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John D'Earth

John D'earth is the Director of Jazz Performance at the University of Virginia where he teaches improvisation, jazz trumpet, jazz composition, and directs the UVA Jazz Ensemble.

Jazz trumpeter and composer John D'earth was born in Framingham, Massachusetts in 1950. He studied, as a teenager, with saxophonist Boots Mussulli, (Stan Kenton, Charlie Ventura, Teddy Wilson) with John Coffey, (principal trombonist in the Boston Symphony) and arranging with Thad Jones. He attended Harvard University and, later, moved to New York City where he studied with Carmine Caruso, Vince Penzarella and Richie Beirach.

D'earth has performed and recorded internationally and appeared on over one hundred recordings spanning the analog and digital eras on vinyl, CDs, film, and video. Working with Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, Gunter Hampel’s Galaxie Dream Band, Miles Davis/Quincy Jones at Montreaux, Tito Puente, Bruce Hornsby, Emily Remler, Bennie Wallace, Eddie Gomez, The George Gruntz Concert Jazz Band, Bob Moses, Pat Metheny, Joe Henderson, Clark Terry, John Scofield and John Abercrombie, among many others, has called upon his ability to feel at home, creatively, in many genres.

D'earth has recorded as a leader for Vanguard Records, ENJA Records, DoubleTime Jazz and his own Cosmology label. His recordings reveal an eclectic, searching nature, rooted in the entirety of the jazz and blues tradition and a hard bop trumpet sensibility that owes as much to Louis Armstrong as to Miles Davis.

D’earth is an avid composer and arranger with hundreds of compositions to his credit including full-length works for orchestra and/or other large ensembles. He has written music for the Kronos String Quartet, the Kandinsky Trio, Bruce Hornsby, the Dave Matthews Band, the San Diego, Atlanta, Richmond and Roanoke Symphony Orchestras, the Charlottesville Chamber Festival, the University of Virginia Jazz Ensemble, the Great American Music Ensemble and the Charlottesville-Albemarle Youth Orchestra.

Relocating from Manhattan to Charlottesville in the mid-eighties, D’earth is a co-founder of the Free Bridge Quintet, was the music director for Cosmology (which became the Thompson D'earth Band) with his wife, vocalist/songwriter Dawn Thompson, leads the Charlottesville Swing Orchestra, the one blood jazz/poetry project, Thursday Night at Miller’s, and his own quartet/quintet.

As an educator D’earth has become interested in early musical development and in playing freely improvised music with young and even brand-new musicians in his “Precognitive Conservatory Orchestra” jam sessions and workshops. As a jazz musician and composer he is interested in the nexus of composition and improvisation and in working with musicians, from any genre, who are committed to pushing their own boundaries in both of these areas.

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Album Review

Doug Richards Orchestra: Through a Sonic Prism

Read "Through a Sonic Prism" reviewed by Jack Bowers


If the title of the Doug Richards Orchestra's new album, Through a Sonic Prism, seems a bit esoteric, its subtitle--"The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim"--should help set the mind at ease. This is undeniably beautiful music, handsomely arranged by Richards and flawlessly performed by his eighteen-member Virginia-based ensemble and vocalist Laura Ann Singh, whose seductive voice enhances ten of the album's fourteen numbers--most of which were recorded during the pandemic. Some of the songs are familiar--indeed, at ...

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Radio & Podcasts

The Series Finale - All Jazz is Local (2011 - 2018)

Read "The Series Finale - All Jazz is Local (2011 - 2018)" reviewed by Russell Perry


So far, we have broadcast ninety-nine one-hour programs to tell the story of the first 100 years of recorded jazz. We have heard the creative work of hundreds of players, composers, arrangers, and bandleaders, famous and obscure. Each of the contributors to this rich history had colleagues and bandmates with whom they played as they grew up and matured; teachers formal and informal; and mentors. They played in basements, living rooms, classrooms, high school gyms, churches, clubs and theaters. They ...

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Performance / Tour

Miles Smiles Concert And Clinic at An die Musik Live on January 24

Miles Smiles Concert And Clinic at An die Musik Live on January 24

Source: Liz Fixsen

InDepth Jazz Clinics and Concerts opens its 2014 season by presenting music from the formidable album Miles Smiles, recorded by iconic trumpeter Miles Davis in 1967. The recording features fabulous compositions and group interplay and had a far-reaching effect on the jazz idiom. On January 24, 2014 all six tunes from the album will be performed in concert in popular Baltimore listening room, An die Musik Live. Featured performers are top-call musicians with impeccable technique, deep pockets of jazz wisdom, ...

Education

Maryland Summer Jazz Camp Returns In July

Maryland Summer Jazz Camp Returns In July

Source: The Phillips Agency

The Maryland Summer Jazz Camp returns on July 13 for its ninth season. The inspiring workshops and jams for musicians and public concerts for jazz lovers take place through July 26. Drawing adult learners and listeners from both coasts, the top-rated event hosts brilliant jazz artists on stages and in classrooms, where they encourage amateur and semi-pro students to get “out of the basement and onto the bandstand." Some students will begin or resume professional music careers; others will keep ...

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