Who's Who

JACKIE LEE proclaims the emotions we all have felt and wanted to explain. Jackie started her singing career at the early age of thirteen with the three-vocalist group "Fever.” They performed for talent shows, events and cabarets, experiences which culminated in a recording session for their original music "My Heart Says Yes but My Mind Says No" and "Fever.” Later, as a young lady of seventeen, Jackie continued her career on tour with the Kool Jazz Festival, as well as dates in Cincinnati and Atlanta where she was influenced directly by Herbie Hancock, Lionel Hampton, Miles Davis, and Patrice Rushen. The professionalism of these artists enriched Jackie's career and prepared her for participation in the Broadway play "Ain't MisBehavin.” Ms Lee has also performed with the band U.N.V. during a live taping at the Peacock Cafe (Toledo, Ohio). She has performed at several notable jazz clubs throughout Ohio and the cities of Detroit and Chicago. She has even appeared at New York’s famous Cotton Club in Harlem. Ms. Lee has performed with such notables as Mikki Howard, Joslyn B, Big Blues Bob, Art Griswald, Red Holt, Wallace Burton, Bob Gunther, and Erma Thomson. In the Texas area, Jackie has performed for Fort Hood MWR and Fort Hood Family Housing. Her recent club appearances have been at the Elephant Room in Austin, Zecrets Jazz Club in Harker Heights, and the Vineyards of Florence.

CHRIS VADALA One of the country's foremost woodwind artists, Chris Vadala is in demand as a jazz/classical performer and educator. He has appeared on more than 100 recordings to date, as well as innumerable jingle sessions, film and TV scores, performing on all the saxophones, flutes, and clarinets. Professor Vadala is the Director of Jazz Studies and Saxophone Professor at the University of Maryland. Previous academic appointments include teaching studio woodwinds and conducting jazz ensembles at Connecticut College, Montgomery College, Hampton University, Prince George's Community College and Mount Vernon College, as well as Visiting Professor of Saxophone at the Eastman School of Music, 1995 and 2001.

Mr. Vadala's performing career has been highlighted by a long tenure as standout woodwind artist with the internationally recognized Chuck Mangione Quartet, which included performances throughout the United States and the world and performing credits on five gold and two platinum albums, earning two Grammy awards, one Emmy, one Georgie (AGVA) and one Golden Globe Award. In addition, he has performed and/or recorded with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Quincy Jones, B.B. King, Chick Corea, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha Franklin, Placido Domingo, Sarah Vaughn, Natalie Cole, Herbie Hancock, Ray Charles, Henry Mancini, Doc Severinsen, Phil Woods, Joe Lovano, and many others.

As one of the Selmer Company's most requested Artist in Residence clinicians and a D’Addarrio/Rico Artist, Mr. Vadala travels worldwide, performing with and conducting student and professional jazz ensembles, symphonic bands, and orchestras. Within the past five years alone, Mr. Vadala has appeared with more than 200 groups across the nation and Canada, and has conducted 42 All-State, as well as numerous All-County and All-District Jazz Ensembles. He served three terms as President of the Maryland Unit of the International Association for Jazz Education, was a member of its State Executive Board (College Faculty Representative), and a Woodwind Representative to the International Resource Team.

BRIAN LYNCH A respected insider within both the hardcore straight ahead and Latin Jazz communities, 2007 Grammy Award Winning Trumpeter Brian Lynch is an honor graduate of two of the jazz world’s most distinguished academies, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and the Horace Silver Quintet. He has been a valued collaborator with artists such as Benny Golson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Charles McPherson, Hector LaVoe, Lila Downs, and pop artist Prince. As a bandleader and recording artist, he has released over 15 critically acclaimed CDs featuring his distinctive composing and arranging, and toured the world with various ensembles reflecting the wide sweep of his music. He currently is on the faculty at New York University. His talents have been recognized by top placing in the Downbeat Critics and Readers Polls, highly rated reviews for his work in Downbeat, Jazziz and Jazz Times, 2005 and 2007 Grammy award nominations, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and Meet The Composer.

Born September 12, 1956 in Urbana, Illinois, Lynch grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin where he apprenticed on a high level with such local residents as pianist Buddy Montgomery; located in San Diego in 1980-81, he gained further valuable experience in the group of alto master Charles McPherson. Towards the end of 1981, Lynch moved to New York and soon linked up with the Horace Silver Quintet (1982-1985) and the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra (1982-1988). Simultaneously, he played and recorded on the Latin scene with salsa bandleader Angel Canales (1982-83) and the legendary cantante Hector LaVoe (1983-87). He began his association with Eddie Palmieri in 1987, and at the end of 1988 joined what turned out to be the final edition of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. He began his tenure with The Phil Woods Quintet in 1992. In 1986, Lynch recorded his first album as a leader, Peer Pressure, for Criss-Cross. Subsequent recordings as a leader led to the 1997 Spheres of Influence [Sharp Nine], which earned a 4-1/2 star Downbeat rating, and was Lynch's first project to reflect the panoramic range of interests that influence his working life as a musician.

CONRAD HERWIG New York jazz trombonist Conrad Herwig has recorded 19 albums as a leader. His newest CD release is “The Latin Side of Wayne Shorter” on Half Note Records, which was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2009. This is the follow-up project to the 2005 Grammy-nominated CD, “Another Kind of Blue: The Latin Side of Miles Davis,” and the 1998 Grammy-nominated CD, “The Latin Side of John Coltrane.” These exciting projects were recorded live at the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City and feature special guests Eddie Palmieri, Paquito D’Rivera, Dave Valentin and Brian Lynch. His most recent solo recordings on the CrissCross label are “A Jones for Bones Tones,” “Obligation,” “Land of Shadow,” “Hieroglyphica,” “Unseen Universe,” “Osteology,” and “Heart of Darkness” which received 4 and 1/2 stars in DownBeat Magazine. He has also been voted #1 Jazz Trombonist (TDWR) in the 2002 Downbeat Jazz Critic’s Poll.

Herwig has been a featured member in the Joe Henderson Sextet, Horace Silver Octet, Tom Harrell’s Septet and Big Band, and the Joe Lovano Nonet (featured as a soloist on Lovano’s Grammy Award winning “52nd St Themes"). Conrad also performs and records with Eddie Palmieri’s “La Perfecta II” and Afro-Caribbean Jazz Octet, Paquito D’Rivera’s Havana-New York Connection, the Mingus Big Band (often serving as musical director and arranger on the 2007 Grammy nominated-"Live at the Tokyo Blue Note"). Conrad has also performed with Clark Terry, Buddy Rich, Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis and Quincy Jones, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Tito Puente, and Mario Bauza, having recorded on more than 200 albums in his 30+ year career.