milt hinton

Peter Dominguez

Director, Milt Hinton Institute for Studio Bass

Peter Dominguez grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin participating in the Music for Youth Orchestras, and performing with his father, pianist and singer Frank DeMiles. His teachers included Willard Feldman and Clyde Russell. Peter went on to study with Roger Ruggeri and Richard Davis at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he earned his baccalaureate and masters degrees with a teaching assistantship 1980-82.

In 1981 he was the first recipient of the Milton J. Hinton scholarship competition award. A teaching assistantship and doctoral studies with Dr. Lucas Drew at the University of Miami, Coral Gables followed in 1982-84. Eventually securing positions in both the Florida Philharmonic and Michigan State University, Peter chose MSU, served as Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies 1984-96, and was instrumental in developing their Jazz Studies program. During his Michigan years, he continued studies with Robert Gladstone and performed with the Detroit Symphony.

The former Principal Bass with the Lansing Symphony Orchestra and the American Sinfonietta, Peter served as Professor of Jazz Studies and Double Bass at Oberlin Conservatory of Music from 1996-2020 and directed the Oberlin Jazz Septet.

Currently he is Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Having pursued over 48 years of double bass performance practice in a variety of musical styles while appearing in venues through out the Americas and Europe, Peter continues to play with an impressive array of Classical, Jazz, and Latin artists.

His teaching activities include national and international classes, International Society of Bassists conferences, adjudication of international competitions, artistic direction of the Richard Davis Foundation for Young Bassist Inc annual conference in Madison Wisconsin, and the director of the bieannial Milt Hinton Institute for Studio Bass at Oberlin Conservatory. His trio recording How About This with Billy Hart and Rick Germanson is available through CD Baby and his solo recording Groove Dreams performed on Milt Hinton’s famous double bass is available through Oberlin/Naxos music.

Performance History

Classical Double Bass, *denotes Principal Double Bass

Oberlin Faculty 1996-present, * Credo Orchestra 2013 to present, *The American Sinfonietta 1991-2002, St. Petersburg Quartet 1999-2005, *Lansing Symphony Orchestra 1984-1996, Miami String Quartet 1993-1995, Los Angeles Piano Quartet 1989, *Renaud Chamber Orchestra 1987-1990, Detroit Symphony Orchestra 1986, Orchestra of Miami 1984, Miami Chamber Symphony 1983, Fort Lauderdale Symphony 1983

Jazz Double Bass, selected from 1976 to present.

Greg Bandy, Gary Bartz, Marcus Belgrave, Dave Berkman, Gene Bertoncini, Randy Brecker, Lance Bryant, Ann Hampton Callaway, Tony & Dolph Castellano, Carla Cook, Cyrus Chestnut, Pete Christlieb, John Clayton, Richie Cole, Neal Creque, Bill Cunliffe, Richard Davis, Harold Danko, Frank DeMiles, Bill Dobbins, Allen Eager, Eliane Elias, John Ellis, Robin Eubanks, Dominick Farinacci, Tommy Flanagan, Bob Fraser, Carl Fontana, Hal Galpher, Benito Gonzalez, Jamey Haddad, Jerry Hahn, Billy Hart, Eddie Henderson, Jon Hendricks, Paul Horn, Christian Howes, Joe Hunter, Drene Ivy, Carmen Intorre, Teddy Jackson Jr., Jerome Jennings, Jerry Jemmott, Henry Johnson, JJ Johnson, Sean Jones, Geoff Keezer, Ernie Krivda, Eric Lewis, John Lewis, Joe Locke, Mike Longo, Joe Lovano, Mundell Lowe, Rick Margitza, Mike Marshall, Jason Marsalis, Christian McBride, Bobby McFerrin, Jane Monheit, Michael Phillip Mossman, Mark Murphy, Larry Nozero, Ken Peplowski, Houston Person, Bucky Pizzarelli, Della Reese, Rufus Reid, Patti Richards, Chuck Robinette, Vanessa Rubin, Eddie Russ, Randy Sabien, Paul Samuels, Bobby Sanabria, Jack Shantz, Woody Shaw, Louis Smith, Mark Soskin, Clyde Stubblefield, Ira Sullivan, Dan Wall, Donald Walden, Bobby Watson, Jack Wilkins, Larry Willis, and Stevie Wonder

Bill Crow

I was born on December 27, 1927 in Othello, Washington, in the living quarters behind my grandparents’ store, Knepper’s Novelty Shop. I spent my childhood in Kirkland, Washington, in the house my dad built at 240 5th Avenue West. I started my musical life with my mother, who taught me to sing and to find my way around the keyboard of her piano.

