Jon Faddis is a complete and complex musician, conductor, composer and educator.  As a trumpeter, Faddis possesses full command of his instrument, consistently demonstrating a virtually unparalleled range and making the practically impossible seem effortless.  Faddis – of whom his friend and mentor John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie said, “He’s the best ever, including me!” – summons forth and sustains stratospherically high notes in one moment, and in the next, masterfully captures enchantingly thoughtful melodies.  Faddis evokes the voices of Louis Armstrong, Roy Eldridge, Miles Davis and of course Gillespie (no easy feat), all the while remaining true to his own.

Born in Oakland, California in 1953, Faddis began playing trumpet at age seven, inspired by Louis Armstrong’s appearance on the “Ed Sullivan Show.”  Three years later, his trumpet teacher, Bill Catalano, began teaching him Gillespie’s music; at 15, Faddis and Gillespie talked at the Monterey Jazz Festival, and soon after, Faddis sat in with Gillespie at the famed Jazz Workshop in San Francisco.  That proved to be a pivotal beginning of unique friendship between Faddis and Gillespie that spanned almost three decades.  Upon graduating from high school, Faddis joined, at age 17, Lionel Hampton’s band on tour in Texas as a featured soloist, and moved to New York.  Within a year of arriving in New York, Faddis became lead trumpeter for the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band; the affiliation lasted for four years and included touring the former Soviet Union for the U.S. State Department.

Such auspicious beginnings heralded great things to come.  In his thirty-five plus years as a professional musician, Faddis performed and/or recorded with the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra, under the original directors and namesakes of those bands, as well as Gil Evans, Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie, among others.  He has served as music director and conductor for various Jazz bands, including Gillespie’s 70th Birthday Big Band and the GrammyTM-winning United Nation Orchestra (a position Paquito D’Rivera and Slide Hampton assumed after Faddis, with Dizzy’s blessing, left the music directorship of the UNO to develop more solo projects), the Carnegie Hall Centennial Big Band, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band (1992-2002), and the CHJB’s successor, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra of New York (JFJONY) (2003-present) (The JFJONY has played at the Kimmel Center, the NEA Jazz Masters concert at the International Association for Jazz Education’s 2006 conference, and a variety of other venues; the JFJONY will be at the Blue Note in October 2009).  The Chicago Jazz Ensemble, which celebrated its 40th anniversary at Columbia College Chicago in 2005-2006, named Faddis as its Artistic Director in August 2004.  Faddis will continue to conduct both the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra of New York and the Chicago Jazz Ensemble in the future. 

In 2006, Faddis released TERANGA (Koch 2006) to widespread critical acclaim.  Faddis' TERANGA features new compositions by the trumpeter, joined by members of the Jon Faddis Quartet - David Hazeltine (piano), Kiyoshi Kitagawa (bass), & Dion Parson (drums) - together with special guests Alioune Faye (sabor), Abdou Mboup (djembe & talking drum), Russell Malone (guitar), Gary Smulyan (baritone saxophone), Frank Wess (alto flute) and Clark Terry (flugelhorn & vocals).

Faddis’ other Jazz recording credits include well over 500 albums, ranging from early duets with Oscar Peterson and Eubie Blake to soundtracks for film and television (including “The Cosby Show,” The Gauntlet,” and “Bird”) to the GrammyTM-nominated audiophile recording Remembrances (Chesky 1998), with original arrangements by Carlos Franzetti, as well as Into the Faddisphere (Epic 1989), Hornucopia (Epic 1991), and Legacy (Concord 1985, 1990).  In the 1990s, Faddis recorded with Ray Brown, the Heath Brothers, Joe Henderson, Milt Hinton, JJ Johnson, and Lalo Schifrin, among others.  Faddis’ Jazz opera, Lulu Noire (with libretto by MacArthur recipient Lee Breuer), received its premier at the Spoleto USA Festival in 1997 and was performed at the American Music Theater Festival in Philadelphia that same year; USA Today named Faddis’ Lulu Noire one of its “Top Ten” picks for all of 1997.

