Who We Are

Jump to: General Counsel | Artistic Advisors | Advisory Council

JazzBoston is led and advised by an ever-expanding group of people who represent the depth and breadth of the city’s entire jazz scene. A working Board of Directors, stylistically diverse panel of Artistic Advisors, and active Advisory Council provide strategic and artistic direction. All essential operating positions are filled by board members and volunteers. We receive legal support from a corporate counsel, who serves pro bono.

Board of Directors

Pauline Bilsky, Executive Director

Pauline has served as a communications consultant to the top management of major for-profit and not-for-profit organizations for over 25 years. She is a former trustee of the New York Foundation for the Arts, where she was a member of the Executive, Nominating, and Development Committees. Earlier, she held a part-time pro bono position as special assistant to NYFA’s first executive director, Ted Berger. For most of the 1990s she was executive director of RUBad, Inc., a 501(c)(3) corporation under the artistic direction of composer Henry Threadgill, sponsoring innovative music and interdisciplinary projects in the United States and abroad.  Concurrently, she was also Threadgill's manager.

In her corporate work as principal of paulineb communications, Pauline develops communications strategies and programs; creates content for print, online, and multimedia projects; and manages project teams, production, and budgets. Prior to launching her consulting practice, she was manager of communications for McKinsey & Company, Inc., the international management consulting firm. Pauline holds a B.A degree from Wellesley College.

Don Carlson

Don Carlson is the managing director of Taconic Institute Inc., a management consulting firm specializing in strengthening the organizational effectiveness of corporate, government, and not-for-profit clients. He works internationally, with a clientele that has included some of the largest organizations in the world as well as regional market leaders. Formerly, he served as vice president and partner, Booz, Allen & Hamilton (New York, Singapore, and Sao Paulo); regional director, Barents Group of KPMG (Moscow); and senior engagement manager, McKinsey & Company (New York). For several years, he also served as a financial sector development consultant to The World Bank.

Don has many years of experience as a volunteer in the not-for-profit sector, serving on boards, developing strategies and operating plans, managing organizational development efforts, organizing campaigns, and leading volunteers. He is a graduate of Northeastern University and completed an advanced management program at IMEDE in Switzerland.

Ken Field

Ken Field is a saxophonist, flautist, and composer. Since 1988 he has been a member of the internationally acclaimed modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, with whom he has recorded eight CDs. He leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, an experimental and improvisational brass band.  His solo releases document his work for layered saxophones and his soundtracks for dance and film. Ken has performed for President Bill Clinton, with Trombone Shorty, Charles Neville, and former J. Geils frontman Peter Wolf, with the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, and with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.

Ken has appeared throughout North America, Europe, and Asia, and has been awarded composition residency fellowship grants at the MacDowell Colony, the Ucross Foundation, the Fundación Valparaíso, and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. His musical projects have been featured in The New York Times, Saxophone Journal, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Billboard, Cadence, The Wire, Orlando Sentinel, and many other publications.  His music is heard regularly on the television program Sesame Street.

Ken is an Applied Microphone Technology Endorser and a Vandoren Performing Artist. He hosts The New Edge, a weekly radio program on WMBR in Cambridge.  He is former Chair of the Cambridge Bicycle Committee and a member of the HONK! Organizing Committee. He also serves on the Board of Tutoring Plus of Cambridge.

David A. Green

David Green is the principal of D.A. Communications.  He brings over 35 years experience in the telecommunications industry as a government and community affairs representative, most recently for Comcast as the company’s liaison with Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s administration.  Previous positions include Program Director and Executive Producer of Local Programming for Cablevision Systems Corp., Director of Communications for the Anti-Defamation League (New England Region), and Executive Director of the Rhode Island state film library.

David has been involved with many community and arts organizations in a number of roles.  Among them are the Celebrity Series of Boston’s Board of Overseers, adviser to City Year, and Breakthrough Cambridge. Currently, he is an Adjunct Instructor at Mass Bay Community College, teaching film courses and English composition.

