An artist with an astonishingly broad repertoire of work, Dave Douglas's accomplishments as a bandleader and composer are so prodigious that his talent as a trumpet player is almost incidental. Embracing influences as varied as (the equally revolutionary) Igor Stravinsky, Stevie Wonder and John Coltrane, his resume is that of a fiercely intelligent free and original thinker. Nominated for two Grammy awards and a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship, Douglas has been honored with a slew of Artist and Album of the Year accolades from critics and fans alike in publications such as DownBeat & JazzTimes. He is currently Artistic Director of the Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music at the Banff Center and the co-founder and director of the Festival of New Trumpet Music. From New York, where he still resides, Douglas attended Berklee School of Music, the New England Conservatory and New York University (studying with Carmine Caruso).

Douglas joined Horace Silver's band in 1987, touring with Silver for several years. Subsequently, he played with John Zorn's Masada, known for its mixture of Jewish klezmer and free jazz, and worked with the experimental big band Orange Then Blue. Douglas released his first CD as leader, Parallel Worlds, in 1993, and started two groups, the Dave Douglas Sextet and Tiny Bell Trio, each with its own wholly distinctive instrumentation and aesthetic, soon thereafter - the Sextet focusing on a more mainstream approach, while Tiny Bell assumed the oeuvre of Balkan improvisation. Variations including his Quartet, Quintet and New Sextet then followed, as Douglas flowed seamlessly between projects, with unrestrained and nimble creative energy. In 2003, he founded the mixed chamber ensemble Nomad, followed by his electronic Keystone Sextet in 2005. Keystone, comprised of trumpet, tenor/soprano sax, Fender Rhodes piano, electric bass, drums and turntables, is, to quote Douglas's own website, "inspired by films, written for films, both new and old." Their debut recording took as its theme the dramatic life of silent film star & director Fatty Arbuckle, and was to be played as an accompaniment to two of Arbuckle's short films (view a clip here on our YouTube channel). Douglas's newest iteration is Brass Ecstasy, a brass quintet of trumpet, french horn, trombone, tuba and drums (check out an excellent NPR "Tiny Desk" video segment of the group, also on our YouTube). An in-demand composer, Douglas has also written works commissioned by the Trisha Brown Dance Company, Norddeutscher Rundfunk, Essen Philharmonie, the Library of Congress and many more.

Douglas and Keystone, in combination with experimental filmmaker Bill Morrison, began a year-long collaboration with Stanford University in 2009, part of Stanford Lively Arts' Arts + Invention programming initiative. Douglas/Keystone and Morrison are creating a new music and film work, entitled Spark of Being, which will debut in April 2010.

Here at SJW, Douglas will join us for several events in the spring, and return to teach and perform at the Workshop this summer during Jazz Residency. It's a tremendous opportunity to learn from, and be inspired by, an artist of extraordinary vision and ability!