KELLEY O'NEAL - Often called the "Gerald Allbright of the alto sax," Kelley has played the saxophone for over twenty years and has toured and/or recorded with such artists as Be Be and Ce Ce Winans, Take Six, The Ojays and Brian McKnight, to name a few. He has appeared on The Tonight Show, The Arsenio Hall Show and The Essence Awards Show and also performed at the inauguration gala of President Bill Clinton. Now Kelley is ready to take a lead role with his solo release entitled "JUST IN TIME". In the late 1970s, Kelly played lead alto in the University of Alabama "Jazz Ensemble B" under Ray Reach's direction.
NED HOLDER - New York-based jazz trombonist. Member of the "Blues Brothers Band." In the late 1970s, Ned played lead trombone in the University of Alabama "Jazz Ensemble B" under Ray Reach's direction.
MARK LANTER - Drummer / percussionist. Mark played drums in Jazz Ensemble B at the University of Alabama, under the direction of Ray Reach. Masters degree in percussion. Adjunct professor at University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa), and Director of Jazz Ensembles for the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
BETH GOTTLIEB - Wife of drummer Danny Gottlieb. Played vibes in Ray Reach's Jazz Ensemble B at the University of Alabama. Masters degree in percussion. Professor of Percussion at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida.
PETER WOLF - Attended Ray's Jazz Improv class at the University of Montevallo in the late 1970's. Born in Vienna, Austria. Keyboardist with Frank Zappa and Sergio Mendes. Grammy Award winning session player and producer, living in the Los Angeles area. Also former student of Joe Zawinul.
COLEMAN WOODSON and TIM GEORGE of "Just A Few Cats" (Reuben Studdard's backup band) - Coleman and Tim were members of Ray Reach's Jazz Ensemble at UAB, Coleman on Lead Alto Sax and Tim on drums.
CHRIS GORDON - Chris played lead trumpet in Ray's Jazz Ensemble B at the University of Alabama. Now himself an educator, teaching for the Wallace State Community College system. Also a member of the Tuscaloosa Horns.
DAVE MILLER - Also played in Ray's Jazz Ensemble B at the University of Alabama. Leader of the group, Jazza-Nova.
STUDIO RECORDING AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE
In the late 1960s, Reach served as studio musician (guitar, piano and organ) at recording studios in Muscle Shoals, Alabama and Birmingham, Alabama, while playing in various pop and rock groups. His aspirations of becoming a rock star were soon discouraged by his contact with the crazy, drug-and-alcohol-driven life styles of many of the pop stars with whom he was working. "I made a conscious decision that this was not the way I wanted to live," said Ray. "Academia seemed like a much better choice." So he resolved to finish his academic degree work in music and teach.
Reach has taught music on the secondary and college levels in both the choral and instrumental fields. The colleges which he has attended for music degree work and further musical study include Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Montevallo, the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, and others. In addition, he has taught Jazz Improvisation, Jazz History, arranging and Computer Music courses at a number of colleges and universities, including the abovenamed institutions as well as Richland Community College (Dallas, Texas), Cedar Valley College (Dallas, Texas) and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1998 - 2005).
MUSICAL STUDY AND TRAINING
Reach began piano study at six years of age, studying with Giula Williams at E.E. Forbes and Sons Piano Company in Birmingham. At age 11, he began piano studies at the Birmingham Conservatory of Music, first under Carolyn Pfau, then with Hugh Thomas. At age 15, he began voice study with Andrew Gainey, veteran of the New York City Opera and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Touring Company, with whom he continued to study voice until Mr. Gainey's death. Among his many musical skills, Ray still refers to his singing as "... the best thing he does musically..."
Also beginning at age 15, Ray's interest in The Beatles, Chet Atkins, Andres Segovia, and other guitar icons, prompted him to take up guitar. On this instrument, he is largely self taught, relying on transcriptions of guitar solos which he did himself. "I also loved the great Bluegrass players," Reach says. "I never missed the Martha White Hour, which featured Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs."
