The 9th Annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival in Vermont | April 18th-19th, 2025
Vermont Jazz Center’s 9th Annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival, April 18-19, 2025
FOR ALL MUSIC LOVERS interested in the development of piano styles and techniques throughout the evolution of jazz. Together, we will hear six brilliant pianists perform and discuss their musical aspirations and the expansion of their approaches to the instrument. The VJC invites you to participate in a festival that showcases artists who have invested their lives in the pursuit of creativity using the piano as their medium.
Headliners: Luther Allison, Sean Mason, Johnny O’Neal and Carmen Staaf
Emerging Artists: Michael Carabello and Estefanía Núñez Villamandos
A Weekend of Concerts and Educational Opportunities that Celebrates the Distinct Practices and Vocabularies of Solo Piano in Jazz Music
April 2, 2025, BRATTLEBORO, VT – The Vermont Jazz Center celebrates the vital impact that the piano has played in the history of jazz by hosting its 9th Annual Solo Jazz Piano Festival on April 18th and 19th, 2025. The artists headlining this year’s festival are Luther Allison, Sean Mason, Johnny O’Neal and Carmen Staaf; emerging artists are Michael Carabello and Estefanía Núñez Villamandos.
At 7:30 each night, headliners will present their solo sets. On April 18th at 7:30 pm, we will hear Carmen Staaf and Johnny O’Neal; on Saturday, April 19th at 7:30, we will hear Sean Mason and Luther Allison.
Along with the evening concerts, Saturday’s daytime educational and concert programming will begin at 10:00 AM on April 19. Each of the four headlining musicians will offer masterclasses, designed for the general public, that bring topics to life that are vital to their creative identity. Saturday will also include short sets from the two emerging artists as well as a round-table discussion with all six artists, moderated by VJC Director Eugene Uman.
The Solo Jazz Piano Festival is one of the cornerstones of the VJC’s programming. To date, the festival has presented sixty of the world’s top pianists, including NEA Jazz Masters Toshiko Akiyoshi and Joanne Brackeen, and acknowledged luminaries Stanley Cowell, Benny Green, Helen Sung, Myra Melford, Sullivan Fortner, Kenny Werner, and many others. The Solo Jazz Piano Festival continues to be a unique opportunity for audiences to communicate directly with the artists, share their spiritual and historical sources of inspiration, and offer tips on their methods of learning, teaching and practicing. The VJC is honored to continue this important tradition here in Brattleboro, Vermont. The structure of this solo piano festival is unique and geared towards community building and garnering knowledge using the piano as a catalyst.
Each of this year’s headliners is highly regarded by jazz lovers around the world. They are all virtuosic in their abilities and have released numerous recordings as leaders and side people. But what sets this group of four apart is how each artist conveys a completely distinct approach to the instrument, demonstrating an instantly recognizable stylistic, rhythmic, and harmonic palette. It is this diversity, combined with the artists’ rich depth of knowledge and ability to connect with the 2
audiences, that will assure a fascinating show. Listeners are encouraged to check out each of the performers to enjoy the full spectrum of their approaches.
The VJC’s Solo Jazz Piano Festival is a tribute to Mike McKenzie, a generous philanthropist, who, for the last 28 years has provided artists performing at the VJC with the finest pianos possible. The beautiful Steinway D Concert Grand that the pianists will be performing on during the festival was gifted to the VJC by Mr. McKenzie, and rebuilt by master piano technician Bill Ballard, in 2015.
VJC is especially grateful to a handful of generous sponsors for bringing this festival to life. This year’s sponsors include Katy Oz of Austin, Texas, Ellen Smith and Bill Pastuszek, and two anonymous members of the VJC Summer Jazz Workshop community. VJC also thanks the Thompson Trust, the Windham Foundation, the Vermont Arts Council, the Vermont Humanities Council, and the New England Foundation of the Arts for their steadfast support. The VJC is also appreciative of the excellent care and maintenance of their instrument by piano technicians William Ballard and Crystal Fielding.
In-person tickets for the entire Solo Jazz Piano Festival are offered on a sliding fee scale from $85-$130; single concert options are also available starting at $26. Visit the VJC website at www.vtjazz.org to purchase.
Contact Eugene for educational group discounts [email protected].
For general questions and reservations, call the Vermont Jazz Center ticket line at 802-254-9088, ext. 1. Handicapped access for the in-person event is available by emailing [email protected].
