National Jazz month celebrates the heritage and history of jazz born in the Deep South traveling the backroads of America and into the big cities of not only the US but the world.
Our latest Arts on the Move podcast features talented jazz musicians Nick Mancini, Danny Janklow, and Cameron Graves to celebrate the sounds of America. These three musicians have a history of not only being friends, but also musicians that have worked together on numerous occasions. Mancini, Janklow, and Graves share a light hearted conversation about how music and jazz has impacted their lives and what makes jazz music so different and unique.
Nick Mancini is not only a master on the vibraphonist (the vibe language of jazz) but a bandleader, composer, and arranger having graduated from the Manhattan School of Music with a Master’s Degree in Jazz performance. After honing his craft in NYC, Nick relocated to Los Angeles where he continued to focus on his craft while also becoming a faculty member at both California State University Northridge and Long Beach. Nick’s original material is diverse with unique trademarks, expansive lyrical melodies, lush harmonies, and grooving melodic bass lines. Between 2013 and early 2015 Nick released seven (7) independent records which include: storyteller, West Coast Cool, No Questions Asked and Impulse, followed by the Long Game, two Nick Mancini Collective project: Frames in 2018 and Reverence in 2019. In 2020, at the start of the pandemic, Nick, his wife, and young daughter relocated to Tulsa Oklahoma to be closer to his wife’s family. Tulsa’s music scene has been truly fulfilling for Nick and he is happy to be in this new chapter.
Local musician Danny Janklow has been quickly gaining international recognition for his soulful and innovative musical voice. His live performances are often described as emotionally charged and vibrant celebrations leaving his listeners always wanting more. Influenced by the sounds of Charlie Parker, Cannonball Adderley and John Coltrane, Danny’s unique sound will transport you and soothe the soul. Danny attended Temple University Boyer College of Music and Dance, while living on the east coast and frequently played at the village vanguard with the Van guard Jazz Orchestra, the Kimmel Center the Apollo Theatre in Harlem, and Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola in New York. Danny has enjoyed the pleasure of sharing the stage and recording with the likes of Stevie Wonder, Kendrick Lamar, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, George Benson, Aloe Blacc, Jose James, Wynton & Branford Marsalis, Benny Golson, Eric Reed, John Beasley, Ben Williams, Jason Moran, Wallace Roney, Savion Glover, Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Bill Holman Big Band, Gordon Goodwin, and Jimmy Heath.
Cameron Graves, pianist, producer, and songwriter is a member of the game changing genre-blurring Los Angeles collective that is taking the modern jazz scene by storm. Cameron’s style has been described by fellow West Coast Get Down Member Kamasi Washington as an “almost unbelieve combination of modal jazz, romantic era European classical music and the mathematical death metal”
You can find Arts on the Move Podcast here, our Youtube Channel, Spotify, Apple Podcast, and other major platforms.