Another landmark event in Reach's early years (age 15) was his participation in the Men's Chorus of the Birmingham Civic Opera's production of The Barber of Seville, under chorus director Joseph Schreiber. This experience helped to foster Reach's enduring love for opera and musical theatre. His love for drammatico-musical productions was fulfilled in later years when he was asked to be musical director for several productions at the Dallas Theatre Center, and more recently for Samford University, where he was musical director for productions of "Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat," "Into The Woods" (by Stephen Sondheim), and the southeastern premier of Stephen Schwartz's "Children of Eden."
Ray's love for choral music began at Dixie Junior High School in Birmingham (with Choral Director Tom Pinion) and later at Minor High School (under John Fowler). "Tom Pinion often played jazz piano for our classes. It was cool. And John Fowler was also a jazz lover." Ray heard his first recording of Miles Davis in John Fowler's classroom.
APPRENTICESHIP WITH STEVE SAMPLE
Form 1977 to 1980, Ray served as Graduate Assistant in the Jazz Program at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, under renowned jazz educator Steve Sample. In 1979, Ray was awarded the ASCAP Raymond Hubbell Musical Scolarship, which is awarded each year to only ten university jazz students nationwide.
OTHER STUFF
In 1983, while serving on the house music staff at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, Texas, Ray was fortunate to befriend the late Fred Crane, a world-class pianist who played for many years with Al Hirt. Early in 1984 Crane, a Dallas native, bumped into Reach in New Orleans, where he and Reach were both playing weekend gigs. Upon Fred's invitation, Ray was formally introduced to famed jazz pianist Ellis Marsalis. Reach's connection with Ellis had actually begun some years earlier, when he had played a club engagement in New Orleans (as guitarist) with a jazz organ trio. "I went out to one of the local hotels and heard 14 year-old Wynton Marsalis playing trumpet with his dad. Wow, I was blown away. Wynton, at 14, was already blowing standards better than most 40 year old trumpeters."
As a member of the house music staff at the Dallas Fairmont Hotel, Ray had the honor of sharing the stage with many greats of the Jazz world, including Joe Williams, Buddy Rich, Mel Torme and George Shearing, Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, guitarist Joe Pass, pianist Paul Smith and many others. Sadly, all of the Fairmont's show rooms have since been closed.
While living and working in Dallas, Texas, Ray gained an expert working knowledge of Computer Music applications and MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface). He was co-founder of the American MIDI Users Group (a pre-Internet computer music Bulletin Board System), and worked in development with Systems Design Associates, makers of the ProMIDI line of MIDI music software.
During his time as Director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Jazz Ensemble (1998 - 2005), Reach composed and arranged much of the music performed by the group. His catalog of jazz, classical and popular music arrangements numbers over a thousand pieces. He has written arrangements for many name musical acts, including Chaka Kahn and the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, jazz saxophonist Lou Marini, Count Basie Orchestra lead trumpeter Mike Williams and jazz trumpeter Lew Soloff.
In 1985, Reach toured Europe with The Dallas Symphony Chorus, under the direction of Ron Shirey. While in Europe, they played to standing room only audiences in Vienna, Leipzig, Paris, and other cities, performing traditional vocal and choral favorites by Mozart, Haydn and Bach, beloved compositions of great American composers such as Gershwin, Copland and Ives, as well as jazz arrangements (all written by Reach) of tunes by Gershwin, Ellington, Cole Porter, Thad Jones and others. Reach's accompaniment work behind Dallas singer Marilyn Walton was described by the Vienna press as being "...magnificent shining jewels of distinctly American jazz artistry, played with formidable technique and immense understanding of the idiom."
Ray has directed big bands and jazz combos and taught Music Technology courses at numerous schools, including Birmingham-Southern College, the University of Montevallo, the University of Alabama, Richland Community College (in Dallas, Texas) and Cedar Valley College (also in Dallas).
Ray Reach has been aggressively pursuing a career as a music producer for more than 20 years, helping to create recordings in many musical genre: Classical Instrumental, Classical Choral, Jazz Instrumental and Vocal, Country, Gospel, Rock, Pop and Contemporary Christian.
