About:
John Daversa is a distinguished trumpet-player, composer, arranger, producer, bandleader and educator. He is a multiple Grammy Award winner and nominee and the recipient of many other awards and honors. In addition to his active career as a performer and recording artist he is currently Professor and Chair of Studio Music and Jazz at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music.
Born in Los Angeles, Daversa returned in 2004 to pursue graduate-level education, and in 2011 he accepted a full-time position at California State University, Northridge. During this time, Daversa formed the John Daversa Small Band and re-established the John Daversa Progressive Big Band. Compositions created for these performances generated the material for Daversa’s next few albums, including Junk Wagon: The Big Band Album (2011), which received several Global Music Awards, including Best in Show, Creativity/Originality and Album Production.
Since 2013, Daversa has produced several noteworthy albums for both himself and other artists. In 2017 the John Daversa Big Band’s album, Kaleidoscope Eyes: Music of the Beatles garnered three Grammy nominations for Best Large Jazz Ensemble, Best Arrangement Instrumental, and Best Arrangement Vocals or A Cappella. In 2019, American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom, a big band album featuring young DACA artists, won three Grammy awards for Best Large Jazz Ensemble, Best Arrangement Instrumental, and Best Improvised Solo.
In 2019 and 2020 Daversa was musical director and producer for two important projects spearheaded by women: Shoulder to Shoulder: Centennial Tribute to Women’s Suffrage, by the Karrin Allyson Sextet (2019) and Swing States: Harmony in the Battleground by Regina Carter Freedom Band (2020). The John Daversa Quintet released Cuarentena: With Family at Home, an album of original and traditional Cuban boleros that paid homage to familial love and the healing power of music during the time of COVID, featuring musicians Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Carlo De Rosa, Dafnis Prieto, and Sammy Figueroa.
His most recent project, All Without Words: Variations Inspired By Loren (release April 30, 2021) is a lush orchestral trumpet concerto played by the John Daversa Jazz Orchestra, composed by Justin Morell and dedicated to Morell’s autistic son Loren. Celebrating the bond between a parent and child, the album is a paean to the trials, tribulations, successes, and heart-warming moments of raising a non-verbal son.
Contact Information:
Web: https://www.johndaversa.com/Other links: