Description

FABIO ROJAS

Fabio Rojas, Drummer/Film Composer and Educator based in New York City, originally from Venezuela. Since arriving to the US, Rojas has performed with artists such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Geri Allen, Greg Osby Band, Bill Pierce, Sean Jones, Jon Cowherd, Russ Johnson, Kevin Harris, Mike Rodriguez, John Lockwood, Manuel Valera, David Bixler, Regina Carter, Rachel Z Hakim and many others, in venues such as BU Agganis Arena, Boston Symphony Hall, Lincoln Center, The Esplanade, Scullers Jazz Club, SXSW 2016, SXSW 2018, BGSU, Smoke Jazz Club, TEDx Boston 2010, TEDx Sommerville 2012, RVA Film & Music Festival, 55 Bar, NAMM 2018 and many more.

Fabio earned his Bachelor of Music with a Dual Major in Performance and Professional Music at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, thanks to a scholarship and extreme hard work, where he had the honor of being mentored by Terri Lyne Carrington and Kim Plainfield. Right after graduation he was hired as a staff member in this institution.

Rojas has given master classes in Berklee College of Music (Boston – US), Kalos Music & Art School (Aventura – FL Centro Cultural Ana Maria), among other locations around the globe. Also, Fabio is committed with education in New York City where he resides. He is currently a Faculty member of the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music.

“Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.” – Victor Hugo. Through music you can express greater emotions, ones that you cannot define with words. As an artist, this is what strives for and continues to do through his work”.

Fabio Rojas proudly endorses Canopus Drums and Vater Drumsticks.

GREG OSBY

Saxophonist, composer, producer and educator Greg Osby has made an indelible mark on contemporary jazz as a leader of his own ensembles and as a guest artist with other acclaimed jazz groups for the past 37 years. Highly regarded for his insightful and innovative approach to composition and performance, Osby is a shining beacon among the current generation of jazz musicians. He has earned numerous awards and critical acclaim for his recorded works and passionate live performances.

Born and reared in St. Louis, Greg Osby began his professional music career in 1975, after three years of private studies on clarinet, flute and alto saxophone. Coming from a vibrant and musical city, Osby showed an early interest in the performing arts and spent his years in secondary school with a heavy involvement in Blues and Jazz groups. In 1978 Osby furthered his musical education at Howard University (Washington, D.C.) where he majored in Jazz Studies. He continued his studies at the Berklee College of Music (Boston, MA) from 1980 to 1983.

Upon relocating to New York in early 1983, Osby quickly established himself as a notable and in demand sideman for artists as varied as Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Hill, Muhal Richard Abrams, Jim Hall and Jaki Byard as well as with many ethnic and new music ensembles in the New York area.

In 1985 Osby was invited to join Jack DeJohnette’s innovative group, “Special Edition”. It was as a member of this ensemble Osby was able to fine tune the more challenging aspects of his conception in an open ended, no holds barred musical situation. Says Osby, “My musical thinking for performance and composition advanced by light years as Jack was open to my input and was very encouraging in pushing me to maintain a steady flow of experimentation. It marked a major turning point in my development as an artist.”

KEVIN HARRIS

A very distinctive trait of New York/Boston-based jazz pianist Kevin Harris is his desire to constantly grow, evolve, improve, and advance. Harris plays a distinctive combination of traditional and contemporary music that seeks to celebrate the musical influences of Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis intersecting with J.S. Bach, Scott Joplin, and the folkloric African rhythms of the Caribbean.

Among his most notable collaborations are Greg Osby, Bill Pierce, Francisco Mela, Avishai Cohen, Eddie Gomez, Duane Eubanks, Richie Barshay, Ben Street, Jason Palmer, Rudy Royston, Frank Lacey, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Curtis Lundy, Eric McPherson, Dayna Stephens, Ralph Peterson, Ameen Saleem, Greg Hutchinson, and Terri Lyne Carrington.

One of the captivating elements of the Kevin Harris Project is the level of comfort and understanding they have with one another as they dive into soulfully expressive conversations and playful exchanges of ideas. Both live and recorded performances reflect Harris’s determination to capture his audience through explorative interactions that Terri Lyne Carrington describes as “an exciting commitment to quality”.