SOME RECENT RECORDINGS PRODUCED BY RAY REACH
"Christmastide" - a collection of Christmas and Advent choral arrangements and compositions by internationally-known composer/arranger K. Lee Scott.
"UAB SuperJazz, featuring pianist Ellis Marsalis" - Coproduced with UAB Music Professor Henry Panion. This CD is a live recording of a performance of Ellis (father of Wynton) with the SuperJazz Big Band at the Alys Stephens Center on the UAB campus.
"Lou's Blues - Lou Marini and the Magic City Jazz Orchestra" (See review on this website.) - a recording of original Jazz Orchestra (Big Band) arrangements and compositions by Lou Marini, Jr., top New York jazz woodwind player and recording studio musician. Marini, an alumnus of the famed One O'Clock Jazz Lab Band at The University of North Texas, has recorded and toured with countless name musical groups, including The Buddy Rich Big Band, The Woody Herman Orchestra, Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Steely Dan, The James Taylor Band, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and the list goes on and on. In addition, Lou was a charter member of the Saturday Night Live Band and appeared in both of the Blues Brothers movies. He continues today to tour frequently with the Blues Brothers.
"Lew Soloff - Live at Worplay" (www.workplay.com) - a recording of Big Band music, recorded in January, 2002, featuring world-famous jazz trumpeter Lew Soloff, a graduate of Eastman School of Music. A brilliant high-note trumpeter long in great demand for big bands and session work, Lew Soloff is also a distinctive soloist and an expert with the plunger mute. After studying at Juilliard and Eastman, he freelanced in New York with Maynard Ferguson, Joe Henderson and Clark Terry among others and then was a part of Blood, Sweat & Tears during 1968-73. Soloff was closely associated with Gil Evans from 1973 on, and also played with George Gruntz's Concert Jazz Band, the Manhattan Jazz Quintet and Carla Bley; he was also teamed with the colorful trombonist Ray Anderson on several often-humorous recordings.
THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK
Ray agrees with Tony Bennett and Dr. Billy Taylor, sharing with them the belief that jazz is "America's Classical Music." He believes that jazz, along with its staple repertoire, the so-called "Great American Songbook" of wonderful popular and jazz standards, must be preserved so as to endure into future generations.
PERSONAL PHILOSOPHY AND MISSION STATEMENT
Reach's personal musical philosophy espouses a firm belief that music is one of the most powerful forces in our universe, a "vehicle of empowerment (he calls it) which is manifest in the act of musical mentorship." He also believes that "there are only two types of music: good music and bad music. In the words of one of my heroes, the great Duke Ellington, "If it sounds good, it is good."
His Personal Mission Statement says "It is my goal to use the gift of music wisely, to uplift the human spirit and to impart to students the real world knowledge which is necessary to compete in today's highly-competitive, international music market."
In a recent interview on a local Birmingham, Alabama television show, Reach stated: "Many of our U.S. college and university music programs are not teaching the students what they need to know to compete in today's musical market. Certainly, a thorough knowledge of European Classical music is an absolute MUST for competent professional musicians, but today's player needs more to help assure his employability."
JAZZ EDUCATION AT THE ALABAMA JAZZ HALL OF FAME
Ray's newest challange is developing the educational offerings at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. He is in charge of assembling a faculty of jazz professionals and writing a Jazz curriculum to be used in the tuition-free "Saturday Jazz Classes." For more information about the "Saturday Jazz Classes," go to www.jazzhall.com.
In addition to the "Saturday Jazz Classes," Ray is in charge of the "Fun With Jazz" Educational Program, which originated through the auspices of the Alys Stephens Center for the Performing Arts, and is now offered by the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, supported by grants.
Ray Reach may be contacted at:
Phone: 205-960-6328 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 205-960-6328 end_of_the_skype_highlighting begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 205-960-6328 end_of_the_skype_highlighting / Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame Office: 205-254-2731 / Email: [email protected]
Awards
Raymond Hubble Music Scholarship
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