John Clayton
Former Artistic Director, Jazz Port Townsend
Bass
Bassist, Composer, Arranger and Producer, John Clayton, is a busy man. With a Grammy on his shelf and nine additional nominations, artists such as Diana Krall, Paul McCartney, Regina Carter, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Gladys Knight, Queen Latifah, and Charles Aznavour have had spots on his crowded calendar.
In 1985 John, co-founded the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra and rekindled The Clayton Brothers Quintet.…
Dawn Clement
Artistic Director, Jazz Port Townsend
Piano
Pianist, vocalist, and composer Dawn Clement is a joyful and formidable force in the landscape of modern creative music. For over two decades, Clement has served as both a torchbearer of the jazz tradition and as a trailblazer in fresh sonic explorations. “In all this world of jazz, there are very few individual voices, no matter what the instrument, but Dawn has come up with a voice that’s unique…” says legendary jazz trombonist Julian Priester.…
Eloise & Co.
Vermont
Eloise & Co. features the combined creative force of two of the country’s most sought-after traditional musicians, fiddler Becky Tracy and piano accordionist Rachel Bell. These two, sometimes playing as a duo and other times joined by various guest guitar and piano players, crank out concert and dance music with unbridled energy and soaring beauty.…
Anat Cohen
Clarinet & Saxophone
Ever charismatic, prolific and inspired, Grammy-nominated clarinetist-saxophonist Anat Cohen has won hearts and minds the world over with her expressive virtuosity and delightful stage presence. The New York Times writes, “Ms. Cohen on the clarinet was a revelation. Using the clarinet’s upper register, she could evoke infectious joy.…
Elizabeth Colen
Past Faculty
EJ Colen is a PNW-based educator, writer, and editor interested in long-form poetry, the lyric essay, literary and visual collage, and research-based approaches to storytelling and memoir.
George Colligan
Faculty
Piano
George Colligan is not only one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, but he has earned an international reputation as a multi-instrumentalist (drums, trumpet, organ, keyboards), composer, accompanist, teacher, and bandleader, as well as popular blogger(jazztruth.blogspot.com). Winner of the 2015 DownBeat magazine Critics Poll (Keyboard), he has had a long association with living jazz legend Jack DeJohnette; recent touring took Colligan around the U.S.…
Gary Copeland Lilley
Gary Copeland Lilley is the author of eight books of poetry, the most recent being The Bushman’s Medicine Show (Lost Horse Press, 2017), and a chapbook, The Hog Killing (Blue Horse Press, 2018). He is originally from North Carolina and now lives in the Pacific Northwest. He has received the DC Commission on the Arts Fellowship for Poetry and is published in numerous anthologies and journals, including The Best American Poetry 2014, Willow Springs, The Swamp, Waxwing, Taos Journal of Poetry and Art, and African American Review.…
Tanya Darby
Faculty
Trumpet
California native Tanya Darby is a current and veteran member of such groups as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, the Roy Hargrove Big Band, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Michel Camilo Big Band, and the Rufus Reid Large Ensemble, among others. She has performed and toured with artists such as Dianne Reeves, Clark Terry, Jon Faddis, Paquito D’Rivera, and Gladys Knight, and ensembles including the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, the Count Basie Orchestra, the Ron Carter Great Big Band, the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and the Mingus Big Band.…
Gail Davies
Gail Davies is one of Nashville’s finest singers, songwriters, and record producers. A pioneering performer, she was the first female in country music to produce her own recordings and has been cited as a major influence by such diverse acts as Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, Suzy Bogguss, and Pam Tillis. A gifted, multi-faceted musician with country, bluegrass and blues leanings, Gail has delighted in spreading her creative wings since she scored with her revival of Webb Pierce’s No Love Have I in 1978.…
Quincy Davis
Faculty
Drums
Currently Associate Professor of Jazz Drum Set at the University of North Texas, QUINCY DAVIS was born in Grand Rapids, MI, and comes from a very musical family. He began taking piano and drum lessons at age 6. In his elementary and middle school bands, he also played trumpet and tuba.…