The Twin Cities Jazz Festival is one of the largest civic events in the upper Midwest, attracting upwards of 30,000 people to the joy of jazz. Events of the festival are held in the downtown area of St. Paul, Minnesota including Mears Park located in the heart of the historic Lowertown neighborhood.
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KENNY WERNER - Kenny Werner is a world class pianist and composer, His prolific output of compositions and recordings continues to impact audiences around the world.. . more |
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CYRUS CHESTNUT - Born in 1963, Chestnut started his musical career at the age of three, playing piano at the Mount Calvary Star Baptist Church at the age of six in his hometown of Baltimore, MD. By age nine, he was studying classical music at the Peabody Preparatory Institute in Baltimore. In the fall of 1981, Cyrus began jazz education in Boston, MA at the Berklee College of Music. In 1985, he earned a degree in jazz composition and arranging. While at Berklee, Chestnut was awarded the Eubie Blake Fellowship, the Oscar Peterson, Quincy Jones, and Count Basie awards for exceptional performance standards at the college. After Berklee, Cyrus began further honing his craft as a sideman with some of the legendary and leading musicians in the business. Some of these great people include; Jon Hendricks, Michael Carvin, Donald Harrison, Terence Blanchard, , Branford Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller, Regina Cater, Chick Corea, Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Joe Williams, Isaac Hayes, Kathleen Battle, Betty Carter and, Dizzy Gillespie just to name a few. His association with Betty Carter, which began in 1991 significantly affected his outlook and approach to music, confirming his already iconoclastic instincts. Carter advised him to "take chances and play things Iíve never heard," Chestnut says. |
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| WALTER SMITH III -
Walter Smith III began playing the saxophone at the age of 7 in his hometown of Houston, TX.
At Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, Smith received a Clifford Brown/,Stan Getz Fellowship from IAJE and NFAA; the NFAA Young Talent Award; a full tuition scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music; and a United States Presidential Scholar in the Arts medal. Walter Graduated from Berklee in 2003 with a degree in Music Education.Walter has performed all over the world participating in numerous national and international festivals as well as famed stages in the U.S. such as Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center. Smith has shared the stage and/or appeared on recordings with many jazz notables including Terence Blanchard, Roy Haynes, Christian McBride, Eric Reed, Mulgrew Miller, Joe Lovano, Bob Hurst, Myron Walden, Walter Beasley, Lewis Nash, Terri Lynne- Carrington, and a host of others. To date, Walter has appeared on over 75 recordings that are released worldwide. Walter's debut recording as a leader was released in March of 2006 on the Fresh Sound New Talent label and features many of the brightest young jazz talents. His sophomore release, titled "Live in France", was released in October of 2009 to critical acclaim. His most recent album, "III", was released in September of 2010 and was a top 10 best seller on iTunes. Walter is currently signed to Concord Records and is working on a new project.
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MATT SLOCUM - At 31, Matt Slocum is quickly emerging as one of the leading double threat jazz artists of his generation. His original works on After the Storm reveal a growing level of compositional depth, which has recently been recognized with composition grants from the American Music Center, the Puffin Foundation, New Music USA and the Meet the Composer Foundation. His trio has earned a reputation as one of the premier modern, yet swinging emerging ensembles in jazz today. The group has been featured throughout North America and Europe at venues such as Yoshi's, the Blue Note, the Saratoga Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Earshot Jazz Festival, the Jazz Bakery and many others. Slocum has been featured on more than 20 recordings and has performed and/or recorded with artists such as Seamus Blake, Alan Broadbent, Steve Cardenas, Aaron Goldberg, Danny Grissett, Taylor Eigsti, Larry Koonse, Lage Lund, Wynton Marsalis, Linda Oh, Alan Pasqua, Jerome Sabbagh, Jaleel Shaw, Walter Smith III, Dayna Stephens, Ben Wendel, Gerald Wiggins, Anthony Wilson, Sam Yahel and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. |
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