Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour
Raul Midón – guitar and vocals
Nicholas Payton – trumpet
Ravi Coltrane – tenor and soprano saxophones
Gerald Clayton – piano, musical director
Joe Sanders – bass
Gregory Hutchinson – drums
The program will be announced from the stage. Music will be an assortment of classic jazz
repertoire and original compositions by band members.
Acknowledgements
Produced by Absolutely Live Entertainment, LLC
Producer, Danny Melnick
Associate Producer, Tracy Reid
Artistic Director, Tim Jackson for Monterey Jazz Festival
Road Manager & Sound Engineer, Sam Walton
Booking Agency, The Kurland Agency
Absolutely Live Entertainment LLC
absolutelylive.net
A Brief History of Monterey Jazz Festival All-Star Bands
“All-Star” bands have been a long-standing tradition at the Monterey Jazz
Festival. Beginning in 1966, the Festival has assembled master jazz musicians
under the “Monterey All-Stars” banner. Since then, over 20 Monterey All-Star
bands have graced the stages of Monterey, and have featured artists like Gil
Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Elvin Jones, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Ray Brown,
Sonny Stitt, Max Roach, John Lewis, Shelly Manne, Bobby Hutcherson, Hank
Jones, Milt Jackson, and many others.
To celebrate the Festival’s 50th Anniversary in 2007, General Manager and
Artistic Director Tim Jackson decided to break the Monterey Jazz Festival AllStar mold by taking these special bands nationwide to embody the past, present
and future of jazz history, and to spread the Monterey Jazz Festival’s artistic
footprint beyond the Monterey County Fairgrounds. The All-Star bands have
performed at the September Festival and then toured in the early months of the
following year, with Jackson calling on musicians with a close relationship with
Monterey that represent both its musical excellence and jazz education activities
— both core components of Monterey Jazz Festival’s mission statement.
Members of the All-Star touring groups have been previous Monterey Artists-InResidence, have participated as students in the Festival’s springtime Next
Generation Jazz Festival or have been members of Monterey’s hand-chosen Next
Generation Jazz Orchestra as high school students; or have otherwise made
strong and lasting contributions to jazz education. Since the touring groups have
gone on the road, Monterey Jazz Festival has reached over 104,000 fans in 135
shows across the United States and Canada. Previous tours took place in 2008,
2010 and 2013.
2015-16
Monterey Jazz Festival will present its fourth national tour in 2016, again
featuring critically-acclaimed, GRAMMY-winning jazz artists. The Monterey
Jazz Festival on Tour 2016 band features Nicholas Payton on trumpet; Ravi
Coltrane on tenor and soprano saxophones; musical director Gerald Clayton on
piano; Joe Sanders on bass; and Gregory Hutchinson on drums. Raul Midón is
the featured vocalist and guitarist. The band will perform 28 shows in 10 states,
including a five-night run at Birdland in New York City.
Ravi Coltrane first appeared at Monterey in 2001, nearly 41 years to the day after
his own father made his debut at Monterey in 1960. Nicholas Payton was
Monterey’s Artist-In-Residence in 2000, and Gerald Clayton, Joe Sanders, and
Kendrick Scott, some of the rising stars in the jazz world, have been performers
on Monterey stages and as high school students at the Festival’s student
competition, the Next Generation Jazz Festival. Raul Midón, one of music's most
distinctive and searching voices, has appeared at Monterey three times since
2011.
Gerald Clayton acts as musical director for the group, and has a long history
with the festival, both as a student and as a performing artist. A scholarship and
soloist award winner at Monterey’s 2000 and 2001 springtime Next Generation
Jazz Festival with the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts, Gerald made
trio appearances at Monterey in 2010 and 2012 with Joe Sanders, and recently
performed in 2014 in a duo with Charles Lloyd.
Gregory Hutchinson has a long history with the Festival, with the first of his
three appearances at MJF starting in 1992. Hutchinson began his professional
debut as a teen-aged sideman for trumpeter Red Rodney, gaining his maturity
from valuable associations with the likes of Betty Carter and Joe Henderson.
