Pacific Jazz Ensemble

Pacific Jazz Ensemble

Joe Mazzaferro, director

Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes, flute

Pacific Jazz Ambassadors

Friday, February 28, 2025

7:30 pm

Faye Spanos Concert Hall

Compromise (2023)

Contusion (1976)

I’m Not So Sure (1974)

Pep Pep (2013)

Alone Together (1932) View

Arthur Schwartz (1900–1984)

Howard Dietz (1896–1983) arr. Paul McKee

Let’s Take a Trip to the Sky (2012)

Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes (b. 1955) arr. Joe Mazzaferro

Stevie Wonder (b. 1950) arr. Levi Saelua

Cedar Walton (1934–2013) arr. Ben Markley

Stefon Harris (b. 1973) arr. Rich Shemaria

Jon Hatamiya (b. 1991)

PROGRAM NOTES

Schwartz: Alone Together

Howard Dietz and Arthur Schwartz were extremely prolific, writing over two hundred songs each. Of their many dozen collaborations, Alone Together is the most enduring and most often recorded. The song comes from the Broadway musical Flying Colors, sung by Jean Sargent while Clifton Webb and Tamara Geva danced. Flying Colors opened at the Imperial Theater on September 15, 1932, produced by Max Gordon and directed by Howard Dietz. The reviews were mixed, and it ran for 188 performances.

—adapted from Jeremy Wilson

Wonder: Contusion

Stevie Wonder has had a tremendous career spanning five decades. He was signed to Motown Records at age 11 as “Little Stevie Wonder” and released his debut album in 1962 at the age of 12 years old. Contusion appears on the album Songs in the Key of Life, which won four Grammys in 1977, including Album of the Year, and is listed on the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry. —Emily Langerholc

Walton: I’m Not So Sure

One of the great hard bop pianists, Cedar Walton was also known for his compositions, some of which have become jazz standards, such as Bolivia, Clockwise, and Firm Roots. In 1959, he recorded with John Coltrane on his seminal album Giant Steps, but the recordings were not included on the initial issue of the album; the alternate tracks were later issued on the CD version. During his years with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers (1961–64), Walton stepped forward as composer, contributing originals such as Mosaic, Ugetsu, and The Promised Land to the group's repertoire. In 1974, Walton joined with bassist Sam Jones, drummer Billy Higgins, and saxophonist Clifford Jordan to form the group Eastern Rebellion, which would perform and record sporadically over the subsequent two decades.

—National Endowment for the Arts

Harris: Let’s Take a Trip to the Sky

Stefon Harris’s passionate artistry and astonishing virtuosity have propelled him to the forefront of the jazz scene. In 2020 on National Public Radio (NPR), Harris's feature highlighted his contributions as a musician but also as an educator and thought leader who teaches empathy from the bandstand. Harris has also been featured as one of the leading and emerging artists for Apollo’s New Works Master Artist residency. In 2019, Hot House and Jazz Mobile awarded Harris best vibes as part of the best and brightest for the New York Readers Jazz awards. Heralded as “one of the most important artists in jazz” (Los Angeles Times), he is a recipient of the prestigious 2018 Doris Duke Artist Award, the Martin E. Segal Award from Lincoln Center, has earned four Grammy nominations, and has been named Best Mallet player eight times by the Jazz Journalist Association. He was also chosen Best Vibes in the 2018 and 2017 Downbeat Magazine Critic’s Poll, the 2016 Jazz Times Expanded Critics Poll, the 2014 Jazz Times Critics Poll and the 2013 Downbeat Critics Poll. NPR’s All Things Considered praised Harris’s audacious CD Urbanus, which also earned a Grammy nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Album, as one of “The Year’s Best New Jazz” recordings. As a member of the SFJAZZ Collective, their 2014 CD, Wonder: The Songs of Stevie Wonder, won an NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Jazz Album.

—Rutgers-Newark School of Arts and Sciences

Hatamiya: Pep Pep

Trombonist, composer, and B.A.C. Endorsing Artist Jon Hatamiya is one of the most promising trombonists to come out of the Sacramento area and is rapidly making a name for himself on both the New York and California music scenes. He was recognized in the August 1, 2011 edition of Jet Magazine as the only trombonist on Wynton Marsalis’s list of “Who’s Got Next,” which highlighted the next generation of emerging jazz artists. Jon recently released his debut album as a leader, More Than Anything, on Orenda Records in early 2020.

