Yusef Lateef, 1920-2013: Innovative Multi-instrumentalist, Composer, and Teacher

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/25/arts/music/yusef-lateef-innovative-jazz-saxophonist-and-flutist-dies-at-93.html?_r=0

Yusef Lateef, Innovative Jazz Saxophonist and Flutist, Dies at 93

Yusef Lateef in April. He sought inspriation well beyond the Western Hemisphere and anticipated cross-cultural fusions.   Alan Nahigian

By PETER KEEPNEWS
December 24, 2013
New York Times

Yusef Lateef, a jazz saxophonist and flutist who spent his career crossing musical boundaries, died on Monday at his home in Shutesbury, Mass., near Amherst. He was 93.

His death was announced on his website.

Mr. Lateef started out as a tenor saxophonist with a big tone and a bluesy style, not significantly more or less talented than numerous other saxophonists in the crowded jazz scene of the 1940s. He served a conventional jazz apprenticeship, working in the bands of Lucky Millinder, Dizzy Gillespie and others. But by the time he made his first records as a leader, in 1957, he had begun establishing a reputation as a decidedly unconventional musician.

He began expanding his instrumental palette by doubling on flute, by no means a common jazz instrument in those years. He later added oboe, bassoon and non-Western wind instruments like the shehnai and arghul. “My attempts to experiment with new instruments grew out of the monotony of hearing the same old sounds played by the same old horns,” he once told DownBeat magazine. “When I looked into those other cultures, I found that good instruments existed there.”

Those experiments led to an embrace of new influences. At a time when jazz musicians in the United States rarely sought inspiration any farther geographically than Latin America, Mr. Lateef looked well beyond the Western Hemisphere. Anticipating the cross-cultural fusions of later decades, he flavored his music with scales, drones and percussion effects borrowed from Asia and the Middle East. He played world music before world music had a name.

In later years he incorporated elements of contemporary concert music and composed symphonic and chamber works. African influences became more noticeable in his music when he spent four years studying and teaching in Nigeria in the early 1980s.

Mr. Lateef professed to find the word “jazz” limiting and degrading; he preferred “autophysiopsychic music,” a term he invented. He further distanced himself from the jazz mainstream in 1980 when he declared that he would no longer perform any place where alcohol was served. “Too much blood, sweat and tears have been spilled creating this music to play it where people are smoking, drinking and talking,” he explained to The Boston Globe in 1999.

Still, with its emphasis on melodic improvisation and rhythmic immediacy, his music was always recognizably jazz at its core. And as far afield as his music might roam, his repertoire usually included at least a few Tin Pan Alley standards and, especially, plenty of blues.

He was born on Oct. 9, 1920, in Chattanooga, Tenn. Many sources give his birth name as William Evans, the name under which he performed and recorded before converting to Islam in the late 1940s (he belonged to the reformist Ahmadiyya Muslim Community) and changing his name to Yusef Abdul Lateef. But according to Mr. Lateef’s website, he was born William Emanuel Huddleston.

When he was 5 his family moved to Detroit, where he went on to study saxophone at Miller High School. After spending most of the 1940s on the road as a sideman with various big bands, he returned to Detroit in 1950 to care for his ailing wife and ended up staying for a decade.

While in Detroit he became a popular and respected fixture on the local nightclub scene and a mentor to younger musicians. He also resumed his studies, taking courses in flute and composition at Wayne State University and later studying oboe as well.

In the later part of the decade he began traveling regularly from Detroit to the East Coast with his working band to record for the Savoy and Prestige labels. By 1960 he had settled in New York, where he worked with Charles Mingus, Cannonball Adderley and the Nigerian percussionist Babatunde Olatunji before forming his own quartet in 1964.

He was soon a bona fide jazz star, with successful albums on the Impulse and Atlantic labels and a busy touring schedule. But he also remained a student, and he eventually became a teacher as well.

