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MEET THE JAZZ ENSEMBLES

Big Bands

Bill Holman Big Band

Bob Mintzer Big Band

Bob Sheppard Quartet

Bob Sheppard

Bob Sheppard Quartet

Bob Sheppard, jazz saxophonist and woodwind specialist. His diverse skills have been highly acclaimed for decades as a touring and first-call studio musician. He blankets a striking and distinguished roster: Freddie Hubbard Quintet, Chick Corea & Origin, Steely Dan, Herbie Hancock, Mike Stern Band, Billy Childs, Lyle Mays Quartet, Steps Ahead, Michael Brecker Quindectet, Horace Silver, Peter Erskine Dr. Um & The Lounge Art Ensemble, John Beasley, Scott Henderson & Tribal Tech, Harry Connick Jr., Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Dianne Reeves, Michael Buble, Kurt Elling, Quincy Jones and Frank Sinatra. Sheppard’s jazz and pop collaborations also include: Randy Brecker, Rickie Lee Jones, Natalie Cole, Boz Skaggs, Dave Grusin, Michael Franks, Burt Bacharach, Lee Ritenour, Queen Latifah, Nat Adderly Quintet, Arturo Sandoval, Chris Botti, Karrin Alysson, John Patitucci, Patrice Rushen, Vince Mendoza.

He’s recorded on over a hundred movie and tv scores working with composers such as Randy Newman, Mark Isham, Alan Sylvestri, Tom Newman and John Williams. Live TV bands of legend include The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, American Idol, Dick Cavett, and The Late Show with Joan Rivers. His Big Band teamwork includes John Beasley’s Monk’estra, Bob Mintzer, Bill Holman, Akiyoshi/Tabakin, Bob Florence, Patrick Williams, Bill Watrous, GRP All Star Big Band, Seth MacFarlane and is a frequent member of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. Bob has five solo albums as a leader: The Fine Line (2019); From The Hip (2013); Close Your Eyes (2010); In The Now (2002) and his first album Tell Tale Signs (1991), produced by Walter Becker.He’s received multiple Grammy nominations for his contributions with Billy Childs, John Beasley and others.

As a passionate music educator, Sheppard is an adjunct faculty member at the USC Thornton School of Music, and frequently a guest artist-clinician around the globe. Bob holds a M.M.degree from the Eastman School of Music and teaches privately in his LA studio.

Christian Jacob Trio

Christian Jacob

Christian Jacob Trio

Jazz Ensembles

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Jazz Ensembles

Josh Nelson Trio

Josh Nelson

Josh Nelson

Josh Nelson Trio

A native of Southern California, Josh Nelson maintains an active and creative schedule as a pianist, composer, educator, and recording artist. He has performed with some of the most respected names in jazz, including Natalie Cole, Anthony Wilson, George Mraz, Jeff Hamilton, Walter Smith III, Dayna Stephens, Eddie Daniels, Ken Peplowski, Richard Galliano, Benny Golson, Sheila Jordan, Greg Hutchinson, John Clayton, Seamus Blake, Matt Wilson, Sara Gazarek, Dave Koz, Joe Chambers, Kurt Elling, John Pizzarelli, and Lewis Nash.

Josh’s fourth studio album Discoveries (2011), introduced a pairing of classic science fiction ephemera with new compositions for a brass and wind ensemble (featuring a live ongoing video projection and art installation component as well, called The Discovery Project). Exploring Mars (2015) presented musical themes on the Red Planet, and The Sky Remains (2017) examined his hometown of Los Angeles. His latest album is Live in Japan (2020).

Awards include the Louis Armstrong Award and the John Philip Sousa Award. In 2006, Josh was one of only twelve semi-finalists in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition.

Josh toured for 6 years with legendary vocalist Natalie Cole. He continues to tour with artists Kenny Washington, Gaby Moreno, and Alicia Olatuja.

Larry Goldings & Friends

Larry Goldings

Larry Goldings & Friends

Larry Goldings is a Grammy-nominated pianist and composer. His organ trio with Peter Bernstein and Bill Stewart has been recognized in the New York Times as “the best organ trio of the last decade.” Goldings’ musical inspirations draw from a lifetime of absorbing jazz, pop, funk, R&B, electronic and classical music.
As a performer and recording artist, he is known for long-term collaborations that straddle the realms of jazz and pop with such artists as Jim Hall, Maceo Parker, John Scofield, Steve Gadd, Jack DeJohnette, Pat Metheny, Michael Brecker, Sia Furler, John Mayer, and others.

Goldings has been recording and touring with singer-songwriter James Taylor since 2001, and is the featured musician on Taylor’s One Man Band CD/DVD, the culmination of a two year world-wide tour with James and Larry in duet. In 2007, Scofield/Goldings/DeJohnette’s Trio Beyond – Saudades (ECM) was recognized with a Best Instrumental Jazz Album Grammy nomination for their searing live recording at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall. Goldings’ music graces the soundtracks of many film and television projects. He contributed to the jazzy fabric of Clint Eastwood’s Space Cowboys and enhanced John Madden’s Proof and Judd Apatow’s Funny People with original compositions, as well as providing ghoulish organ music for “Lurch” to play in the animated film, The Addams Family. Goldings’ Nino Rota-inspired score to Jeff Garlin’s Dealin’ With Idiots is the backdrop to this hilarious film about the zany parents of a Little League baseball team. Listeners of NPR’s This American Life can hear Goldings’ music underscoring many of its dramatic stories.

Larry scored the Netflix series, Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker, infusing the drama with shades of ragtime and early jazz, in combination with modern, back-beat oriented cues, in which early jazz meets hip-hop. The soundtrack has been released by Warner Bros. through Watertower Music

MAP Jazz

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MAP Jazz

Patrick Williams Big Band

Patrick Williams

Patrick Williams Big Band

Peter Erskine

Peter Erskine

Peter Erskine has played drums since the age of 4 and is known for his versatility and love of working in different musical contexts. He appears on 700 albums and film scores, and has won 2 Grammy Awards plus an Honorary Doctorate from the Berklee School of Music. Fifty albums have been released under his own name or as co-leader. He has played with the Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson big bands, Weather Report, Steps Ahead, Joni Mitchell, Steely Dan, Diana Krall, Kenny Wheeler, Mary Chapin Carpenter, The Brecker Brothers, The Yellowjackets, Pat Metheny & Gary Burton, John Scofield, et al, and has appeared as a soloist with the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, plus the London, Los Angeles, Chicago, BBC Symphony, Bochum, Tokyo Metropolitan, Yomiuri Nippon, Oslo and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras. He premiered Mark-Anthony Turnage’s “Erskine — Concerto for Drumset & Orchestra” with Beethoven Orchester Bonn and performed it at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Peter has been voted ’Best Jazz Drummer of the Year’ ten times by the readers of Modern Drummer magazine and was elected into its Hall of Fame in 2017. Peter graduated from the Interlochen Arts Academy and studied at Indiana University under George Gaber. Peter is an author with several books to his credit, including“No Beethoven” — an autobiography and chronicle of the band Weather Report — plus his latest title, “The Drummers’ Lifeline.” Peter is Professor of Practice & Director of Drumset Studies at USC, and conducts masterclasses worldwide, while his latest endeavors include several innovative play-along apps for iOS.