Roy McCurdy

oy McCurdy is a living legend, having worked with some of the greatest artists in jazz including Sonny Rollins, Cannonball Adderley, Nancy Wilson, Art Farmer, and Benny Golson. A devoted teacher on the faculty of the Thornton School of Music at USC and the Pasadena School of Music, Roy joins the SJW faculty for the first time this summer.

Roy first got his start in jazz working with the Mangione Brothers, Chuck and Gap, in the early ’60s. He joined the Art Farmer Jazztet and subsequently worked with Sonny Rollins. He became a full time member of the Cannonball Adderley Quintet from the mid-’60s until Cannonball’s death in 1975.

He’s toured and recorded with veritable Who’s Who of jazz greats and groups, including Blood Sweat & Tears, Freddie Hubbard, Kenny Burrell, McCoy Tyner, Joe Williams, Sonny Clark, Jackie McLean, Carmen McRae, Lee Morgan, Betty Carter, Kenny Dorham, Bobby Timmons, Ron Carter, Harold Land, Bobby Hutchinson, The Count Basie Orchestra, Donald Byrd, Herbie Hancock, Coleman Hawkins, Joe Henderson, Milt Jackson, Oscar Peterson, Bud Powell, Jimmy Smith, Horace Silver, Sonny Stitt, Clark Terry, Kenny Drew, Eddie Harris, Stanley Turrentine, Hubert Laws, Charles Lloyd, Patrice Rushen, Blue Mitchell, Sarah Vaughn, and Ella Fitzgerald.