DFW Jazz Artist Directory
Search for DFW Jazz Artists by keyword and/or instrument below.
DFW Jazz Artist Directory
Search for DFW Jazz Artists by keyword and/or instrument below.
Dana Sudborough is an accomplished musician, teacher, and studio producer who has been performing professionally in Dallas/Fort Worth and abroad for many years. He has studied and performed music all his life. In grade school he played the violin and recorder. In middle school he switched to percussion and won several awards both solo and with the school percussion ensemble. He went on to study music at the University of North Texas, where he earned spots in the Gamelan Ensemble, the Zebras, and the internationally recognized One O'clock Lab Band. While in college he also studied with Indian Mridangam master Poovalur Srinivasan for four years and completed an apprenticeship in Carnatic drumming. Dana received a Bachelors Degree in Music from UNT in 1998. In 2005 he received the Bill Snodgrass Endowed Jazz Scholarship and was awarded the teaching assistant position for the jazz department at the University of Texas at Arlington. Dana was director of one the jazz big bands and several of the jazz combos. He was a featured jazz vibraphone clinician for the UTA percussion department while in residence. Dana finished his Masters of Music Education at UTA in 2006. Dana has been involved with a wide variety of projects in his professional life. He has led, recorded with, and toured with bands playing jazz, free, pop, R&B, fusion, reggae, salsa, classic rock, Irish, Greek and more. He was a founding member of the pioneering space-rock band, Sivad, and a nine piece funk ensemble, Slickaphonics. He has been blessed enough to perform with greats such as the P-Funk All-Stars, Joe Lovano (w/ the One O'Clock Lab Band), Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Locke, Clint Strong, Marchel Ivery, Shelley Carrol, Bernard Wright and many more. Along with many varied freelance performances, You can catch Dana playing with several groups (groups page) For dates, check the calendar Dana is also experienced in the studio, having recorded and produced several sessions and full-length albums. He has produced original music for games and websites. Dana currently runs a production company, and operates a small studio at home. In addition he teaches private percussion lessons. David Lown is a graduate (M.M., B.M.) of the University of North Texas, where he performed for three years with the acclaimed One O'Clock Lab Band and directed the Four O’Clock Lab Band. After graduating from UNT, Lown worked for several years as a saxophonist and educator in New York City, performing with many notable jazz artists and ensembles. As a saxophonist, Lown’s recording credits include albums with jazz legends Jimmy Cobb, Dave Liebman, Kenny Wheeler and many others. Mr. Lown has directed the jazz program at Carroll Senior High School in Southlake, Texas since 2008. Under his direction, Carroll Jazz Ensembles have been named national finalists at the prestigious Essentially Ellington competition five times (2010, 2014, 2018, 2020, 2021), where they have won numerous Outstanding Soloist and Outstanding Section awards. Lown was named Carroll Senior High School's Teacher of the Year for 2013-2014, and in 2017 was named a Quarterfinalist for the 2018 GRAMMY Music Educator Award. He is a past president of the Texas Jazz Educators Association and is now on the organization’s board of directors. David Williams’s saxophone career began as a teenager and continued as a graduate of the jazz program at the University of North Texas. His talent has brought him around the country performing with artists such as Natalie Cole, Wayne Newton, Aretha Franklin, and Louie Bellson. He is a member of the Rage out Arkestra which was the top selection of Fort Worth Weekly’s jazz poll in 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019. As a bandleader, his original compositions have been nominated for jazz album of the year in the Village Voice critic’s poll. The son of Jamaican immigrants and a native of Baltimore, Maryland, Dr. Oscar Passley graduated from Morgan State University with a B.A. in music where he studied trumpet with Melvin Miles. He finished master’s degrees in trumpet performance and music education as well as his Doctor of Musical Arts in trumpet performance under the tutelage of Mike Steinel and John Holt at the University of North Texas. Passley has shared the stage with notable musicians such as Andrea Bocelli, Gladys and "Bubba" Knight, Regina Carter, and Wynton Marsalis. Evan Weiss grew up in the Seattle area and began exploring composition at an early age. He made his way to Denton, TX, to study at the University of North Texas where he had the opportunity to write, perform, and travel with the Grammy-nominated One O’Clock Lab Band. He has recorded, performed, and toured with The Funky Knuckles, The Polyphonic Spree, Snarky Puppy, and many other projects in Dallas and worldwide. Original music featured on The Funky Knuckles upcoming album “The Way it Is” releasing early 2023. Freddie Jones is a popular jazz trumpet player and composer in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. With an amazing musical gift, Freddie Jones kicks up the energy of a room a notch or two and thrills a jazz-lover’s soul! Audiences are in awe of the sound this Freddie Jones can coax from his horns. Freddie has taken his trumpet and his group on the road throughout the southwest, performing in hot spots from Austin’s’ The Elephant Room to Little Rock’s Riverfront Auditorium to numerous festivals in the Dallas/ Fort Worth Metroplex, Oklahoma City, and everywhere in between. He has also performed in Paris, The Hague and Rotterdam. He has several cds to his credit. His band, the Freddie Jones Jazz Group, never fails to pull in the audience and deliver an exciting sound. Fredrick's masterful piano style, replete with youthful-yet seasoned chords, has been enthusiastically enjoyed by audiences ranging from elementary school to heads of state. He is well versed in a variety of modern jazz styles which includes