The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance
Program at Columbia University
Professor Chris Washburne,
Director
816D Dodge Hall
(212) 854-9862
Email: cjw5@columbia.edu
Ben Waltzer, Associate
Director
Email: Ben.Waltzer@gmail.com
The Louis Armstrong Jazz Performance Program in the Music Department at Columbia University, supported in part by a grant from the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, offers jazz performance instruction and experience to both undergraduate and graduate students. This strong and growing program now comprises eight student performance ensembles, nine music associates who provide private lessons, and a visiting Master Artist program.
Jazz performance lessons, courses in jazz improvisation and composition, and ensemble courses are offered through this program, in conjunction with Columbia University’s Music Performance Program. Students have numerous opportunities for jazz performance, both on and off-campus. In order to provide more performance opportunities for Columbia’s jazz students and to bring more live jazz to the campus, ensemble members perform at various social events around the campus throughout the school year.
Master Classes and Visiting Artists
Each semester a guest jazz performer is invited to campus to perform with the student ensembles, conduct master classes, and play a concert with their professional band. Previous guest artists include Bobby Watson (pictured), Frank Wess, Don Byron, Brian Lynch, Vijay Iyer, Wycliffe Gordon, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.
Auditions
Auditions are required for admittance to jazz ensemble courses, and are held in 112 Dodge Hall at the start of each Fall semester. All Columbia and Barnard students (both undergraduate and graduate) interested in jazz performance opportunities are encouraged to audition. All instrumentalists and vocalists are invited. Some previous jazz performance experience is required.
Sign up for auditions at the Music Performance Program Office, 618 Dodge Hall. For the audition, please prepare a jazz standard and a blues song, and be prepared to demonstrate sight-reading skills and knowledge of major and minor scales. Auditions will be accompanied by a rhythm section.
Private Lessons
Private lessons are available by audition only; there are a limited number of openings. Auditions for lessons (required) are held at the same time as ensemble auditions. Auditions are held in 112 Dodge Hall at the start of each Fall semester. Sign up for lesson auditions at the Music Performance Program Office, 618 Dodge Hall.
Jazz Performance Ensembles
Columbia University Jazz
Ensemble
(V1618/V1619), Section 001
Directed by Steve Wilson
This ensemble offers advanced level jazz musicians an opportunity to perform in a small jazz group setting playing variety of jazz styles. The repertoire covers 1950s hard bop to more adventurous contemporary styles. Students are required to compose and arrange for the group under the supervision of Steve Wilson. The ensemble simulates a professionally working jazz group thereby offering students who are interested in pursuing professional or semi-professional careers important preparatory training (1 credit hour).
Columbia University Jazz
Ensemble
(V1618/V1619), Section 002
Directed by Don Sickler
Columbia University Jazz
Ensemble
(V1618/V1619), Section 003
Directed by Ben Waltzer
These ensembles are open to both advanced and intermediate jazz performers and offer experience in small group straight ahead styles. There is no limit to the number of musicians. The ensembles meet weekly and one end of the semester concert is required (1 credit hour).
See and hear Columbia Jazz Ensembles
Jazz Performance Instructors
Jazz performance at Columbia is taught by highly active professional artists who are also experienced teachers. Columbia’s instructors are prominent not only in New York City, but also nationally and internationally.
Paul Bollenbeck
(guitar)
David Gibson
(trombone)
Christine Correa
(voice)
Brad Jones (bass)
Ole Mathisen
(saxophone)
Tony Moreno (drums)
Don Sickler (trumpet,
composition and arranging, ensembles)
Ben Waltzer (piano)
Steve Wilson
(saxophone)
Paul Bollenbeck’s emotionally expressive style and eclectic approach is the result of years of listening, studying and playing. Bollenbeck attended the University of Miami as a music major, and studied theory and composition privately for eight years with Asher Zlotnik. In 1993, Paul was awarded a grant from the Virginia Commission on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts to compose and perform “New Music for Three Jazz Guitars.” In 1997, Bollenbeck was named Musician of the Year at the Washington Area Music Awards, and became an Adjunct Professor of Music at the American University in Washington, DC. His two compositions, “Wookie’s Revenge” and “Romancin’ the Moon” (featured on Joey DeFrancesco’s Reboppin’) earned him the SESAC award for original songs and he was later invited to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Paul has appeared on the Tonight Show, Good Morning America, Joan Rivers, The Today Show, and Entertainment Tonight. He has played with an impressive spectrum of musicians, including Stanley Turrentine, Gary Bartz, Joey DeFrancesco, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Joe Locke, Gary Thomas, Steve Wilson, Shunzo Ohno, James Moody, David “Fathead” Newman, Jack McDuff, Charlie Byrd, Paul Bley, Carol Sloane, Chris McNulty, Melissa Walker, Carter Jefferson, Dave Valentin, Herb Ellis, Jimmy Bruno, and East Meets Jazz (with Sandip Burman).