—Jon Hatamiya

Joe Mazzaferro is the associate director of jazz studies and associate professor of practice in jazz at University of the Pacific. As a trumpeter, educator, and composer, Mazzaferro is active in the Northern California jazz scene and in demand as a guest artist and clinician across the United States. Mazzaferro’s debut release In Terms of . . . (2017)—which features saxophonist Jeff Clayton along with special guests, drummer Carl Allen and pianist Donald Brown—received high praise from critics and was described as “vintage hard bop with maturity” (George Harris, Jazz Weekly).

Mazzaferro has gained critical acclaim as a composer and arranger and has arranged works for pianist Edward Simon, drummer Carl Allen, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and vocalist Jazzmeia Horn. In 2019 he contributed arrangements to Smoke Session Record’s release Bird at 100, commemorating the centennial of Charlie Parker’s birth, which featured alto saxophonists Vincent Herring, Bobby Watson, and Gary Bartz. Mazzaferro’s July 2020 big-band release Talk About It! Live @ The CLARA features exclusively his arrangements and compositions. Mazzaferro is a graduate of University of the Pacific (BM, music education) and the University of Tennessee (MM, jazz and studio music).

Elena Ayodele Pinderhughes is an award-winning flutist, vocalist, composer, and songwriter whose style seamlessly blends jazz, hip-hop, and R&B influences. She began her musical journey at a young age and has since established herself as a prominent figure in the contemporary jazz and R&B music scenes, performing and touring in venues and festivals throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and South America. Described by The Guardian as the “most exciting and creatively assured jazz flutist to have emerged in years”, Elena has performed in venues and festivals including Carnegie Hall, the White House, The Kennedy Center, Coachella Music Festival, and North Sea Jazz Festival.

Elena was raised in the Bay Area and moved to New York City to study flute and voice at The Manhattan School of Music. In New York, she began recording, touring and performing with artists in multiple genres including Herbie Hancock, Terrace Martin, Common, Chief Adjuah (formally Christian Scott), Robert Glasper, Josh Groban, Future and others. Most recently, Elena is featured on Terrace Martin’s album, Fine Tune, Herbie Hancock’s upcoming album, Common’s album, Black America Again, Lupe Fiasco’s Drogas Wave, Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah’s album Diaspora, and Terri Lyne Carrington’s Grammy-winning album New Standards, as well as many others. She will be releasing her debut album this year. Performing with a range of musicians, as well as with her own group, Elena tours internationally with Herbie Hancock, Terrace Martin, Chief Adjuah and Common. Her unique voice, flute playing, and writing style bring her musicality, harmony, rhythm, and culture to create a very specific sound all her own. In addition to her performing and recording career, Elena has established herself as a rising force in the world of film scoring, blending her background in jazz and contemporary music with a cinematic sensibility. Her film scoring work includes contributions to the critically acclaimed film American Fiction, as well as Marvel Studios’ blockbuster The Marvels and HBO’s documentary Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed, bringing her unique voice to diverse storytelling mediums.

Pacific Jazz Ensemble is an award-winning big band in the tradition of Duke Ellington and Count Basie. The ensemble performs classic big band literature and embraces the music of contemporary composers and arrangers. They have an impressive list of credentials and have been invited to perform at jazz festivals around the West Coast.

Saxophone

Aimee MacDonald, alto*

Ves Turk, alto

Leo Milano, tenor

Warren Wigfall, tenor

Kyle Saelee, baritone

Trombone

Radley Rutledge*

Bronson Burfield

Jayden Laumeister

Miguel Palma

Trumpet

Alex Maldonado*

Kai Hatton

Alayna Ontai

Alejandro Villalobos

Rhythm Section

Bergen Finley, guitar

Aaron Garner, piano**

Marwan Ghonima, bass

Joseph Evans, drums

*lead player

**faculty member

Pacific Jazz Ambassadors is Pacific's flag-ship jazz combo is comprised of students pursuing the Bachelor of Music in jazz studies (honors) at Pacific. Students study with Pacific's jazz studies faculty, visiting jazz educators, artists, clinicians and other music professionals while working towards their undergraduate degree. In 2024, the ensemble has clinched the undergraduate college winner title in DownBeat's Small Jazz Combo category.

Aimee MacDonald, alto saxophone

Leo Milano, tenor saxophone

Michael Belasco, guitar

Marwan Ghonima, bass**

Joe Evans, drums

JAZZ FACULTY COACHES

Patrick Langham, program director, saxophone

Joseph Mazzaferro, associate director, trumpet

Jamie Dubberly, trombone

Sean Britt, guitar

Aaron Garner, piano

Brian Kendrick, percussion

Andrew Mell, double bass

Jonathan Latta, ensembles program director

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