The online streaming of this concert will be offered free of charge; donations are welcome and just a click away. Please give generously and support live music. Access to the online event can be found online at the VJC’s website: www.vtjazz.org and on Facebook.
SCHEDULE
Friday, April 18, 2025
Headliner Concert
• 7:30 PM – Carmen Staaf performance (50-minute set)
• 8:30 PM – Johnny O’Neal performance (50-minute set)
Saturday, April 19, 2025
Workshops
• 10:00 AM – Carmen Staaf – Rhythmic Frameworks for Improvisation
• 11:00 AM – Johnny O’Neal – The Inside Scoop: Stories, Music, and Insights
• 12:00 PM – Sean Mason – Music and Personal Growth
• 1:00 PM – Luther Allison – Questions and Answers
2:00 PM – Lunch break
Emerging Artist Presentations:
• 3:30 PM – Michael Carabello
• 4:00 PM – Estefania Núñez
Panel Discussion 3
• 4:45 PM – Panel discussion with all pianists (juried questions)
Headliner Concert
• 7:30 PM – Sean Mason performance (50-minute set)
• 8:30 PM – Luther Allison performance (50-minute set)
________________________________________
The Performers: 4 Headliners and 2 Emerging Artists
(4) HEADLINERS
1. Carmen Staaf:
Carmen Staaf is the 2009 winner of the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano competition. She is the pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater. Her past major performances have included the Playboy Jazz Festival in a two-piano setting with jazz legends Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center alongside Kenny Barron and Fred Hersch. She has presented her music at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, SFJazz, and major jazz festivals around the world, including the Newport, Monterey, Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals. Staaf co-leads the group Science Fair with drummer Allison Miller and is a member of Miller’s Boom Tic Boom. This year, she will release an album of duo pieces featuring performances with Ambrose Akinmusire, John Santos, Ben Goldberg, and others. Carmen’s work as a side person includes collaborations with Jennie Scheinman, Allison Miller, Nicole Zuraitis, Dan
Pugach, Ayn Inserto, Richie Barshay, Natalie Merchant, Jennifer Wharton’s Bonegasm and many others.
An active educator, Carmen Staaf has held faculty positions at Berklee College of Music, the New School, Stanford Jazz Institute, Swarnabhoomi Academy of Music (Chennai, India), Jacob’s Pillow, Litchfield Jazz Camp, and the New York Jazz Academy, and has led masterclasses around the globe. She was also tapped, with Herbie’s approval, to provide transcriptions for Herbie Hancock’s MasterClass performances and lessons.
Carmen Staaf masterclass: Rhythmic Frameworks for Improvisation
In this master class, we will think about the underlying rhythmic structures of bebop tunes and other jazz pieces. In some ways, these structures are reminiscent of the clave in Afro-Cuban music, but they are typically unique to each tune. By identifying the main arrival points and accents in the melody, we can use these rhythmic skeletons in our soloing. This is one way to dig into the specific identity of each tune, rather than being limited to plugging in licks based on the chord changes alone; it also gives our improvisations a sense of intention and organization. I’ll give a short introduction to the Cuban clave for context, showing how we can use it in our improvisations and arrangements. Then we will look at some bebop tunes like Anthropology and Evidence; we will find their “claves” and explore ways to use them when we improvise.
Carmen Staaf, solo piano video: “Inchworm”
Carmen Staaf with the CAT Trio: “Borrowed Blue” 4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uysBDAtJHOo, 30:15
2. Johnny O’Neal:
Grammy-nominated Johnny O’Neal is a living legend. A former member of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, O’Neal has performed with many of the top players of his generation. Highlights of his career include being inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, receiving mentorship and then opening for Oscar Peterson at Carnegie Hall, and performing the part of Art Tatum in the Academy Award-winning 2004 Ray Charles biopic, Ray. Mr. O’Neal has toured or recorded with Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Pass, Lionel Hampton, Kenny Burrell, Sonny Stitt, Benny Golson, Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Wycliff Gordon, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Clark Terry, Ray Brown and Milt Jackson. A superb singer himself, he has accompanied Nancy Wilson, Anita O’Day, Sarah Vaughan,Carmen McRae and many others. The Detroit-born O’Neal calls himself “a tune guy.” He explains, “I know 1,500 songs. My father was a pianist and singer who emphasized that learning lyrics creates dynamics and a better interpretation of the melody.” Mr.
O’Neal was recently awarded a Jazz Fellowship Award from the Jazz Foundation of America, which “aims to foster a community of musicians approaching the latter stages of their careers…as they continue to explore their creative endeavors.” Other recipients include George Cables, Bertha Hope and Billy Hart.