He received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music, and taught both there and at Borough of Manhattan Community College in the 1970s. He earned a doctorate in education from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1975 (his dissertation: “An Overview of Western and Islamic Education”) and later taught there and elsewhere in New England.

The more he studied, the more ambitious Mr. Lateef grew as a composer. He recorded his seven-movement “Symphonic Blues Suite” in 1970 and his “African-American Epic Suite,” a four-part work for quintet and orchestra, two decades later. His album “Yusef Lateef’s Little Symphony,” on which he played all the instruments via overdubbing, won a Grammy Award in 1988, though not in any of the jazz or classical categories; it was named best New Age performance. Mr. Lateef said at the time that, while he was grateful for the award, he didn’t know what New Age music was.

In 2010 he was named a Jazz Master by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Mr. Lateef is survived by his wife, Ayesha; a son, Yusef; a granddaughter; and several great-grandchildren. His first wife, Tahira, died before him, as did a son and a daughter.

His creative output was not limited to music. He painted, wrote poetry and published several books of fiction. He also ran his own record company, YAL, which he established in 1992.

He remained musically active until a few months before his death. In April he appeared at Roulette in Brooklyn in a program titled “Yusef Lateef: Celebrating 75 Years of Music,” performing with the percussionist Adam Rudolph and presenting the premieres of two works, one for string quartet and the other for piano.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusef_Lateef
 

Yusef Lateef
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Background information

Birth name    William Emanuel Huddleston
Also known as    Yusef Lateef
Born    October 9, 1920
Chattanooga, Tennessee
United States
Died    December 23, 2013 (aged 93)
Shutesbury, Massachusetts
United States
Genres    New Age music, jazz, post-bop, jazz fusion, swing, hard bop, third stream, autophysiopsychic music, world music
Occupations    Musician, composer, educator, spokesman, author
Instruments    Tenor saxophone, flute, oboe, bassoon, bamboo flute, shehnai, shofar, arghul, koto
Years active    1957 – 2013
Labels    Savoy, Prestige, Verve, Riverside, Impulse, Atlantic, CTI, YAL Records
Associated acts    Cannonball Adderley, Elvin Jones, Adam Rudolph, Dizzy Gillespie, Curtis Fuller, Grant Green, Donald Byrd, Art Farmer

Website    www.yuseflateef.com

Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston, October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer and educator for the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community after his conversion to the Ahmadiyya sect of Islam in 1950.

Although Lateef's main instruments were the tenor saxophone and flute, he also played oboe and bassoon, both rare in jazz, and also used a number of non-western instruments such as the bamboo flute, shanai, shofar, xun, arghul and koto. He is known for having been an innovator in the blending of jazz with "Eastern" music.[1]

Peter Keepnews, in his New York Times obituary of Lateef, wrote that the musician "played world music before world music had a name."[2]

Lateef performing in 2007 at the Detroit Jazz Festival

Contents

1 Biography
1.1 Early life and career
1.2 Prominence
1.3 Later career
2 Educator
3 Awards and honors
4 Discography
4.1 As leader
4.2 As sideman
5 References
6 External links

Biography[edit]

Early life and career

Lateef was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His family moved, in 1923, to Lorain, Ohio and again in 1925, to Detroit, Michigan, where his father changed the family's name to "Evans".

Throughout his early life Lateef came into contact with many Detroit-based jazz musicians who went on to gain prominence, including vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Paul Chambers, drummer Elvin Jones and guitarist Kenny Burrell. Lateef was a proficient saxophonist by the time of his graduation from high school at the age of 18, when he launched his professional career and began touring with a number of swing bands.

In 1949, he was invited by Dizzy Gillespie to tour with his orchestra. In 1950, Lateef returned to Detroit and began his studies in composition and flute at Wayne State University. It was during this period that he converted to Islam as a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.[3]

Prominence

Lateef began recording as a leader in 1957 for Savoy Records, a non-exclusive association which continued until 1959; the earliest of Lateef's album's for the Prestige subsidiary New Jazz overlap with them. Musicians such as Wilbur Harden (trumpet, flugelhorn), bassist Herman Wright, drummer Frank Gant, and pianist Hugh Lawson were among his collaborators during this period.