In the fourth grade at school I learned to play the trumpet. My folks bought it from the Sears. I was also an amateur photographer, and was the official cameraman for my high school annual in my senior year.

I switched from trumpet to baritone horn in the sixth grade, and got to be pretty good on that instrument. I started out on the school horn, and in high school I bought one of my own with wages from after-school jobs. I won honors twice in high school band conferences in Seattle, where I played Herbert Clarke’s “Stars In A Velvety Sky” and “Sounds From The Hudson.”

My school music teacher, Al Bennest, introduced me to jazz by playing Louis Armstrong’s record of “West End Blues” for me. I found more jazz on the radio, and began looking for records. My paper route money, and later, money I earned working after school in a print shop and a butcher shop went toward buying jazz records. I taught myself the alto saxophone and the drums in order to play in my high school dance band

After high school, I played sousaphone for a short time at the University of Washington in Seattle, and when I joined the Army in 1946, I played baritone horn, valve trombone and trap drums in the 51st Army Band, Fort Lewis, Washington and the Second Army Band, Fort Meade, MD until 1949.

When I got out of the Army, I returned to the U of W in Seattle, where I met drummer Buzzy Bridgeford. He had a quartet at the VFW Club (after hours), with Freddy Greenwell on tenor, Betty Christopher on piano, and Doug Goss on bass. I went there every night after my gig playing drums at the Cirque Club, and sat in on bongos.

Emma Dayhuff

Bassist Emma Dayhuff has followed her musical passion to places far beyond what she imagined from her childhood home on Sourdough Canyon Road in Bozeman, Montana. She tours nationally and internationally and is a graduate of the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance in Los Angeles. Emma’s Phoenix Ensemble performed at the 2022 Hyde Park Jazz Festival and the 2022 Madison Jazz Festival. She is a member of the Esthesis Quartet which released their second record, Time Zones, in March 2023, and performed as part of New York’s Winter Jazz Festival in January 2023. She is on the 2019 record Spirit Groove with Kahil El’Zabar and David Murray with whom she performed at the first annual Emancipation Day Celebration in Baltimore in November 2022 and the Sant’Anna Jazz Festival in Sardinia, Italy in 2019.

She attended the Oberlin Conservatory of Music on scholarship where she studied with Peter Dominguez, Eddie Gomez, and Billy Hart. Upon graduation, Emma moved to Chicago where she she spearheaded a local funk band, toured with a bluegrass band, worked in Chicago’s blues scene, and was embraced by Chicago’s avant garde jazz community through her mentors Vincent Davis (Roscoe Mitchell, Art Ensemble of Chicago) and Robert Irving III (Miles Davis). Emma’s experience in recording led to her work as the recording engineer for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra for several years. She is the recording engineer for two releases by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra: Mason Bates: Anthology of Fantastic Zoology (2016) and Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony (2016) conducted by Riccardo Muti. In 2015, curious about New York, Emma put her life in a Subaru and drove 800 miles east. While in New York she performed regularly with the Victor Goines Quartet while studying with Gerald Cannon (Roy Hargrove, McCoy Tyner) and Ron Carter.

Emma traveled to Havana, Cuba in 2016 as a mentor with the Horns for Havana program. She taught students at both the Amadeo Roldán Music Conservatory and the National School of the Arts (la ENA) in Havana for 10 days. She has since given master classes and clinics in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Los Angeles, Australia, Alaska, and inspired what has become Montana’s annual Livingston Jazz Festival. Emma has had opportunities to share the stage with Herbie Hancock, Cecile McLorin Salvant, David Murray, Kahil El’Zabar, Helen Sung, Jeff Parker, Dee Alexander, Isaiah Collier, Corey Wilkes, Gretchen Parlato, Robert Irving III, Patricia Barber, Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society, Victor Goines, Nicole Mitchell, Willie Pickens, Larry Willis, Victor Lewis, Grammy-nominated singer songwriter Matthew Santos, rapper Fem Dot, tap dancer Jumaane Taylor, and R&B artist Zeshan B. Emma is based in Chicago’s uniquely creative community of solid, versatile, and passionate artists, and is pursuing a Doctorate of Musical Arts at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