In addition to his continued associations with Gary Bartz, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Joey DeFrancesco, Joe Locke, and East Meets Jazz, Paul continues to tour nationally and internationally with his own groups, performing at the Blue Note in Fukuoka, Japan, the Blue Note In New York City, Le Club in Moscow, the Newark Museum and the Rochester Jazz Festival. Paul serves as Artist in Residence at the Litchfield Jazz Festival Summer Music School, and continues to teach at Queens College, New York, the New School and at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore.
Paul has made four recordings for Challenge Records. Double
Gemini, his second CD, won the title of CD Of The Month in 20th
Century Jazz Magazine, and elicited the same honor from jazz radio
station WBGO in Newark, New Jersey. Challenge Records has released
his third recording, Soul Grooves, and a fourth, Dreams, featuring
Ray Drummond, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Joe Locke.
Paul Bollenbeck currently lives in New York City, where he can be
heard informally in a number of settings.
Through the mentorship of legends Slide Hampton and Curtis Fuller, David Gibson has become recognized as one of the leading trombonists in a new generation of jazz musicians. David succeeded in achieving his goal. In 2000, David began performing with Grammy winner Slide Hampton’s “World of Trombones.” The legendary ensemble has performed worldwide, and in 2002, David contributed as both performer and composer to its first recording in 20 years, Spirit of the Horn. Gibson has performed with the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni Big Band, the Bob Belden Big Band, the Mingus Big Band ,and the New Jazz Composer’s Octet.
In April 2003, Gibson received second prize at the prestigious Thelonious Monk Jazz Competition. His debut recording as a bandleader, Maya, was released in April 2002 on Nagel-Heyer and enjoyed enthusiastic support from both jazz radio and critics alike. Spring 2005 marked the release of his second recording, The Path to Delphi, featuring saxophonist Wayne Escoffery and acclaimed trumpeter Randy Brecker. The recording’s original compositions were tinged with the essence of classic 60’s era Blue Note recordings, yet informed by modern sensibilities, and placed in radio personality Bob Parlocha’s personal Top 40 Jazz Releases.
David received a BA from the University of Central Oklahoma, where he studied privately with Dr. Kent Kidwell and Lee Rucker. He later received an MM in Jazz Composition from the Eastman School of Music, where he served as an assistant to Fred Sturm and studied trombone with Dr. John Marcellus. In addition to his service at Columbia, David currently serves as an adjunct instructor at SUNY Geneseo, the New School and the Fraoli School of Music.
Vocalist Christine Correa is a native of Mumbai, India, currently residing in New York City. After relocating to the U.S, Christine soon became involved in a variety of improvisational contexts, performing and recording with artists such as Steve Lacy, Ran Blake, and John LaPorta, and appearing at numerous festivals and clubs in the U.S., Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India. She is a member of the Frank Carlberg Quintet, which is dedicated to performing Carlberg’s settings of 20th (and 21st) century poets such as Robert Creeley, Anselm Hollo, Jack Kerouac, etc. Christine is Director of the Maine Jazz Camp – a camp for high school and middle school students.
New York-born Brad Christopher Jones is a bassist, composer, and educator. He has recorded, performed, and toured around the world with a diverse array of artists that include Ornette Coleman, Elvis Costello, Elvin Jones, David Byrne, Muhal Richard Abrams, Sheryl Crow, Deborah Harry, Dave Douglas, Vernon Reid, John Zorn, Don Byron, Marc Ribot, and The Jazz Passengers. As a leader, Brad has recorded three CDs: Uncivilized Poise (Knitting Factory Records) with his band, Aka Alias; Pouring My Heart In (Senoj Music) with the Brad Jones Quartet, and the soon to be released follow-up to the first Aka Alias recording, The Embodiment.
Brad studied under the renowned jazz bassist Lisle Atkinson and classical bass under Lou Kosma of the Metropolitan Opera. He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in education from Jersey City State College in 1986. He has been a teacher and band director in both the Waldwick and Teaneck, New Jersey school systems, as well as the Harlem School of the Arts, and workshops in Germany, France, and Italy. In addition to his Columbia teaching, he maintains an active schedule performing, recording, and composing music,
Ole received a bachelor’s degree from the Berklee College of Music (summa cum laude) in 1988, and in 1995 received a Masters Degree in Jazz Performance from the Manhattan School of Music.
Now resident in New York City, Ole is a film and TV composer, record producer, arranger, and a critically acclaimed saxophonist. He is an active performer and studio musician on the New York scene, and tours internationally as well. His interests encompass classical, jazz, electronic, ethnic, and experimental music, and he draws heavily on his wealth of musical experience in his composing. He is a seasoned jazz and saxophone educator, and has conducted clinics and given private lessons in many parts of the world, including Japan, Norway, Sweden, France, Germany, Canada, and USA.
