MGS presents Camille Thurman

Program

Camille Thurman, a New York City native, has amassed several distinctive honors for her musicianship:  NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Jazz Album, recipient of the SOUTH Arts Creative Jazz Road Artistic Residency, Downbeat Magazine’s Critics Poll Nominee for Rising Star Tenor Saxophonist and Vocalist and Rising New Artist, and Chamber Music of America Performance Plus Grant among others. Thurman also has five full-length recordings as a leader to her credit. Her most recent project, “Confluence: Vol 1,” is a collaboration with master drummer Darrell Green and his quartet. 

Thurman made history, becoming the first woman in 30 years to tour, record, and perform full-time internationally with the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as a saxophonist/woodwind doubler (2018-2020 season). A respected bandleader, she has headlined numerous notable concert venues and jazz festivals worldwide, including the Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, and the Rose Theater. Her international recognition is a testament to the universal appeal of her music and the profound impact she has made on the global jazz community.

Thurman was chosen by the U.S. State Department under the Fulbright Scholarship grant to tour and perform in Paraguay and Nicaragua as a bandleader. She was recently selected by American Music Abroad and the U.S. State Department to tour and perform in Africa as a U.S. Cultural Ambassador in Cameroon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Mauritania. In May 2020, Camille founded “The Haven Hang: Young Lioness Musician Q&A/ Virtual Mentorship Series.” The Haven Hang serves as a virtual and in-person mentorship series for young women musicians, with an initiative to mentor, aid, and support young women pursuing music careers in the performing arts. Currently, she is Assistant Professor of Jazz Performance at McGill University. 

Oakland-raised Darrell Green has been playing drums for as long as he can remember. In fact, his first birthday present was a toy drum. When he was 7 years old, Green landed his first professional gig at Cosmopolitan Baptist Church. Four years later he matriculated in the Young Musicians Program at UC Berkeley.  After high school, Green attended the California Institute of the Arts on a scholarship, where he majored in jazz studies with an emphasis on African percussion.

Throughout college Green drove up to the Bay Area every weekend to play a trio gig at San Francisco’s Club Deluxe, which featured Marcus Shelby on bass and Howard Wiley on saxophone. In 2001 he began touring with Lavay Smith and Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers, and two years later, Green joined the Dave Ellis Quintet and performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival. He developed a style that’s rooted in modern post-bop, but retains elements of his gospel and classical lineage. As a soloist, Green became known for his bedrock groove and inexhaustible creativity.

Green has toured with James Hurt, James Zollar, Brad Leali, Jesse Davis, and Stacy Dillard. Currently, he is touring with Pharoah Sanders, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Sherman Irby, Steve Turre, Faye Carol, Lavay Smith and the Red Hot Skillet Lickers, and Jeremy Pelt.

Music has always been a part of Wallace Roney Jr.’s family pedigree. His father was world-renowned trumpeter Wallace Roney Sr. His mother is universally acclaimed pianist Geri Allen. Wallace has shared the bandstand and garnered the approval of many legends the likes of which include Chick Corea, Jimmy Heath, Charles Tolliver, Lenny White, Buster Williams, Jack DeJohnette, and the late great Ornette Coleman just to name a few.

Originally from Philadelphia, Jordan Williams began playing jazz classics by ear at age 6.  He began his formal jazz studies at the Philadelphia Clef Club of Jazz and Performing Arts and classical piano studies at Philadelphia’s Settlement Music School when he was 7 years old.   Jordan is a recent graduate of The George Washington University earning degrees in both Jazz Studies and Engineering.  During his time there, he received a four-year scholarship as a Presidential Scholar for the Arts, and performed regularly with the Latin Band, Jazz Combo, The Voice (a gospel band) and at numerous public jazz venues throughout the D.C. Metro area. Williams is a two time National Young Arts  Winner, a Grammy Band Finalist, an  Apollo Theater "Legendary Star of Tomorrow”, and a recent semifinalist in the Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition.

Bassist, composer, producer, and educator Paul Beaudry is a San Francisco native. Since relocating to New York City in 2001, Beaudry has toured worldwide as a sideman with jazz artists Steve Turre, Wycliffe Gordon, Allan Harris, Charenee Wade, Dee Daniels, Brian Stokes Mitchell, Cynthia Scott, Camille Thurman and Eric Lewis and also performed in concerts or on recordings with such jazz greats as Clark Terry, Grady Tate, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess, Cecil Bridgewater, Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, Roy Hargrove, Johnny O’Neal, Bruce Barth and Dave Valentine. He has toured in over 40 countries, played on over 50 commercially released recordings including a Grammy Award winning Stephen Colbert project and is the leader of the jazz quartet Paul Beaudry & Pathways.   In 2010 his ensemble released its self-titled debut on Dancing Spirit Records. The band’s follow-up recording Americas was released by Soundkeeper Recordings in 2012. His group has done several tours for the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as U.S. cultural jazz ambassadors giving concerts and workshops to diverse audiences of all ages.

Beaudry has also been a bandleader for Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Jazz For Young People program performing music and jazz history workshops for public schools throughout NYC. In addition to continuing to perform and tour worldwide, Beaudry has been on faculty at the Teachers College at Columbia University since 2006.

Program subject to change at the discretion of the artist(s).