Mimi Jones

For more than two decades she’s been on the scene, bassist/vocalist/producer/label owner and now filmmaker Mimi Jones has reigned supreme, as a side woman to an impressive coterie of musicians and as a leader with three CDs on her own Hot Tone Music label, A New Day (2009) and Balance (2014) —-her third CD for the label, Feet in the Mud, being her most powerful, propulsive, and personal recording to date. “Feet in the Mud to me means being true to one’s own self despite your race, age, gender, size etcetera,” Jones says. “It’s about finding true joy within yourself, having an open mind and spirit and a connection to the earth.”

Jones is supported by an engaging and ingenious collection of musicians: pianist Jon Cowherd (Brian Blade, Cassandra Wilson, Rosanne Cash), drummer Jonathan Barber (Kenny Barron, Kurt Elling, Erykah Badu), and soprano saxophonist Samir Zarif (Jason Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, Aaron Neville).

The jazz world is happy that Mimi Jones is on the scene. Born Miriam Sullivan in New York City on March 25, 1972 of parents from Barbados, she was raised in the Bronx. Jones grew up listening to a variety of music including Al Green, Michael Jackson, Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Earth, Wind & Fire, and more. She took up the guitar at the age of twelve, studying classical guitar with her first music instructor, James Bartow, at the Harlem School of the Arts. She also studied percussion, songwriting, voice, drums, and dance. Jones switched to cello after being accepted at the famed LaGuardia High School of Music and Art because the school because they had no guitar teacher. Band director Justin DiCioccio heard her messing around with an acoustic bass and recruited her to play in the school jazz band, which at the time included budding young lions such as Abraham Burton, Eric McPherson, Walter Blanding Jr., and Michael Leonhart.

“Once I switched to bass, I began listening Jimmy Blanton and Oscar Pettiford. They had their own sound and their individual approach to weaving bass lines and improvisation. Milt Hinton took me under his wing, and gifted me a scholarship to the jazz camp at Skidmore summer camp. He had an early influence on me to sing and play bass,” Jones fondly recalls. “I grew up listening to a lot of Miles Davis, which naturally exposed me to the great Ron Carter, Sam Jones, and Paul Chambers. Later on I experienced the Oscar Peterson trio, which exposed me to Ray Brown. Wow!”

In preparation of college, with help of her mentors, Jesse Hameen II (aka Cheese), Rodney Jones, Lisle Atkinson and Linda Mcknight Mimi was able to properly prepare for her audition which eventually would award her a full scholarship at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. Jones studied classically under the tutelage of Linda McKnight and simultaneously attended weekend classes at the Jazz mobile school on Saturday mornings with bassist Lisle Atkinson. She also studied with jazz masters such as Barry Harris, Ron Carter, Milt Hinton, Dr. Billy Taylor, Yusef Lateef, Max Roach, Maria Schneider, and bassist Guillermo Edgehill.

As a Jazz Ambassador, Mimi toured Africa, Europe, Russia, China, South and Central America, and the Caribbean for the U.S. State Department. Her vast work as a sidewoman includes gigs with Kenny Barron, Lizz Wright, Beyonce, Frank Ocean, Dianne Reeves, Tia Fuller, Ingrid Jensen, Roy Hargrove, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nona Hendricks, Kevin Mahogany, Corey Glover, Raymond Angry, Marc Cary, Toshi Reagon, Rachel Z, Tammy McCann, Sean Jones, Cyrille Aimee, Allan Harris, Rudy Royston, Ravi Coltrane, Ralph Peterson, and Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy Award winning Mosaic Project.

Jones launched her own record label, Hot Tone Music, in 2009 which now has produced nine albums thus far. In addition, Mimi Jones co-directs with ArcoIris Sandoval a project called The D.O.M.E. Experience, a multimedia project that is meant to inspire its audience to become aware of environmental and social issues, within the community and globally, by original compositions performed by a 20 piece jazz orchestra, dance and cinematography. Mimi also created an original mini musical production about the great migration and harlem renaissance, with a cast of seven entitled “Next Stop Harlem”. To create more opportunities for herself as well as others she felt should have more exposure, Mimi Jones started up the annual Limitless Music Festival (NYC)in January during jazz convention week. Since 2013, Mimi has been hosting a jazz party/experimental jam called The Lab Session based in NYC, and as of October 2017 will also be hosted throughout multiple cities in the US sponsored by organization called Live it Live, that cultivates the growth of live music by bringing the musicians, the audience and the venues together. Mimi Jones was voted #2 rising star by the DownBeat polls for 3 years straight.