By 1961, with the recording of Into Something and Eastern Sounds, Lateef's dominant presence within a group context had emerged. His 'Eastern' influences are clearly audible in all of these recordings, with spots for instruments like the rahab, shanai, arghul, koto and a collection of Chinese wooden flutes and bells along with his tenor and flute. Even his use of the western oboe sounds exotic in this context; it is not a standard jazz instrument. Indeed the tunes themselves are a mixture of jazz standards, blues and film music usually performed with a piano/bass/drums rhythm section in support. Lateef made numerous contributions to other people's albums including his time as a member of saxophonist Cannonball Adderley's Quintet during 1962–64.
Lateef's sound has been claimed to have been a major influence on the saxophonist John Coltrane, whose later period free jazz recordings contain similarly 'Eastern' traits. For a time (1963–66) Lateef was signed to Coltrane's label, Impulse. He had a regular working group during this period, with trumpeter Richard Williams and Mike Nock on piano.
In the late 1960s he began to incorporate contemporary soul and gospel phrasing into his music, still with a strong blues underlay, on albums such as Detroit and Hush'n'Thunder.

Lateef expressed a dislike of the terms "jazz" and "jazz musician" as musical generalizations. As is so often the case with such generalizations, the use of these terms do understate the breadth of his sound. For example, in the 1980s, Lateef experimented with new age and spiritual elements.

Later career

His 1987 album Yusef Lateef's Little Symphony won the Grammy Award for Best New Age Album.[4][5] His core influences, however, were clearly rooted in jazz, and in his own words: "My music is jazz."[6]

In 1992, Lateef founded YAL Records, his own label for which he recorded until the end of his life. In 1993, Lateef was commissioned by the WDR Radio Orchestra Cologne to compose The African American Epic Suite, a four-part work for orchestra and quartet based on themes of slavery and disfranchisement in the United States. The piece has since been performed by the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

Lateef died on the morning of December 23, 2013 at the age of 93 after suffering from prostate cancer.[7]

Educator

In 1960, Lateef again returned to school, studying flute at the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. He received a Bachelor's Degree in Music in 1969 and a Master's Degree in Music Education in 1970. Starting in 1971, he taught courses in autophysiopsychic music at the Manhattan School of Music, and he became an associate professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College in 1972.

In 1975, Lateef completed his dissertation on Western and Islamic education and earned a Ed.D. in Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In the early 1980s Lateef was a Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Nigerian Cultural Studies at Ahmadu Bello University in the city of Zaria, Nigeria. Returning to the US in 1986 he took teaching positions at the University of Massachusetts and Amherst College. To the end of his life, he continued to teach at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Hampshire College in western Massachusetts.
Lateef wrote and published a number of books including two novellas entitled A Night in the Garden of Love and Another Avenue, the short story collections Spheres and Rain Shapes, also his autobiography, The Gentle Giant, written in collaboration with Herb Boyd.[8]

Along with his record label YAL Records, Lateef owned Fana Music, a music publishing company. Lateef published his own work through Fana, which includes Yusef Lateef's Flute Book of the Blues and many of his own orchestral compositions.

Autophysiopsychic Music, Lateef's term, refers to music which comes from one's physical, mental, and spiritual self. Lateef wrote extensively on the topic and included it in his book Method To Perform Autophysiopsychic Music. In this view, it should be the goal of every musician to combine their theoretical knowledge with their life experience, and to offer to and accept knowledge from their personal source of strength, inspiration and knowledge.

Awards and honors

In 2010 he received lifetime the Jazz Master Fellowship Award from NEA, National Endowment for the Arts which is an independent federal agency.[9][5]

National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters is the highest honor given in Jazz established in 1982.[10]

WGBH Boston aired a special-documentary program for Lateef, titled A portrait of saxophonist Yusef Lateef in his own words and music.[11]

Manhattan School of Music, where Lateef earned a bachelor's and a master's degree, awarded him a Distinguished Alumni Award in 2012.