BIOGRAPHIES
RAVI COLTRANE
Ravi Coltrane is a critically-acclaimed GRAMMY®-nominated saxophonist,
bandleader, and composer. In the course of a 20-plus-year career, Mr. Coltrane
has worked as a sideman to many, recorded noteworthy albums for himself and
others, and founded a prominent independent record label, RKM.
Born in Long Island, the second son of John Coltrane and Alice Coltrane, Ravi
was named after Indian sitar legend Ravi Shankar. He was raised in Los Angeles
where his family moved after his father’s death in 1967. His mother, Alice
Coltrane, was a significant influence on Ravi and it was he who encouraged
Alice to return to performance and the recording studio after a long absence.
Subsequently, Ravi produced and played on Alice Coltrane’s powerful
Translinear Light, released in 2004.
Ravi has released six albums as a leader. His latest, Spirit Fiction, was released in
June of 2012 for the Blue Note label. Additional credits include performances as
well as recordings with Elvin Jones, Terence Blanchard, Kenny Barron, Steve
Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, Matt Garrison, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Geri
Allen, Joanne Brackeen, and The Blue Note 7, among others. He is a co-leader of
the Saxophone Summit with Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman.
Ravi lives in Brooklyn, New York and maintains a fast paced touring, recording,
composing and performance schedule. He leads the effort to restore the John
Coltrane Home in Dix Hills, Long Island, and presides over important reissues of
his parent’s recordings.
RAUL MIDÓN
Singer-songwriter and guitarist Raul Midón has earned renown as one of music's
most distinctive and searching voices. He is "a one-man band who turns a guitar
into an orchestra and his voice into a chorus," according to the New York Times.
Midón has collaborated with such heroes as Herbie Hancock and Stevie Wonder,
along with contributing to recordings by Jason Mraz, Queen Latifah and Snoop
Dogg and the soundtrack to Spike Lee's She Hate Me. The New Mexico native,
blind since birth, has released seven albums since 1999, including the hit studio
productions State of Mind (Manhattan/EMI, 2005), A World Within a World
(Manhattan/EMI, 2007) and Synthesis (Decca/Universal, 2009). Midón's most
recent release is the captivating CD/DVD Invisible Chains – Live from NYC.
Attuned listeners can hear the inspirations of Donny Hathaway and Richie
Havens in his work, as well as Sting and Paul Simon. But Midón's questing
musicality makes him, as the Huffington Post put it, "a free man beyond
category."
A vibrant presence on screen, Midón can be seen in the documentary on
Hancock's star-studded album Possibilities, and he is featured collaborating with
soul icon Bill Withers in the documentary Still Bill. Midón has also demonstrated
his progressive techniques by performing for the series of TED Talks. Ever since
being told as a child that his blindness meant that "you can't do this, you can't do
that," Midón has lived a life devoted to shattering stereotypes. His new album,
Don’t Hestate, has the singer-guitarist adding producer-engineer to his portfolio
of talents, with special computer software for the blind enabling him to engineer
sessions on his own in his home studio. This project – which includes
collaborations with Withers, R&B singer-songwriter Lizz Wright, Cameroonian
jazz bassist Richard Bona and GRAMMY-winning jazz singer Dianne Reeves –
underscores why People magazine called Midón "an eclectic adventurist."
NICHOLAS PAYTON
Multi-instrumentalist and trumpet master, Nicholas Payton, is one of the greatest
artists of our time. Hailed as a virtuoso before he was even out of high school, his
talent and skill has earned him praise and accolades, as well as insured his place
in musical history. When he was barely in his 20s, Nicholas Payton made his
major-label recording debut as a leader with From This Moment (Verve). Since
then, Payton has consistently committed himself to developing his distinct voice.
Nicholas was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, into a musical family. He showed
a talent for music at a very early age and by the age of 12, he was a member of
the All-Star Brass Band that performed and toured extensively. During his high
school years, Payton attended the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts to study
with Clyde Kerr Jr. and after graduation attended the University of New Orleans
where he studied with Harold Battiste and Ellis Marsalis.
His classic Verve recordings include From This Moment (1994); Gumbo Nouveau
(1995); the GRAMMY-winning Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton (1997); Payton’s
Place (1998); Nick@Night (1999); and Dear Louis (2001); Sonic Trance (2003, Warner
Bros.); Into the Blue (2008, Nonesuch); Bitches (2011, In+Out Records). Nicholas
now records for his own imprint, Paytone Records™, where he has released
Numbers, and the iconic Sketches of Spain. Payton released #BAM Live at Bohemian
Caverns (2013) his first recording for his then-newly-formed label, BMF Records.