David is a lifelong jazz lover who grew up in a home with the music of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman and Dave Brubeck playing in the background.  He holds a Master of Science degree from Simmons College, Boston and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

Luisa Harris

Luisa Harris is an art enthusiast first and foremost. But her natural strengths lie in the art of numbers and analysis; she has been gigging for over ten years at Fidelity Investments, managing groups providing business analysis, market research and reporting.

Born in Italy, where art is in affluence, she moved to Boston in 1998 after a job offer from a friend. She encountered jazz when she encountered her husband to be, pianist and educator Kevin Harris. For the past 5 years she has successfully managed his professional career and has grown in her experience and knowledge of the music industry.

Luisa has a very special interest in shaping the world by bringing the knowledge of the arts to a wide variety of audiences. Along with her husband, they support programs throughout the world that foster music education.

Mark Harvey

Mark Harvey is a trumpeter, composer, minister, and educator. The founder and music director of the Aardvark Jazz Orchestra, he has composed more than one hundred works, received numerous commissions, released ten CDs (on Leo, Nine Winds, Aardmuse) and may be heard on more than a dozen other recordings, incuding two with George Russell (Blue Note) and three Treasures from American Film Archives DVD sets. He has performed with Gil Evans, Vinny Goila, Sheila Jordan, Howard McGhee, and Claudio Roditi among others. He founded and directed the Jazz Coalition from 1970 to 1983, which presented many Boston Jazz Weeks, All Night Concerts, and Arni Cheatham's JazzEd program. His Jazz/Arts Ministry, based at Emmanuel Church, provided outreach in a variety of ways to resident and touring musicians for over two decades, and continues in ever-evolving ways.

Mark received an A.B. from Syracuse University and Th.M. and Ph.D. degrees from Boston University. He writes and lectures on jazz, American music, and religion, and teaches jazz studies at MIT.

 José Massó

A native of Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, José Massó moved to Boston in 1973 after completing his studies at Antioch College in Ohio. His career has included prominent and groundbreaking positions in education, communications, politics, entertainment, and sports.

José is perhaps best known as announcer/producer of ¡Con Salsa! on WBUR 90.9FM in Boston, a post he has held for 36 years. Part music show, part party, part community center, ¡Con Salsa!  is "a mecca for Latinos and lovers of things Latin.”

José is a member of the Berklee College of Music Community Advisory Board; The Board of Advisors for the Emerging Leaders Program at UMASS/Boston, The Mauricio Gastón Board of Directors, the Board of Directors for the Boston Center for the Arts; The Board of Trustees of the Renaissance Charter School; a Visiting Board member of the New England Conservatory; a Foundation Board member at the Boston Arts Academy, a founder and member of the New Majority Coalition, co-convener of Somos Uno - the Latino Alliance for Progress, and co-chair of the Edward James Olmos Americanos/Bostonianos Project.
Thomas Novak

Bassoonist Thomas Novak currently serves as Dean of the College at New England Conservatory, where he is also on the faculty of the Chamber Music Department. An active chamber and freelance musician in New York for 10 years, he was a founding member of the Amerigo Ensemble, which performed at Wichita State University, and on the Evergreen House Concert Series in Baltimore. He also presented educational programs under the auspices of the New York Philharmonic and Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Novak is a former member of Quintet of the Americas, with whom he made his Carnegie Hall debut, performing in Canada, Bermuda, Venezuela, Colombia, and throughout the United States, including a residency at Northwestern University's School of Music. Furthermore, Novak has appeared with Philharmonia Virtuosi, New Haven Symphony, and Bethlehem Bach Choir, and participated in the Tanglewood Festival, and, for three consecutive summers, the Pacific Music Festival.

Jason Palmer

Throughout the years Jason has performed, worked, or recorded wth: Roy Haynes, Benny Golson, Wynton Marsalis, Greg Osby, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Ravi Coltrane, Jimmy Smith (the organist), Harry Connick Jr., Curtis Lundy, Lewis Nash, Kirk Whalum, Kevin Mahogony, Matana Roberts, Grace Kelly, Terri Lynn  Carringron, Joh Lockwood, Ali Jackson, Igor Lumpert, Joanne Brackeen, Cyrus Chestnut, Billy Pierce, Darren Barrett, Justin  Robinson, Jeremy Pelt, Herbie Hancock, Aaron Goldberg. Francisco Mela, Andre Heyward, Sean Jones, Tim Warfield, Warren  Wolf, Jimmy Greene, Bilal, Kareem Riggins, Derick Hodge, Bob Moses, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Shephard, Gabriel Hernandez, Ivan Renata, Walter Smith III, Darren Barrett, Stan Strickland, Edgar Bateman, Jeff Tain Watts, Matt Wilson, David Gilmore, Mike Moreno, Jonathan  Blake, Vincent Herring, and others.

