Results for "Jacksonville"

Ignasi Terraza: With Respect To Oscar And Niels

by Artur Moral
October 8, 2025

Exceptionalism is often presented with a spectacular surface. However, it also hides itself behind multiple layers of deep discretion. This is true with pianist, composer, educator and record producer Ignasi Terraza. His uniqueness is based on several facts: being the first blind person in Spain to earn--a mid-1980s achievement, without today's technology--a degree in Computer Engineering; ...

Prescribing Jazz: A Top Ten

by Artur Moral
March 30, 2025

National Doctors' Day is celebrated unevenly across our mistreated planet. It is absent in most countries, while it is observed as a holiday in a few. Coinciding (in the United States and Australia) with this day of recognition for a vital profession, this article is especially directed to the entire jazz-loving medical community, focusing on six ...

Pianist Joshua Bowlus Spreads Christmas Cheer With New Music

November 17, 2023

With a long overdue follow-up to his debut album in 2014 (What a Wonderful World), Joshua Bowlus collaborates again with vocalist Linda Cole to create a fresh offering of Christmas classics. This time, about half of the tracks feature Linda while the rest are instrumentals. The album cover showcases Joshua sitting at a grand piano full ...

Joshua Bowlus

Born: August 17, 1984

Growing up in Port Orange, FL as the oldest of three siblings, Joshua Bowlus started piano lessons at age five. He trained classically throughout his childhood with private lessons at Stetson University until he began high school. He credits both his high school band director Andrew Kidd and local pianist and teacher Harold Blanchard for sparking his interest in jazz, introducing him to the legendary sounds of masters such as Ahmad Jamal, Oscar Peterson, Thelonious Monk and more. Bowlus was awarded the Louis Armstrong award in high school and continued his music education at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, studying under pianists Kevin Bales & Keith Javors. The head of the UNF jazz department and legendary alto saxophonist Bunky Green served as Joshua’s primary mentor through his later years in college. Since graduating from college in 2006, he has built his musical career as a jazz pianist in the Southeast region, as both bandleader and sideman for various groups and artists.

Madre Vaca

Active since: 2005

Madre Vaca Records is a home base for creative music. From ancient songs to psychedelic rock operas and free jazz adventures, the music we support ventures deep into the forest of musical exploration. We champion improvisational music, original composition, and unusual arrangements that bend our expectations of what music can be. We make warm, high-fidelity recordings that combine adventurous performance with striking composition and improvisation.

Madre Vaca was brought to life in 2005 by a quartet of teenagers in Jacksonville, FL. The magic first began when recording engineer JeanCarlo Mendez and drummer/composer Benjamin Shorstein recorded improvisational and experimental music with pianist Jonah Pierre and guitarist Jarrett Carter

Les DeMerle Little Big Band 'Dance & Jazz Party Cruise' on the Caribbean — Book Your Cabin Today

August 7, 2023

The Dynamic Les DeMerle Little Big Band, featuring vocalist Bonnie Eisele, will transport their popular Dance and Jazz Party to the high seas this fall when they settle into a unique seven-day musical cruise in the Caribbean. The group will be featured nightly on MSC Cruises’ newest ship, The Seascape, from November 11-18, 2023. They will ...

Tierney Sutton At The Jazz Corner

by Martin McFie
February 12, 2020

Tierney Sutton The Jazz Corner Hilton Head Island, SC February 8, 2020 When a lady has chosen nine new outfits, attended nine nerve wracking awards dinners and been nominated for nine Grammys since 2006, it would simply be impolite not to vote for her to win next time. Tierney Sutton certainly ...

Sanifu Hall

Born: July 16, 1946

Mica Bethea

Born: November 30, 1983

Based out of Jacksonville, Florida, Mica is a composer, arranger, and band leader in the jazz vein. He received his graduate and undergraduate degrees, both in music, from the University of North Florida. In 2012, he received the undergraduate arranger award by Downbeat Magazine. He is co-owner of the Cue Note, a billiard room and jazz venue, as well as a boardmember of the Jazz Discovery Series. Though he writes for many mediums of ensembles, most of his music is set to the big band format and is primarily written for his own amusement. He has released two albums with his own group that show his fervor for this instrumentation: the self-titled Mica Bethea Big Band and Stage n' Studio. His big band incorporates some of the highest level of performers in the North Florida region, and the occasional special guest

Ben Adkins

Born: February 19, 1986

With a musical career starting early in a family blues band, Ben’s study of jazz began in high school at The St. Johns County Center for the Arts. Having earned a music scholarship from the St. Augustine Jazz Society, Ben completed his Bachelor of Music from the University of North Florida (during which he was selected to be a member of the Disneyland All-American College band), and Master of Music from Florida State University, under the tutelage of Danny Gottlieb and Leon Anderson, respectively.

          More recently Ben has ventured into the realm of composition, releasing his first album with original material, entitled Salmagundi, to critical acclaim in 2016