If you go
› What: Latin jazz concert in Performing Arts Series.› When: 7:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 21.› Where: Lee University’s Pangle Hall, 340 N. Church St., Cleveland, Tenn.› Admission: Free, but tickets are required due to limited seating.› Phone: 423-614-8343 (box office), 423-614-8240.› Email: music@leeuniversity.edu.› Note: Tickets are available 3-6 p.m. Monday-Friday in the Dixon Center box office, 1053 Church St. NE.
Five top jazz musicians frequently involved in each other's projects will show off their Latin Grammy credentials in the next concert in the Performing Arts Series at Lee University.
On Friday, Oct. 21, special guests Jim Walker, Bruno Miranda, Jesse Pitts and Giovanni Pérez will join Lee music professor Dr. José Valentino Ruiz for a concert in Pangle Hall. This is Ruiz's debut faculty performance at Lee. In addition to performing, he will serve as music director for the ensemble.
Walker and Ruiz (as José Valentino) have a new album out together, "We Are One: An Exploration of Latin American Music." The other three musicians also took on roles in its creation. Pitts contributed Latin and African percussion and drums and has a producing credit. Perez was one of the mixing engineers. Miranda was mastering engineer.
The 15 tracks on the album celebrate 20-plus cultures from around the world. Anchored by the technical demands of classical music, the album resonates with the rhythmic prowess of Afro-Latin American drumming, the improvisational spirit of jazz and tinges of Middle Eastern, Irish and Chinese musical phrasings.
Friday's program features selections from "We Are One"; music from artists including Alicia Keys, Bill Withers and Miles Davis; and the world premiere of Ruiz and Perez's "Cuban Cha Cha" by the Lee University Jazz Ensemble. Already this week, Miranda has presented a free lecture/performance. Today, Oct. 20, Walker and Pitts will present various workshops on campus and a seminar on improvisation for classical musicians and novel improvisers.
About the artists
* Jim Walker is one of the world's eminent classical and jazz flutists and often hailed as the "Renaissance Man of the Flute." He is the former principal flutist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic and has recorded music for more than 700 movie soundtracks, recorded on albums with Miles Davis and co-written pieces with film composer John Williams. He teaches at the University of Southern California and Colburn School and founded the critically acclaimed jazz/classical fusion quartet Free Flight.
* Bruno Miranda is an award-winning gospel and jazz pianist, composer, musical director and audio engineer. Within the past year, he has garnered a 2015 Latin Grammy nomination as an engineer for Ruiz's album, "I Make You Want To Move," and is in the running this year for his own "Mosaico" as Best Instrumental Album (awards will be presented next month). He holds a Master of Science in music technology and a Bachelor of Music in music productions and audio engineering from Berklee College of Music.
* Jesse Pitts began playing drums at age 2 and released his first album, "Genesis," at 15. Since then, he has won the Church of God International Teen Talent competition for the Indefinite Percussion category, earned 10 Downbeat Student Music Awards, was nominated for a 2015 Latin Grammy and is nominated alongside Miranda and Ruiz for a second Latin Grammy Award. He has three albums to his credit and is the founder of the Florida-based cover band Alacris.
* Giovanni Pérez is an acclaimed classical and Latin jazz flutist, producer and arranger who recently headlined alongside Walker and Ruiz at the National Flute Association. Pérez was the former principal flutist for the South Shore Symphony Orchestra and piccoloist for the Philharmonic of Puerto Rico. He has performed at numerous jazz and Latin music festivals and currently works as a national clinician for Trevor James Flutes. He serves at Stonybrook University in New York as a graduate teaching assistant while he pursues a Doctor of Musical Arts in classical and jazz performance.
* Jose Valentino Ruiz joined Lee's School of Music as an assistant professor of music business this fall. He has broad musical experience in areas of performance, production, education, clinician work and research. He is a two-time nominee for Latin Grammy Awards, the record holder of 42 International Downbeat Student Music Awards, three Church of God International Teen Talent Awards and an International Yamaha Young Performing Artist Award, among others. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood Jazz Festival, for ESPN and in a TED Talk. Ruiz holds a Doctor of Philosophy in music, a Doctorate of Ministry in global outreach and ethnodoxology, a Master of Music in instrumental performance and a Bachelor of Arts in music studies.