SPRING 2024
YOUTH JAZZ PROGRAM UPDATES
AND NEWS ALERTS!
2024 AUDITIONS
Auditions for 2024 Fellowships are February 18, 2024 beginning at 3:00 pm in 15 minute increments. Call our office at (913) 250-5141 and leave a message with: (1) your name and instrument, (2) your mobile phone number, and (3) your preferred time.
ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT
SUPPORTER SPOTLIGHT
The Quarterly Club: Click here to become a member!
COMPOSER FEEDBACK
“The Guardians” (2023 FELLOWS) sounds absolutely beautiful! Thank you for playing and recording it and please tell the students how moved I was by their performance.
ELLEN ROWE, COMPOSER
DISCOGRAPHY: The 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023 FELLOWS albums are available everywhere worldwide on the ARC label.
Visit AllAboutJazz.com to download FREE MUSIC from the latest YouthJazz.us albums. Visit calendar page for complete program schedule information.
THE 2023 FELLOWSHIP
Kansas City Area Youth Jazz Ensembles are named for several of our contemporary music icons whose significant and enduring contributions to the field of Jazz music have encompassed the artistic and technical areas of performance, recording, composition, and music education.
NOTE: Ensemble tribute names are used with expressed permission.
THE BRADY ENSEMBLE
Named for the iconic Kansas City music educator, Leon A. Brady
BRADY ENSEMBLE FELLOWS
- Lizzie Salin
- Emma-Kate Salin
- Levi Parker
- Kris Durant
- KeKe Rhodes
- Alyssa Williams
- D’Koda Perry
- Star Minter
- Kareem Doolin
- Owen Aho
- Maurice Butler – drums
(MCC Penn Valley, Music Performance)
| TRACK TITLE | COMPOSER | ARRANGER |
|---|---|---|
| In My Solitude | Ellington | Thornton |
| Take The A-Train | Ellington | Thornton |
| Do Nothing ‘Till You Hear From Me | Ellington | Thornton |
CLINICIAN: REV WM Thornton
* Weekly rehearsals at The Paseo Academy of Fine and Performing Arts
ABOUT MR. BRADY
Leon Brady is an educator and professional percussionist who earned both his Bachelor and Master of Music Education degrees from Tennessee State University. He started his career in Kansas City in 1959, at Northeast Junior High and later moved to Sumner High School where he taught marching band, orchestra and jazz band and earned many awards for excellence. From 1976 to 2000, he owned and operated Brady & Sons Music Company & Studio. In 2000, he founded Kansas City Youth Jazz and was its Musical Director until 2011. Today Leon instructs percussion students, both privately and in groups at the Brady Percussion Academy, where he has developed a unique program for drum lines and drum set students as young as four-years-old.
by the original Kansas City Youth Jazz program.
Mr. Brady has also performed with many national and internationally recognized musicians over the years. While serving in the US Air Force, he performed regularly with John Williams and Frank Hitner, and later toured and recorded with Ray Charles. He has also performed with Max Roach, Clark Terry, George Salisbury, Marilyn Maye, Grover Washington, Carmel Jones, George Duke, John Park and many others. Mr. Brady was inducted into the “Jazz Walk of Fame” in Kansas City during a formal ceremony and gala concert in 2019. He was awarded the Woody Herman Award for Excellence in Jazz Education in 2022.
THE CRAIN ENSEMBLE
Named for the great musician, recording engineer, and composer, Bill Crain.
CRAIN ENSEMBLE FELLOWS
- Miles Clemons – piano
(Berklee College of Music) - Truman Mathena – bass
(UMKC Conservatory, Jazz Studies) - Quinn Spear – drums
(UMKC, University Studies) - Javier Cruz – drums
(Shawnee Mission Northwest High School) - Logan Smoot – trumpet/flugelhorn
(Ottawa University, Jazz Studies) - Luke Inman – trumpet/flugelhorn
(UMKC Conservatory, Jazz Studies) - Dylan Reed – alto saxophone
(Shawnee Mission Northwest High School) - Josiah Assefa – tenor saxophone + clarinet
(Olathe Northwest High School) - Will Kimlinger – baritone saxophone
(Platte County High School)
| TRACK TITLE | COMPOSER | ARRANGER |
|---|---|---|
| The Changing Of The Guard | Williams | Sickler |
| The Perpetrator | Mossman | Mossman |
| Infra-Rae | Mobley | Sickler |
CLINICIANS: Christopher Burnett and Houston Smith
* Weekly rehearsals at BRC Audio Productions
ABOUT MR. CRAIN
Bill R. Crain was the founder/ owner/ operator of BRC Audio Productions and the founder of IAEA, and his distinguished career included recording engineering, music performance, education, and composition. Bill engineered countless music albums and recorded and produced dozens of musical compositions and arrangements for radio, TV, and film. Bill also proved to be an influential and innovative educator, having written and instituted the jazz studies program at UCM as well as IAEA’s Audio Engineering Arts certificate program – both producing highly successful graduates. As a professional woodwind player, Bill performed with famous acts including the Glenn Miller Orchestra, The Temptations, and Gladys Knight, led his own small Jazz ensembles, and served as musical director of Kansas City’s prestigious Trilogy Big Band.
