East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania Music Department and

the ESU Regional Jazz Coalition (funded by the Office of the President of ESU, Dr. Robert J. Dillman) present

Jazz Masters Seminar VII: Spring 2006 - Guest Speakers/Performers

Speaking/performing engagements are on selected Wednesdays from 5:15 to 6:30pm in the

Cohen Recital Hall of the Fine & Performing Arts Center and are open to the public free of charge.

Jazz Masters Seminar (MUS 404/504) is a 3-credit undergraduate- and graduate-level course developed and taught by Patrick Dorian, ESU Associate Professor of Music. Students study the lives, careers, and music of several regional, active jazz professionals. All of the presenters are extremely accomplished and some of them are jazz icons around the world. Each artist is then a guest speaker/performer, interacting with the class and the audience. The textbook for the class is Self-Portrait of a Jazz Artist (musical thoughts and realities) by David Liebman, published by Advance Music in Rottenburg, Germany (1996), and is available at  The University Store on ESU's campus.

February 8 - Danny Cahn:  A Stroudsburg native who graduated from Stroudsburg High School in the late 1960s and then the elite Manhattan School of Music, Danny evolved into one of New York's best trumpet players for live performances and recordings. His fine lead trumpet performances have been heard with dozens of the world's best-known performers, including Maynard Ferguson, Chick Corea, Louis Bellson, Simon & Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand, and many Broadway shows.

March 8 - Phil Markowitz and Davia Sacks:  Phil Markowitz is a virtuoso piano soloist, accompanist, composer, and teacher. A graduate of the elite Eastman School of Music, he was a long-term member of  Chet Baker's group, Toots Thielemans' group, The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra led by Mel Lewis,  The David Liebman Group, and the Bob Mintzer Quartet. His composition "Sno' Peas" was recorded by  Bill Evans and Toots Thielemans on the album Affinity in 1978. He is a professor in the graduate and doctoral divisions of the Manhattan School of Music.

Davia is an accomplished Broadway actor, singer, composer, lyricist, and show collaborator. She appeared in the Broadway productions of  Fiddler on the Roof and Evita.

Phil and Davia's seminar will prepare everyone for the following day's seminar with Toots and the concert that evening. Phil's 1998 CD Taxi Ride will be available both days (it is presently a collectors' item and difficult to obtain, otherwise). It features Toots on two selections: "And I Love Her" and the Davia Sacks composition "If It Were Me." Davia sings on the track "Elegy," composed by Phil.


Jean "Toots" Thielemans & Phil Markowitz and Davia Sacks:  Toots Thielemans is one of the world's most honored, prolific, and beloved musicians. As a harmonica performer, he is a perennial winner of Down Beat readers and critics poll in the category of "miscellaneous instruments" and once again was the winner of the December 2005 Down Beat magazine 70th Annual Readers Poll. He is also an accomplished guitarist, whistler, and composer (the jazz standard composition "Bluesette"). He was born in Brussels, Belgium, and was a member of Charlie Parker's All Stars in Philadelphia and the George Shearing Quintet. He has been  a harmonica soloist for the film scores Midnight Cowboy, The Getaway, Sugarland Express, Cinderella Liberty, Turks Fruit, Jean de Florette, and also the television program  Sesame Street. He has performed in concerts and recordings with George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Quincy Jones, Bill Evans, Jaco Pastorius, Natalie Cole, Pat Metheny, Paul Simon, and Billy Joel. There will be a grand-scale tribute to Toots ( The Magic of  Toots Thielemans ) in the 2,800-seat Isaac Stern Auditorium in Carnegie Hall on March 16 featuring Toots with special guests Herbie Hancock, Al Jarreau, Eliane Elias, Oscar Castro-Neves, and Joe Lovano.

This seminar will be additional outstanding preparation for the evening's concert . . .

March 29 - Charńett Moffett:  Charńett has performed for the past 5 years as bassist with the legendary piano performer McCoy Tyner. Charńett is the son of renowned jazz drummer Charles Moffett and has performed with Pharoah Sanders, Herbie Hancock, and Dizzy Gillespie. He dedicates a portion of his career to promoting the string bass as an unaccompanied solo instrument. On November 30, 2004, he was featured on National Public Radio's program "Day to Day's" occasional series My Fellow Americans  ( click here and then click on the red "Listen" icon to listen to this 4-minute program ). His most recent CD is For the Love of Peace on the Piadrum Record label.

April 5 -  Randy Reinhart:  One of the most acclaimed "Trad" (traditional jazz from the first part of the 20th century) musicians anywhere, cornet/trumpet performer Randy Reinhart has just released another CD entitled  As Long As I Live on the Arbors label, and was featured as the cover story in the May 2005 issue of the  Jazz Journal International magazine. At age eighteen, Randy began performing professionally and frequently appeared at Eddie Condon’s Jazz Club in New York, where he was able to learn from and perform with some of the great jazz stars he had listened to in school, including Pee-Wee Erwin, Vic Dickinson, and Connie Kay. He even taught himself to play the trombone. In the past two years, Randy has appeared at the White House as a performer in “The Sounds of Harlem” concert for the President and First Lady. On May 19, 2004, he was a guest for a 100th birthday tribute to Fats Waller with Marty Grosz on NPR’s radio show Fresh Air, hosted by Terry Gross (  click here and then click on the red "Listen" icon to listen to his 50-minute performance on this radio program ). In 2004, he was heard on the Late Night with Conan O'Brien television show performing a solo from the movie The Aviator, with Rufus Wainwright and Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks. Randy is an annual guest at the Sacramento Jazz Jubilee, the Chautauqua Jazz Party, the Sweet and Hot Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, and the Ascona Jazz Party in Switzerland. He recently performed on stage in the orchestra for the Broadway production of Tommy Tune, White Tie & Tails.  Randy performs around the world with Kenny Davern, Marty Grosz, Jake Hanna, Bucky Pizzarelli, Dan Barrett, Howard Alden, Warren Vache, Harry Allen, Jon Allred, and Tommy Newsom.