2025 Carmine Caruso Competition

Nicholas Payton

Guest Artist & Competition Judge

As a leading voice in American popular music, the Grammy Award-winning Nicholas Payton is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger, essayist, and social activist who defies musical and artistic categories. All the while, he honors the tradition of what he terms “postmodern New Orleans music,” as well as the spirit of Black American Music, of which he states, “There are no fields, per se. There are lineages.”

The New Orleans-born Payton has followed his calling since growing up under the tutelage of his parents — acclaimed bassist Walter Payton and Maria Payton, a pianist and vocalist. Already a prodigy before entering the first grade, he began playing trumpet at age four and started performing professionally at age 10. Before the age of 20, he was already in demand by everyone from Danny Barker and Clark Terry to Elvin Jones and Marcus Roberts. Payton released his first album, From this Moment, in 1995 on the famed Verve label. He received his first Grammy nomination in 1997 for the album Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton, and for the category of Best Instrumental Solo, which found him winning the award that year.

Payton has released over 20 recordings as a leader, pushing musical boundaries and showcasing a variety of contemporary and traditional styles, while displaying his ambidextrous ability to play both the trumpet and keyboard at the same time when he’s inspired to do so. He has collaborated with numerous mentors and contemporaries alike, ranging from Common and Cassandra Wilson to Trey Anastasio, MonoNeon, and Jill Scott, to Dr. John, Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste of The Meters, Allen Toussaint, and Abbey Lincoln to name a few. His most recent album is DRIP (italicized), which features Christie Dashiell, Michael Franks, Robert Glasper, and Patrice Rushen.

“Everything I write is about life experiences. The music means nothing without life. A life lived. It’s not just notes on a page. It’s not just a technical exercise. It’s vibrations and energy,” Payton says. “And I’m striving to help lift, if possible, raise the vibration of the collective conscious one audience, one album, one song at a time. If I can’t do that, there’s no point in me playing. That’s why I play. It’s about contributing to society and inspiring. That’s my life as an artist, period. Challenging people to think differently, to think critically and to not be slaves to the system and the status quo.”

In addition to Payton’s work as a performer, he is an equally respected composer, having written The Black American Symphony an orchestral work, which the Czech National Symphony Orchestra commissioned and performed. He led a live concert performance of Miles Davis’ renowned Sketches of Spain with the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland. “Pretty much all the music that I play is centered in Black culture, Black music. And that’s why I’ve eschewed jazz and came up with the terminology, Black American Music, because I want to be connected to the whole of it,” Payton says about genre. “It’s all the same. John Coltrane and Charlie Parker and James Brown could be neighbors. So what’s the distinction there? The only difference in the music is who they came through, and where they’re from.”

As a leader, Payton’s seminal writings and discussions on the problematics of the term and associations of “jazz” have inspired musicians, researchers, music listeners, and thinkers alike. As such, he termed Black American Music, or #BAM for short, to represent the breadth of improvisational musical creations created by Black people in the U.S., regardless of genre. His introduction of #BAM into the lexicon of popular music discourse landed him an entry in the New York Times‘ “The Decade in Jazz: 10 Definitive Moments” in 2019.

“(Black American Music) is … a liberation music, it is our first global recognition in humanizing, if you will, a class of people who were systematically dehumanized for centuries,” Payton says. “The concern for me is to draw from the wellspring of all the great Black ancestors who inspired me to play this music in the first place. And to hopefully keep that energy, that spirit.”

Through his mission-driven work and art, Payton continues to creatively move boundaries, while inspiring and remaining inspired by the pioneering lineage of Black American Music, of which he is a part.

Ingrid Jensen

Guest Artist & Competition Judge

---

Terell Stafford 

Guest Artist & Competition Judge

The title of his most recent album, Between Two Worlds, perfectly encapsulates the boundary-crossing life and career of renowned trumpet player, composer, and educator Terell Stafford. Hailed as “one of the great players of our time” by the late piano icon McCoy Tyner, Stafford unites any number of dichotomies in his music: jazz and classical traditions, stunning virtuosity and profound emotion, stylistic eclecticism and an immediately identifiable voice.

At the same time he straddles worlds in a variety of ways in his career, juggling roles as a thriving musician and an acclaimed educator, or as a visionary bandleader and an in-demand sideman for some of the music’s most legendary performers. Perhaps most importantly, he strives to strike that always precarious balance between a professional touring musician and a loving husband and father to his family.

Looking back over Stafford’s evolution, The New Yorker called him, “a distinguished bandleader and composer whose horn playing still startles with its verve and conviction.” 