Jason has performed at major jazz festivals internationally in countries such as  Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Malta, the Netherlands,  Finland, Germany, Kyrgystan, Switzerland, Canada, and Mexico. In 2008 Jason released his debut album, entitled "Songbook," which features Ravi Coltrane and Greg Osby. The album appeared on several "Best of 2008" lists, including the jazz category on All Music Guide's site. Downbeat magazine cited Jason as one of the top 25 trumpet players of his generation in the June 2007 issue.

Jason currently teaches at the New  School in New York City, Berklee College of Music, Prep School at the New England Conservatory for Music, and in the Boston Public School system. He is a graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music.

Emmett G. Price III

Emmett G. Price III is a musician, educator, ordained minister, and consultant, widely known for his cutting edge research on bridging the generational divide. He is an Associate Professor of Music and African American Studies at Northeastern University, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of African American Studeis. A highly regarded authority on Black Music of the United States (African American Music), Emmett is a noted broadcast and print media expert on topics including jazz, youth culture, hip hop culture, and the intersections of music and sports. His comments are frequently cited in newspapers and media outlets nationwide and abroad.

Emmett is the author of Hip Hop Culture: a reference handbook (ABC-CLIO, 2006) and the editor-in-chief of Journal of Popular Music Studies, the academic journal of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music - United States Branch (IASPM-US). His work has appeared in African American Review, American Music, Ethnomusicology, International Jazz Archives Journal, GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal, NOTES: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association, the Boston Herald, and online at www.allaboutjazz.com, where he was a columnist for the internationally acclaimed website for two years with his research-based column, Jazzology 300. Emmett also serves as the executive editor for the Encyclopedia of African American Music, a 3-volume comprehensive resource published by Greenwood Press.

Larry Simpson

Larry Simpson is Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Berklee College of Music. He is responsible for Berklee’s four academic divisions, international programs, institutional research and assessment, concert operations, special programs, library and learning resources, faculty development, and faculty relations.

Larry is active in the arts and higher education communities and currently serves on the following selected boards: National Black Arts Festival and the Musical Arts Association (The Cleveland Orchestra). He has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, Ohio Arts Council, Arts Midwest, and State of Michigan's Council for the Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Arts International among others. He has also presented at numerous conferences on the role of arts and culture in community.

Larry received his B.A. degree in Psychology from Kent State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Social Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.

Fred Taylor
Fred Taylor is Entertainment Director of Scullers Jazz Club and owner of HT Productions in Boston.  From 1963-78, he was the owner of Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop, Boston’s two leading music clubs.  Those clubs gained an international reputation for presenting current and future superstars.  Among them: Bruce Springsteen, Billy Joel, Bette Midler, Earth, Wind & Fire, Richard Pryor, Flip Wilson, Cheech & Chong, John Coltrane, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis.  

Taylor continues to utilize his unique ability to match artists with audience demand and venues at Scullers and the Wilbur Theatre. “The idea of integrating new artists into the market place has always been of interest to me,” Taylor says.

Recent musicians Taylor has “discovered” and promoted in their early days of performing include Diana Krall, Jane Monheit, Peter Cincotti, Jamie Cullum, Norah Jones, Esperanza Spaulding, Christian Scott, Kendrick Oliver and Taylor Eigsti.
Jack Wright

Jack Wright has been an arts professional for more than 15 years. He is currently Director of Marketing and Communications for the Celebrity Series of Boston, a non-profit, multi-disciplinary performing arts presenter in Boston, Massachusetts, where he is primarily responsible for subscription and single-ticket campaigns, institutional public relations, publications, brand positioning, online communications, and market and customer research. Jack is also president of the Boston Arts Marketing Alliance, a consortium of Boston-area non-profit arts institutions. In the early 1990s, he served as General Manager of WMUA Radio in Amherst, Massachusetts, and helped to plan and present two seasons of the Magic Triangle Jazz Concert Series in Amherst.