Marcus McLaurine

Composer, leader and sideman, bassist Marcus McLaurine has become one of the most sought-after artists in jazz, sharing bandstands with Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Burrell, James Moody, Lou Donaldson, Dame Cleo Laine, Joe Williams, Jon Hendricks, Abbey Lincoln, and the Count Basie Orchestra under the direction of Thad Jones.

For thirty years, Marcus has toured with the legendary trumpeter Clark Terry. Marcus began traveling the world as a child and never stopped. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, to a military family, his youth saw him in Germany, California, Texas, New Mexico and Utah. After music studies at the University of Nebraska, twenty-two year old Marcus moved to Los Angeles and began playing electric bass in a band with guitar legend Billy Rogers, also an Omaha native. Billy convinced Marcus to hear Gene Harris and The Three Sounds play at The Tiki Lounge. Roland Haynes was playing upright bass, and Marcus was completely blown away by his use of arco. The next couple of weeks found Marcus looking for a bass. He finally bought a $150 Kay Bass in a pawn shop, and began immersing himself in Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis and Cannonball Adderley. Over the next few years in Los Angeles, he honed his skills and landed his first upright bass gig with the Horace Tabscott Pan African People’s Orchestra.

In 1976 Marcus entered the Air Force, became an Airman and was shipped to New Jersey. He joined the 590th Air Force Band, stationed out of McGuire A.F.B., and once again traveled the world, from the eastern seaboard to Portugal. His stint in the band even saw Marcus behind the bass drum, marching down 5th Avenue for the Veteran’s Day Parade. By the time he left the Air Force, he had earned the rank of Sergeant. Once again, a good friend helped fate along. His friendship with Clifford Adams, a world- renowned trombonist and member of Kool and The Gang for over twenty years, lead to Marcus’ first job in New York City. Adams told him, “New York needs bass players,” and Marcus has been there ever since. Then, while playing Carnegie Hall and various music festivals for trombonist Melba Liston, an opportunity came Marcus’ way that would change his life.

In 1981 Clark Terry called Melba looking for a bass player. Melba’s band was free, and she suggested Marcus. One evening at home, the phone rang. Marcus picked it up and the voice on the other end said, “This is Clark Terry.” Marcus immediately thought someone was playing a joke on him. Terry said he needed Marcus to play two gigs – a week at the Blue Note and a week in Canada. Still thinking it was some kind of hoax, Marcus agreed to meet at the Blue Note, and sure enough, it was indeed Clark Terry.

With no rehearsal, Marcus played his first set with Terry. He was nervous, regarding Terry as an icon. From that day, Terry has been a musical father to Marcus. He’s been with the band ever since. Among the highlights of Marcus’ quarter-century with Terry: meeting Nelson Mandela while performing for the 50th African National Congress in South Africa, and the night Oscar Peterson sat in with the quintet at The Village Vanguard. Marcus has been influenced by the great players and has found his own sound. “You can’t ever really sound like anybody, even when you’re trying to emulate idols.” says Marcus. “For years I tried to sound like Ron Carter, but at some point you have to let that go and let your own thing develop.” Marcus plays what he feels – he listens to the story and the emotion of the song and finds the phrasing. “I stay open and let the sound pass through.” says Marcus. “I let the song tell me what to play.” Now, in addition to his work as a leader and first-call sideman, Marcus is focusing on his burgeoning career as a composer, writing both jazz and contemporary pieces.

Luis Perdomo

Ever since he came to New York in 1993 from Venezuela, Perdomo has emerged as one of the most in-demand sidemen – as evidenced by his celebrated work with a wide array of jazz and Latin stars – from Ravi Coltrane to Ray Barretto, and by his six critically- acclaimed recordings as a leader. The release of his magnificent new, Hot Tone label debut CD, 22, features bassist Mimi Jones’ supple, deep basslines and drummer Rudy Royston’s quicksilver rhythms, in a trio he christened The Controlling Ear Unit. “I wanted to create an environment where a sensitive player could make his own musical choices, without fear of the consequences,” Perdomo says. “The word ‘unit’ is appropriate because although the current group is a trio, it doesn’t really have to be restrained to that. It could have a different format, depending on what the music calls for.”