Faddis also headlines regularly as a guest artist with symphonies and orchestras and as a leader of his own combos in clubs and in concert around the world – including, for example, conducting the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2000 in a concert of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Music, a performance made available in 2004 through public radio’s American Mavericks series, and, in 2007, with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra for the Marian Anderson Awards. 

Remaining true to the tradition of honoring one’s teachers, Faddis continues to champion the music of his primary mentor and close friend, Dizzy Gillespie, and to teach upcoming generations of jazz masters.  Among other things, Faddis served as the original music director for the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars and the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars Big Band, including for the recordings Dizzy’s 80th Birthday (Shanachie 1997), Dizzy’s World (Shanachie 1999) and Things to Come (Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild/Telarc 2002).

Faddis possesses an enduring commitment to the accessible and quality education of young musicians, regularly leading master classes nationally and internationally.  In May 2003, Faddis received Manhattan School of Music’s first-ever honorary doctorate in Jazz Studies.  Among numerous other awards, Faddis has also received the Milt Jackson Award for Excellence and Accessibility in Jazz. 

Faddis remains committed to his work at Purchase College-SUNY (www.purchase.edu), where he became the first Artist-in-Residence in 1999.  Faddis continues to serve as Artist-in-Residence and Professor, and is, as of 2002, Director of Jazz Performance at the Conservatory of Music at Purchase College, where he teaches regularly each week during the school year.  In December 2002, Faddis premiered original compositions based on over sixty works by Romare Bearden at the Neuberger Museum of Art at Purchase College.  At Purchase College, Faddis has led the Purchase Jazz Endeavor, a student jazz ensemble, conducting the PJE in performances in New York, including benefits for High 5 Tickets to the Arts (www.high5tix.org) and by invitation at the International Association for Jazz Education’s annual conference in 2004.

In addition to his appointment at Purchase, Faddis – as Artistic Director of the Chicago Jazz Ensemble at Columbia College Chicago – also serves as Guest Lecturer in Columbia College’s Music Department (www.colum.edu and www.chijazz.com).

Faddis has served in an advisory capacity for the International Trumpet Guild (www.itg.org), Veritas’ Annual Friends of Charlie Parker Concerts (New York) (Faddis served as Music Director from ~1998 through 2006 at Veritas), the Jazz Foundation of America (New York) (www.jazzfoundation.org), the Mandela Crew (Boston, MA), the Jazz Institute of Chicago and Jazz Links (Chicago) (www.jazzinstitute.org), and the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation (New York), including its work with the Louis Armstrong Center for Music & Medicine at Beth Israel Hospital (New York) and the Louis Armstrong “Satchmo” Summer Jazz Camp (New Orleans).  Faddis served as Music Director for the opening ceremonies, in October 2003, of the Louis Armstrong House in Queens, NY (www.satchmo.net) and led a series of children’s concerts there in the spring of 2004, 2007 and 2009.  Faddis is also actively involved with the James Moody Scholarship (www.jamesmoodyscholarship.com), having served as its Music Director in 2005, 2007 and again for 2008.

Faddis’ vision of Jazz encompasses a healthy respect for the history of Jazz, yet also fully embraces and advances its tradition of innovation and change.  His vision is one that combines an intellectual playfulness and curiosity with the rigorous discipline necessary to create exceptional music; it is a vision honed particularly with Gillespie, exemplified especially by Faddis’ work at Carnegie Hall, and applied consistently in all that Faddis does. 

More about Jon Faddis’ big band work:

From 1991 and through the 2001-2002 season, Faddis conducted the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band at Carnegie Hall.  The Carnegie Hall Jazz Band has two CDs, Eastwood After Hours:  Live at Carnegie Hall (Malpaso Records/Warner Bros. Records 1997) and the self-titled Carnegie Hall Jazz Band (Blue Note/Capitol Records, Inc. 1996).  The CHJB’s concerts were broadcast on NPR’s JazzSet and acclaimed internationally; as Gary Giddins wrote in The Village Voice, “in a rare battle of the bands, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band shellacked the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra.”  As conductor and music director of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Faddis – in collaboration with series producer George Wein – brought and strengthened a multidimensional vision of Jazz. 

