Selected Alumni Bios

• Todd Coolman
  Todd Coolman (Ph.D., Jazz Performance, 1997) Grammy award-winning bassist Todd Coolman has performed and/or recorded with a virtual “who’s who” of jazz artists including Horace Silver, Gerry Mulligan, Stan Getz, Benny Golson, Art Farmer, Tommy Flanagan, Lionel Hampton, Benny Goodman, and numerous others. Today, Todd is actively performing with an impressive array of artists including James Moody, Renee Rosnes, Ed Cherry, and The Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra. Todd has recorded two CDs as a leader, Tomorrows and Lexicon, the latter featuring guest artist Joe Henderson.

  In addition to his busy performing schedule, Todd Coolman is Director of Jazz Studies at Purchase College (SUNY) and has authored two books, The Bass Tradition and The Bottom Line. Among several academic honors, Todd is frequently sought after as an author and research consultant for jazz historiographies and CD liner notes.

• Adam Stoler
  Adam Stoler (B.M. Jazz Studies, 2005, M.A. Jazz Studies, 2007) has, at an impressively young age, established himself as a highly in-demand guitarist and music collaborator involved with a diverse range of projects from jazz, funk and R&B, Brazilian Samba and Bossa Nova, Middle Eastern and singer-songwriters with a psychedelic Nashville tinge, not to mention his own work which encompasses contemporary jazz and pop harmony with rhythmic and melodic influences from around the world.
  
  Born and raised in the New York metro area, Adam received his B.M. (2005) and Masters' (2007) degrees in Jazz Studies the NYU Steinhardt School. Before that, Adam’s interest and talent for music was discovered early on and he studied and performed an eclectic array of instruments. He recalls his first exposure to music as equally diverse, ranging from Beethoven piano sonatas that his father would play, Jimi Hendrix and Sly and the Family Stone records, and a Stan Getz/Gilberto/Jobim box set that would later prove to have a profound impact on him.
  
  During his studies at NYU, Adam studied with acclaimed Steinhardt Jazz faculty including John Scofield, Wayne Krantz, Kenny Werner, Antonio Sanchez, Brian Lynch, and Gil Goldstein. In addition, he also studied with and performed with jazz faculty member Lenny Pickett, horn leader of the 70’s funk group Tower of Power and current music director of Saturday Night Live. These influences have encouraged Adam to explore musical styles and possibilities including and beyond the traditional jazz repertoire, applying his broad based knowledge to his love of popular music from around the world.
  
  Adam has performed/worked with a variety of other artists including producer, composer, and vibes virtuoso Mike Mainieri, Moroccan Gnawa star Hassan Hakmoun, Will Calhoun, (NYU Steinhardt Jazz faculty member) Jim McNeely, and doo wop front man Eugene Pitt. He is currently working with the up and coming singer/songwriter talent Anna Rose as well as touring with Japanese pianist Keiko Matsui. When home in NYC Adam remains an active, sought after performer, recording artist, and producer. You can hear his guitar playing on several TV commercials for companies including Avon and Wachovia.
  
  In fall of 2007, Adam toured internationally with NYU Jazz Faculty member Richard Bona as part of the Richard Bona Group. For his latest itinerary and projects, please visit his website at www.StoLerMusic.com or at www.myspace.com/StoLerMusic.
• Matt Shulman
  Matt Shulman (M.A. Jazz Performance '04)
  As an Alberto Vilar Global Fellow at NYU Steinhardt, Matt received his Master's of Arts degree in Jazz Performance in 2004. He has toured internationally, recorded and/or collaborated with such diverse artists as Brad Mehldau, NYU Steinhardt Jazz faculty Lenny Pickett, The Jazz Mandolin Project, Robert Sadin, John Medeski from MMW, NYU Steinhardt Jazz faculty Kenny Werner, the Complexions Dance Company, Skitch Henderson, and Nneena Freelon. His work as a performer has been featured on NBC's Saturday Night Live, the nationally syndicated presidential race coverage on MSNBC, and as both soloist and composer at Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Classically trained by NYU Brass Faculty Mark Gould, Matt has given New York and World premiers of NYU Steinhardt faculty Edward Green's 'Concerto in C', Marcello Toledo's 'Solitude of the World', NYU Steinhardt alumnus Timothy Newman's 'Intervening Rift', and his own 'Works for Trumpet'. All About Jazz says: "an other-worldly sound...Matt Shulman is something of a tour de force he sings, plays, and uses his voice as a muted horn in a solo and duet with the trumpet..."
  
• Peter Schwebs
  Peter Schwebs, (M.A. Jazz Performance '08) is a bassist, composer and educator from Hanover, Germany. He is working as a freelance musician with various international bands and projects performing and teaching in Europe, Latin America and the U.S. Peter was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study Jazz at NYU Steinhardt (2006-2008).  He received the Barney Josephson Award for Excellence in Jazz (2008).
  
  Peter has performed in international festivals such as the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland), Ostsee Jazzfestival (Germany), Umbria Jazz (Italy) and Jazz Peru Internacional (Lima, Peru), as well as on the award winning NYU Jazz Orchestra recording "Teo Macero: Inner World Band Study In Contrast" featuring Dave Liebman, Lee Konitz, Larry Coryell and Alex Sipiagin. During his first two years at NYU Jazz, he had the chance to perform with several internationally acclaimed NYU Jazz faculty including Kenny Werner, Joe Lovano, George Garzone, Lenny Pickett, and Chris Potter as well as visiting artist Randy Brecker at some of New York's most prestigious jazz venues including The Blue Note, Dizzy's Coca Cola Club at Lincoln Center, and Smalls.
• Wayne Shorter

  Wayne Shorter (Steinhardt Music, B.S., 1956) More than half a century after embarking on his lifelong musical adventure, Shorter is universally regarded as a living legend in jazz. His great body of work as a composer for (themselves) legendary groups such as Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis’ mid ‘60s quintet, and Weather Report is enough to ensure him an historic place in jazz. But even if this prolific composer had never written a single composition, his signature sound and unparalleled expression on both tenor and soprano saxes would have earmarked him for historic recognition. When this legendary writing prowess is combined with legendary performances with some of the greatest jazz artists of the last 50 years, the result is a jazz immortal. “Life is so mysterious, to me,” says Shorter. “I can’t stop at any one thing to say, ‘Oh, this is what it is.’ And I think it’s always becoming, always becoming. That’s the adventure. And imagination is part of that adventure."