Ole has worked on more than 80 albums, composed several film and TV scores, and has performed and/or recorded with: Paula Cole, Louie Vega, Omar Hakim, Darryl Jones, Hiram Bullock, William Kennedy, Tom Coster, Mark Egan, Steve Smith, Mino Cinelu, Peter Erskine, Eddie Gomez, Badal Roy, Rufus Reid, Ron Carter, Grady Tate, Claudio Roditi, Will Lee, LaVerne Baker, Abraham Laboriel, Randy Brecker, Kenwood Dennard, Gil Goldstein, Lew Soloff, Tiger Okoshi, Michael Gibbs, Harvie Swartz, Jon Christensen, Gary Husband, Cyro Baptista, Bill Bruford, Kenny Barron, Bob Moses, Jeff Berlin, Hilton Ruiz, Raphael, and Adam Nussbaum. Ole is a member of SYOTOS, Afromantra, NYNDK, and the leader of Anomaly. In 2004, Ole received the ASCAPLUS Award.
New-York-based drummer Tony Moreno is one of the most sought after musicians of his profession. He tours all around the world and in addition to Columbia, teaches at New York University’s jazz program and City College of New York, and has done many clinics across the United States, Europe and Scandinavia. Tony has worked with Mal Waldron, Bill Frisell, Sonny Fortune, Sal Nistico, Palle Danielsson, Paul McCandless, Elvin Jones, Dave Liebman, Paul Bley, Phillip Catherine, Sam Rivers, Billy Drewes, Jaki Byard, Jimmy Lyons, Richie Beirach, Jim Pepper, Chico Freeman, Peter Warren, Haze Greenfield, Joe Newman, Anne-Marie Moss, Jay Anderson, The Jazz Passengers, Uffe Markussen, Ricky Ford, Kenny Wheeler, Jorge Sylvester, Bruce Arnold, Barry Harris, Doug Raney, Gene Shimosato, Chris Potter, Michel Portal, Steffano Bataglia, Frank Foster, Harvie Swartz, Billy Harper, Steve Amirault, Ratzo Harris, Mino Cinelu, Joey Calderazzo, John Purcell, The Lounge Lizards, Dave Kikoski, Bob Rockwell, Tiger Okoshi, Ira Coleman, Marc Ribot, Ravi Coltrane, Marc Copland, Bob Belden, Dean Johnson, Russ Lossing, Jim Snidero, Roberto Bonati, Jack Walrath, Aydin Essen, Lonnie Plaxico, Ben Besiakow, Mark Feldman, Dave Stryker, Gary Thomas, Tim Hagans, Mike Formanek, and Pierre Favre—to name a few.
Tony can be heard on CDs of the following labels: CBS-Sony EMI, Owl, Polydor/Polygram, BMG, Antilles, Acoustic Artists, King, NuJazz, Naxos jazz4ever, Soulnote, Nueva Records, AA Records, Splasch Records, Axis Records, Cathexis Records, Cathexis Records, and many more.
He appears on the videos Elvin Jones: A Different Drummer (Rhapsody), Barry Harris Live in Europe (CCS), Barry Harris Jazz Concert in Madrid (TVR), Lounge Lizards Live at Shinenken Hall-Tokyo (Columbia); and on the webcasts Mordy Ferber Quartet ‘live’ at the Blue Note with Dave Liebman and Richard Bona; David Phillips & Freedance (Radio France); Mordy Ferber Quartet ‘live’ at the Blue Note with George Garzone & Eddie Gomez.
Trumpeter and arranger Don Sickler made his initial splash in 1983, debuting with the LP The Music of Kenny Dorham. However, he then spent the next dozen years out of the spotlight, focusing instead on backing and producing artists such as Freddie Redd, Larry Coryell, and Cindy Blackman. He also enjoyed a brief stint with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Perhaps Sickler’s most productive extended collaboration was with drummer T.S. Monk, whom he met at the Thelonious Monk Institute. A founding member of the T.S. Monk Sextet, Sickler played on albums including 1991’s Take One and 1993’s Changing of the Guard, before finally taking the reins and leading his own date, 1995’s Nightwatch. He serves as director of the University Jazz Orchestra at Columbia University.
The New York Times called Ben Waltzer ”an imaginative pianist and composer, and he’s part of a valid new underground in the jazz of this city, building on a foundation of straight-ahead jazz and adding foreign concepts and fresh sensibilities to it. He has a fistful of smart compositional ideas, and his regular quartet is spangled with some of the best young jazz players in New York.”