Johnny O’Neal masterclass: The Inside Scoop: Stories, Music, and Insights
Johnny will take questions from the audience about his long and storied career, demonstrating his points using examples from his vast repertoire of tunes. He will discuss his early years and influences and share anecdotes from the road as well as offer advice for both aspiring and working musicians. Johnny plans to start his presentation with a “musical” introduction, talking and playing music relevant to his early years and influences before opening the floor to questions.
Johnny O’Neal – quotes:
“There are so many outstanding things about Johnny’s playing, number one, the touch. Johnny has a million-dollar touch. … The other thing is his feeling of swing, which is so natural.” Mulgrew Miller, Legendary Pianist (1955-2013)
Johnny O’Neal – video examples
Solo – the Christmas Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XLMMk5MkQfY
Grooving with the trio: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/YOHTvjrebI8
3. Sean Mason
Born and raised in Charlotte, NC, Sean Mason is now based in New York City. He took to the piano at the late age of 13, initially teaching himself to play Ray Charles’ tunes by ear. Hailed by NPR’s “Youngbloods” series as a musician on the rise, Sean has already performed and toured with jazz legends Branford Marsalis, Wynton Marsalis, and Catherine Russell and was featured pianist on the soundtrack of the Netflix movie, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Mason calls his music “the intersection of renaissance and street culture.”
Sean Mason’s ability to blend traditional jazz with modern elements sets him apart as a unique voice in the jazz world. That diversity of styles is evident in three distinct projects he has released in the last few years. His debut album, The Southern Suite, has been lauded for its deep roots in jazz tradition while embracing a contemporary sensibility. “This 5 album is really a personal documentation of [my] time in the South and how that inspires who I am now,” Mason said. “But it’s also a microcosm of the opposing themes of traditionalism and modernism. I’m exploring these things, musically.” He develops that theme in a separate project, the Grammy-nominated My Ideal, a duo collaboration with esteemed vocalist Catherine Russell. The team digs deep, covering lesser-known tunes, including gems from the 1920s and 30s. Together, they playfully explore the songbooks of Bessie Smith and James P. Johnson, rich with complex harmonies and clever double entendres. Mason’s contribution to this project is as a co-leader rather than as an accompanist. Listening to the music on this album is like peering into a deep conversation between two people who have rare access to a remote musical language.
Another recent collaborative project, Chrome Valley, pairs Mason with poet Mahogany L. Browne (Lincoln Center poet-in-residence), where they present a musical essay on the Black experience in America. This process for Mason offered a new challenge: taking the subject matter and reconfiguring it into a cohesive musical experience. He explained to ABC News, “I tried to capture the initial impulse of the emotion that I felt once I read the poem, to say the unsaid… and to put that into the sonic landscape.”
Sean Mason masterclass: Music and Personal Growth
This masterclass is a space for reflection on the profound relationship between music and personal growth, emphasizing the role of integrity and intuition in navigating both artistic and life challenges. We’ll explore how the spirit of jazz can inform a broader understanding of purpose and fulfillment.
Sean Mason quotes –
“Sean Mason carries on the long-standing tradition of jazz, but with all his fervor and arranging talent his music transcends time.” Paris Move
“Sean Mason is “a guiding luminary, shining his introspective command as both a pianist and composer through the historic lens of jazz” All About Jazz
Concert at National Jazz Museam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pt94H8Q1CFk&t=2163s
4. Luther Allison
Also hailing from Charlotte, North Carolina, pianist Luther Allison is a bandleader, educator, composer and clinician now based in New York City. As a sideman, Luther has performed on both drums and piano alongside Etienne Charles, Michael Dease, Jazzmeia Horn, Rodney Whitaker, Samara Joy, Joe Farnsworth, Ulysses Owens Jr., and is currently touring with vocalist Ekep Nkwelle (who performed on the VJC stage in November 2024). As an indication of Allison’s busy schedule, this March, he led a group of musicians on a 40-city Jazz at Lincoln Center tour, arranging, playing, and directing music that reflects the spirit of New Orleans. This October,, Allison will tour his band to Mexico. This past year, Allison won his first Grammy for his work with the jazz vocalist Samara Joy, acted in and played music for Maggie 6
Gyllenhaal’s movie, The Bride, performed at the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival and, with bassist Endea Owens, landed a fellowship at the Jazz Museum’s Jazz Is: Now! Program. Allison studied in Memphis under one of the pianists in Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Donald Brown. This connected him with the famed lineage of Memphis players, including Mulgrew Miller, Harold Mabern, and James Williams, who mentored Donald Brown. The Memphis piano sound is steeped in the blues and Black church music and also pays homage to the great Phineas Newborn. Allison takes this legacy seriously; this tradition can be heard in his approach to the instrument.
