Pacific Jazz Festival
Saturday I March 4, 2023 I 7:30 pm
Faye Spanos Concert Hall
Pacific Jazz Ambassadors
Gianna Pedregon, violin
Marwan Ghonima, bass
Samson Hulett, drums
Melissa Aldana Quartet
Melissa Aldana, tenor saxophone
Gadi Lehavi, piano
Pablo Menares, bass
Kush Abadey, drums
I Have a Dream (1968–69)
’Round Midnight (1943)
Herbie Hancock (b. 1940)
Thelonious Monk (1917–1982)
Delfeayo’s Dilemma (1985)
Pacific Jazz Ambassadors
Gianna Pedregon, violin
Marwan Ghonima, bass
Samson Hulett, drums
Selections to be announced from the stage
Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961)
Melissa Aldana Quartet
Melissa Aldana, tenor saxophone
Gadi Lehavi, piano
Pablo Menares, bass
Kush Abadey, drums
Born in Santiago, Chile, Melissa Aldana grew up in a musical family. Both her father and grandfather were saxophonists, and she took up the instrument at age six under her father Marcos’s tutelage. Aldana began on alto, influenced by artists such as Charlie Parker and Cannonball Adderley, but switched to tenor upon first hearing the music of Sonny Rollins, who would become a hero and mentor. She performed in Santiago jazz clubs in her early teens and was invited by pianist Danilo Pérez to play at the Panama Jazz Festival in 2005.
Aldana moved to the United States to attend the Berklee College of Music, and the year after graduation she released her first album, Free Fall, on Greg Osby’s Inner Circle label in 2010, followed by Second Cycle in 2012. In 2013, at twenty-four, she became the first female instrumentalist and the first South American musician to win the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Saxophone Competition, in which her father had been a semifinalist in 1991. After her win, she released her third album, Melissa Aldana & Crash Trio (Concord). Her additional releases include Back Home (2016) and Visions (2019).
Aldana is also in demand as a clinician and educator. She has recently been appointed to the faculty of the New England Conservatory’s Jazz Studies Department.
PACIFIC JAZZ FESTIVAL CODIRECTORS
Patrick Langham is an experienced educator and performer with a twenty-year career at the University of the Pacific. As professor and director of jazz studies, Langham has developed Pacific’s jazz studies degree programs from scratch. Langham is a cofounder of the Take Five Jazz Club in Stockton, and he regularly performs at the club and throughout the region. During his time at Pacific, Langham has traveled to Spain as a guest jazz conductor, overseen student performances in Paraguay, and directed groups at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Reno Jazz Festival, and Dizzy’s Club at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City. In 2023 Langham will direct the Pacific Jazz Ambassadors at two international jazz festival performances including Jazz in Marciac (France) and Jazzaldia (San Sebastian, Spain).
In 2017 Langham was awarded the California Music Educators Association Jazz Educator Award honoring excellence in jazz education and performance,
and he is the past president of the California Alliance for Jazz. The University of the Pacific honored him with the Champion of Diversity Award in 2018. Langham holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, both with a concentration in jazz studies, from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. As a saxophonist, he has performed with many distinguished jazz artists including Lewis Nash, Bob Hurst, Donald Brown, Tom Harrell, Essiet Essiet, Terell Stafford, and Louis Hayes.
Joe Mazzaferro is the associate director of jazz studies and associate professor of practice in jazz at the University of the Pacific. Prior to joining the Conservatory of Music faculty, Mazzaferro served as the coordinator of jazz studies at California State University, Stanislaus, and held teaching positions at Sacramento State and San JoaquinDelta College. His formal studies include a Bachelor of Music degree in music education from the University of the Pacific and a Master of Music degree in jazz and studio music from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
As a trumpeter, educator, composer, and arranger, Mazzaferro is active in the Northern California jazz scene and in demand as a guest artist and clinician across the United States. In November 2017 Mazzaferro released his debut album In Terms of . . . (Joe Mazz Music), which peaked at No. 43 on the JazzWeek Charts and received high praise from jazz critics. Mazzaferro has made big-band arrangements for SF Jazz Collective pianist Edward Simon, drummer Carl Allen, trumpeter Terell Stafford, and vocalist Jazzmeia Horn. In 2019 he contributed arrangements to the Smoke Session Record’s release Bird at 100, commemorating the centennial birth of Charlie Parker and featuring alto saxophonists Vincent Herring, Bobby Watson, and Gary Bartz. Mazzaferro’s July 2020 big-band release Talk About It! Live at the Clara features his arrangements and compositions exclusively.
Joe has had the opportunity to perform with many jazz greats, including Dave Brubeck, Christian McBride, Stefon Harris, Eddie Gomez, Donny McCaslin, Donald Brown, Wycliffe Gordon, Jeff Clayton, Ingrid Jensen, Lewis Nash, Montez Coleman, and Jim Snidero. He had the privilege of performing the Miles Davis masterpiece Birth of the Cool with Gunther Schuller at the 2013 Brubeck Festival and was a part of the series Remembering James Williams and Mulgrew Miller with pianist Donald Brown’s Quartet at the 58th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival. Joe also performs regularly at Take 5 Jazz Club in Stockton, is the musical director and cofounder of the Sacramento Jazz Orchestra, and is a member of the Capital Jazz Project.