Originally from Lansing, Michigan, Ben attended high school at the Interlochen Arts Academy, where he won awards from Down Beat magazine and the National Association of Jazz Educators. Enrolled in a double-degree program at the New England Conservatory and Tufts University, where he studied with pianists Geri Allen and Bevan Manson and saxophonist Jimmy Giuffre, in 1991 Ben transferred to Harvard University to pursue a degree in American History and Literature, graduating magna cum laude in 1993 with a thesis on the jazz historian, essayist and novelist Albert Murray, and receiving Harvard’s Braverman Award for artistic excellence.
Ben relocated to New York City, and got a steady gig on New York’s Lower East Side, performing with a wide range of dedicated young jazz musicians, including Bill McHenry, Reid Anderson, Jorge Rossy, Leon Parker and Mark Turner. In 1996 he recorded his first CD, For Good, for the Fresh Sound/New Talent record label, featuring Rossy and bassist Reid Anderson. Later that year, Mr. Waltzer moved to Barcelona for eight months to perform and teach, and recorded Jazz is Where You Find It: Live at the Pipa Club with tenor saxophonist Bill McHenry, which Cuadernos De Jazz named the third-best worldwide jazz release of 1997. Since then, Ben has toured frequent presence on the national and international jazz circuits, performing in Spain, Switzerland, and France.
In addition to teaching improvisation and jazz piano at Columbia University and the Maine Jazz Camp, Ben writes about jazz for The New York Times, Jazziz and other publications. Allaboutjazz.com called his 2000 recording, In Metropolitan Motion “an inspired statement,” and Jazz Times hailed it as the strongest of Fresh Sound’s releases. A new recording, 100 Dreams Ago, featuring Gerald Cleaver and Matt Penman is forthcoming on Fresh Sound records.
A musician’s musician, saxophonist Steve Wilson, a native of Hampton, Virginia, began his formal training at age 12, and played in various R&B and funk bands through his teens. While studying music at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, he had opportunities to perform and study with Jimmy and Percy Heath, Jon Hendricks, Jaki Byard, Frank Foster and Ellis Marsalis. In 1986 Wilson landed a chair in the band O.T.B (Out of the Blue) a sextet of promising young jazz players who were sponsored by Blue Note Records. In the summer of 1987 he moved to New York and continued to perform and record with O.T.B. until 1989.
He has performed with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, Ralph Peterson’s quartet and his critically acclaimed Fo’tet, Michele Rosewoman, Renee Rosnes, the American Jazz Orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, and the Buster Williams Quintet. In all, Wilson has appeared on over eighty recordings, with Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Dianne Reeves, O.T.B., Donald Brown, Billy Childs, Don Byron, Bill Stewart, James Williams, and Mulgrew Miller.
Wilson has recorded and/or toured for such diverse artists as Chick Corea, Dave Holland, Dianne Reeves, Charlie Byrd, Donald Brown, Mulgrew Miller, Kevin Mahogany, Bruce Barth, Dave Liebman, Louie Bellson, Marvin “Smitty” Smith, Don Byron and Geoff Keezer. He has performed with Dr. Billy Taylor’s Jazz at the Kennedy Center, which is broadcast on NPR, and periodically performs with some of New York’s premier big bands, including the Mingus Big Band and the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. He was also Artistic Consultant for Harvey Keitel for the film “Lulu On The Bridge.”
In a New York Times poll, Wilson was cited by his peers as one of the most likely artists to break out [on his own] as an established leader. Now, Wilson also has six recordings under his own name, with his first four CDs (New York Summit, Step Lively, Blues for Marcus and Four For Time) on the Criss Cross label. His sidemen read as a Who’s Who. Besides his working quartet of Bruce Barth, Ed Howard, and Adam Cruz, Wilson’s company includes Lewis Nash, Cyrus Chestnut, Kevin Hays, Steve Nelson, Gregory Hutchinson, Dennis Irwin, James Genus, Larry Grenedier, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley, Mulgrew Miller, Nicholas Payton, and his current working quartet of Bruce Barth, Ed Howard, Carla Cook, Phillip Manuel, James Genus, Billy Kilson, Paul Bollenbeck, Rene Marie, Wilson “Chembo” Corniel. Wilson continues to tour with the Steve Wilson Quartet, featuring Bruce Barth, Ed Howard and Adam Cruz, and his Generations Band, with Mulgrew Miller, Ray Drummond and Ben Riley.
In addition to his performance schedule, and his Columbia teaching, Wilson was an adjunct faculty member in the jazz program at William Paterson College in Wayne, New Jersey from 1991 to 1998, and has led clinics at the Hartt School of Music, the Manhattan School of Music, and Hamilton College.
© 2008, Columbia University Center for Jazz
Studies.
Last Updated September 2, 2008.