Discography

Lateef performing in Hamburg, 1971
As leader[edit]
Savoy 1957-1959
Jazz for the Thinker (1957)
Jazz Mood (1957)
Jazz and the Sounds of Nature (1957)
Prayer to the East (1957)
The Dreamer (1959)
The Fabric of Jazz (1959)
Impulse! 1963-1966
Jazz 'Round the World (1963)
Live at Pep's (1964)
1984 (1965)
Psychicemotus (1965)
A Flat, G Flat and C (1966)
The Golden Flute (1966)
Atlantic 1967 -1991
The Complete Yusef Lateef (1967)
The Blue Yusef Lateef (1968)
Yusef Lateef's Detroit (1969)
The Diverse Yusef Lateef (1969)
Suite 16 (1970)
The Gentle Giant (1971)
Hush 'N' Thunder (1972)
Part of the Search (1973)
10 Years Hence (1974)
The Doctor is In... and Out (1976)
Yusef Lateef's Little Symphony (1987)
Concerto for Yusef Lateef (1988)
Nocturnes (1989)
Meditations (1990)
Yusef Lateef's Encounters (1991)
YAL Records 1992-2002
Tenors of Yusef Lateef and Von Freeman (1992)
Heart Vision (1992)
Yusef Lateef Plays Ballads (1993)
Tenors of Yusef Lateef and Archie Shepp (1993)
Woodwinds (1993)
Tenors of Yusef Lateef & Ricky Ford (1994)
Yusef Lateef's Fantasia for Flute (1996)
Full Circle (1996)
CHNOPS: Gold & Soul (1997)
Earth and Sky (1997)
9 Bagatelles (1998)
Like the Dust (1998)
Live at Luckman Theater (2001)
Earriptus (2001)
So Peace (2002)
A Tribute Concert for Yusef Lateef: YAL's 10th Anniversary (2002)
Meta Records
The World at Peace (1997)
Beyond the Sky (2000)
Go: Organic Orchestra: In the Garden (2003)
Towards the Unknown (2010)
Voice Prints (2013)
Other labels
Before Dawn: The Music of Yusef Lateef (Verve, 1957)
The Sounds of Yusef (Prestige, 1957)
Other Sounds (New Jazz, 1957)
Lateef at Cranbrook (Argo, 1958)
Cry! - Tender (New Jazz, 1959)
The Three Faces of Yusef Lateef (Riverside, 1960)
The Centaur and the Phoenix (Riverside, 1960)
Lost in Sound (Charlie Parker, 1961)
Eastern Sounds (Moodsville, 1961)
Into Something (New Jazz, 1961)
Autophysiopsychic (1977, CTI Records)
In a Temple Garden (1979, CTI Records)
Yusef Lateef in Nigeria (Landmark, 1983)
Influence with Lionel and Stéphane Belmondo (2005)
Roots Run Deep (Rogue Art, 2012)

As sideman

With Cannonball Adderley
The Cannonball Adderley Sextet in New York (Riverside, 1962)
Cannonball in Europe! (Riverside, 1962)
Jazz Workshop Revisited (Riverside, 1962)
Autumn Leaves (Riverside, 1963)
Nippon Soul (Riverside, 1963)
With Nat Adderley
That's Right! (Riverside, 1960)
With Ernestine Anderson
My Kinda Swing (1960)
With Art Blakey
The African Beat (1962)
With Donald Byrd
Byrd Jazz (Transition, 1955)
First Flight (1957)
With Paul Chambers
1st Bassman (1961)
With Art Farmer
Something You Got (CTI, 1977)
With Curtis Fuller
Images of Curtis Fuller (Savoy, 1960)
Boss of the Soul-Stream Trombone (Warwick, 1960)
Gettin' It Together (1961)
With Grant Green
Grantstand (Blue Note, 1961)
With Slide Hampton
Drum Suite (1962)
With Louis Hayes
Louis Hayes featuring Yusef Lateef & Nat Adderley (1960)
With Les McCann
Invitation to Openness (1972)
With Don McLean
Homeless Brother (1973)
With Charles Mingus
Pre-Bird (aka, Mingus Revisited, 1960)
With Babatunde Olatunji
Drums of Passion (1960)
With Sonny Red
Breezing (Jazzland, 1960)
With Leon Redbone
Double Time (Warner Bros., 1976)
With Clark Terry
Color Changes (1960)
With Doug Watkins
Soulnik (New Jazz, 1960)
With Randy Weston
Uhuru Afrika (Roulette, 1960)
With Frank Wess
Jazz Is Busting Out All Over (1957)

