Press Release
Look for the release of vibraphonist James Westfall's Independent, his debut record. The musicians featured on this recording were hand picked by Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, and Ron Carter, creating the 2004-2005 Thelonious Mo [+]Press Release
Look for the release of vibraphonist James Westfall's Independent, his debut record. The musicians featured on this recording were hand picked by Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, and Ron Carter, creating the 2004-2005 Thelonious Monk Institute. This group toured and performed with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Dianne Reeves, Kenny Garrett, Clark Terry, Kenny Barron, and Jimmy Heath. They studied as a group under Terence Blanchard, Jack DeJohnette, Horace Silver, and Charlie Haden, to name a few. Through the enriching experience of working, studying, living together in downtown Los Angeles, performing, and touring, they developed an eclectic group sound. Vibraphonist James Westfall gathered his fellow Thelonious Monk Institute musicians, Baltimore's own trumpeter and rapper Dontae Winslow , Israeli saxophonist Gilad Ronen , Hungarian pianist Tzumo Arpad Olah , Houston bassist Alan Hampton , and New Orleans native James Alsanders on drums, to document this once in a lifetime band recording original compositions by James Westfall.
Biography
Born in Houston, Texas, James Westfall began his musical journey taking up the violin at age 6. At 14 and after several years studying classical piano and percussion, his grandfather restored an old vibraphone as a present to his grandson. It was then that he began to embark a lifelong goal of making music. While attending a specialized fine arts high school in Houston, he was able perform for such great artists as Dr. Billy Taylor and Wynton Marsalis . In addition to his jazz performances, he also experienced performing in other genres of music with artists such as Shania Twain and the Houston Symphony . Westfall soon became the recipient of numerous composition and performance scholarship awards from around the country, and decided to further his career in the birthplace of jazz music, New Orleans, accepting a full scholarship to the University of New Orleans.
Since his arrival to the Big Easy, Westfall studied under jazz great Terence Blanchard . Soon after, he was called to play with New Orleans finest artists such as Ellis Marsalis and Harold Battiste along side with many others. Within a few years he had performed in all the hot clubs and jazz festivals in the Ne
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