A longtime hallmark of Faddis’ work is the pairing of many of Jazz’s greatest elder statesmen with some of the best emerging talent in unique and unexpected ways; septo- and octogenarians play shoulder-to-shoulder with twenty-somethings and in some cases, teens; commissions are shared among many composers and musicians of various generations.  Indeed, in some 40-plus concerts at Carnegie Hall during ten years, the CHJB included 135 musicians and 70 guest artists; it premiered over 100 pieces by over 35 different arrangers and composers.  By any standard, the CHJB remains one of the most diverse Jazz bands in history, and it regularly brought Jazz to full houses at Carnegie Hall’s 2800-seat Isaac Stern auditorium and around the world.

On October 25, 2002, the CHJB played its final concert at Yale University.  Faddis – returning to the same concert hall where, 30 years earlier (and sometimes since), he performed with his mentors and colleagues (including Duke Ellington, Willie “the Lion” Smith, Paul Robeson, Marian Anderson, Art Blakey, Jo Jones, Max Roach, Milt Hinton, Charles Mingus, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, and others) – was awarded the Duke Ellington Medal.  Fortunately, many recognize the extraordinary accomplishments of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and the importance of continuing that work. 

Currently, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra of New York (JFJONY) (www.jonfaddis.com) continues the mission and the legacy of the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band.  Today, the Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra of New York shares that music, epitomizing and celebrating Jazz at its best.  The JFJONY debuted as the successor to the CHJB at a special private event at The National Arts Club in New York in June 2003, and in March 2004, the JFJONY performed for the first time under its new name for the public at the Performing Arts Center at Purchase College-SUNY. The JFJONY performed at Newport Jazz Festival’s 50th Anniversary in August 2004, headlined the NEA Jazz Masters concert at the 2006 International Association for Jazz Education conference, and has played Verizon Hall at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Princeton University, and other venues.  In October 2009, the JFJONY will be at New York’s Blue Note jazz club.

With the Chicago Jazz Ensemble, Faddis – as its Artistic Director – continues to bridge musical styles and communities.  The CJE, in residence at Columbia College Chicago since 1965 (www.chijazz.com), presented its Tenth Annual Jazz Heritage Series in 2008-2009.  Howard Reich of The Chicago Tribune enthuses, “chalk up an unalloyed triumph for the Chicago Jazz Ensemble and its new artistic director – they swing like crazy.”  The CJE celebrated its 40th anniversary season in 2005-2006 with some very special events directed by Faddis, and in recent seasons, Faddis has introduced new projects and programs for children and teens, especially the Louis Armstrong Legacy Program and Celebration, as well as audience conversations.

More about Jon Faddis:

“Jon Faddis has reached the very peak of jazz performance:  he seems to play everything he conceives exactly as he conceives it, the music going directly from soul to horn, with unbridled power and flawless technique.”
                        -- Neil Tesser, Vice-President, The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences

“the world's greatest trumpeter … the greatest trumpeter on the planet for decades … brash soloistic logic and breathtaking technical acuity”
                        -- Time Out New York

“a trumpet player of prodigious lyrical force”
                        -- Nat Hentoff, The Wall Street Journal

Faddis’ TERANGA is:

“Critic’s Choice” “four stars” “warm … original”
            -- The New York Times

“lush and visceral … enigmatic and thoughtful … sparkling and superb”
            -- All Music Guide

“four stars” “a breakthrough” “Faddis’ mastery of profound harmonic language and formidable dynamic range [is] gorgeous … conveys deeper emotions.”
            -- Down Beat

“magnificent … [Faddis’] sound is irresistible … lyrical … delightful … an excellent new album … from a virtuoso and deeply committed contributor to Jazz.”
            -- Jazz Improv

“absolutely brilliant” “a brilliant album that allows Faddis to be Faddis … hauntingly beautiful … hip … rollicking … exciting … vivid intenseness … subtle and smooth … diverse … unique and original … understated glory.”
            -- Jazzreview.com

“fun … enjoyable … infectious … astounding … straight-ahead bop … ballads … bossa nova … and blues … TERANGA demands repeat listening.”
            -- Jazz Times

“invigorating … intoxicating”
            -- Jazz Weekly

“Top CDs: originality, subtlety, fire and joy meet outstanding musicianship in TERANGA.”
            -- Upbeat! WBGO Jazz 88.3 FM