Jack studied tenor saxophone at Berklee College of Music and is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is a member of the Public Relations Society of America, and frequently leads public relations workshops and seminars.

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General Counsel

Jason A. Mahler
Jason A. Mahler is an attorney with McCarter & English, LLP, in Boston. His practice focuses on real estate, land use, environmental, and general corporate matters. He holds a J.D. from the University of Connecticut School of Law and a B.A., cum laude, from Syracuse University. Before practicing law, Jason was an afternoon drive time and evening on-air music and news announcer with Jazz-88, WAER-FM, Syracuse Public Radio.


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Artistic Advisors

Walter Beasley

Contemporary jazz artist, saxophonist, and vocalist Walter Beasley has sold hundreds of thousands of albums and has been mentoring music students as a Berklee College of Music professor for more than 20 years. He is sometimes referred to as “the heir to Grover Washington’s throne,” and with good reason. Since 1998, Walter has been one of the top ten best-selling African-American saxophonists in the world. He is known as an accomplished performer/writer and an icon of contemporary jazz, having performed with the best in the business, including Brian McKnight, Gerald Albright, George Howard, Art Porter, Stephanie Mills, Vanessa Williams and Rachelle Ferrell, and opened for greats Art Blakey and Dexter Gordon. Over the last three decades, Walter has been a regular presence in the top 20 of Billboard’s contemporary jazz charts, and he recently peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Charts with his album "For Her" (Heads Up).

Over the course of his career, Walter’s vision has extended to his own entrepreneurial endeavors. He founded Affable Publishing and offers instructional and performance DVDs and books. Walter’s DVDs include his upcoming release Vocal Performance (Delivery & Storytelling), as well as Sound Production for Saxophone and Hip-Hop Improvisation DVDs. Both saxophone DVDs have garnered praise from Jazz Times and Instrumentalist magazines, as well as Jazzwise.com and Amazon.com. As an educator and consultant, he has worked with students like Lalah Hathaway, and Walter is now working with musicians and vocalists across the country as a music performance consultant and clinician. Between composing, recording, performing and teaching, Walter’s schedule is a hectic one, but these various facets of his career have had an energizing effect that fuels his creative side. “To know that I can play, sing, record, tour and teach – all on my own terms – is the greatest blessing one could ever ask for,” he says.

http://www.walterbeasley.com
Terri Lyne Carrington

World-renowned drummer, composer, producer, and clinician, Terri Lyne Carrington was born in Medford, Massachusetts, in 1965 and developed a reputation as a child prodigy, jamming with jazz veterans Dizzy Gillespie, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Oscar Peterson, Joe Williams, and many more. At seven, she was given her first set of drums and at ten she played her first major performance at the Wichita Jazz Festival with Clark Terry. Shortly afterward she received a full scholarship to Berklee College of Music, where she studied with Alan Dawson and played with many of the important musicians on the scene today.

Throughout high school Terri traveled across the country doing clinics at schools and colleges and in 1983, encouraged by her mentor, Jack DeJohnette, moved to New York and started working with Stan Getz, James Moody, Lester Bowie, Pharoah Sanders, Cassandra Wilson, and David Sanborn.

In 1989, Terri moved to Los Angeles, became the drummer for the "Arsenio Hall Show" and toured the globe with Joe Sample, Al Jarreau, Herbie Hancock, and spiritual mentor, Wayne Shorter. Her debut release on Polygram, "Real Life Story," was nominated for a Grammy Award and featured Carlos Santana, Patrice Rushen, John Scofield, Grover Washington, Jr., and Gerald Albright. Recently, she has concentrated her efforts on writing and producing. Her production of Dianne Reeves CD, "That Day," hovered at the top of the charts for many months. While being the drummer on the TV show, "VIBE," hosted by Sinbad, she recorded, along with Joni Mitchel and Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock's CD, "Gershwin's World," and is currently touring with him. Her 2nd solo CD, “Jazz Is A Spirit,” was released in March 2002 as well as a group project under the name “Structure,” both on the ACT Music label.

