News Release

Brubeck Institute Quintet Named Best in the Nation

(April 27, 2009) -

For the second time in three years, Downbeat Magazine has named the Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet the best college jazz group in the nation. The award was announced in the June edition of Downbeat Magazine, the 32nd Annual Student Awards issue, on newsstands this week. The group received the same honor in 2007.

The Brubeck Institute Jazz Quintet is made up of members of the Institute's Fellowship Program, five talented jazz musicians who have just graduated from high school who are selected to study jazz at University of the Pacific for two years. The Quintet performs about 25 concerts each year around the United States.

"This is a great honor and one that is well deserved by the fellows because they work hard to bring the best jazz, both standards and new creative works, to audiences around the nation," said Steve Anderson, director of the Brubeck Institute. "The fellows represent the next generation of jazz performance and are proof that jazz is alive and well as a contemporary art form."

The 2008-2009 fellows are saxophonists Ben Flocks from Santa Cruz, Calif., saxophonist Chad Lefkowitz-Brown from Horseheads, N.Y., pianist Javier Santiago from Minneapolis, Minn., bass player Zach Brown from Columbia, Md., and drummer Adam Arruda from Toronto, Canada. Flocks and Santiago will finish their two-year stint in the program in May.

To be accepted as a Brubeck Fellow is very challenging.

"The competition is great and the talent level is high, virtually at a professional 'young lion' level," said BIJQ musical director Joe Gilman. "Each also has a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of the recorded jazz history of their instrument, and are completely up-to-date with cutting-edge trends in small-group jazz. Previous fellows have gone on to be sidemen with Terence Blanchard, Gerald Clayton, Roy Hargrove, Kenny Garrett, and many others."

Downbeat Magazine has been publishing stories about jazz music and musicians since 1934, making it the oldest and one of the most respected music magazines in the world. They have published the Annual Student Music Awards issue since 1977, recognizing the finest young jazz performers, groups, composers and arrangers, all through competitive auditions. Besides the monthly magazine, Downbeat also has a jazz musicians' hall of fame in Florida and is well known for its annual readers' polls on music.

For more information on the Brubeck Institute or the Brubeck Fellows, visit http://www.brubeckinstitute.org. For more information on Downbeat Magazine, visit http://www.downbeat.com.

There will be several opportunities for the public to hear the Quintet perform before the end of the school year:

1.) Recital Hall on the Stockton Campus, 7:30 p.m., Tuesday, April 28. Free.

2.) The Lair in the DeRosa University Center, 8:00-10:00 p.m., Thursday, April 30. Free.

3.) JB's Lounge, Sacramento Red Lion Inn, 1401 Arden Way, Sacramento. 916.922.8041. 5 p.m. May 3. Free, though drink and food purchase suggested.

4.) Performance for celebration of Jazz Ambassadors photographic exhibit (the same one you saw in Washington last April at the Meridian Center), at The Jazz Heritage Center, 1320 Fillmore St, San Francisco, CA 94115. www.jazzheritagecenter.org. 3 p.m. May 17. Free.