Generations

The Generations Band is a dynamic, all-star group of jazz artists brought together by the International Center for the Arts (ICA) at San Francisco State University to act as both ambassadors and mentors for ICA’s unique Generations International Competition and Fellowship for Emerging Jazz Combos.

Each year, ICA will hold in international competition to find the most deserving young jazz combo, musicians with Bachelors degrees or more, who are poised to begin full-fledged jazz careers. The winning combo will come to San Francisco State for a one-year fellowship, including an intensive mentorship by the members of the Generations Ensemble.

The star-studded group features saxophonists Andrew Speight, Eric Alexander, and Jimmy Heath, trumpeter Terell Stafford, pianist David Hazeltine, percussionist Jimmy Cobb, and bassist Ray Drummond. The ensemble, which spans six influencial decades of contemporary jazz, has quickly coalesced into a powerful band, an aggregate of three generations of musical masters working together to send sparks flying with explosive, tradition-rich jazz.

The musicians' playing reflects the emotional and stylistic roots ofjazz, from the blues-soaked fundamentals of the musical form itself to the joys, struggles and triumphs of the music’s long evolution. These are musicians who have been integral to the sounds of Miles Davis, Dinah Washington, Cannonball Adderley, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, McCoy Tyner, Ray Charles, Benny Carter, the Marsalis Family and many others.

The Generations mentors were selected because they learned their art playing with a group of like-minded musicians who nurtured and explored through collaboration. This vital part of jazz musicianship is what the Generations fellowship strives to provide its up-and-coming ensembles. Believing that the jazz tradition of inspired collaboration is learned through study and practice with a group, these mentors will lay a musical foundation through community. In the meantime, the Generations Ensemble has turned into a sparkling, hard-driving performance band themselves. That’s not particularly surprising, considering the musicians involved. Their inaugural concerton the San Francisco State campus was a rousing success, and they already have both a CD and an instructional DVD in the works.

“These three generations of mentors spanning the 1940s to today have played with the best groups and honed their art with the jazz community's greats,” said Speight, a San Francisco State faculty member and the Generations project’s artistic director. “This is an opportunity unlike any other for a young ensemble to play with musicians who learned by collaborating with giants and are willing to pass along their wisdom. I can’t wait to hear what comes out of this first group of Generations musicians.”