Born in Washington D.C., Jerome Epps began to embrace music at a very young age. With his father being an accomplished jazz saxophonist, it wasn’t long before the musical gene was passed on to him. Jerome would listen to his father practice for hours to the likes of Miles, Coltrane, Bird, Sergio Mendes, Antonio Carlos Jobim, the virtual who’s who of jazz. Yet Jerome would take a slight detour on his path to fully appreciating jazz. And that detour was called… “Jimi Hendrix”. Suddenly it was all about the guitar and psychedelic rock. Jerome would perform in numerous rock bands, influenced by Eric Clapton (Cream), Terry Kath (Chicago), Jimmy Page (Zepplin), and the original Santana band. Later his interests would shift back towards r&b, soul and funk, only to make the ultimate migration to more progressive jazz-rock fusion artists like Chick Corea, Al Dimeola, John McLaughlin’s Mahavishnu Orchestra, and Weather Report.
Oddly enough, as a youngster Jerome's first music teacher was Roberta Flack (of “Killing Me Softly” fame) who taught him within the D.C. public school system. Years later he studied Music Education at Morgan State College and Howard University where he met Dizzy Gillespie at a latin-jazz seminar. A priceless experience indeed.
Later, after moving west, Jerome finished his education at San Jose State University where he studied classical and jazz guitar, while continuing to perform throughout northern California in various nightclubs. Hence, this musical path has led to his new CD release, “Eclectic Fusion”, where Jerome Epps embraces all of his eclectic roots in jazz, r&b, funk, latin, rock and fusion, while blending this sound with contemporary dance beats. Hence we give you “Eclectic Fusion”. Enjoy!