Terri Lyne is currently a full time professor at Berklee College of Music and endorses Yamaha Drums, Zildjian Cymbals and Sticks and Remo Drum Heads.

http://www.terrilynecarrington.com
Donal Fox

Donal Fox is internationally acclaimed as a composer, pianist, and improviser in both the jazz and classical fields. His numerous awards include a 1997 Guggenheim Fellowship in music composition, a 1998 Fellowship from the Bogliasco Foundation (Italy), and 1999, 2001, and 2003 nominations for a CalArts/Alpert Award in the Arts.

Donal served as the first African American composer-in-residence with the St. Louis Symphony and was a visiting artist at Harvard University, where he received a Certificate of Recognition from the President of Harvard College for his contribution to the arts.

In 2003 and 2004, Donal held artist-in-residence posts at the Tyrone Guthrie Center in Northern Ireland and the Oberpfälzer Künstlerhaus in Schwandorf, Germany. In the 2005-2006 season, his music was featured both at Jazz at Lincoln Center and at Carnegie Hall. In the 2006-2007 season, Donal will give the world premiere performance of T.J. Anderson's second Piano Concerto Fragments (A Bach and Monk Fantasy, for Improvised Piano and Orchestra), written expressly for him; and the University of Iowa Symphony Orchestra and the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, the oldest Bach Choir in United States, will feature Donal in his Blues on Bach Project to celebrate their 100th anniversary.

Donal’s innovative "Jazz Duet Series" has included concerts, recordings, and collaborations with Oliver Lake, John Stubblefield, Billy Pierce, David Murray, Elliott Sharp, Regina Carter, George Mraz, Al Foster, Stefon Harris, Andrew Cyrille, Gary Burton, Lewis Nash, John Patitucci, and poet Quincy Troupe, among others. Donal has recorded as composer and pianist for New World Records, Evidence Records, Music & Arts, Passin' Thru Records, Yamaha's Original Artist Series, and Wergo Records. In 2004 he was named “Top Ten Jazz Act” in the Boston Globe in the company of Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Ron Carter. Jazz journalist Gary Giddins wrote, "Donal is one of a small handful of musicians who embody the promise of jazz's future."

http://www.leonellismusic.com
Charlie Kohlhase

Alto, tenor, and baritone saxophonist Charlie Kohlhase (b. 11/28/56, Portsmouth, NH) has been a part of Boston’s jazz scene for more than twenty years. After private studies with Stan Strickland and Roswell Rudd, Charlie moved to Boston from his native New Hampshire in 1980. In 1989 he formed the Charlie Kohlhase Quintet, a band that worked around Boston and toured nationally for a dozen years but has been largely inactive since 2004. Charlie has recently been leading two ensembles: the Explorer’s Club, a septet with two reeds, trombone, guitar, bass, and two drummers, and the Saxophone Support Group, a woodwind octet that plays saxophone-oriented compositions by Julius Hemphill, Steve Lacy, John Tchicai, and Kohlhase. Charlie has also co-led groups with the great Danish/ Congolese saxophonist John Tchicai for New England tours in 1997, 1998, 2003, and 2006. 2006 saw the release of “Good Night Songs,” a live trio recording with Tchicai and guitarist Garrison Fewell.

Charlie was a member of Boston’s Either/ Orchestra from 1987 to 2001, playing throughout North America, Europe, and Russia. Recent sideman activities have included work with the Makanda Project, an Octet dedicated to performing unrecorded compositions by the late woodwind player/ composer Makanda Ken McIntyre; bassist Nate McBride’s Quartet; Matt Steckler’s Dead Cat Bounce; and the Chuck Gabriel Septet. Charlie, along with Dave Douglas and Roswell Rudd, was an artist-in-residence at Harvard for Spring 2003. In May 2003 he recorded with Anthony Braxton’s Genome Project and in June worked with violinist/ composer Leroy Jenkins at Boston’s Institute of Contemporary Art.