On 22, save for his elegant rendition of the Bees Gees’ classic ballad “How Deep is Your Love,” Perdomo delivers a stunning set of original compositions, mostly inspired by his adopted and native hometowns, and that mysterious number.

“2015 marks my twenty-second year living in New York City, and I left my hometown when I was twenty-two years old,” he says. “I remembered the exact moment when I moved, and the feelings I had had at the time…especially during the last two days in Caracas and the first two days in New York City. There again, I saw the two and two formula, and realized that there was a little recurring theme there. So I began scoring all of those memories and trying to convey them through music: translating some dates that were very significant to me into notes.”

Perdomo’s lyrical and logical pianism embodies Bud Powell’s bop-at-the-speed-of- swing, Oscar Peterson’s technical brilliance, and Ahmad Jamal’s melodic genius. And his numbers-into-notes compositional technique, which he learned from Richard DeRosa, an instructor from his Alma Mater, the Manhattan School of Music, forms the basis of two songs: “Cota Mil” a funky, labyrinthine, Patanemo-grooved number named after a prominent highway north of Caracas, which derives its compositional motifs from the dates of the Venezuelan Battle of Independence in 1821 and the Batalla de la Juventud/Battle of the Youth in 1814. The martial, “Days Gone Days Ahead,” was inspired by the day Perdomo got his US Student Visa on 8/13/93.

The rest of the CD’s tracks showcase the infinite variety of Perdomo’s musicality. “Love Tone Poem” is a wistful, 5/4-metered ballad dedicated to Jones, and “Two Sides of a Goodbye” is a funereal, avant-garde work that conjures up Perdomo’s melancholy when he left his family at the airport in Venezuela. In contrast, “Old City” is an uptempo sound portrait of an the un-gentrified Manhattan of the early nineties, where jazz clubs like Bradley’s, The Village Gate, Fat Tuesday’s and Sweet Basil’s reigned supreme. Perdomo’s evocative sound on the Fender Rhodes is also featured on the bouncy backbeat of “A Different Kind of Reality,” the contrapuntal “Light Slips In,” “Brand New Grays,” and the funkified “Looking Through You.”

Two tracks, “Weilheim (to Gerry Weil)” a reverent mid-tempo piece dedicated to Perdomo’s first teacher, the Austrian-born jazz pianist/educator Gerry Weil, and “Aaychdee (to Harold Danko)” – named after jazz Danko’s publishing company,” are Perdomo’s sonic shout-outs to his former piano teachers. “The biggest lesson I received from Gerry Weil in Venezuela, was to keep my mind open to all types of music,” he says. “With Harold (who was his instructor at MSM), that was the first time I actually heard jazz from an American point-of-view. That was a total revelation to me.”

Born in 1971 in Caracas, Perdomo, from the age of 12, was playing on Venezuelan TV and radio stations, but he eventually realized that he would have to travel to New York City to fulfill his musical destiny. “Being in a more competitive and challenging environment was a big change that I welcomed,” he says.

In 1993, Perdomo relocated to New York and enrolled with a full scholarship to the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Harold Danko and classical pianist Martha Pestalozzi, and earned his earned his BA Degree in 1997. Perdomo later studied with pianist extraordinaire, Sir Roland Hanna at Queens College, and received his Masters Degree in 2000. “Studying with Sir Roland Hanna …“I began to look at jazz and classical music in a new and more in-depth way and my playing evolved accordingly,” he says. Perdomo has appeared on over two hundred records, and has become a first-class sideman to artists like Dave Douglas, David Sanchez, Tom Harrell, Steve Turre, Ben Wolfe, Ray Barretto, Brian Lynch, David Gilmore, Conrad Herwig, Ignacio Berroa, Ralph Irizarry and Timbalaye and other great musicians. He was a member of Ravi Coltrane’s Quartet for ten years, and is a founding member of the Miguel Zenon Quartet. Perdomo recorded on three Grammy-nominated CD’s: Coltrane’s Influx, and Zenon’s Esta Plena, and Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook.

