Jazz musicians who double or triple educators, presenters and support-group organizers. Festival producers from Tucson to Northhampton, from the San Diego-Tijuana Borderland to Guelph, Ontario. The writer and scholar who founded Jazz Appreciation Month, the Jazz Foundation of America’s Executive Director, and the woman whose persistence has paid off in greater opportunities and visibility for other women as players and stars.
- Bobby Bradford, Los Angeles brassman who at age 90 continues to perform and lecture despite losing his home in the Altadina fires;
- Julián Plascencia, co-founder of the San Diego-Tijuana International Jazz Festival;
- John Edward Hasse, biographer of Duke Ellington, Wall Street Journal contributor, and Emeritus Curator of Music at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., where 30 years ago he initiated April across the globe as Jazz Appreciation Month;
- Joe Petrucelli of the Jazz Foundation of America, who’s partnered with the Mellon Foundation on the new Jazz Legacy Fellowships for lifetime achievements;
- Ellen Seeling, now based in the Bay Area, whose steadfast playing -- she broke the Latin Jazz gender biases -- and advocacy for women won establishment of blind auditions for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, and ever more recognition that women can and do play jazz -- well!
Others are:
- Sheila Anderson, the Hang Queen of WBGO-FM
- Ruth Griggs, Northhampton Jazz Festival
- Ajay Heble, International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation
- Khris Dodge, Tucson Jazz Festival
- Ralph Armstrong, Detroit-boosting bassist
- Wes Lowe, beloved West Palm Beach jazz teacher)
Percussionist and educator David Rivera is one of the musicians with the most experience and music knowledge in Puerto Rico. He studied at the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico and Universidad Interamericana and has worked with the best musicians and ensembles here, including José Negroni, Batacumbele, Vicentico Valdés, Sinfónica de Puerto Rico, Orquesta Arturo Somohano, the Mandy Vizoso, Pedro Rivera Toledo, Cuco Peña, Panamericana Orchestra, University of Miami, Cesar Concepción, William Cepeda, Luís Espindola and Jesús Caunedo, among the jazziest of them. He’s performed at the Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Fest, with Tropical People in 1991 and 1994, and with Denis Mario y Kobana Negra in 2009.
But even with his vast experience as a professional musician, Rivera is more than anything a consummate and highly dedicated educator. Since the 1980s, he’s taught at the Music Conservatory of Puerto Rico, Universidad Interamericana, Universidad de Puerto Rico and Escuela Libre de Música Ernesto Ramos Antonini, San Juan.
The successes of many of his students as music professionals testify to his effectiveness. Since 2015, Rivera has directed the Escuela Libre students’ ELMERA Jazz Ensemble. There was no jazz education program when he started there, but at the 2021 National Jazz Festival Competition, Philadelphia ELMERA received first place standing as a group, and was recognized for three Outstanding Musicians: Yomar Ramirez, percussion and vibraphone; Sofia Ramos, bass, and Fabiola Muñoz, cuatro.
That was Fabiola’s third win as Outstanding musician — she is now playing in Oscar Hernández’s Spanish Harlem Orchestra. And in 2021 Rivera himself was honored as Teacher of the Year.
No one in recent memory has done more for jazz education in Puerto Rico. Currently at the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras, Jazz Hero David Rivera is still educating the next generation jazz masters.
— Wilbert Sostre
author of Boricua Jazz, radio host at Jazzeando & Puerto Rico Jazz