New Orleans Trad, New Orleans Brass Band, swing, Bop, and Avant-garde. He began studying classical cello at the age of 10. He excelled at cello, winning awards for outstanding performances. Sanders received his early jazz education at Arts Magnet High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, TX. Sanders was recognized as Downbeat Outstanding Instrumentalist for Cello and was named High School arranger of the year for his arrangement of Dan Haerle's "Crib Chimp". After high school, Fredrick's desire to enhance his musicianship kept him busy. Sanders found time to serve as sideman for jazz greats such as Clark Terry, David "Fathead" Newman and Texas tenor James Clay. He was chosen to open for pianist Shirley Horn at the Caravan of Dreams in Fort Worth, TX. In 1992 Fredrick was afforded the opportunity to study with avant-garde jazz legend Alvin Batiste and pianist/conductor Frank White at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA. Sanders' skill and execution on piano won him a position in a group of musicians that accompanied Alvin Batiste at the De Oosterport Groninga New Music festival in Amsterdam and appear on Alvin Batiste CD entitled "Late." In 1994, his music and academic pursuits took him to Southwest Texas State University. While there, Sanders performed with a Downbeat Award winning combo that was featured at the Montreaux and North Sea Jazz Festival. Sanders performed at several national and international jazz festivals and appearing with such artist as Erykah Badu, Frank Foster, David Newman and Roy Hargrove. The release of Fredrick's 1997 debut CD entitled "East of Vilbig" on Leaning House Records received rave reviews from periodicals such as Austin Chronicles, The Jazz Attic, The Dallas Morning News and Dallas Observer. He was featured in Jazztimes and appeared on "BET" on Jazz. This recording reunited Fredrick with his high school friend Roy Hargrove, who is also joined by Texas Tenor Marchel Ivery, guitarist Mark Whitfield, bassist Roland Guerin and drummer Donald Edwards. He has given performances at Chopin Conservatory of Music in Warsaw, Poland, Den Haag Netherlands, and Ontario Canada. Touring Japan, Europe and our great country has allowed him to teach and learn from the most prominent thinkers and institutions of higher learning in the world. In recent years Fredrick Sanders has been commissioned by Wynton Marsalis to accompany and record with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra on piano. He has also recorded with notable artist such as Nora Jones, Benny Golson, and Dr. John. Fredrick Sanders earned his Associate in Arts degree from Weatherford College in Weatherford, Tx. and Bachelors of Music from Texas State University in San Marcos, Tx. For over two decades he has been nationally and internationally recognized for his accomplishments as a performer, composer, arranger and educator. In the fall of 2004 Fredrick became the Jazz Piano instructor at Delgado College in New Orleans, La. In 2005 along with teaching at Delgado College, Fredrick accepted the position as Jazz Piano Instructor at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. Fredrick Sanders has served eight years as the Music Director for Church of The King in Mandeville, LA. while working globally on stage, in film, as well as television. He was featured in the November 2011 issue of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary Campus News, May 2012 issue of Southwestern Musician Magazine and Worshipper Magazine. A professional singer/voice over artist, I currently returned to my Dallas/Ft. Worth roots, but worked in New York for over twenty years. I’ve done hundreds of voice overs and thousands of singing jobs which include jingles, studio sessions, jazz gigs as well as corporate and social gigs. Voice over clients include MasterCard, Allstate, Travelocity, and Johnson&Johnson. Ballads, Latin, smooth and swing jazz plus pop. Hailing from Fort Worth, TX, Ginny Mac fronts a dynamic group that brings a fresh and exciting twist to vocal and instrumental stylings in the Country & Western Swing, Americana, Hot Jazz, and International music genres. Ginny is also a former member of the two-time Grammy Award winning group Brave Combo based in Denton, TX. She endorses Menghini s.r.l. Scandalli Accordions based in Castelfidardo, Italy. Ginny has recorded four albums; the newest release in Spring 2014, “On The Street Where You Live,” is a collection of classic tunes and originals, featuring many of her friends and greatest musical heroes. The project includes Grammy Award winners Woody Paul and Joey Miskulin (Riders In The Sky), legendary Nashville fiddler Buddy Spicher, the great bassist Bob Moore (Roy Orbison), and several of Nashville’s premier musicians. “It was an unforgettable experience,” she says, “I was fortunate to learn so much and make music with these wonderful people.” When she is not busy with an active touring schedule, Ginny is writing and arranging new original music for an upcoming album and collaborating on multiple musical projects. Her other passions include blogging, painting, and recently, exploring the world of photography. "I find inspiration in the world around me," she says. "Whether it is a stranger sitting on a park bench, or the shadow a broken chair makes on the sidewalk, there is beauty in ordinary, everyday things. And I love the way inspiration from my other interests finds its way into my music."
In 2003 Fredrick Sanders released his greatly awaited sophomore recording entitled "Soul Trinity vol.1" featuring bassist Rodney Whitaker and drummer Troy Davis. The CD was featured at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
Fredrick Sanders and his wife vocalist Sheila Sanders performed for the PBS special "Journey Back To Gospel" hosted by New Orleans vocalist Kim Prevost featuring Jimmy Smith, Zion Harmonizers, Wess "Warm Daddy" Anderson, and Leah Chase. Fredrick Sanders continues to maintain a busy schedule as a cellist and pianist lending his abilities to several recordings, performances, and compositions.
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