Charlie has also been active in jazz radio for many years, most recently hosting “Research & Development” Monday afternoons from 2 to 4 PM on WMBR-FM in Cambridge. He directs the Modern American Music Repertory Ensemble at the Longy School of Music in Cambridge.

Joe Lovano

Cleveland native Joe Lovano began playing the alto saxophone at five, switching to the tenor a few years later. By the time he got his driver’s license at 16, Joe was a member of the Musician’s Union, Local 4, and working professionally.

After he graduated from Berklee College of Music, where he studied with Joe Viola, Herb Pomeroy, and others, Joe hit the road backing Tom Jones and eventually moved to New York, where he shared the stage with greats like Stan Getz and Woody Herman. Stints with the Mel Lewis Orchestra led to a flurry of collaborations: Carla Bley, Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, Paul Motian, and John Scofield.

As his reputation grew, the reedman and composer began recording and touring with the major jazz musicians of the late 20th century: Gunther Schuller, Herbie Hancock, Elvin Jones, Bobby Hutcherson, Dave Brubeck, Billy Higgins, Dave Holland, Ed Blackwell, Michel Petrucciani, Lee Konitz, Abbey Lincoln, Tom Harrell, McCoy Tyner, Jim Hall, and Bob Brookmeyer, among many others.

In 1991, Joe signed with Blue Note Records and since then has been leading his own groups, producing nearly 25 recordings as a leader and being awarded both Grammys and Grammy nominations. His latest release, "Streams of Expression," features "The Birth of the Cool Suite" by Gunther Schuller. He is a frequent musical collaborator with his wife, vocalist/dancer Judi Silvano.

Joe was the recipient of a Distinguished Alumni Award from Berklee and an honorary doctorate in 1998.

In 2003, Joe created an educational DVD, "Berklee Workshop: Jazz Improvisation – A Personal Approach With Joe Lovano." He teaches at Berklee regularly in his capacity as the Gary Burton Chair of Jazz Performance, the school’s first endowed chair, which he was awarded in 2001.

http://www.joelovano.com
Danilo Pérez

Panamanian pianist Danilo Pérez, a recognized leader in the new generation of jazz musicians, has earned three Grammy nominations for his ebullient and innovative blend of jazz, Latin ,and world music styles. His recording, “Motherland” (Verve, 2000), was nominated for two Grammys for Best Latin Jazz Album and won Best Jazz Album for 2001 from the prestigious Boston Music Awards, which awarded him top honors, twice, for previous albums. His earlier CDs — “Danilo Pérez” (1992), “The Journey” (1994), “Panamonk” (1996), and “Central Avenue” (1998) — have also earned awards, favorable acclaim, and annual Top Ten citations from DownBeat, Jazziz, Jazz Times, the New York Times, Village Voice, Billboard, and the Los Angeles Times. Danilo received the Best Artist in Performance Award from the New York Jazz Awards and has also been nominated in the category of Pianist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Awards and Downbeat magazine. Since stepping into the spotlight during his 1989-92 tenure in Dizzy Gillespie’s United Nation Orchestra, Danilo has, in short, become one of the most influential pianist/composers in contemporary jazz.

Currently, in addition to touring with his trio, Danilo is performing and recording with the Wayne Shorter Quartet and is featured on Shorter’s Verve release. “Footprints Live!”, and the Grammy Winner albums “Alegria” and “Beyond the Sound Barrier.” Since the late 1980s, he has also toured and/or recorded with Jack DeJohnette, Steve Lacy, Charlie Haden, Michael Brecker, Jon Hendricks, Joe Lovano, Tito Puente, Wynton Marsalis, Claudio Roditi, Paquito D’Rivera, John Patitucci, Tom Harrell, Arturo Sandoval, Gary Burton, and other notable jazz musicians. Danilo currently serves as professor at the New England Conservatory and Berklee College of Music, Ambassador of Goodwill for UNICEF, President and Founder of the Panama Jazz Festival, Founder of the Danilo Pérez Foundation, and Artistic Advisor to the innovative Mellon Jazz Up Close series at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

http://www.daniloperez.com
Carol Sloane

Carol Sloane is a native New Englander, born into a family of music lovers. Although Carol never had formal music training, she was blessed with the ability to “hear” and quickly memorized hundreds of popular songs she heard on the radio in the 1940’s and 1950’s.

