Faculty
Gary Smulyan, Baritone Sax & Artistic Director
GARY SMULYAN, BARITONE SAX & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR
BARITONE SAXOPHONIST GARY Smulyan was born April 4, 1956, in Bethpage, New York. The gifted multi-instrumentalist started his music career by first learning alto saxophone during his teenage years on Long Island. Today he is critically acclaimed across-the-board and recognized as a major voice on the baritone saxophone. His playing is marked by an aggressive rhythmic sense, an intelligent and creative harmonic approach u and perhaps most importantly - a strong and incisive wit.
While still in high school, he had the chance to sit in with major jazz artists such as legendary trumpeter Chet Baker, saxophonist Lee Konitz, trombonist Jimmy Knepper and violinist Ray Nance.
After graduating high school he attended SUNY-Postsdam and Hofstra University before he joined Woody Herman's Young Thundering Herd in 1978. It was a remarkable collection of young musicians who ultimately would find themselves in the forefront of present-day jazz. Joining Smulyan in the band were saxophonist Joe Lovano, bassist Marc Johnson and drummer John Riley, who would eventually become a fixture in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra.
KARRIN ALLYSON, VOCALIST
Born on July 27th, in Great Bend, Kansas, Karrin Allyson (pronounced 'CAR-in') has spent the last fifteen years carving out an impressive career as a singer, songwriter, pianist, composer and bandleader.
It's not just critics who love her, it's the rest of the world, too - musicians, concertgoers and connoisseurs of quality music.
One thing's for certain, though: The three-time Grammy Award-nominated artist has been winning over fans and critics alike. And she's been doing so just about everywhere jazz can be heard or seen since 1992.
That was the year Allyson assembled her Kansas City-based rhythm section, borrowed funds from her family and headed into the studio. The result? I Didn't Know About You. The reaction was immediate. "Stunning debut! Irresistible twists of melody and inflection," wrote veteran jazz critic Neil Tesser in Playboy Magazine, placing the young singer in the company of legends Ella Fitzgerald and Shirley Horn.
BOB WEINER, DRUMS & PERCUSSION
Drummer and percussionist Bob Weiner has toured and performed with Harry Belafonte, Itzhak Perlman, Betty Buckley, Jon Lucien, Dianne Reeves, Andy Statman, Rebecca Paris, Kenny Werner, Bob Moses and many others. He has taught at the Drummers Collective (New York) , New England Conservatory (Boston) and Berklee College of Music (Boston).
Bob has co-authored two important percussion books, Afro-Cuban Rhythms for Drumset with Frank Malabe and Brazilian Rhythms for Drumset with Duduka da Fonseca (Warner Bros. Publications). He holds a Masters degree at Lesley University in Inter-Disciplinary Studies and teaches a course in the Expressive Therapies program entitled Community and Therapeutic Applications of Drumming. Bob currently teaches drum lessons at Amherst College, UMass/Amherst, and at his private studio.
TOM RENEY, JAZZ HISTORIAN
Tom Reney has been the host of Jazz a la Mode on NPR-affiliate WFCR in Amherst, Massachusetts for over 25 years. In recent years, he has been a Visiting Lecturer at Mount Holyoke College, where he taught a seminar on Jazz in American Culture, and for many years he has been a guest lecturer at Smith College and the University of Massachusetts. Reney is also a freelance writer whose essays and reviews on Duke Ellington and other jazz subjects have appeared in The Boston Globe, Downbeat Magazine, The Daily Hampshire Gazette, and the Valley Advocate. He is the curator of the Jazz a la Mode Film Series at Amherst Cinema.