Those facets can be heard vividly on more than 180 recordings over the last three decades. That includes a dozen albums under Stafford’s own name, from his 1995 debut Time To Let Go to Between Two Worlds in 2023. Along the way he’s paid homage to formative influences including Lee Morgan and Billy Strayhorn and celebrated the tightly-knit and incredibly gifted community of musicians with whom he’s surrounded himself both on the bandstand and in the halls of academia.

In addition to the Terell Stafford Quintet, Stafford is the founder and Managing and Artistic Director of the Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia (JOP), a big band composed of a generation-spanning roster of stellar Philly musicians, dedicated to celebrating the legacies of the many influential players and composers who emerged from the City of Brotherly Love.

As the Director of Jazz Studies and Chair of Instrumental Studies at Philadelphia’s Temple University, Stafford has become a nurturing mentor to new generations of up-and-coming jazz musicians. He’s helped to guide the university and its students to impressive victories at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jack Rudin Jazz Championship, winning the inaugural event in 2020; and to grow the school’s Grammy-nominated record label, BCM&D, with recordings by the Temple University Jazz Band (including guest artists including Christian McBride, Joey DeFrancesco, Branford Marsalis, Jimmy Heath, Jon Faddis, and Dick Oatts) and all-star ensembles featuring Stafford and his fellow faculty members.

Born in Miami and raised in Chicago, Stafford began studying classical trumpet at the age of 13. He first encountered jazz while earning his degree in music education at the University of Maryland – a practical compromise urged by his parents while he pursued a career as a classical musician. A fortuitous meeting with Wynton Marsalis led Stafford to study with Dr. William Fielder at Rutgers University, a vital mentorship that open the young trumpeter’s mind to explore a diverse range of genres and styles. Marsalis has remained a strong supporter, later inviting Stafford to perform with his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and offering guidance as Stafford developed his own Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia.

It was at that point that Stafford began to delve deeply into the history of jazz, finding foundational influences in bebop greats like Clifford Brown and Lee Morgan. During that time he also connected with saxophonist Tim Warfield, who would go on to become one of his closest friends and collaborators, and who remains a key member of the Terell Stafford Quintet today. The two frequented jam sessions along the east coast, finding a vibrant home at the famed Philadelphia club Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus, where the house band featured such luminaries as organist Shirley Scott, pianist Sid Simmons, and drummer Mickey Roker.

Scott proved to be another guiding light for Stafford, enlisting him and Warfield to join her quintet as well as the house band for a revival of the TV game show You Bet Your Life. Both would make memorable early contributions to Scott’s final studio album, A Walkin’ Thing, in 1992. While at Rutgers, Stafford was also invited to join Bobby Watson’s Horizon, a group that the saxophonist formed in the image of his own proving ground, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. Through that experience Stafford went on to record with Watson’s big band on the 1993 release Tailor Made, and to join McCoy Tyner’s Latin All-Star Band, helping to hone his skills alongside Latin jazz giants including trombonist Steve Turre, flutist Dave Valentin, and percussionist Jerry Gonzalez.

Since that time Stafford has played an integral role in such legend-fronted groups as the McCoy Tyner Sextet, Benny Golson Sextet, Kenny Barron Quintet, Frank Wess Quintet, Jimmy Heath Quintet and Big Band, Jon Faddis Jazz Orchestra, Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Alumni Band. He has been a longtime member of the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, which garnered a Grammy Award in 2009 as Best Large Ensemble for their album Live at the Village Vanguard. Stafford has enjoyed fruitful tenures with the Grammy-nominated Clayton Brothers band and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, as well as with drummer Matt Wilson’s eclectic group Arts and Crafts. He has performed with bands led by Cedar Walton, Sadao Watanabe, and Herbie Mann, while his most recent collaborations include the iconic saxophonist Charles McPherson and the Grammy-anointed Best New Artist, rising star singer Samara Joy. Stafford has also composed new music for the PRISM Saxophone Quartet.

Following the release of Time To Let Go (Candid) in 1995, Stafford released Centripetal Force (Candid) in 1996, Fields of Gold (Nagel-Heyer) in 2000, New Beginnings (MAXJAZZ) in 2003, and the live Taking Chances (MAXJAZZ) in 2007, a catalogue that includes such acclaimed musicians as Mulgrew Miller, Bill Cunliffe, Antonio Hart, Ron Blake, Stefon Harris, Victor Lewis, Edward Simon, Steve Wilson, Bruce Barth, Derrick Hodge, Dick Oatts, and, of course, Tim Warfield. In 2011 he released his gorgeous take on the music of Billy Strayhorn with This Side of Strayhorn (MAXJAZZ), and in 2015 earned an NAACP Image Award nomination for Brotherlee Love, his homage to the late, great Lee Morgan. He co-led a quintet with sax giant Dick Oatts for 2009’s Bridging the Gap, and united with Oatts and other Temple faculty and friends (including Warfield, Barth, Byron Landham, Justin Faulkner and Mike Boone) for Family Feeling in 2018 and Fly With the Wind in 2023 (both BCM&D).