References[

Jump up ^ Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians – Lateef, Yusef Abdul (William Evans). Retrieved 2013-04-06.
Jump up ^ Peter Keepnews "Yusef Lateef, Innovative Jazz Saxophonist and Flutist, Dies at 93", New York Times, 24 December 2013
Jump up ^ "About Yusef Lateef". Yuseflateef.com. FANA Music/YAL Records. Retrieved December 5, 2012.
Jump up ^ Lateef Wins Grammy Award For Best New Age Album in 1987. books.google.com.br. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
^ Jump up to: a b "About Yusef Lateef". Official website. 2013. Retrieved 11 June 2013.
Jump up ^ A Fireside Chat With Yusef Lateef
Jump up ^ http://www.gazettenet.com/home/9933070-95/yusef-lateef-grammy-winning-musician-composer-dies-at-93
Jump up ^ "Yusef Lateef Comes to Grace Cathedral". Beyondchron.org. Retrieved 2010-11-11.
Jump up ^ "Lateef Being Honored With Jazz Master Fellowship Award in 2010". Arts.endow.gov. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
Jump up ^ "Jazz Master Fellowship Award Winners Through 1982–2011". Arts.endow.gov. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
Jump up ^ "A portrait of saxophonist Yusef Lateef in his Own Words And Music". wgbh.org. Retrieved 2010-11-10.
External links[edit]

www.yuseflateef.com

Yusef Lateef at AllMusic
Billboard Discography – Billboard's complete discography of Yusef Lateef
Jazz Portraits from the WGBH Archives: Yusef Lateef a radio documentary from WGBH Radio Boston


Lateef performing in 2007 at the Detroit Jazz Festival

LONG LIVE HERBIE HANCOCK! (b. April 12, 1940): LEGENDARY PIANIST AND COMPOSER, JAZZ INNOVATOR AND WORLD MUSIC PIONEER

 HERBIE HANCOCK

(b. April 12, 1940)

All,

The incredibly versatile and consistently creative Herbie Hancock (b. April 12, 1940) has been and continues to be one of the most important and influential pianist/composers in the world over the past half century. Still going strong at age 73 the ever youthful and dynamic Hancock has not only played on an astonishing number of outstanding recordings as a leader and sideman of many excellent ensembles since 1962 but has also played and recorded with an extraordinary and truly eclectic list of contemporary iconic musicians and composers that includes everyone from Wayne Shorter, Dexter Gordon, Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Eric Dolphy, Bobby Hutcherson, Grachan Moncur, Tony Williams, Joe Henderson, Donald Byrd, Jackie McLean, Roland Kirk, Ornette Coleman, Lee Morgan and Sam Rivers to Herbie's stellar six year membership in the famed Miles Davis "Second Great Quintet" from 1963-1969 that cemented Hancock's international reputation as one of the leading and most imaginative musicians and composers in the pantheon of the modern Jazz tradition since WWII. From this pinnacle of influence and inspiration Hancock has gone on to further excel in a very wide and broad array of musical styles and genres that often pioneered in the challenging creative synthesis of various styles of jazz with the best in pop, rhythm and blues, funk, and ethnic/world music traditions from the entire range of global styles and structural forms. Thus it is with great pleasure and genuine gratitude that we pay homage to the work and life of this artistic giant who continues to epitomize the very best in the always fecund African American tradition. Happy Birthday Herbie!...
 

