2010 AFA Faculty - Jazz Click on each name for a biography
Big Band and Saxophone - Warren Sneed
Trumpet - Dennis Dotson
Trombone - Thomas Hulten
Bass - David Craig
Piano - Pamela York
Drums - Sebastian Whittaker
Guitar - Paul ChesterPaul Chester is a versitile guitarist who can be seen playing New Orleans Jazz at Brennan's, R&B with Yvonne Washington, or Rock with the Shapeshifters. His solo stylings are thoughtful and energetic.
David Craig is one of the most in demand bassists in the Houston jazz scene. He has performed with many great jazz artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Brecker, Herb Ellis, Kenny Werner, and Conrad Herwig. In addition, he has performed with the Houston Symphony Pops Orchestra, and Theatre Under the Stars. His solo recording, "The Last Concert", features many of his own compositions. One of his originals was featured on the television series , "Melrose Place".
Dennis Dotson
Trumpet
Dennis Dotson has been a professional trumpeter for forty years, having played in the house bands in Las Vegas and free-lanced in New York City and Houston, Texas, where he now lives. He was trumpet soloist in the Woody Herman and Buddy Rich big bands and as a small group player has performed alongside Joe Lovano, Joe Henderson, Marvin Stamm and David Liebman, among others, and has performed in big bands with such as Carl Fontana, Bobby Shew, Tom Harrell, and Kenny Wheeler. He is on the faculty at Houston Community College, where he teaches private lessons in trumpet and improvisation and is jazz trumpet instructor at the University of Houston and at the University of Texas at Austin. He has led several All-Region high school jazz bands and has been a guest soloist/adjudicator/clinician at over forty high schools and colleges. He is very active as a trumpet player in jazz and commercial circles throughout the state of Texas, has performed with the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and has been a sideman on numerous jazz recordings.Trombonist/composer/arranger Thomas Hulten started playing trombone in the local Salvation Army Band in Katrineholm, Sweden. He studied trombone at the Gothenburg Conservatory, and has studied with Ingemar Roos, Christian Lindberg, Bill Broughton and Bill Watrous.Proficient in both jazz and classical music, Thomas has performed not only with the Houston Symphony and the Houston Ballet, but also with Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Johnny Mathis, the Temptations, the Four Tops, the Jim Cullum Jazz Band and the Moody Blues. He was a featured soloist at the Texas Jazz Festival in Corpus Christi in 1998 and 2000.
Before moving to Houston from Sweden in 1997, Thomas was a member of the Hässlö Brass Ensemble 1990-1997, a seven-piece full-time brass ensemble. He was also a sought-after free-lance player, and have performed with the Gothenburg Symphony, the Gothenburg Opera, the Helsingborg Symphony, the Norrköping Symphony, Stavanger (Norway) Symphony and Trondheim (Norway) Symphony.
Thomas has toured England, Wales, Denmark and Japan with the Gothenburg Brass Band; Germany, Holland and USA with the Peoria Jazz Band and Norway and USA with the Hässlö Brass. In 1997, Thomas toured Australia and New Zealand and in 1999 Switzerland, playing lead-trombone with the jazz-group Spiritual to the Bone. His works have been recorded by the Hässlö Brass, Peoria Jazz Band and the Texas Brass Ensemble. In 1995 he was commissioned to write a children's show for the Landsdelsmusikken in Bo, Norway. This show has been performed over 200 time since1996.
His arrangements for brass band have been published by the Salvation Army.
Thomas is married to Kristina, a micro-biologist at Baylor College of Medicine. Spare-time goes to chasing their sons Jakob, David and Philip around the backyard, and trying to revive a junky old MGB.Trombone player/composer/arranger. Played with Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Barry Manilow, Moody Blues, Four Tops, Temptations, Bob Mintzer, Bill Watrous, Houston Symphony, Houston Ballet, Houston Grand Opera. Featured at the Texas Jazz Festival and the International Trombone Festival. Broadway musicals: The Full Monty, The Producers, 42nd Street Member: Spiritual to the Bone, Paragon Brass, Texas Brass Ensemble Teaching: Houston Baptist University, Houston Community College, and Tomball College.
Warren Sneed is the Director of Jazz Studies at Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Sneed has a Master’s degree in Applied Music from the University of Houston, and a Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Education from the University of North Texas. He is also an HSPVA graduate.
Prior to teaching at HSPVA, Sneed directed various jazz bands and taught improvisation and jazz history at the University of Houston and at Houston Community College’s Westchester Campus.