Bill most recently served as the director of the IAEA program, recording engineer and managing member of BRC Audio Productions, Inc., and the Musical Director and Engineer of Kansas City Area Youth Jazz. Bill received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Education and Masters of Arts in Music Composition, with focuses on theory and conducting, at California State University at Chico; and completed his ABD focusing on commercial woodwinds and conducting, in the Doctor of Arts program at Ball State University.
THE WATSON ENSEMBLE
Named for the iconic recording artist, educator, and composer, Bobby Watson.
WATSON ENSEMBLE FELLOWS
- Michael Suriano – guitar
(KCKCC, Jazz Studies) - Isaac Pieters – bass
(Ottawa University, Jazz Studies) - Blue Noyes – drums
(Basehor-Linwood High School) - Levi Birks – drums
(Olathe Northwest High School) - Jacob Fry – vocalist
(Ottawa University, Jazz Studies) - Nic Weaver – trumpet/flugelhorn
(DeSoto High School) - Dallas Hall – trumpet/flugelhorn
(Pittsburg State University, Jazz Studies) - Henry Scamurra – alto saxophone
(UMKC Conservatory, Jazz Studies) - Jackson Harrison – tenor saxophone
(UMKC Conservatory, Jazz Studies) - Aidan Hamer – trombone
(DeSoto High School) - Gregory Carroll – piano
(KCAYJ Clinician)
| TRACK TITLE | COMPOSER | ARRANGER |
|---|---|---|
| Five Dollar Bill | Weaver | Weaver |
| Marmaduke | Parker | Otto |
| Yardbird Suite | Parker | Aaberg |
| The Guardians (free download) | Rowe | Rowe |
| Red Cross | Parker | Carroll & McKemy |
CLINICIANS: Gregory Carroll and David Cunningham
* Weekly rehearsals at BRC Audio Productions
ABOUT PROFESSOR WATSON
Robert Michael Watson Jr., known professionally as Bobby Watson, is an American saxophonist, composer, and educator. Watson was born in Lawrence, Kansas, and grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. He attended the University of Miami at the same time as Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, and Bruce Hornsby. He graduated in 1975, moved to New York City, and became music director for the Jazz Messengers from 1977 to 1981. After leaving the band, he was productive as a session musician, recording with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Max Roach, Joe Williams, Dianne Reeves, Lou Rawls, Betty Carter, and Carmen Lundy. He formed the band Bobby Watson & Horizon with bassist Curtis Lundy and drummer Victor Lewis, with whom he played throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Watson led a group known as the High Court of Swing (a tribute to the music of Johnny Hodges), the sixteen-piece Tailor-Made Big Band, and is a founding member of the 29th Street Saxophone Quartet, an all-horn, four-piece group with alto saxophonist Ed Jackson, tenor saxophonist Rich Rothenberg, and baritone saxophonist Jim Hartog. Watson also composed a song for the soundtrack to the movie A Bronx Tale (1993).
A resident of New York for most of his professional life, he served as a member of the adjunct faculty and taught saxophone privately at William Paterson University from 1985 to 1986 and the Manhattan School of Music from 1996 to 1999. He is involved with the Thelonious Monk Institute’s annual Jazz in America high school outreach program. In 2000, he was approached to return to his native midwestern surroundings on the Kansas-Missouri border. Watson was selected as the first William D. and Mary Grant/Missouri, Distinguished Professorship in Jazz Studies. As the director of jazz studies at the University of Missouri–Kansas City Conservatory of Music, while still managing a worldwide performing schedule, Watson’s ensembles at UMKC recorded critically acclaimed albums and received several awards.
YOUTH JAZZ Consultants Guidelines are found here.
YOUTH JAZZ Fellows Guidelines are found here.
YOUTH JAZZ Terms and Conditions are found here.
Youth Jazz Fellows … play original compositions and iconic selections from the jazz music canon, get paid for live concerts, and release professional studio recordings each season. Get involved!
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