Kofi

"Maiden Voyage"
by Herbie Hancock:



"Chan's Song"
by Herbie Hancock:



"Chameleon"
by Herbie Hancock:



 

A truly timeless master and an
amazing human being.

We kick things off with a short interview
with Herbie followed by hours of his music.

Today is Herbie's day. He has earned it.

http://jazzonthetube.com/videos/herbie-hancock/happy-birthday-herbie-hancock.html
 
- Lester Perkins
Jazz on the Tube

P.S. Please share Jazz on the Tube with your
friends and colleagues.

Herbert Jeffrey Hancock was born on April 12, 1940 in Chicago, Illinois and considered a prodigy as a child. When Herbie was eleven years old he performed a Mozart concerto with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Hancock began taking an interest in Jazz in his teens and transcribed records of Oscar Peterson and Bill Evans and also was into the vocal group the Hi-Lo’s. In his own words, “by the time I actually heard the Hi-Lo's, I started picking that stuff out; my ear was happening. I could hear stuff and that's when I really learned some much farther-out voicings -like the harmonies I used on 'Speak Like a Child' -just being able to do that. I really got that from Clare Fischer's arrangements for the Hi-Lo's. Clare Fischer was a major influence on my harmonic concept... He and Bill Evans, and Ravel and Gil Evans, finally. You know, that's where it really came from. Almost all of the harmony that I play can be traced to one of those four people and whoever their influences were.” After high school Herbie attended Grinnell College where he double-majored in music and electrical engineering. Herbie quickly formed a reputation in Jazz in the 1960s performing with Donald Byrd, Coleman Hawkins, Oliver Nelson and Phil Woods and made his first album on Blue Note called ‘Takin’ Off’ in 1962.

Hancock’s first album caught the attention of Miles Davis and Herbie was asked to join his quintet in 1963 with Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. Some of the classic albums recorded by the quintet include ‘E.S.P.’, ‘Nefertiti’ and ‘Sorcerer’ and he also appeared on Davis’ albums ‘Bitches Brew’, ‘In a Silent Way’ and ‘Tribute to Jack Johnson’ among others. It was Miles who first introduced Herbie to the Fender Rhodes and began his interest in electronic keyboards. During the 1960s Hancock also made many albums under his own name including ‘Empyrean Isles’, ‘Maiden Voyage’, ‘Speak Like a Child’ and others. Herbie also began his career in film composing the score to the film Blow Up and in television by composing the soundtrack to the show Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids. In the 1970s Hancock began experimenting more with electronic instruments in Jazz and formed a group with Buster Williams, Billy Hart, Eddie Henderson, Julian Priester, Bennie Maupin, and Dr. Patrick Gleason. Albums this group made include ‘Mwandishi’, ‘Crossings’ and ‘Sextant’. These experimental albums led to the creation of one of Herbie’s most successful groups, The Headhunters, with Maupin, Bill Summers, Paul Jackson and Harvey Mason. The Headhunters were well received and their first album, ‘Head Hunters’, was the first Jazz album to go Platinum. By the mid 1970s Herbie was traveling around the world performing for stadium sized crowds. Hancock also continued with acoustic Jazz in the late ‘70s forming VSOP with the members of the Miles Davis Quintet minus Miles.

