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Sharel Cassity

Saxophonist, Woodwindist, Composer & Educator Sharel Cassity (pron. Shah-Relle) is a musician on the New York, Chicago, and international jazz scenes. Listed as “Rising Star Alto Saxophone” in Downbeat Magazine for the past 11 consecutive years, Sharel has appeared on the Today Show, earned her MA from The Juilliard School under full scholarship, won the 2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award & has been inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. Cassity has shared the stage with jazz luminaries including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis & the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; as well as mainstream artists Aretha Franklin, Natalie Merchant, Vanessa Williams & Trisha Yearwood. She has released five albums as a bandleader and appeared on over 30 as a sideman, toured 24 countries and performed at leading venues like the Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival & the North Sea Jazz Festival. Relocated to the Chicago area with her husband and son, Cassity is currently a professor of saxophone and piano at Elgin Community College in Elgin, IL; Columbia College and DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Sharel is a proud Vandoren Performing Artist.

Awards

2010-2020 Rising Star Alto Saxophone—Downbeat Critics Poll
2012 Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, Legacy Tribute Award
2008 Ravinia Steans Institute Residency
2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer's Award
2007 Downbeat Student Music Award, Composition
2007 Downbeat Student Music Award, Jazz Combo
2006 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency
2006 IAJE Sisters in Jazz

Gear

Sharel is a Vandoren performing artist and plays Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures exclusively.

Precarious Towers: Ten Stories

Read "Ten Stories" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 28, 2023

Precarious Towers is a Midwestern-based quintet whose second recording, Ten Stories, is as bare-bones an album as one could imagine: a plain CD (without name or artwork) resting in a pale-blue jacket (no tray or protective sleeve) that includes a list of songs, composers and personnel plus recording details. That's it. From a reviewer's point of view, however, such cosmetic details are irrelevant, as the only component that matters is the music itself. Judged solely on that ...

Liner Notes

Joe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

by John Kelman
April 27, 2023

It's one thing to have an established `place in the jazz pantheon, another to continue redefining that position, long after others might be content to rest on their laurels. Joe Chambers' work behind the drum kit with artists including Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and McCoy Tyner has already ensured a prominent place in jazz history. His output as a leader may be small, but he's delivered two outstanding Savant recordings in 2006's The Outlaw ...

Album Review

Johannes Wallmann: Precarious Towers

Read "Precarious Towers" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 24, 2022

Pianist Johannes Wallman set himself up with a hard act to follow when he released 2021's Elegy For an Undiscovered Species (Shifting Paradigm) an ambitious set of the leader's distinctive compositions played by an all-star quintet and string orchestra. It is a jazz with strings that leans to a spirited jazz side--cerebral and approachable at the same time. Precarious Towers, Wallmann's 2022 offering, finds the pianist bringing in a different quintet, one which proves itself as adept as ...

Album Review

Michael Dease: Give It All You Got

Read "Give It All You Got" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
March 20, 2021

Jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell once discussed his views on playing music by making a point that, “you are unique, be yourself, put out that thing that is you, then use your work ethic and produce great music." Trombonist Michael Dease embodies the spirit of Burrell's statement. Dease is a dedicated musician who is rapidly making a name for himself as both a recording artist and an educator. He won the Downbeat Critics Poll for rising star trombonist along with winning ...

Album Review

Sharel Cassity: Fearless

Read "Fearless" reviewed by Edward Blanco

by Edward Blanco
August 19, 2020

Offering her fifth album as leader, saxophonist Sharel Cassity unveils an aptly titled collection of originals and a couple of standards in an album of special significance and meaning in her life, as she confronted a personal health issue that threatened to silence her musical voice forever. This project is not only about producing a delicious bebop sound one will not soon forget but, it is also a testament to her faith and courage in confronting an illness she refused ...

Book Review

Freedom of Expression: Interviews with Women in Jazz by Chris Becker

by C. Michael Bailey
March 21, 2016

Freedom of Expression: Interviews with Women in Jazz Chris Becker 332 Pages ISBN: # 978-0692543603 Beckeresque 2015 Houstonian writer and composer Chris Becker had a labor of love in mind when he set out to assemble his Freedom of Expression: Interviews with Women in Jazz. What may have begun as a collection of interviews, morphed into a tautly-rendered history of jazz against a backdrop of America's decaying history of racism and sexism. What ...

Album Review

Sharel Cassity: Manhattan Romance

Read "Manhattan Romance" reviewed by Tom Pierce

by Tom Pierce
December 10, 2014

Since she relocated to New York City in 1999, the steadily building career of this Oklahoma native includes a Bachelor's from the New School and a Master's at Juilliard. Sharel Cassity studied under a number of renowned saxophonists and recorded two CDs. The second, Relentless (Jazz Legacy, 2009), received a 4-star review in Downbeat, whose Critics Poll has consistently cited her as a Rising Star on alto sax. Her career includes performances as a leader at well-known venues, as well ...

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Recording

Sharel Cassity - Relentless (Jazz Legacy Productions)

Source: Master of a Small House
March 7, 2010

Despite the global proliferation of jazz, New York City remains the foremost proving ground for the music's practitioners. Making it in the Apple still ostensibly means making it on the world stage. Classically trained, with diplomas from both the New School and Julliard, saxophonist Sharel Cassity's credentials are not uncommon to the caliber of player competing for gigs. Cassity's made the most of her residency by networking with a wide swathe of her peers. She convenes a cadre of their ...
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"[Cassity] plays alto and soprano with a seriously soulful tone that’s impressive enough to stop a roomful of seasoned jazz fans in their tracks" —Ken Micallef, Downbeat Magazine

"With any luck, Evolve will establish her [Sharel] as a household name among jazz audiences." — Michael J. West, Jazz Times

“Sharel Cassity has the potential to be one of the leaders of this genreʼs next  generation” —J. Hunter, All About Jazz

Sharel Cassity is another no-nonsense lady of the horn...her solos have an insurgent quality..and her deep blue alto wanes with melancholy”—Eric Fine, Downbeat Magazine