Perdomo’s recordings as a leader include: Focus Point (2005), Awareness (2006), Pathways (2008), the critically-acclaimed Universal Mind (2012), with Jack DeJohnnette and Drew Gress, The Infancia Project (2012) and Links (2013).

Which brings us to 22: an amazing recording that shows how far Luis Perdomo has come and forecasts where he is going.

Edward Perez

staff

Edward Perez resides in the cultural crossroads of Queens, New York, where he leads parallel careers as a composer, arranger, and bassist. His works have been performed by the likes of The Silkroad Ensemble, Yo-Yo Ma, Alan Gilbert, Galician gaita powerhouse Cristina Pato, Latin-jazz legend Ignacio Berroa, Latin-grammy nominated Peruvian singer Jorge Pardo, and oud phenom Kenan Adnawi. His music has been played in venues ranging from the smallest nightclubs in New York to the Kennedy Center, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Massey Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, El Gran Teatro Nacional de Lima, Damascus Opera House, and Boston Symphony Hall.

Perez began his career as a jazz bassist, but quickly branched out to Latin-Jazz and traditional styles from Peru, Colombia, Brazil, and other parts of South America. He spent his collegiate years at Harvard University, earning a math degree while cutting his teeth in the local jazz clubs in Boston. Afterwards, Perez enjoyed a two year stint in Lima, Peru where he performed with the foremost Afro-Pervuian musicians including Grammy winners Eva Ayllón and Juan Medrano Cotito as well as venerated greats of the older generation such as Oscar Avilés and Julio “Chocolate” Algendones.

Perez later returned to the US in order to establish a home base in New York and pursue his interests in modern jazz. Hailed by Jazz Times for his “great dexterity,” Perez has toured through more than 20 countries sharing the stage with jazz luminaries such as Lee Konitz, Greg Osby, Seamus Blake, Lionel Loueke, Kenny Werner, Jason Palmer, and also Latin jazz powerhouses Paquito D’Rivera, Ignacio Berroa, and Arturo O’Farrill. His numerous recording credits on bass include the Grammy-nominated Latin jazz album “Second Chance” by Hector Martignon.

Also active as an educator, Perez has taught privately for The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music and has held ongoing teaching positions for the Queens College Center for Preparatory Studies in Music as well as the Symphony Space Curriculum Arts Project. In the summers he teaches at Silkroad’s Global Musician Workshop and has given masterclasses to bassists and improvisors on all instruments in a host of countries around the globe.

Currently, Perez co-leads the Terraza Big Band, an 18 piece jazz group which some of the strongest up-and-coming players on the New York scene gather together to play original works by co-leaders Edward Perez and Michael Thomas, which run the gamut from modern jazz to styles from Latin America. As a bassist, Perez still remains firmly rooted in jazz improvisation, but continues to play a myriad of musical styles with a variety of groups, always remaining open to allowing the influences from these collaborations to influence his compositional style.

Jeremy Smith

I went to graduate school because I wanted to be involved in knowledge production and dissemination. Beyond that I didn’t have a specific career plan. I basically came to Duke trying to be as open as I could to different career options. Part of that was because of the diversity of interests I had. Another part of it was pragmatic. I was at Duke from ’03 to the end of ’08, and during that time I saw a lot of smart and talented people completing their degrees but not getting jobs. I was determined that was not going to be me.

So along the way I tried to be pretty intentional about exploring other paths. I tried some freelance editorial work for two book projects to see if I was any good at that work and, if so, if I might be interested in university press jobs in the future. Also, during my dissertation research, I did a lot of work in archives (dissertation title:“Sound, Mediation, and Meaning in Miles Davis’s A Tribute to Jack Johnson”). Through that experience I was really awakened to the value of archives and the potential for that path as a career option.

What has your career path looked like since you graduated?
When I was nearing the end of the PhD I applied to jobs as broadly as I could. I applied to postdocs, faculty jobs, university press positions, and a few library jobs. The position that opened up was a position at the special collections library at Duke [now the David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library]. They were starting a jazz archive, and they posted a two-year position for a jazz archivist to help get things off the ground. I feel like, from a library skills perspective, they had no business hiring me because I had no formal library training. One of the great things was that they really just needed someone who was a subject area expert and who was willing to learn the technical library skills along the way. It was a great opportunity because I could spend a couple of years developing some new skills, and I didn’t have to relocate. If nothing else it was two years to stay in academia and get a break from dissertation research.