In the 1980s Herbie continued with VSOP II with Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Ron Carter and Tony Williams. In 1983 Hancock made an album with Bill Laswell called ‘Future Shock’ which went platinum and their hit song from that album “Rockit” won a Grammy for Best R&B Instrumental and the music video won five MTV awards. Their follow up album ‘Sound System’ also won a Grammy. In 1986 Herbie won an Oscar for his work scoring the film Round Midnight. Highlights for Herbie in 1990s include his Acid Jazz album ‘Dis Is Da Drum’ in 1994 followed by ‘The New Standard’ with an all star band that won a Grammy in 1996. In ’97 Hancock and Wayne Shorter recorded a duo album called ‘1+1’ and the following year The Headhunters reunited and went on tour with the Dave Matthews band. Herbie’s most celebrated achievement of this decade is by far his 2007 album ‘River: The Joni Letters’ with Joni Mitchell, Wayne Shorter, Lionel Loueke, Dave Holland and Vinnie Colauita. There many special guests on this album as well including Norah Jones, Tina Turner, Corrine Bailey Rae and Leonard Cohen. The album won a Grammy for Album of The Year and was the first Jazz album to do so in fifty years and only the second time ever a Jazz album has won the honors.

Herbie Hancock continues on making music and breaking barriers which only seem to exist for everyone except Herbie. The almost literally ageless Hancock has an unbelievable body of work and the thought that he is far from done is mind boggling. Herbie’s influence has reached nearly every genre of music in America and continues to simply make the music he wants to make in that moment without the rationalization that seems to hold back most others from reaching their potential. Herbie has won twelve Grammy Awards, an Oscar, NEA Jazz Masters Award, voted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame and so many others. I can’t wait to see what Herbie Hancock will do next.

“Practicing Buddhism has brought several revelations to me. One that has been extremely important to my own personal development and consequently my musical development — is the realization that I am not a musician. That’s not what I am. It’s what I do. What I am is a human being. Being a human being includes me being a musician. It includes my being a father, a husband, a neighbor, a citizen and an African-American. All of these relationships have to do with my existence on the planet."

“Creativity and artistic endeavors have a mission that goes far beyond just making music for the sake of music.”

“Without wisdom, the future has no meaning, no valuable purpose.”

"Since time is a continuum, the moment is always different, so the music is always different.” – Herbie Hancock

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/jazz-legends-herbie-hancock-wayne-242396.aspx

February 26, 2013

UCLA Home Campus Directory
Media Contacts News Releases About UCLA

Jazz legends Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter named UCLA professors 
By Shilo Munk
January 08, 2013
UCLA

Renowned artists to mentor students as part of Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance's partnership with UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music

The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music today announced the appointment of multiple Grammy Award winners and National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter as UCLA professors. The two jazz greats are part of the school's Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance.

This marks the first time these two artists have made such a major commitment to an educational institution, and the current class of students will be the first to learn from them on a regular basis.

"We are truly delighted to welcome Herbie and Wayne to the faculty of the Herb Alpert School of Music," said Christopher Waterman, dean of the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, which houses the school of music. "The arrival of these legends marks an important step in the growth of UCLA's distinguished jazz program, which provides students with the opportunity to study with the renowned guitarist and NEA Jazz Master Kenny Burrell, award-winning flutist and composer James Newton and leading Los Angeles–based jazz musicians such as Dr. Bobby Rodriguez, Charley Harrison, Barbara Morrison, Michelle Weir, George Bohanon, Tamir Hendelman and Justo Almario."

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance at UCLA is a two-year graduate-level program that accepts one ensemble of musicians for each class; the current class includes seven students. The students, known as Thelonious Monk Fellows, will be taught each month by Hancock and Shorter throughout the academic year. The two professors will share their musical philosophies and the knowledge learned from their years of playing with the architects of jazz, including Miles Davis and Art Blakey. Both will focus on composition, improvisation and artistic expression, working with the students individually and as a group.

Additionally, Hancock and Shorter will lead master classes open to all UCLA students. Since the program began at UCLA in September 2012, Shorter has already taught for eight days and participated in a public performance with the Monk Fellows, and Hancock has taught for three days. On Dec. 6, 2012, Hancock and Shorter joined forces to conduct a historic master class at UCLA. This April, the Monk Fellows will accompany Hancock and Shorter to Istanbul to participate in a global, televised performance marking International Jazz Day.