Luther Allison masterclass: Questions & Answers
A friendly, informal conversation, a time to share ideas.
Luther Allison quote:
“What sets Luther apart, for me,” Joy said in an interview, “is the fact that his openness and generosity as a person translates to how he interacts with everyone in the band on his instrument. The passion that he plays with uplifts those around him and inspires everyone to play at their best.” Samara Joy, a multi-Grammy award-winning vocalist
Luther Allison, video examples
Single “Until I See You Again”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoijBbmDIl8
“I Didn’t Know What Time it Was:”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dDi2sYfDUA
(2) EMERGING ARTISTS
1. Estefanía Núñez
Estefania Núñez Villamandos is a Cuban-born pianist, film composer, and arranger whose distinct, personal sound fuses Afro-Cuban rhythms, jazz, and film soundtrack influences. Her repertoire spans Cuban, Caribbean, jazz, and classical music.
Estefania has toured the USA and Spain with her band, Mestizas, performing material from their EP, El Alma de la Olvidada, which reimagines songs from the classic Latin repertoire with inventive, new, rhythmically charged arrangements and impeccable vocal harmonies. As a film composer, Núñez has scored short films and documentaries. Her work has been featured at important venues, including the Women in Animation Festival in NYC. As a performer, Estefania has collaborated with renowned artists such as Aida Cuevas, Daymé Arocena, Harold López Nussa, Miguelito Núñez, Aldo López Gavilán, Pablo Milanés, Egberto Gismonti, and Arturo O’Farrill.
Núñez received a full scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. She graduated with a specialization in Film Scoring, Piano Performance, Mixing, and Production. She is now working on her Master’s at Berklee’s Global Institute Master’s program.
2. Michael Carabello
Michael B. Carabello is a multifaceted pianist based out of Hartford, CT, who performs in a variety of styles with an emphasis on jazz and world music. Carabello is a product of the Artists Collective Youth Jazz Orchestra under 7 artist-in-residence, Rene McLean. He attended the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School of Music. Carabello has worked with many renowned artists, including Nat Reeves, Rene McLean, Antoine Roney, and Steve Davis. His performances include stints at New York Jazz Piano Festival at Kalvierhaus, Jazz at Lincoln Center Live in Times Square, The Side Door Jazz Club, Smalls Jazz Club and The Django in NYC, The Hartford Jazz festival, NYC Winter Jazz festival, and Newport Jazz Festival. He was among the honorees to perform at The White House for First Lady Michelle Obama, who, at that time, was chair of the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities (PCAH).
Carabello performs in numerous groups, including his ensemble, The Lost Tribe. He is in the process of recording his first album as a leader. Carabello serves as Music Director at the Artists Collective where he is developing a curriculum giving area youth broader access to the arts of the African Diaspora.
Nine Years of Piano Magic – VJC’s Solo Jazz Piano Festival Performers:
2017 Stanley Cowell, Luis Perdomo, Yoko Miwa, Miro Sprague, Amina Figarova, Alki Steriopolis, Eugene Uman, Franz Robert
2018 Helen Sung, Kirk Lightsey, Christian Sands, Harold Danko, David Berkman, Joe Davidian, Franz Robert
2019 George Cables, Kenny Werner, Julius Rodriguez, Joanne Brackeen, Rebecca Cline, Cameron Campbell, Tom Cleary, Franz Robert
2020 Orrin Evans, Manuel Valera, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Shamie Royston, Maya Keren, Matt Twaddle, Franz Robert
2021 Craig Taborn, Kris Davis, Harvey Diamond, Elio Villafranca, Camila Cortina, Hidemi Akaiwa
2022 Xavier Davis, Sullivan Fortner, Benny Green, Arcoiris Sandoval, Roella Oloro, Andrew Wilcox
2023 Orrin Evans, Myra Melford, Dan Tepfer, Michael Weiss, Shiyu Fang, Remi Savard
2024 Hey Rim Jeon, Aaron Parks, Alfredo Rodriguez, Jacky Terrasson, Yujin Han, Mathew Mueller
2025 Luther Allison, Sean Mason, Johnny O’Neal and Carmen Staaf, Estefanía Núñez and Michael Carabello
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