The Caltech Jazz Festival

The Caltech Jazz Band, under the direction of Barb Catlin, presents the annual Jazz Festival featuring three groups; The Caltech JazzBand, the Teryn Ré Quartet, and Bobby Bradford and Friends. This outdoor concert will be held on Saturday, April 19th from 1pm to 5 pm on the Hameetman Patio. The festival is outside with limited seating. Please bring your folding chair, blankets and picnic items. Parking is free.

Teryn Ré is an accomplished vocalist, composer, arranger, bandleader, and educator. Influenced by Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, and Carmen McRae, as well as Los Angeles musicians Kristin Korb, John Daversa, and Joey Sellers, Ré is known for her hard swinging style and ability to scat. Her deep knowledge of harmony is demonstrated in her original compositions and arrangements, many of which have been commissioned by universities throughout California. Her recent albums, The Teryn Ré Big Band, and The Teryn Ré Trio, featuring Ré's compositions, are played across national radio stations. Ré is Director of Vocal Jazz Studies at Fullerton College and is in demand across Southern California.

Composer/cornetist Bobby Bradford is a founder of the 1950s Los Angeles Avant Garde jazz scene. Born in Cleveland, Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta blues, Bradford was raised in Fort Worth, Texas, where he met Ornette Coleman. Both Bradford and Coleman relocated to Los Angeles in the 1950s playing with like-minded musicians in the thriving Central Avenue music scene including Don Blackwell, Charlie Haden, Don Preston, Don Cherry, and Billy Higgins.

Bradford joined the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1958 but rejoined Coleman's quartet from 1961 to 1963. They recorded under Coleman's Atlantic contract, but the tapes were among the many destroyed in the Great Atlantic Vault Fire. Bradford returned to the West Coast to pursue further studies and began a long-running and well-documented association with clarinetist John Carter. Following Carter's death in 1991, Bradford fronted his own ensemble, The Mo'tet. Over his career, Bradford has performed with Eric Dolphy, Leon "Ndugu" Chancler, Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten, Bob Stewart, Charlie Haden, James Newton, Frode Gjerstad, Vinny Golia, Paal Nilssen-Love, and David Murray, who was a student of his in the 1970s. Bradford was a lecturer at Pomona College where he taught the history of jazz and led the jazz ensemble for 44 years.

Bradford will perform music from "Stealin' Home," a 2018 commissioned suite celebrating the centennial of baseball legend Jackie Robinson. Caltech welcomes Bradford, a recent survivor of the Altadena fires, and one of many in our community who lost everything.

The Caltech Jazz Band, directed by Barb Catlin, will open the festival with music by Mary Lou Williams, Jessika Smith, Thad Jones, Duke Ellington, and movements from Carla Bley's "National Anthem Suite."