As is evident, Nicholas spans a multitude of musical genres having composed
and arranged, performed and recorded with his own groups in many settings,
including solo, duo, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, 21-piece big band, as well as
with a full orchestra on his 2012 work, The Black American Symphony.
Significant collaborators include projects with Trey Anastasio, Ray Brown, Ray
Charles, Daniel Lanois, Dr. John, Stanley Jordan, Elvin Jones, Roy Haynes, Joe
Henderson, Zigaboo Modeliste, Marcus Roberts, Jill Scott, Clark Terry, Allen
Toussaint, Chucho Valdes, Dr. Michael White, Nancy Wilson, and many others.
He is credited on over 120 recordings as a composer, arranger, special guest or
sideman.
Nicholas has performed at major concert halls and festivals worldwide, and
some of his television and film credits include Kansas City (Robert Altman,
director); original music featured in HBO’s Treme Seasons 2 and 3, and on FX
Channel’s The Americans; Nick @ Night; Icons Among Us documentary; the
GRAMMY Awards; The Tonight Show; The Tonight Show Brazil; and EBS TV
(Korea). He appears in the final episode of HBO’s Treme as an actor and
musician.
Nicholas has also served as Distinguished Artist and Visiting Lecturer at Tulane
University and has taught master classes, clinics and workshops at over 40
institutions, including Berklee College of Music, The Connecticut Forum (with
Beverly Sills, Bobby Weir and Trey Anastasio), Cornell University, Institute of
Superior Arts (Havana, Cuba), Loyola University, Northwestern University,
Oberlin College and Conservatory, Skidmore College, Stanford University,
Thelonious Monk Institute, and many more.
GERALD CLAYTON
Over the course of eight years, with three albums as a leader, several studio
projects as a sideman, and countless worldwide performances, pianist and
composer Gerald Clayton has established himself as a leading figure in the upand-coming generation of jazz artists who are fluent in the range of styles that
make up today’s jazz lexicon. Hailed by The New York Times for his “huge,
authoritative presence,” Clayton is well on his way toward etching his own
enduring mark in the long and rich tradition of jazz.
Born in the Netherlands in 1984 and raised in Southern California, Clayton took
his first piano lessons before age seven with the full support and encouragement
of his father, the acclaimed jazz bassist, composer and bandleader, John Clayton.
Music was a central part of his life from as long as he can remember and it
became a lifetime commitment. Clayton attended the L.A. County High School
for the Arts and then enrolled at the USC Thornton School of Music. In the midst
of his third year at USC, he temporarily relocated to New York to study at the
Manhattan School of Music.
In 2006, Gerald received the second place prize in the prestigious Thelonious
Monk Institute of Jazz Piano Competition. Around that time, he was introduced
to trumpeter Roy Hargrove when they were both featured artists at a
performance of the Henry Mancini Orchestra.
The association resulted in three years of extensive touring with Hargrove
between 2006 and 2009, and appearances on Hargrove’s recordings, Earfood
(2008) and Emergence (2009). Gerald also appeared on recordings by several other
artists, such as Diana Krall, Ambrose Akinmusire, Kendrick Scott, Melissa
Morgan, Terell Stafford and Dick Oatts, and more recently Michael Rodriguez,
Dayna Stephens, Terri Lyne Carrington, and the Clayton Brothers Quintet, led by
his father and his uncle, saxophonist Jeff Clayton. Gerald continues to perform
regularly with the Clayton Brothers.
In 2009, he released Two Shade, his debut album as a leader with bassist Joe
Sanders and drummer Justin Brown, and Gerald received a 2010 GRAMMY
nomination for ‘Best Improvised Jazz Solo’ for his rendition of Cole Porter’s “All
of You.” Sanders and Brown have remained with him for his two subsequent
records, and in 2011, Gerald received a second GRAMMY nomination, this time
for Best Jazz Instrumental Composition, for his piece “Battle Circle” featured on
the Clayton Brothers recording, The New Song and Dance. Clayton released his
sophomore album, Bond: The Paris Sessions in 2011, and received his third
GRAMMY nomination, this time for Best Jazz Instrumental Album. Life Forum
was released in April 2013 on Concord Records, and is his most ambitious project
to date.
