Day of Jazz 2006
b'In this One-year Anniversary episode of Yamaha Wind Instrument Podcasts, watch exclusive concert footage from the Yamaha Day of Jazz - presented live from Yamaha Artist Services, Inc. (YASI) in New York City.\\n \\nPart Two features Yamaha Artists Stefon Harris (vibraphone) and Jeff Coffin (saxophone), plus an all-star jam with Christian Howes (electric violin) and Jeremy Pelt (flugelhorn).\\n \\nStefon Harris is the most accomplished, innovative and creative vibraphonist-and marimbist-to come down the pike since Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson. Overstatement? PR hype? Naw, son. You see, Stefon has found a way to make music that is nothing less than the aural distillation of the sights, sounds, people, places, events, and culture going down - in and around him.\\nBorn in Albany, New York, Harris began playing piano at the age of six. By the eighth grade, he had expanded his proficiency to nearly twenty instruments. While still in high school he earned the principal percussionist chair in the famed Empire State Youth Orchestra. A double-degree graduate of the Manhattan School of Music (BA in classical music, MA in jazz performance), Harris also is a recipient of three Grammy nominations (for Black Action Figure, Kindred, and 2003\'s soaring 12-piece concert-length jazz suite The Grand Unification Theory), as well as Jazz at Lincoln Center\'s prestigious Martin E. Segal Award. His resume includes recording and touring gigs with the Max Roach Joe Henderson, Wynton Marsalis, Charlie Hunter, Kenny Barron and Cassandra Wilson.\\n \\nSaxophonist Jeff Coffin has been a Yamaha Artist since 2002. Jeff has a demanding travel schedule as the sax player for Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. In addition to his heavy touring schedule with the Flecktones, Coffin\'s versatility has made him a highly in-demand session player and he has appeared on nearly 100 recordings. Jeff is also a very active educator, teaching clinics and lessons all over the country.\\n\\n"I am always looking for new things to think about and new ideas to develop musically. I ask people all the time to share with me what they are checking out and I, in turn, try to do the same." Even when Coffin dips into his \'two-horns-at-once\' bag, the technique emerges as a natural outgrowth of his musings. Each step along his musical journey has been deliberate with the intention of moving him forward in order to experience the growth, propulsion and movement in his music just as he has in life - both connected at the root of his experiences.'