"Wayne and I look forward to working with and guiding the new class of Monk Fellows over the next two years," said Hancock, chairman of the Thelonious Monk Institute. "These exceptionally gifted young artists are destined to become some of the most influential jazz musicians of their generation, and we are both looking forward to helping them forge successful careers in jazz performance. The mentoring experience will be profound for us, as well. The gift of inspiration in the classroom that develops from the master–apprentice relationship enhances our personal creativity on the bandstand and in the recording studio."

In addition to these two legendary artists, the Monk Institute program at UCLA has been expanded to include Billy Childs, a world-class composer and the recipient of a coveted Guggenheim Fellowship. Also instructing the Monk Fellows are internationally renowned improvisation educators Hal Crook, Jerry Bergonzi and Dick Oatts, all of whom add a new dimension to the program by sharing their comprehensive knowledge of jazz, addressing all elements of the students' playing and helping the students navigate the many styles and musical environments of jazz.

"When we established the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music in 2007, one of our goals was to build on the stellar faculty and students in place and strengthen jazz as an essential, core component of the school's program," said Herb Alpert, chairman and founder of the Herb Alpert Foundation and principal donor to the UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. "The addition of the preeminent Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance program brings a great richness of resources and talents to the mix, giving students even more opportunities to work with the world's great jazz artists."

All of the Thelonious Monk Fellows receive full scholarships, as well as stipends to cover their monthly living expenses. The students study individually and as a small group, receiving personal mentoring, ensemble coaching and lectures on the jazz tradition. They also are encouraged to experiment in expanding jazz in new directions through their compositions and performances. The current class will be the first to graduate with a master's degree in jazz performance from UCLA.

Since the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz launched its college-level jazz performance program in 1995, Monk Fellows have studied with world-renowned jazz artists Terence Blanchard, Ron Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jack DeJohnette, Barry Harris, Roy Haynes, Jimmy Heath, Dave Holland, Wynton Marsalis, Jason Moran, Danilo Pérez, Dianne Reeves, Horace Silver and Clark Terry, among many others. These jazz legends serve as artists-in-residence in the college program for one week each month.

Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance students and instructors present a number of major concerts and community outreach programs throughout the United States and overseas. International highlights have included performances at the celebration commemorating the 40th anniversary of the coronation of the king of Thailand, the Summit of the Americas in Chile before 34 heads of state, the United Nations' "Day of Philosophy" event in Paris sponsored by UNESCO, and the Tokyo Jazz Festival. The students have also participated in tours of China, Egypt, Argentina, Peru, India and Vietnam with Herbie Hancock.

"The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is honored to have Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock joining the faculty of our college program at UCLA, where they will share their vast musical experiences and expansive vision for jazz, past, present and future," said Tom Carter, president of the Thelonious Monk Institute.

The Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz is a nonprofit education organization established in memory of Thelonious Monk, the legendary jazz pianist and composer. Monk was one of the primary architects of bebop, and his impact as both a performer and composer has had a profound influence on every genre of music. His more than 70 compositions are classics that continue to inspire artists in all disciplines. Monk believed the best way to learn jazz was from a master of the music. The institute follows that same philosophy by bringing together the greatest living jazz musicians to teach and inspire young people, offering the most promising young musicians college-level training by America's jazz masters through its fellowship program in jazz performance and presenting public school–based jazz education programs around the world. Helping to fill the tremendous void in arts education left by budget cuts in public school funding, the institute provides school programs free of charge and uses jazz as the medium to encourage imaginative thinking, creativity, a positive self-image and respect for one's own and others' cultural heritage.

The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music is devoted to the performance and study of music in all of its global diversity, including world music, popular music, jazz and classical music. The school's curriculum combines musical diversity, interdisciplinary studies, liberal arts values and professional training in a way that takes advantage of the school's position within a great research university. Students develop the practical and critical skills that prepare them for careers not only in professional performance and academia but in music journalism, the entertainment business, and the public and nonprofit sectors.

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