Baroque & Beyond
March 26, 2011

Jack Brand demonstrated his ability as a drummer and percussionist at an early age by playing drums in his hometown high school band while still in fifth grade. By his sixth grade year, he had moved with his family to Rockford and began teaching drums as well as performing. Mr. Brand joined his first band while in middle school and competed in many talent shows in the region including Chicago. By the time he was 13, he was working professionally with many of the established regional musicians, playing in night clubs, restaurants, and at numerous wedding and dances. The day he graduated from high school, Mr. Brand took a train to Texas and joined his first traveling big band. For the next three and a half years, he traveled with many dance bands and show bands. Before he left the road to raise a family, he worked for nationally recognized acts including television personalities and even circuses.

Settling back in Rockford, he began a private teaching career that he still maintains while continuing an active performance schedule. He has taught hundreds of percussionists over the years and regularly performed at venues such as the Wagon Wheel Resort in Rockton, The Abbey and the Playboy Club in Lake Geneva, as well as Rockford’s Top of the Rock, Cliffbreakers, Giovanni’s, and the Clock Tower resort.

Mr. Brand began publishing a series of instructional books for drummers through his own company, Percussion Express, in 1984. In 1990 he became Director of Percussion at Beloit College where he taught for four years. His biography of renowned jazz drummer Shelly Manne was published in 1997. Mr. Brand’s latest recordings include a jazz album with Rockford accordionist Mike Alongi, several CDs with Kantorei – the Singing Boys of Rockford, and with Joel Ross and Dorothy Paige Turner.

A multi-faceted musician and a native of Rockford, Joel Ross is a music educator, pianist, vocalist, choral pedagogue, and award-winning composer and arranger. As Music Director of Kantorei, The Singing Boys of Rockford since 1988, he has consistently demonstrated high standards for excellence in the choral art while shaping the lives of hundreds of young men in the community.

A sought-after pianist noted for equal facility in both the classical and jazz realm, Mr. Ross has collaborated with many prominent conductors, composers, pianists, and entertainers including Bob Chilcott (King’s Singers), James Litton (American Boychoir), John Rutter (Cambridge Singers), jazz pianist Marian McPartland, and Broadway stars Marin Mazzie and Jason Danieley. His eclectic performance experience ranges from solo recital, chamber music, symphonic literature, and oratorio, to appearances in choral conventions, jazz festivals, and musical theater.

Mr. Ross’s RSO credits are numerous and varied. In addition to Claude Bolling’s Suite for Chamber Orchestra and Jazz Piano Trio, he has appeared as solo pianist in the I Got Rhythm Variations of Gershwin. As bass-baritone soloist, he has showcased both his vocal and comedic talents in PDQ Bach’s oratorio The Seasonings, and Flanders and Swann’s Ill Wind, based on Mozart’s Horn Concerto in E flat. At the podium, he has conducted the RSO in collaborations with Kantorei including Holiday Pops and the sold-out series of concerts celebrating the renovation of the Coronado Theatre.

Mr. Ross holds Bachelor of Arts degrees in both Music and Business Administration from North Park University in Chicago. He is the winner of the Mendelssohn Performing Arts Center “Star of Excellence” Award (2006) and the “Star Teacher” Mayor’s Arts Award (2004), both recognizing his contribution to music education in the community. His jazz quartet with vocalist Dorothy Paige-Turner was inducted into the Rockford Area Music Industry (RAMI) Awards Hall of Fame after repeatedly winning the “Best Traditional Jazz” category. During business hours, he wears many hats as co-owner of Randee’s Music Center in Rockford.

Dr. Karl E. H. Seigfried (bass) has received international critical acclaim for fifteen recordings of jazz, classical, rock, and country. Neil Tesser (author of The Playboy Guide to Jazz) writes that “Seigfried has plenty of chops, but his style depends more on his love of his instrument‘s history, from the Swing Era to the present.” Coronado patrons will remember Seigfried’s duet with Bobby McFerrin and show with Saturday Night Live’s Martin Short. He has also performed with jazz artists including Fred Anderson, Anthony Davis, George Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell, and the Glenn Miller Orchestra.

Seigfried’s recordings of original jazz include Criminal Mastermind (solo bass) and Blue Rhizome (an extended composition for The New Quartet). His trio recording, Portrait of Jack Johnson, features “The Boxing Bassist Suite” – musical portraits of boxing champions who played bass (Johnson, Archie Moore, Ezzard Charles). It received four stars from DownBeat and was selected by the editor of Jazziz as one of 2010’s top ten albums. JazzTimes wrote that the music is “fueled by the bassist’s humongous tones,” and Jazzwise (England) wrote that Seigfried “makes his presence felt through some lightning subdivisions of the beat and nifty turnarounds.”

Seigfried is currently recording bass and guitar for an album of music that he is writing with Calvin Weston, the jazz drummer known for his work with Ornette Coleman, James "Blood" Ulmer, the Lounge Lizards, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Derek Bailey, Marc Ribot, James Carter, and others.

In classical music, Seigfried was featured as solo bassist for New Black Music Repertory Ensemble’s Recorded Music of the African Diaspora, which included premiere recordings of works by Mary Watkins and Olly Wilson. In May, he will be a soloist at Orchestra Hall for Chicago Sinfonietta’s premiere of Renée Baker’s Divertimento Notte Blu.

In-demand as a bassist and guitarist in progressive rock, Seigfried has appeared on recordings with members of Hawkwind, Gong, Jefferson Starship, Psychic TV, Soft Machine, Tubes, and others. He was featured on a new version of Motörhead’s classic “Ace of Spades” for an all-star prog rock project produced in England. He plays lead guitar for the improvised rock band Soul Power Trio; they have shared the stage with Jucifer, Pentagram, and many others.

Seigfried plays Principal Bass for Chicago Modern Orchestra Project, Chicago Sinfonietta Chamber Ensemble, New Black Music Repertory Ensemble, Heartland Festival Orchestra, and Peoria Symphony Orchestra. He has led bass sections for Emmanuel Ax, Joshua Bell, Evelyn Glennie, Hilary Hahn, Sharon Isbin, Yo-Yo Ma, Mark O'Connor, and Itzhak Perlman.

An active educator and author, Seigfried studied music and literature in Austin, Madison, Rome, and San Diego. His bass teachers included Bertram Turetzky, Richard Davis, and Carol Kaye. A member of the Chicago Jazz Education Project, he is Bass & Guitar Faculty at Carthage College and teaches music history, music theory, music business, and Norse mythology at Loyola University Chicago. He produces recordings for Imaginary Chicago Records and writes for East Side Boxing and The Norse Mythology Blog.