Jim Knapp, director of the Jim Knapp Orchestra, trumpet player, composer, and teacher was born in Chicago, received BA and MA degrees in Music Composition from the University of Illinois, and lives in Seattle. He has served as director of The Composers and Improvisors Orchestra and has led various small jazz groups such as Ohio Howie and the Temple of Boom, and the J- Word. After developing the Jazz Program at Cornish College, he continues to teach there with the academic rank of professor. The list of courses taught at Cornish include 16th Century Counterpoint, Improvisation, Composition, Arranging, Jazz Theory II, Composition Seminar (string quartets), Standards, Jazz Orchestra, Ensembles, Rhythm, Sight-reading and Trumpet. Jim has received a National Endowment for the Arts “Jazz Composition Fellowship”, a Seattle Arts Commission “Individual Artist Music Composition” grant, a “Special Projects Music Composition” award from the King County Arts Commission, and support from Meet the Composer and Artist Trust. In November 2006, he was honored by Cornish College of the Arts for “35 Years of Jazz”. In 2007, he was inducted into the Earshot Hall of Fame. He has recorded as a composer and/or performer on the ECM, A-Records, Origin, Pony Boy, Seabreeze, Flying Fish, Catalyst, and Mode record labels. The Jim Knapp Orchestra won the Earshot “Best Acoustic Jazz Group” award in 1995 and its CD, Things For Now, received the Earshot “Jazz Record Of The Year” award in 1999. The ensemble is represented on three CD’s: Things for Now on A-Records (AL73180), On Going Home on Seabreeze (SB2078) and Secular Breathing on Origin (82412). In the past year, his music has been recorded on CD’s by Kelly Johnson and Steve Treseler. The Jim Knapp Orchestra plays the first Monday of each month at the Seattle Drum School.
Awards:
Earshot “Best Acoustic Jazz Group” award in 1995
Things For Now, received the Earshot “Jazz Record Of The Year” award in 1999.
Earshot Hall of Fame 2006
