David Berkman, piano

A native of Cleveland, Ohio, David Berkman began playing piano in grade school, introduced to jazz by his father, an amateur jazz pianist. After studying at Berklee College of Music and the University of Michigan, where he received his Bachelor¹s in Music, Berkman returned to Cleveland to play in local bands and house bands for visiting musicians (including Sonny Stitt, Hank Crawford and Carter Jefferson.) He moved to New York in 1985, playing in bands led by Cecil McBee, Tom Harrell and others. Berkman worked regularly with the Vanguard Orchestra as well. Over the years, he has worked with many jazz notables, including Joe Lovano, Billy Drewes, Craig Handy, Dick Oatts, Scott Wendholt, Billy Hart, Eliot Zigmund (with whom he recorded the 1993 trio recording "Dark Street"), Dave Stryker, Ray Drummond, Dakota Staton and the Woody Herman Orchestra. He has arranged for, composed for and/or accompanied singers Jane Monheit, Rene Marie, Eden Atwood and Lisa Michel.

David Berkman has released 4 albums as a leader on the Palmetto Records label: in 1998, "Handmade" with Brian Blade, Tom Harrell, Ugonna Okegwo and Steve Wilson, in 2000, "Communication Theory," (the same personnel with Sam Newsome and Chris Cheek replacing Ton Harrell), in 2002, "Leaving Home" (the same personnel with Dick Oatts replacing Steve Wilson) and the forthcoming "Start Here, Finish There" with Dick Oatts, Ugonna Okegwo and Nasheet Waits. Berkman's first three recordings received much critical praise, including Critics Picks and top 10 lists in the New York Times, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Downbeat, the Village Voice and many other publications. He was a recipient of the 1st annual Doris Duke/Chamber Music America New Jazz Works: Creation and Presentation grant in 2000-2001. Berkman is also part of the visiting faculty and Director of Jazz Theory at the North Netherlands Conservatory in Groningen, Holland.

A New York City club circuit regular (where he¹s also known for his electric piano and organ playing), David Berkman is widely regarded to be one of the top-notch performers and composers of modern jazz, an exponent of the music¹s future direction.

Dick Oatts, saxophone

Oatts has also been featured as soloist with the Stockholm Jazz Orch., Danish Radio Big Band, Berlin RIAS Big Band, Rome Radio Big Band, Joe Haider All-star International Jazz Orch., and the UMO Big Band in Helsinki. He has accompanied vocalists like Joe Williams, Sara Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Nneena Freelon, Mel Torme, and Milton Nascimento. He has recorded solos for pop artists Luther Vandross, James Taylor, and Everything But The Girl. Oatts is now a SteepleChase recording artist and has 5 CDs released as a leader on that label (All Of Three, Simone's Dance, Standard Issue Vol. 1 and 2, and South Paw). He also has a new CD out on RED Records with bassist Dave Santoro entitled MERU. Dick has three CDs as leader on the DMP label with pianist and co-leader Garry Dial. For 25 years, Oatts has appeared at college jazz festivals as soloist and clinician throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia, South America, and the Mideast. He has taught at New York University and since 1989 has been on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music. Oatts has composed and recorded over 100 of his own jazz compositions as well as a classical woodwind quintet (debuting this spring in Seville, Spain).

Nasheet¹s college education began at Morehouse in Atlanta, GA, where he majored in Psychology and History. Deciding that music would be his main focus, he continued his college studies in New York at Long Island University, where he graduated with honors, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in Music. While attending Long Island University, Waits studied privately with renowned percussionist, Michael Carvin. Carvin¹s tutelage provided a vast foundation upon which Waits added influences from his father, as well as mentor Max Roach. It was Max that first gave Nasheet¹s formidable talent international spotlight, hiring him as a member of the famed percussion ensemble M¹BOOM. One highlight of Nasheet¹s tenure with M¹BOOM was the live concert performance of M¹BOOM with special guests Tony Williams and Ginger Baker.

Nasheet¹s talent came to the attention of reedman Antonio Hart, who asked Waits to originate the percussion chair of his first quintet. Waits remained a standing member of Antonio¹s various ensembles, recording three albums and touring nationally and internationally in noted jazz venues, jazz festivals, and live television and radio performances. Nasheet remained a member of Antonio¹s group through 1998, and still performs and records with him occasionally

Most recently Nasheet has been a member of Andrew Hill¹s various bands, Jason Moran¹s Bandwagon, and Fred Hersch¹s trio. As an originating member of pianist Jason Moran¹s Bandwagon, Jason, bassist Tarus Mateen, and Nasheet have been deemed, " the most exciting rhythm section in jazz" by JazzTimes, The 2001 recording "Black Stars" with the Band wagon, featuring Sam Rivers was named the "Best CD of 2001" in (Jazz Times, Jan 2002) and "The New York Times". In addition he is receiving accolades as the drummer for Nasheet¹s recording and performing discography is a veritable who¹s who in Jazz, boasting stints with jazz notables Geri Allen, Mario Bauza, Hamiett Bluiett, Jane Bunnett, Abraham Burton, Jaki Byard, Ron Carter, Marc Cary, Steve Coleman, Stanley Cowell, Orrin Evans, Stefon Harris, Andrew Hill, Bill Lee, Joe Lovano, Jackie McLean, Mingus Orchestra, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Greg Osby, Joshua Redman, Vanessa Rubin, Antoine Roney, Wallace Roney, Shirley Scott, Jacky Terrason, and Mark Turner. Waits has recorded and toured extensively in Africa, Europe, Japan, Canada, South America and the United States. A selected list of venues includes the JVC Jazz Festival, Alice Tulley Hall at Lincoln Center, Montreal Jazz Festival, The North Sea, du Maurier Festival, The Village Vanguard, The Blue Note in New York, The New Morning in Paris France, Yoshi¹s in San Francisco, and Ronnie Scott¹s in London.

