Talk About Jazz with Doug Hall Archive

#10 - Gabriel Jonas is a jazz guitarist from the city of Bordeaux, France. He is currently enrolled in the Berklee College of Music, as a double major in both Film & Media Scoring and Performance. Jonas has already played in some large venues in Boston including the House of Blues, and at MGM Fenway Hall as lead guitar player for the Singers Showcase Girl On Fire - The Music of Alicia Keys where he got to play alongside the Berklee Alumni and Alto Sax star Grace Kelly. As part of a Snarky Puppy Berklee ensemble, he has also been mentored by Marty Walsh (formerly a session guitarist player for Donna Summer, Supertramp, Christopher Cross, Randy Crawford amongst others). As a performance major at Berklee, he is actively a part of a variety of student bands playing on a weekly basis, sharing the stage at Berklee campus studios. He is in the process of composing his first selections of original music and continuing to perform live in and around the Boston area. 

#9 - Pavle Zvekic is a classically trained, Serbian jazz pianist and composer. Zvekic is a graduate of the Berklee College of Music in Boston with a bachelor's degree in music performance, and is now currently enrolled in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. In November of 2023 he released an album entitled Small Hours. He is also Managing Director of the Youth Jazz & Rock Festival in Serbia.

Guitarist Mike Mele graduated from Berklee College of Music in 1990 (Cum Laude). Mike is a prominent educator, and has taught guitar lessons through The Music Emporium in Lexington, Massachusetts for over twenty-five years. 

#7 - Jennifer Wharton is a low brass specialist based in New York City. Though getting her start classically, Jen has deep roots in jazz, commercial, chamber and Broadway music. Jennifer leads the trombone-forward ensemble, Bonegasm, commissioning works from jazz heavyweights and newcomers. She was awarded a 2020 grant by the NYC Womens Fund for Media, Music and Theater to continue to bring trombone music to the masses. The result was Bonegasms sophomore album, Not A Novelty (2021), a follow up to their debut Bonegasm (2019). Downbeat Magazine called the most recent album Trombone Ecstasy. 

#6 - Ana Petrova is a Kazakhstan-born, American jazz pianist/organist and a graduate of Berklee College of Music in professional music and performance, and holds a masters degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, and is now an assistant professor at Berklee. Ana has studied with and/or performed with Danilo Perez, Dave Liebman, Terri Lyne Carrington, John Patitucci, Joe Lovano, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Kurt Elling, Ben Street, and Adam Cruz. She has participated in international festivals such as Umbria Jazz Festival 2013 (Italy), Wave of Ideas 2015 (Bulgaria), Panama Jazz Festival 2020, 2021 (Panama), Berklee Beantown Jazz Festival 2018 (Boston, MA), Monterey Jazz Festival 2018 (Monterey, CA), Soular Jazz Festival 2021 (MA), and Arlington Jazz Festival 2022 (MA). In 2019 she was awarded with a DownBeat Student Music Award for the Best Graduate Arrangement. In 2021 received a grand-prix at the International Jazz Bridge Competition as a pianist, composer, and arranger, and became the finalist at Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition. In 2022 Petrova received a prestigious New Jazz Legacy Grant, which will let her perform alongside the renowned jazz saxophonist Chris Potter and get creative mentorship with Kris Davis. She is currently working on her debut album and is a principal pianist and organist for Champion: An Opera in Jazz written by Terence Blanchard as a part of Boston Lyric Opera.

#5 - In this episode, Doug Hall talks with Gabriela Martina - a Multi-genre vocalist, composer and educator. She holds a bachelor's degree from Berklee College of Music. 00:30:36 In addition, Gabriela has a master's degree from New England Conservatory, where she studied under Jason Moran, Miguel Zenon and Ken Schaphorst. Her current release is "Homage to Gramlis" and she has received numerous awards - both nationally and internationally including the LABgrant from Boston Foundation.

#4 - Doug Hall's guest is Veronica Leahy - who is a saxophonist, multi-woodwind player, and pianist. A recent graduate of the Harvard-Berklee College of Music dual degree program, she was specifically enrolled in the Jazz & Gender Justice Group . Veronica has performed & mentored under founder and director Terri Lyne Carrington,(Multi Grammy Award-winning drummer and educator). Veronica is now planning to establish her post-graduate performance career in New York City.

Interviews with jazz artists from Boston and beyond with jazz critic Doug Hall. Second episode features Laszlo Gardony, Hungarian born American Jazz pianist, and professor at Berklee College of Music In the Piano Dept since 1987. Lazslo won the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in 1987 and is the composer of 14 albums. He is also a soloist and has led a jazz trio - playing together for twenty years with bassist John Lockwood & drummer Yoron Israel, recently recording together again on his 2022 release "Close Connections" which is discussed in this interview. 

Episode 3 - Doug Hall talks with Phil Haynes. From Wikipedia: "A veteran artist based in New York for 25 years, Phil Haynes is featured on more than 85 LP, CD, and DVD releases by numerous American and European record labels." 

Episode #1 - Interviews with jazz artists from Boston and beyond with jazz critic Doug Hall. First episode features Belmont music teacher Ken Gable.