Fred Hersch talks of Harris as one who “plays and writes with flair and real soul” and DownBeat Magazine writes that “Harris’ compositions deal with themes of strength, love, courage, and self- awareness. It’s a heavy task he’s set up for himself, and he meets the challenge gracefully.”

International and national performance includes -Blue Note (NYC, Beijing, Milan, and Boston), New York’s Smalls, Mezzrow, and 55 Bar, Copenhagen’s JazzHus Montmartre-Denmark, Perugia Jazz Festival-Italy, Lima Jazz Festival-Peru, Wally’s Jazz Club-Boston, Havana Jazz Festival-Cuba, Panama Jazz Festival – Panama, Catania Jazz-Italy, to name a few.

In 2020 he was nominated by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to be a Neighborhood Salon Luminary with the goal to exchange creative ideas and dialogue with Boston’s most innovative and thoughtful luminaries, fostering collaborations and artistic networks while shaping Gardner Museum programming.

With his most recent projects, “Roots, Water and Sunlight: A Contemporary Octet Expedition through the Expressions of James Baldwin”, “Upward Mothers”, and “Griot Series”, Harris directed his creativity to inspire the audience to reflect on unexpected realities and continuously be committed to positive and courageous changes.

As a leader, he has released five albums. DownBeat defines some of Harris’ compositions as “overall smart, lyrical and engrossing”, and The Phoenix highlights “the tight/loose elasticity, the tension between form and freedom that was the hallmark of so many Miles Davis sessions with Shorter and Herbie Hancock . . . calm and collected, but also loose and full of surprises.”

Harris is in demand as a clinician and consistently collaborates with both public and private education institutions nationally and internationally. He is currently on faculty at Berklee College of Music and he is also a MIT affiliated artist.

Harris thrives on a courageously playful style of communication in music. A style, in his opinion, that requires a very special and sincere habit of listening and an equally patient endeavor to express oneself enthusiastically. He hopes that his performances will always inspire the audience to walk away with a sense of joyful connectedness and community.

“Participation,” Harris says, “is what keeps our souls alive.

GUSTAVO D’AMICO

Gustavo D’Amico is a saxophonist, composer and educator from São Paulo, Brazil, currently based in Brooklyn, NY.

His work is the result of a creative amalgam of different artistic expressions and sound experiences, based on free improvisation, Brazilian music, jazz and contemporary classical music.

He is the co-founder of the Alfaia Ensemble, a quintet that focus on the intersection between Brazilian and Middle Eastern music, Peixe Seco, a quartet that researches and investigates contemporary music and Brazilian folkloric music, and Solos de Ave, a trio that explores Brazilian music and free improvisation. He has performed and recorded with some of the biggest names of Brazilian and American music including Egberto Gismonti, Alcione, Elza Soares, John Patitucci, and Terri Lyne Carrington. Gustavo is a graduate of the Global Jazz Institute directed by Danilo Perez, Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory.

OSMAR OKUMA

Originally from Lima, Peru, Osmar is a versatile and professional bassist, producer, arranger and teacher currently based in Los Angeles. He learned bass and drums at an early age under the direction of bassist Joscha Oetz. Osmar earned his Bachelor of Music in Performance at the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA with a scholarship and later obtained a Master of Fine Arts from California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, CA.

Okuma’s work can be described as very versatile ranging from Jazz to modern styles of music such as Hip-hop and electronic music. Aside from Jazz, Osmar’s music is also heavily influenced by Peruvian music which brings a fresh take on latin styles and rhythms.

Osmar has performed with artists such as Alex Acuña, Donald Harrison Jr, Steve Lehman, Walter Smith III, Tia Fuller, Phil Wilson, Javier Limon, Ramon Stagnaro, Daniel Amat, Calixto Oviedo, Lily Hernandez, La Shica, Lincoln Goines, Darren Barrett, Justo Almario and more. Some important venues and events Osmar has performed in include the Blue Note NYC, Dizzy’s Club at the Lincoln Center, The Side Door, Shapeshifter Lab, Catalina Bar & Grill, Vibrato Grill Jazz, SXSW, NAMM show, Jazz Education Network Conference, Capitol Studios and more.

Most recently Osmar has been an integral part of the Afro Peruvian Jazz Orchestra which won a category at the Latin Grammy´s and nominated to the ‘Best Latin Jazz Album’ category in the 2020 Grammy Awards.