"Best
Improvised Jazz Solo" Don't Fence Me In - John Daversa
"Best Arrangement,
Instrumental of A Cappella" Stars and Stripes Forever - Arranger John
Daversa
John Daversa is a
multi-Grammy winning artist, composer, arranger,
producer, bandleader, educator, and Chair of Studio
Music and Jazz at The Frost School of Music,
University of Miami. Daversa’s celebrated
and distinctive musical perspective has been a
passport to performances on world stages such as The
Today Show, Late Nite with David Letterman, The
Oprah Winfrey Show, Live 8 (Berlin), Hamburg Music
Festival, Java Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz
Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreux Festival,
and the Playboy Jazz Festival. He has also had the
opportunity to perform or record with artists such
as Fiona Apple, Michael Bublé, Dori Caymi, Andraé
Crouch, Sheryl Crow, Herbie Hancock, Bob Mintzer Big
Band, and The Yellowjackets.
In 1996, he
founded the John Daversa Big Band, which is one of
the leading forces of modern jazz today. Junk Wagon:
The Big Band Album (2011), won Best in Show and
Awards of Excellence in Creativity/Originality and
Production in The Global Music Awards. “Daversa's
fearless exploration...takes him off the beaten
path, as he creates bold and ballsy big band music
for the modern epoch.”-- AllAboutJazz.com.
Daversa’s release, Kaleidoscope Eyes: Music of the
Beatles (2016), reverently twists and melts the
iconic Beatles songbook with a 40+ orchestra
featuring vocal artists Renee Olstead and Katisse
Buckingham, garnering three Grammy nominations.
Terence Blanchard states, "This is art. This is what
music should be. No re-creation. No mimicking. Just
honesty. Fearless honesty." Daversa’s 2018 release,
American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom,
won three Grammy awards, including Best Large Jazz
Ensemble, Best Improvised Solo (John Daversa), and
Best Instrumental Arrangement or A Capella (John
Daversa).
In addition, Daversa leads the John
Daversa Small Band consisting of tenor saxophonist
Robby Marshall, alto saxophonist/flutist/vocalist
Katisse Buckingham, keyboardist Tommy King, bassist
Jerry Watts and drummer Gene Coye. This powerhouse
ensemble transitions with ease from sections of
incredible sensitivity to vignettes of intensity
rivaling that of his own Big Band. The Small Band
has released two albums, Artful Joy (2012), and
Wobbly Dance Flower featuring Bob Mintzer (2017).
Daversa earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in
Music from The University of California, Los
Angeles, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Jazz
Studies at California Institute of the Arts, and a
Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies at the
University of Southern California. After teaching at
both USC and California State University Northridge,
he is now the chair of Studio Music and Jazz at the
Frost School of Music at University of Miami.
“John Daversa is one of those rare musicians who
is an incredible soloist and an accomplished
orchestrator, a composer with an identifiable voice,
and an articulate artist who does things in a
focused way, always with a clear vision of the hows
and whys.” - Bob Mintzer,
Saxophonist, Educator
“Daversa gets sounds to
come out of his little red trumpet like you never
heard. The band itself ditto, as if Duke Ellington
and Béla Bartók had come down from on high and
written some brilliant 21st century music for a big
band of Berklee post-graduate superstars.” -
Tony Gieske, Los Angeles Times
“It takes a rare talent to be able to make a
large band sound "small" (in terms of agility as
well as in the transparency and lightness of
orchestration), and, vice-versa, some measure of
genius to make a small band seem big...” -
Peter Erskine, Drummer, Educator
John Daversa Small Band "The
Bridge"
John Daversa Big Band "I Saw
Here Standing There"
John Daversa Educational Video
John Daversa Small Band
John Daversa Kaleidoscope Eyes
Click
here to contact Janet
Williamson for artist availability and booking
information.