Amidst his performing, recording and touring activity, Nasheet teaches private lessons to youth and adults, stressing a personal approach to the drums and music. He has been heralded for his musicality and creativity by such virtuosos as Max Roach, Andrew Hill, Stanley Cowell and Hamiett Bluiett. True to his personal philosophy of the necessity to balance Tradition and Modernism, Waits collaborates and performs regularly with musical cohorts and contemporaries. Nasheet Waits is dedicated to exploring his role and creative path in music.

Born March 15, 1962 in London to a German mother and Nigerian father, Okegwo was raised in Germany, where he grew up listening to African American music - James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and, eventually, the great Charles Mingus. "What I always heard first in funk and rock ‘n roll were the bass lines, the ostinato, and later, in jazz, the walking bass lines," he recalls. "That's what first got me playing bass. That‘s what I was trying to develop." In 1986, on the recommendation of friends, he went to Berlin in order to study with American expatriate bassist Jay Oliver, who had played with, among others, Sam Rivers and Henry Threadgill. In Berlin, Okegwo also studied extensively with American pianist Walter Norris.

Okegwo played three years on the Berlin club scene as a sideman and a leader, catching the attention of Dizzy Reece, with whom he gigged in local clubs, and Charles Tolliver, who hired the young player to perform and record with him in 1988. During that same year, trombonist and Mingus alum Lou Blackburn invited Okegwo to tour Germany and Europe with Blackburn’s Afro-Jazz group Mombasa. While working with Blackburn in a duo on a Mediterranean tour, Okegwo met Joe Newman and Oliver Jackson, as well as Major Holley, who encouraged him to move to New York and offered to help him once he got there.

Settling in Manhattan in 1989, Okegwo immediately began playing with older musicians, among them Big Nick Nicholas, Junior Cook, and James Spaulding. Surprised by the focus of a lot of younger musicians in New York who were "mostly trying to recreate hard bop" at the time, Okegwo concentrated on developing his own voice. "I like that music, too," Okegwo explains. "It plays a very important role in the history of jazz and in the development of the music. I like playing it and I learn from it, but I wanted to get into a situation where I could also play music that was more personal, more a creation than a recreation." In 1992, a call from vocalist Jon Hendricks led to steady work as a sideman on stage and in recording studios. Soon he was also performing with some of the so-called "young lions." In the meantime, Okegwo’s unique vision, swing, and integrity attracted two other gifted young musicians, pianist Jacky Terrasson and drummer Leon Parker, who were both trying to develop their own fresh approaches. In tightly knit combinations ranging from trios to quintets, Okegwo’s collaboration with these two artists has earned him a reputation for taking risks while maintaining an exquisite lyricism and powerful rhythmic drive.

"I try to keep the role of the bass player as being the frame and balance of a musical group and situation, and at the same time try to make it more versatile by working with rhythm, harmony, and melody. I guess my playing is more about an approach than any particular technical thing. It’s up to each individual to be open to each situation he or she is in and then to bring his or her own personality into it. It's a never-ending process: you try to find and develop what you are musically and then you try to do it well."

Airmen of Note

On September 28, 2000 , the Airmen of Note celebrated 50 years of service to the Air Force and to the music-loving public. Over the past half-century the “Note” has made literally thousands of appearances all over the world. They served the Air Force, performing for everyone from airmen stationed at remote airfields to the Commander-in-Chief at the White House. The public has also had many opportunities to hear one of the world’s finest big bands, in concert, on the radio and on television.

Surprisingly, very little has been written about the Airmen of Note over the years. There are several reasons for this. In the early part of the band’s existence, it operated almost entirely within the military sphere. At that time, the few civilian big band enthusiasts who knew of its existence referred to the Airmen of Note as “one of the Air Force’s best kept military secrets.” Even since the band began appearing more frequently in public, the unavailability of commercial recordings has made it difficult for big band fans to sustain an interest in the band. After fifty years of faithfully serving up outstanding music, it is time that some of the facts about the Airmen of Note’s long and distinguished history are made known.

For convenience, the history has been divided into periods corresponding to the tours of the band’s twelve leaders. Each of these leaders has played an important role in the development of the Airmen of Note; however, the history of the Airmen of Note is much more than a history of the leaders and how they shaped the band.

One of the unique characteristics of the Airmen of Note is that the character of the band has been influenced as much by the musicians and arrangers as by the leaders. This is due in part to the high caliber of the men and women that have served on the band over the years, and in part to the continuity of personnel. So even though the different periods of the band’s history are identified by the names of the leaders, the history of the Airmen of Note during each of these periods is really a history of all of the men and women who have served on the band. For more information about the Airmen of Note, see their web site: http://www.airmenofnote.com/index.htm