Although it was advertised as a two-year position, it turned out there was funding for three years. During that time I realized I was good at the work, I enjoyed it, and I was developing some nice skills and work experiences. That’s how it kind of opened up. Since the Duke position was not a permanent job, I was actively applying to other positions the whole time I was at Duke. It was toward the end of my third year that the position I have now [at Oberlin] was advertised.

Tell us more about your current job. What is your favorite thing about what you do? What has been the most surprising thing about it?
The most surprising thing about library work is just how much I enjoy it. If I could have written a job description it would be the one I have now because it allows me to blend teaching and research with the library-specific skills I’ve developed. Library work also consistently allows me to be a part of a team. It is really rewarding for me not to be working in isolation – I work with students and other patrons daily, and I work with a variety of library staff on some of the various projects I’m a part of. It’s rewarding to help people do better research, better scholarship. Oberlin was looking for someone who could oversee the whole of their music-related special collections which extend far beyond jazz. Library work compels me to explore areas of music history that otherwise I wouldn’t explore. If a patron comes in and asks about string instrument construction and repair, I get to learn about it.

Or if they’re curious about the role of bass viols in American Protestant worship in the 19th century, I get to explore that. But this also lets me maintain my primary focus and interest in jazz, since several of our core holdings are jazz-related. Were I not in a position with this breadth of responsibilities I would not be motivated to think about the diversity of musical topics that I do. I love exploring the breadth of music, and this is a position that really requires that I do that.There is also something different every week if not every day. Sometimes I’m doing collection development work, talking with potential donors. Sometimes I’m traveling to coordinate the moves of collections. Sometimes I’m representing Oberlin at conferences. I work with patrons and faculty members on individual research projects, and I also prepare one-off lectures on library research skills and semester-long courses related to jazz history and research. I have a team of eight or nine students working with me and some days I’m directly supervising their work, or doing inventory work. It’s as diverse as I want it to be.

What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
It felt like for a number of years all I was doing was applying for jobs – any job that seemed remotely reasonable. When you apply for jobs in academia, you have to do a certain amount of research and invest in the job, even if you’re just sending out an initial letter. Could I live in this city? Would I want these people as colleagues? What is the institutional history of this department/position? I had gone through this process hundreds of times, and I had application fatigue. Every new time I was applying I was a little less motivated. When I was in the midst of that a faculty member at Duke said the best thing you can do is apply for every fellowship or opportunity and then, as much as its possible, intentionally forget you applied [this was something he heard the composer John Cage say]. Apply, let it go, and that way if you’re contacted it’s this happy surprise. I’m not sure I ever succeeded at that approach, but it was still good advice…

Do you have any interesting projects or professional plans in the works?
In the immediate future, I’m working with some folks on a series of events drawing upon a large collection of photographs and personal papers of the jazz bassist Milt Hinton that Oberlin has just received. For the fall semester, we’re planning a museum exhibit, a series of lectures and concerts, and a course that I’ll be teaching, all of which utilize that collection. One of the great things about this job is that I have the chance to design and teach a course every year or two. All of the thought that goes into that work keeps me on my toes. It lets me keep the research for the purpose of teaching rather sharp. There is also space in my work to continue the publication side of things, and I’m starting to get the itch to return to that in some capacity. There is no expectation, but if I want to work toward publications, there can be time for it. So there are a couple of article-length pieces that I’d like to start working on soon. If I can do something like that every 4-5 years, I can stay pretty satisfied on the research side of things.

Jennifer Vincent

Jennifer Vincent, bassist and cellist, has been an active force on the music scene in New York City for well over a decade. She plays and has played and toured with the likes of Betty Carter, Abbey Lincoln, the famed Boy’s Choir of Harlem, Willie Martinez y La Familia, Son Sublime, the Xavier Cougat Orchestra, the Roberto Rodriguez Septet, Carmen Lundy, Harry Whitteaker (longtime artistic director and keyboardist for Roberta Flack), Jon Hendricks, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and many other jazz and Latin notables.

Jennifer’s sound has been characterized as “Cheerfully Blantonian” by the Village Voice. Her bass lines are featured on NBC’s 75th Anniversary “Cosby Show Retrospective”, and she can be heard on commercials for Lipitor, Marriott Hotels, and Olive Garden. She has played on many film soundtracks, including “90 Miles”, a film which won Best Documentary at the 2003 Havana Film Festival. She has been featured on “City Arts”, has traveled to South America as a Jazz Ambassador for the State Department, and plays for Lincoln Center’s “Meet the Artist” series. All About Jazz has this to say about her: “Bass player Jennifer Vincent shows that she can stay with anyone when it comes to getting a bass to sing…..”