In 1958, Carol joined the famous Larry Elgart Orchestra with which she toured until 1961, performing at events such as the Newport Jazz Festival. She recorded her first album for Columbia Records in 1961, and began a successful career appearing in the top jazz clubs in America. Carol made her New York debut opening for Oscar Peterson at the Village Vanguard and was the opening act for Woody Allen, Lenny Bruce, Jackie Mason, Phyllis Diller, and Bill Cosby in venues across the U.S.

Carol’s extensive discography on major record labels includes recordings with jazz greats like Art Farmer, Kenny Barron, Phil Woods, Bill Charlap, Frank Wess, Kenny Burrell, Clark Terry, Bill Mays, Houston Person, and Tommy Flanagan.

She has appeared at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Avery Fisher Hall and Town Hall, the Kaplan Penthouse, and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center. She has toured Japan extensively as part of The Concord Jazz Festival, performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, and appeared in Canada, the UK, Brazil, Portugal and Spain.

Carol has been a regular at the Village Vanguard and a guest on Marian McPartland’s NPR radio program “Piano Jazz.” Her current recording contract with High Note Records features legendary jazz pianist Norman Simmons on the “I Never Went Away” CD, followed in 2003 by “Whisper Sweet.” In 2006, she received the prestigious Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Jazz Performance for her appearances at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola and The Village Vanguard.

Carol celebrated her 50th anniversary as a jazz vocalist in 2004.

http://www.carolsloane.com

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Advisory Council

  • Bob Blumenthal, music writer
  • Fred Bouchard, Associate Professor of Liberal Arts, Berklee College of Music; writer for Downbeat Magazine and Beverage Magazine
  • Ann Braithwaite, Braithwaite and Katz Communications
  • Leonard Brown, Associate Professor of African American Studies and Music, Northeastern University
  • Allan Chase, saxophonist and composer, Chair of the Ear Training department at Berklee College of Music
  • Mary Curtin, Mary Curtin Productions
  • Tammy Dowley-Blackman, tdb group, Looking Forward Productions
  • Tom Everett, Director of Harvard University Bands and Harvard Jazz Program
  • Laszlo Gardony, pianist, composer
  • Jon Garelick, Boston Phoenix
  • Russ Gershon, Accurate Records, Director of Either/Orchestra
  • Calvin L. Hicks, educator
  • Eric Hofbauer, guitarist; adjunct faculty, Emerson College; Creative Nation Records
  • Eric Jackson, host of Eric in the Evening, WGBH 89.7; faculty member, Northeastern University
  • Will McMillan, singer, songwriter, Boston Association of Cabaret Artists
  • Gary Mitchell, Ryles Jazz Club
  • Shelley Neill, vocalist, Jazz Club at The Multicultural Arts Center
  • Frank Poindexter, Wally’s Café
  • Rob Rose, Vice President for Special Programs, Berklee College of Music
  • Dayla Arabella Santurri, President of Dayla Arabella Inc., event architect and media relations specialist; co-founder, Boston Women in Media & Entertainment
  • Ken Schaphorst, Chair of Jazz Studies and Improvisation, Director of Jazz Orchestra, New England Conservatory
  • Steve Schwartz, WGBH Radio host
  • Darryl Settles, Darryl's Corner Bar and Kitchen, D’Ventures Unlimited Foundation
  • Pamela Seigle, Executive Director, Courage & Renewal Northeast; 
    community activist
  • Marianne Solivan, singer; faculty member, Berklee Outreach; former board member, JazzBoston
  • Stan Strickland, singer, saxophonist, flutist, actor
  • Lisa Thorson, vocalist, composer, and arranger: Professor, Berklee 
    College of Music
  • Javier Torres, Senior Program Officer, Arts and Culture, The Boston Foundation
  • Jeff Turton
  • Bob Young, music journalist,  author, and JazzBoston founding director

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