vocal Program at New Jersey City University, she is a resident faculty member at SUNY Purchase and the New Jersey Performaing Arts Center.

Joe Elefante, pianist, saxophonist, vocalist, and arranger, began playing piano at age six and saxophone at age 9. After studying with Andy Fusco and Walt Weiskopf, he began playing professionally at sixteen. He attended New York University before transferring to New Jersey City University. At 19 he was musical director for the production of Me and My Girl at the Williams Center for Arts in Rutherford, New Jersey. He composed and recorded the musical A Paris Affair and continued to write and compose his own jazz and pop songs. Vocalist Jon Hendricks performed his big band arrangement of “New Rhumba,” and vocalist Rosanna Vitro commissioned two orchestral arrangements for her concert in Slovenia. In 2001, Elefanta attended Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead at the Kennedy Center and the BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in New York. His latest project, the Joe Elefante Big Band released Vanity Fair (2002, JEBB Music), a collection of ten of Elefante's original compositions.

Tim Horner, drummer, has toured extensively through Europe, Asia, and North and South America. His father, a drummer and musical director at their church, and mother, organist and pianist, were his biggest influences while growing up in Roanoke, Virginia. Although he studied the violin, viola, and drums throughout his youth, he concentrated on drumming when he entered Berklee College of Music in 1974. Since moving to New York in 1980, he has worked and recorded with many artists, including the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, the Maria Schneider Jazz Orchestra, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, Mark Murphy, Joe Locke, Tom Lellis, Joe Williams, Wynton Marsalis, Rufus Reid, Bill Mays, Kenny Werner, the John Hart Trio, and others.

Dean Johnson, bassist, has worked with a variety of artists since his arrival in New York in 1980, including: Dave Liebman, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, Grover Washington, Wynton Marsalis, Steve Kuhn, Bill Mays, Maurizio Giammarco, Ronny Cuber, Albert Dailey, Sheila Jordan, Carol Sloane, Helen Merrill, Bill Charlap, and many others. Johnson spent ten years with Gerry Mulligan, until his passing in 1996, participating in the Quartet, Nonet, Big Band, and Orchestra, and performing in concerts and festivals all over the world. Born in Seattle, Washington in 1956, Johnson studied bass violin with Gary Peacock, as well as piano and composition at the Cornish Institute in Seattle. On the West Coast, he has worked with many artists, including Sonny Stitt, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Clark Terry, Buddy Tate, Arnett Cobb, Herb Ellis, Ernestine Anderson, and Mark Murphy. From 1974 to 1976, he attended the Berklee College of Music, studying with Rich Appleman, John Neves, John LaPorta, and Herb Pomeroy.

Deborah Davis, vocalist, is a native of Dallas, Texas. Growing up in a house without a radio, she developed her own singing style, performing in church, local gospel ensembles, school talent shows, beauty contests, at parties, and on commercial jingles. Her school choir director and mentor, Robert Sanders, added her to his weekend jazz gigs. Davis went on to earn her Bachelor of music education in vocal studies from North Texas University and an Associate Arts degree in recording and engineering at Cedar Valley College. By the time she graduated, she was a permanent fixture on the Dallas jazz scene. As well as leading her own jazz bands, she opened for artists such as Bobbi Humphrey, Deborah Laws, and Angela Bofill. In 1986, Davis moved to New York. In addition to theater work, she has performed with Ray Brown, Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey, Lou Donaldson, Delfeayo Marsalis, Cyrus Chestnut, Christian McBride, Brian Blade, and many more. She has sung at such venues as The Blue Note, Birdland, Village Vanguard, Sweet Basil, The Five Spot, Tavern on the Green, and The Rainbow Room. In addition to annual tours throughout Europe and Asia, Davis formed her own company, Manhattan Music Design, and her own label, Got My Own Music.

Alvin R. Atkinson, Jr., drummer, became a student of the drum at age eight and has been playing ever since. Highlights include: a performance at the White House for President George W. Bush in 2002, house drummer for the 2002-2003 season of the Emeril Live television show on the Food Network, the Kennedy Center's 2002-2003 Harlem national tour, performances with the Wycliffe Gordon Quartet at Lincoln Center, and a film score entitled A Tale of Two Pizzas with Freddie Cole. In addition to touring and performing with his own group, he appeared with Tom Browne on the Mo' Jamaica Funk tour, 1996-2001, and with Grammy-nominated Nnenna Freelon on her 2001 Soul Call tour. He created sound effects for the 2002 Kennedy Center production The Red Badge of Courage. Atkinson has been featured in concert with Freddy redd, Benny Green, Ellis Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Barry Harris, Roy Hargrove, Donald Brown, Steve Wilson, Fred Wesley, Mark Elf, Houston Person, Curtis Fuller, Branford Marsalis, Ray Codrington, Harold Ousley, Charlie Byrd, Oscar Brown, Jr., Ernie Andrews, and Vanessa Rubin.

Ameen Saleem, bassist and Washington, D.C. native, took up bass at age 12 and participated in the District of Columbia Youth Orchestra program. He later attended the Duke Ellington School of the Arts where first encountered jazz under the direction of saxophonist Dave Yarborough and bassist Steve Novacel. With both the D.C. Youth Orchestra and the Duke Ellington School of the Arts, Saleem honed his classical and jazz musical skills and performed in venues around the world, including the East Coast, Hampton, Montreaux, and North Sea jazz festivals. He received a full scholarship to North Carolina Central University where he performed with the jazz band at the Grady Tate, Montreaux, Carolina, and Vienne jazz festivals, as well as with local musicians. Upon graduating, Saleem returned to D.C. where he played as a sideman and a badnleader. He now resides in Bayside Queens, New York where he is pursuing his M.A. in music performance and arranging. Recordings include Schuman Nature with Tom Schuman, A Time for Soul with the Winard Harper Sextet, and Beyond the Horizons and Central Standard Time with the North Carolina University Jazz Emsemble.

James Weidman, pianist, has played and recorded with artists as diverse as Max Roach, Woody Herman, Archie Shepp, James Moody, Greg Osby, Slide Hampton, Jay Hoggard, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Gloria Lynne, and Dakota Staton. For five years he was the featured keyboardist for Steve Coleman and the Five Elements and the M-Base Collective, as well as being a part of the Spirit of Life Ensemble that held the Monday night spot at Sweet Basil in New York. Weidman has accompanied vocalists Abbey Lincoln and Cassandra Wilson, arranging for the latter's Blue Skies CD. Since 1992 he has been pianist and musical director for Kevin Mahagony. Recently, he produced singer Ruth Naomi Floyd's Fan into Flame (their third collaboration). His first album as a leader is People Music (TCB Records), and his upcoming second is titled It's ‘Bout Time. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, Weidman learned to play jazz at the age of seven from his father. By age 13, he was playing organ in his father's jazz band. After graduating from Youngstown University, he moved to New York and soon found himself playing with Cecil Payne, Harold Ousley, Bobby Watson, and Pepper Adams, before falling in with Steve Coleman. Since 1978, Weidman has collaborated with saxophonist TK Blue. He has performed at the world's major jazz festivals, including Montreux, Monerey, Newport, North Sea, JVC, and and venues such as Carnegie Hall, Birdland, Blue Note, Sweet Basil, Village Vanguard, Iridium, and Jazz Standard.