John Daversa is a versatile and internationally respected performer (Trumpet/EVI), composer, arranger, producer, bandleader, educator, and BFM Jazz recording artist. He is a winner of the Herb Alpert Award, David Joel Miller Award, the National Trumpet Competition, the ITG Jazz Soloist Competition, and was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.
Daversa’s celebrated and distinctive musical perspective has been a passport to performances on world stages such as The Today Show, Late Nite with David Letterman, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Live 8 (Berlin), Hamburg Music Festival, Java Jazz Festival (Jakarta), Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreux Festival, and the Playboy Jazz Festival. He has also had the opportunity to perform or record with artists such as Fiona Apple, Michael Bublé, Dori Caymi, Andraé Crouch, Sheryl Crow, Bob Mintzer Big Band, and The Yellowjackets....
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John Daversa is a versatile and internationally respected performer (Trumpet/EVI), composer, arranger, producer, bandleader, educator, and BFM Jazz recording artist. He is a winner of the Herb Alpert Award, David Joel Miller Award, the National Trumpet Competition, the ITG Jazz Soloist Competition, and was a finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition.
Daversa’s celebrated and distinctive musical perspective has been a passport to performances on world stages such as The Today Show, Late Nite with David Letterman, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Live 8 (Berlin), Hamburg Music Festival, Java Jazz Festival (Jakarta), Monterey Jazz Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Montreux Festival, and the Playboy Jazz Festival. He has also had the opportunity to perform or record with artists such as Fiona Apple, Michael Bublé, Dori Caymi, Andraé Crouch, Sheryl Crow, Bob Mintzer Big Band, and The Yellowjackets.
In 1996, he founded the John Daversa Progressive Big Band, which is one of the leading forces of modern jazz in L.A. today. In 2011, the band released its first studio album, Junk Wagon: The Big Band Album, to critical acclaim winning Best in Show and Awards of Excellence in Creativity/Originality and Production in The Global Music Awards. “Daversa's fearless exploration...takes him off the beaten path, as he creates bold and ballsy big band music for the modern epoch.”-- AllAboutJazz.com
In addition, Daversa leads the John Daversa Small Band consisting of tenor saxophonist Robby Marshall, alto saxophonist/flutist/vocalist Katisse Buckingham, keyboardist Tommy King, bassist Jerry Watts and drummer Gene Coye. This powerhouse ensemble transitions with ease from sections of incredible sensitivity to vignettes of intensity rivaling that of his own Big Band. The Small Group’s latest album Artful Joy (2012) features Bob Mintzer and Gretchen Parlato.
Daversa earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Music from The University of California, Los Angeles, a Master of Fine Arts degree in Jazz Studies at California Institute of the Arts, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Jazz Studies at the University of Southern California. He is currently a full-time faculty member at California State University, Northridge, where he teaches Jazz Studies and Media Composition.
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