In this initial VJC Q&T podcast, host Russell Schmidt shares questions and tangents with jazz trumpeter, composer, educator Tito Carrillo (Associate Professor of Jazz Trumpet at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign). Their wide-ranging conversation delves into the relationship between performing and teaching, the importance of musical communication, the nature of creativity, and even the value of liner notes in this digital age.
"VJC Q&T podcast host Russell Schmidt (Director, Valley Jazz Cooperative) has known jazz trumpeter/composer/educator Tito Carrillo for more than twenty years and has had the privilege of sharing a bandstand with him periodically during that time. Tito is a leading musician on the Chicago jazz scene and an Associate Professor of Jazz Trumpet at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
In the midst of performing a series of concerts together in Arizona in mid-April 2019, Tito sat down with Russ to record the very first Questions and Tangents podcast. Their wide-ranging conversation delved into the relationship between performing and teaching, the importance of musical communication, the nature of creativity, and even the value of liner notes in this digital age.
Learn more about Tito Carrillo here:
https://music.illinois.edu/faculty/tito-carrillo
Listen to Tito Carrillo perform Thelonious Monk’s Rhythm-a-Ning here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5xNdzbFM5g
Purchase Tito Carrillo’s debut recording, Opening Statement, here:
http://originarts.com/recordings/recording.php?TitleID=82603
Learn more about some of the artists mentioned in the podcast here:
Clifford Brown – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clifford_Brown
Ryan Cohan – http://ryancohan.com/
Celia Cruz – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia_Cruz
Miles Davis – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Davis
Paquito D’Rivera – https://paquitodrivera.com/
Jon Faddis – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Faddis
Kenny Garrett – http://www.kennygarrett.com/
Adolph “Bud” Herseth – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolph_Herseth
Freddie Hubbard – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Hubbard
Wynton Marsalis – https://wyntonmarsalis.org/
Nicholas Payton – http://www.nicholaspayton.com/
Tito Puente – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tito_Puente
Claudio Roditi – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudio_Roditi
Woody Shaw – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Shaw
Willie Thomas – https://www.jazzeveryone.com/
Immanuel Wilkins – http://www.immanuelwilkins.com/music
Miguel Zenón – https://miguelzenon.com/
El Gran Combo – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pell%C3%ADn_Rodr%C3%ADguez#El_Gran_Combo
Purchase recordings by Russell Schmidt here:
https://www.amazon.com/Russell-Schmidt/e/B001LHCGMG/digital/ref=ntt_mp3_rdr?_encoding=UTF8&sn=d
Thanks for listening!
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Learn more about the Valley Jazz Cooperative here: valleyjazz.org
Listen to music by VJC Q&T host Russell Schmidt here: YouTube
Social Media:
Facebook - @ValleyJazzCooperative
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Pianist/composer/educator Russell Schmidt has performed with such celebrated artists as Carl Allen, Michael Brecker, Eddie Daniels, Joe Lovano, Gerry Mulligan, Lucas Pino, Arturo Sandoval, and Clark Terry. He has also served as a keyboard soloist with more than 30 professional orchestras, including performances with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center and the San Francisco Symphony. Among his recordings as a leader are Anachromysticism (2012), which highlights Russell’s wide-ranging efforts as a jazz composer, Jazz Triptych, Volume I – The Sacred (2018), a collection of hymns and spirituals reimagined in the jazz language, and his most recent recording, the companion album Jazz Triptych, Volume II – The Secular (2019).
After a distinguished career in academia, Russell joined Music Serving The Word in June 2014 as Coordinator of Education, founding MSW’s Valley Jazz Cooperative program in 2016. Previously, he served as Director of Jazz Studies at Bowling Green State University and the University of Utah. He also held faculty appointments at Northern Arizona University, the University of North Carolina–Asheville, and the Eastman School of Music, where he co-conducted the Eastman Studio Orchestra. A student of Rayburn Wright, Russell holds two degrees from Eastman.
The Questions & Tangents podcast is produced by Caleb Kilian for the Valley Jazz Cooperative, an outreach of MSW Ministries, a 501(c)(3) organization.