  Born in Newark, New Jersey on August 25, 1933, Wayne Shorter had his first great jazz epiphany as a teenager: “I remember seeing Lester Young when I was 15 years old. It was a Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic show in Newark and he was late coming to the theater.  A couple of other guys and me were waiting out front of the Adams Theater and when he finally did show up, he had the pork pie hat and everything. Then we were trying to figure out how to get into the theater from the fire escape around the back. We eventually got into the mezzanine and saw that whole show -- Stan Kenton and Dizzy Gillespie bands together on stage doing ‘Peanut Vendor,’ Charlie Parker with strings doing ‘Laura’ and stuff like that. And Russell Jacquet…IIlinois Jacquet. He was there doing his thing. That whole scene impressed me so much that I just decided, ‘Hey, man, let me get a clarinet.’ So I got one when I was 16, and that’s when I started music.”

  Switching to tenor saxophone, Shorter formed a teenage band in Newark called The Jazz Informers and later got some invaluable bandstand experience with the Jackie Bland Band, a progressive Newark orchestra that specialized in bebop. While still in high school, Shorter participated in several cutting contests in Newark's jazz scene, including one memorable encounter with sax great Sonny Stitt. He was accepted to the Music Department in The Steinhardt School at New York University and immediately started soaking up the Manhattan jazz scene by frequenting popular nightspots like Birdland and Cafe Bohemia. Shorter worked his way through NYU by playing with the Nat Phipps orchestra. Upon graduating NYU in 1956, he worked briefly with Johnny Eaton and the Princetonians, and Shorter earned the nickname "The Newark Flash" for his speed and facility on the tenor saxophone. But just as he was beginning to make his mark, Shorter was drafted into the Army. He recalls a memorable jam session at the Cafe Bohemia just days before he was shipped off to Fort Dix, New Jersey. "A week before I went into the Army I went to the Cafe Bohemia to hear music, I said, for the last time in my life. I was standing at the bar having a cognac and I had my draft notice in my back pocket. That’s when I met Max Roach. He said, 'You’re the kid from Newark, huh? You’re The Flash.' And he asked me to sit in. They were changing drummers throughout the night, so Max played drums, then Art Taylor, then Art Blakey. Oscar Pettiford was on cello. Jimmy Smith came in the door with his organ. He drove to the club with his organ in a hearse. And outside we heard that Miles was looking for somebody named Cannonball. And I’m saying to myself, 'All this stuff is going on and I gotta go to the Army in about five days!'"

  Following his time in the service, Shorter had a brief stint in 1958 with Horace Silver and later played in the house band at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem. It was around this time that Shorter began jamming with fellow tenor saxophonists John Coltrane and Sonny Rollins. In 1959, Shorter had a brief stint with the Maynard Ferguson big band before joining Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in August of that year. He remained with the Jazz Messengers through 1963, becoming Blakey's musical director and contributing several key compositions to the band's book during those years. Shorter made his recording debut as a leader in 1959 for the Vee Jay label and in 1964 cut the first of a string of important recordings for the Blue Note label. He joined the Miles Davis band in 1964 and remained with the group through 1970, contributing such landmark compositions as "Nefertiti," "E.S.P.," "Pinocchio," "Sanctuary," "Fall" and "Footprints."

  In 1970, Shorter co-founded the group Weather Report with keyboardist and Miles Davis alum, Joe Zawinul. It remained the premier fusion group through the '70s and into the early '80s before disbanding in 1985 after 16 acclaimed recordings, including the Grammy Award-winning double-live LP, 8:30, in 1980. Shorter formed his own group in 1986 and produced a succession of electric jazz albums for the Columbia Records: Atlantis (1986),  Phantom Navigator (1987), and Joy Ryder (1988).   He re-emerged on the Verve Records label with High Life in 1995. After the tragic loss of his wife in 1996 (she was aboard the ill-fated Paris-bound flight TWA 800), Shorter returned to the scene with the release of 1+1 (1997), an intimate duet recording with pianist and former Miles Davis quintet bandmate Herbie Hancock. Hancock and Shorter spent 1998 touring as a duet. Also in that year, Shorter was given the most prestigious award in jazz, the NEA Jazz Masters Award.  In the summer of 2001 Shorter began touring as the leader of a talented young lineup featuring pianist Danilo Perez, bassist John Patitucci and drummer Brian Blade, each a celebrated recording artist and bandleader in his own right. The group's amazing chemistry was well documented in the acclaimed Footprints Live! (2002). Shorter followed in 2003 with Alegria, an expanded vision for large ensemble which earned him a Grammy Award that year.  In addition, he has received 9 Grammy Awards and 13 Grammy nominations in his career, which are ground shaking numbers.  Most recently, Mr. Shorter’s album, Beyond the Sound Barrier, received the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Jazz Album.

  top photo: Jazz legend and Alumnus Wayne Shorter & Dr. Dave Schroeder at Commencement 2010

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