Home » Jazz Musicians » Jeff Campbell

Jeff Campbell

Jeff Campbell has carved out an impressive career as bass player of extraordinary artistry, fluent in both the jazz and classical idioms. As a jazz bassist, he maintains an active schedule performing with Marian McPartland, Gene Bertoncini, Rich Perry, Trio East, Harold Jones, and the Eastman Jazz Quartet featuring Harold Danko, and has appeared on McPartland's Piano Jazz program on National Public Radio. In high demand across the globe, Jeff has performed at such prestigious European musical events as the Nice, Montreux, North Sea, Riga, and Parnu Jazz Festivals and has also appeared in the former Soviet Union and the Baltic Republics. His first CD, West End Avenue, with John Hollenbeck and John Wojceichowski, features a combination of original compositions and jazz standards. Additionally, Jeff is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra bass section. His summers are occupied with the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County, Wisconsin, where he serves as program director, and the Eastman Summer Jazz Studies and Bass Day, of which he is co-director.

In addition to a busy performing schedule, Jeff maintains an active career as a jazz educator with a keen interest in bass playing of the past, present, and future. A full-time professor at Eastman since 1997, his teaching duties include jazz bass, jazz history, jazz theory and aural skills, and small group performance. He is a regular contributor to the Double Bassist magazine, and is the Jazz Editor of Bass World, the official publication of the International Society of Bassists. Jeff's book on the famous Duke Ellington-Jimmy Blanton duets (in preparation for publication) provides bassist with an opportunity to study the bass playing of the great Jimmy Blanton.

Jeff's music education began at an early age under the influence of his professional-musician parents. As a young musician, Jeff received much of his musical training working with local professional musicians in a myriad of musical styles and venues. Through these experiences, Jeff developed a healthy balance between the artistic and practical issues faced by today's professional musician. Jeff holds degrees in double bass performance and music education from Brigham Young University (BM) and the Eastman School of Music (MM, DMA). He has studied bass with John F. Clark, James VanDemark, Jeffrey Turner, and Robert Zimmerman, and jazz composition with Bill Dobbins and Fred Sturm.

Charles Pillow Ensemble: Chamber Jazz

Read "Chamber Jazz" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
April 29, 2020

Chamber Jazz, alto saxophonist Charles Pillow's eighth recording as leader of his ensemble, is a generally sedate but remarkably engaging series of tone poems that combine contemporary jazz with elements of classical music to produce a hybrid that underlines what is most harmonious and charming in each genre. Chamber Jazz is what it says, and chamber jazz is what it is. For comparison's sake, think of the ensemble as the Modern Jazz Quartet times five. True, there is no John ...

225

Album Review

Jeff Campbell Trio: A Declaration of Optimism

Read "A Declaration of Optimism" reviewed by Alexander M. Stern

by Alexander M. Stern
June 3, 2010

Bassist Jeff Campbell's A Declaration of Optimism is a beautiful album with a lot to say, and manages to say it all in a very quiet way.

Beginning with the title track, Campbell's piano-less trio, also featuring tenor saxophonist John Wojciechowski = 15550}}, and drummer John Hollenbeck, establishes an intimate connection between the three instrumental voices. Appropriately, Campbell's voice is dominant, setting the tone on each track. Wojciechowski's ebullient tenor saxophone occupies the foreground, but it's always clear that Campbell ...

252

Album Review

Jeff Campbell: A Declaration of Optimism

Read "A Declaration of Optimism" reviewed by Mark F. Turner

by Mark F. Turner
February 24, 2010

Bassist Jeff Campbell's A Declaration of Optimism's underlying theme of positivity is channeled into an engaging trio recording. An associate professor of jazz studies and contemporary media at the Eastman School of Music, Campbell divides his many duties between family, teaching, and performances with notables across the globe. When a good thing works, it's best to stick with it. Campbell reenlists two first callers and assured leaders--drummer John Hollenbeck and saxophonist John Wojciechowski, who both appeared on ...

479

Album Review

Jeff Campbell: West End Avenue

Read "West End Avenue" reviewed by Eric J. Iannelli

by Eric J. Iannelli
December 22, 2005

West End Avenue was recorded in March 2003, just a few months after bassist Jeff Campbell's session with Trio East that resulted in Stop-Start, and, like that slightly earlier session, it features no harmonic instrument. Only this time around trumpeter Clay Jenkins has been replaced by tenor saxophonist and clarinetist John Wojciechowski, and drummer Rich Thompson with John Hollenbeck. The disc contains a mix of original compositions and songs by Irving Berlin ("How Deep Is the Ocean"), ...