Sneed is very active in the Houston jazz scene and has performed at most of the top jazz venues in Texas.
Some of the artists he has performed with include: Louis Hayes, Freddie Hubbard, Doc Cheatum, Kenny Wheeler, Carl Fontana, Jimmy Haslip, Helen Sung, Kent Jordan, Rosemary Clooney, Hal Crook, and Joe LoCascio.
Recording credits include: The Late Show, Warren Sneed/Joe LoCascio, Pathway Music, 2004; In the Mood, Champion Sisters, Capstone, 2004; Window of Light, Dave Catney, Urbana Records, 2000; Brothers, Warren Sneed, Pathway Music, 1999; Fly By Night, John Adams, Congruent Music, 1999; Tomato Kiss, Kellye Gray, Proteus Records, 1996; Gliders, Joe LoCascio, CMG Records, 1987; Texas State of Mind, Pete Peterson and the Collection, Pausa Records, 1980.Sebastian Whittaker, Houston's critically acclaimed drummer extraordinaire, is showing us the rich tradition of fiery jazz drumming and high caliber jazz composition with his band the Creators. The study of the jazz forefathers has been a lifelong pursuit for Sebastian. Born 1966 in Houston, Texas and blinded at the age of one by retinal cancer, "Bash" began playing drums at age three.
After attending Houston's High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), he continued his musical studies at the University of Texas and at William Patterson College in New Jersey. Besides drums, Whittaker made it a point to acquire a working knowledge of piano and to pursue his interest in composing.
Mr. Whittaker has performed with many jazz greats including the late great Joe Henderson, and the astounding Freddie Hubbard as well as opening performances for the late great Tony Williams, Roy Haynes, and Wynton Marsalis. His band continually performs in top concert halls and night clubs as well as implementing a strong master class and jazz education component.
"The biggest idea we're trying to lay on people's minds," says drummer Sebastian Whittaker, "is that you don't need to become a non-conformist to have new and fresh music, because so much roadwork has been laid by the forefathers. We've only begun to scratch the surface and understand where people like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane have already taken the music. So I'm trying to keep the legacy alive."
On his debut recording for Justice Records, First Outing, Whittaker did exactly that with a set of mostly original tunes that recalled the Blue Note Records sound of the '50s and '60s. With Searchin' For The Truth, his second release, he continued to pay homage to that era. With his third, One For Bu!, Bash focuses on, Art Blakey, while on his fourth The Valley Of The Kings, his focus is on the implications of both Elvin Jones and John Coltrane.
Art Blakey is a name that comes up frequently in Whittaker's conversations. "One thing I got from Art," Bash says, "was the feeling of family that all his bands had, and that is a characteristic I've borrowed in constructing my band. A lot of people put together a band of all-stars, but it doesn't sound like a family. Sometimes the true definition of 'band' gets lost in the flash and pyrotechnics that they are putting across."
Sebastian Whittaker and his band the Creators are available for concerts, festivals, clubs engagements as well as educational activities including master classes, and clinics.Canadian pianist Pamela York won the 2007 Great American Jazz Piano Competition in Jacksonville, FL. She is a graduate of the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Berklee College of Music and has studied with jazz greats Ray Santisi, Diana Krall and Donald Brown. Her current recording The Way of Time has received outstanding reviews from jazz fans and critics alike. She has conducted master classes for the Thelonius Monk Institute. Pamela's trio includes bassist Lynn Seaton and drummer Sebastian Whittaker.
Pamela has performed with many renown jazz artists including John Clayton, Jeff Hamilton, Russell Malone, Carl Allen, Conte Candoli, Buddy Defranco, Eddie Daniels, Rufus Reid, Joe LaBarbera, Warren Vache, Wycliffe Gordon, Ernie Watts, Louis Hayes, Pete Christlieb, Andre Hayward, Christopher Hollyday, Virginia Mayhew. Holly Hofmann, Herlin Riley, Rickey Woodard, Carmen Bradford, Kellye Gray, Roseanna Vitro, Lynn Seaton, Kristin Korb, Bob Magnusson, Jim DeJulio, Guy Barker, Gregory Hutchinson, Ben Riley, Jerry Coker, Donald Brown, Cathy Segal-Garcia, Jay Leonhart, Danny Gottlieb, Bob Mintzer, Rich Matteson, Rob McConnell, Marvin Stamm, Steve Houghton, the San Diego Symphony Pops, Monica Mancini, and Michael Feinstein.