Jennifer, who started as a classically-trained cellist at Oberlin Conservatory, is equally comfortable in the jazz, Latin-jazz, and traditional Cuban musical idioms. Her bass teachers include jazz icon Ron Carter, Andy Gonzales, Ed Bennett, Buster Williams, and Cuban bass legend Orlando “Cachaito” Lopez of the Buena Vista Social Club, with whom she traveled to Cuba to study with.

Jennifer delves into music that utilizes West African, Japanese, and Middle Eastern influences with artists such as Sogbety Diomande form the Ivory Coast, the Pan-Asian Chamber Jazz Ensemble, and Algerian pianist Maurice el Medioni’s “Descarga Oriental”, which won the 2006 BBC Music Award for Best World Crossover. According to Songlines World Music magazine, “Vincent’s thick, measured New York Latin Bass, so different from anything el Medioni has previously recorded with, is perfect!”. For the past 5 years she has been touring the world over with the Duke Ellington Orchestra, carrying on the tradition of the longest-running and most legendary jazz orchestra in American history.

Ben Williams

When it comes to black music, Washington, D.C. produces its share of game-changers. That long list includes Duke Ellington, Chuck Brown, Marvin Gaye, Shirley Horn, Roberta Flack, Bad Brains, Meshell Ndegeocello, Wale, and Oddisee. You can add Ben Williams to that venerated roster.

For more than a decade, Williams has steadily become one of the most acclaimed and versatile bassists in modern jazz. In 2009, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. He has performed/recorded with such giants as Pat Metheny, George Benson, Stefon Harris, David Sanborn, Lauryn Hill, Wynton Marsalis, Robert Glasper, Maxwell, and Nicholas Payton. In 2013 and 2015 Williams received the DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll Rising Star Award for Bass. Williams became a “Rising Star” when he won the 2009 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Bass Competition Award that landed him his first record-deal with Concord Records. Thereafter, he recorded and released State of Art in 2011 with his band, Sound Effect. The Album received an impressive 4.5 Star Review in DownBeat Magazine and reached #1 on the charts of iTunes and the National BillBoard. He was named the 2011 iTtunes Breakthrough Artist of the Year in the category of jazz.

As a leader, Williams revealed his talents as a keen composer and bandleader on his first two Concord Records albums – State of Art (2011) and Coming of Age (2015). As gripping as those albums are, they don’t prepare you for Williams’ newest album, I AM A MAN, released Rainbow Blonde, a new imprint co-owned by singer, songwriter, and kindred spirit, José James. Sonically, the new album departs grandly from the mostly acoustic instrumental settings of his previous albums. Williams imbued his love for modern R&B and hip-hop and his socio-political awareness subtly on State of Art and Coming of Age. But on I AM A MAN, he brings them to the fore with mesmerizing vocal-centric songs that will surely raise his profile higher in modern soul and rap circles.

With the help from sound engineer Brian Bender, I AM A MAN boasts a humid and hazy sound that recalls Soulaquarian albums released by The Roots, Erykah Badu, Bilal, D’Angelo, Common, and Roy Hargrove’s RH Factor. “I wanted to make this not just a musical statement, but sonically, I wanted to dig into a different sound. We had the opportunity to work in the studio to craft some sounds. What you hear is Brian’s brilliance with engineering. I wanted this record to deal with the past, present, and future,” Williams says.

milt
hinton

meet the director

Peter Dominguez

Faculty

John Kennedy

Bill Crow

Emma Dayhuff

Billy Hart

Mimi Jones

Marcus McLaurine

Luis Perdomo

Edward Perez

Jeremy Smith

Sam Suggs

Jennifer Vincent

Ben Williams

milthinton

About Milt Hinton

meet the director

Peter Dominguez

Faculty

John Kennedy

Bill Crow

Emma Dayhuff

Billy Hart

Mimi Jones

Marcus McLaurine

Luis Perdomo

Edward Perez

Jeremy Smith

Sam Suggs

Jennifer Vincent

Ben Williams

milt
hinton