JOE SANDERS
Joe Sanders has made a name for himself through his versatility, dedication, and
steady pulse. He is without doubt, one of the most sought-after young bass
players of his generation. He has played, recorded, and toured with many great
musicians — including Ravi Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Jimmy Heath, Wayne
Shorter, Dave Brubeck, Mulgrew Miller, Geri Allen, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Karriem
Riggins, Nicholas Payton, Roy Hargrove, Gerald Clayton (whose album Two
Shade was nominated for a 2010 GRAMMY); Geoffery Keezer, Lionel Loueke,
Aaron Parks, Chris Potter, Ambrose Akinmusire, Christian Scott, and Taylor
Eigsti.
Joe’s first teacher, Catherine McGinn, is a member of the Milwaukee Symphony
Orchestra and guided Sanders throughout middle school and high school. In
2002, he attended the Brubeck Institute to study under the tutelage of Christian
McBride. After two years with McBride and the many other jazz masters who
passed through the Institute, Sanders felt ready to head to New York, and
through gigs and jam sessions, Sanders’ name was heard more widely in the city.
In 2005, Sanders moved to Los Angeles to attend the prestigious Thelonious
Monk Institute, under Artistic Director Terence Blanchard. While at the Monk
Institute, Sanders honed his skills even further and embraced new musical
concepts brought on by Blanchard. He was also challenged by others who were
brought into the Monk Institute to share their concepts such as Jason Moran,
Benny Golson, Wynton Marsalis, Stefon Harris, and Lewis Nash, to name a few.
During this time, Sanders took one-on-one lessons from exceptional bassists who
have always inspired him to keep moving forward, including John Clayton, Bob
Hurst, Ron Carter, and Charlie Haden.
Upon graduation from the Thelonious Monk Institute, Sanders returned to New
York City. Recently, he placed second in the finals of both the International
Society of Bassists Jazz Bass Competition and the Thelonious Monk Institute’s
International Jazz Bass Competition. He leads his own band, Joe Sanders’
Infinity, and tours extensively in Europe and the States with Gerald Clayton Trio.
He currently lives in Paris.
GREGORY HUTCHINSON
Gregory Hutchinson is one of the most highly-respected musicians of our time. A
musician’s drummer, he is rooted in the jazz tradition, and is able to approach all
styles of music with supreme accuracy and imagination, decorating compositions
with his natural feel and mind-blowing innovation. Jazz Magazine describes him
as “the drummer of his generation.”
Born in 1970, the Brooklyn native began to nurture his passion for music at the
very young age of three. By the age of 12, he was arriving early and staying late
at school each day to practice. After high school, he was accepted to the
Manhattan School of Music, where Justin DiCioccio became his mentor.
DiCioccio’s former students had been Omar Hakim, Kenny Washington, Marcus
Miller, and Steve Jordan.
His professional career began while he was still in college, when he was
introduced to Red Rodney. He quickly became known as a young phenom in the
jazz community, sharing the stage with Betty Carter and Ray Brown, while
Hutchinson was still in his early twenties. He is one of the few musicians today
who had the opportunity to collaborate with some of the great originators of
jazz. Since then, he has worked with a who’s who of the jazz world including
Dianne Reeves, Betty Carter, Wynton Marsalis, John Scofield, Roy Hargrove,
Charles Lloyd, Diana Krall, Harry Connick Jr, Joshua Redman, Christian
McBride, and Maria Schneider, and many others. His time signatures and beat
compositions have won him praise from the hip hop community as well, leading
him to collaborate with powerhouses Common, super producer Kareem Riggins,
and Questlove of the Roots.
His experience and technique make him one of the most exciting musicians to
watch and hear. He has the creative power to not only nurture, but challenge the
very art of drumming. Dianne Reeves describes him as “pure genius,” and jazz
critic Gary Giddins described his drum work as “elegant and dancing." Taking
inspiration from one of jazz’s icons, Hutch says: “I want to sing on the drums the
way [Charlie Parker] sings on the horn.”