---

Quincy Davis

Associate Professor of Jazz Drumset - University of North Texas

Currently Associate Professor of Jazz Drumset at the University of North Texas, Quincy Davis, born in Grand Rapids, Michigan, 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. Both of his parents are musicians who exposed him to different styles of music including instrumental jazz, European classical, gospel, opera, R&B and jazz-fusion.

His formal music studies began during his 11th grade year at Interlochen Arts Academy. There he studied classical percussion and began playing drumset in jazz bands with peers for the first time.

After graduating from Interlochen Arts Academy in 1995, Davis began studying at Western Michigan University (WMU). There he studied with the drum legend, Billy Hart. During his collegiate years, Davis gained experience playing in big bands and small groups at various collegiate jazz festivals. Davis’ talents would be recognized at these festivals through accolades by notable musicians Benny Green, Bunky Green, Jon Faddis, Rufus Reid, Roy Haynes, Carl Allen, Louis Hayes and Wallace Roney.

After graduating from WMU in 1999, Davis taught elementary and middle school instrumental music in the Grand Rapids area for one year where he taught beginner, intermediate and advanced concert band before moving to New York City.

In the summer of 2000, Davis moved to New York City where he quickly became one of the highly sought after “young cats” on the New York jazz scene. In New York, Davis frequently played at all the famous jazz venues including Village Vanguard, Blue Note, Smalls, Jazz Standard, Birdland, Iridium, Dizzy’s Coca-Cola Club and Smoke.

During his time in New York City, Davis performed and toured with world-renowned musicians Frank Wess, Ernestine Anderson, Cecil McLorin-Salvant, Russell Malone, Eric Reed, Paquito D'Rivera, Kurt Elling, Christian McBride, Buster Williams, Eric Alexander, Leslie Odom Jr., Aaron Parks, Seamus Blake, Vanessa Rubin, Aaron Goldberg, Jon Faddis, Jimmy Heath, Gerald Clayton, The Clayton Brothers, Harold Mabern, Aaron Parks, Peter Bernstein, Regina Carter, David Hazeltine, Roy Hargrove, Randy Johnston, Bob Sheppard, Paula West, Houston Person, Curtis Fuller, New York Voices, The Mingus Orchestra, Ryan Kisor and Wessell Anderson. Davis still performs with many of these artists.

In 2010, Davis accepted a teaching position at the University of Manitoba (Canada) where he was the assistant professor of jazz drumset. He, along with the other world-renowned faculty, helped to bring more visibility to the program that has since produced some very successful students, winning many awards and making a name for themselves on the international stage.

In 2013, Quincy released his debut recording as a leader, Songs In the Key of Q, which rose to #1 on Jazz Week’s radio jazz chart. His sophomore release, Q Vision, was ranked #3 for 5 weeks. Both albums feature all original music written by Davis.

Davis began teaching at the University of North Texas in 2017 where he is currently chair of the drumset department.

Quincy can be heard on over 50 albums playing with many notable jazz artists including Tom Harrell, Gretchen Parlato, Benny Golson, Steve Nelson, Ted Rosenthal, Marcus Printup, Dave Stryker, Walt Weiskopf, Stefon Harris, Randy Napoleon, Benny Green, Aaron Diehl, Frank Wess, Bobby Watson, Xavier Davis, Danny Grissett, Vincent Gardner, Darmon Meader, Sachal Vasandani and many more.

Davis stays very active as a performer in the United States and internationally. His passion for teaching is not only evident through his teaching at the University of North Texas, but also through his many video lessons on jazz drumming and interviews with master drummers on his YouTube channel which currently has 15k subscribers.

Quincy is a proud endorser of Zildjian cymbals, Tama drums and Vic Firth drumsticks.

---

Dave Meder

Associate Professor of Jazz Piano - University of North Texas

Pianist, composer, and educator Dave Meder is one of the prominent artists of his generation, known for a broad musical palette and interdisciplinary approach recognized in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, the American Pianists Awards, and the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commissioning program. His defining aesthetic is a strikingly postmodern sense of stylistic adventure, incorporating what All About Jazz describes as “a vibrant hybrid of the whole American spectrum.”

In his 2019 debut, Passage, Meder established himself as a uniquely versatile artist, traversing his way through an affecting gospel standard, a bold deconstruction of Thelonious Monk, a title track inspired by American minimalists Philip Glass and John Adams, a dramatic elegy inspired by Baroque-era operatic harmonies, as well as select pieces featuring generation-defining saxophonists Miguel Zenón and Chris Potter. The Ottawa Citizen counted Passage among its top five jazz debuts, and All Music Guide included the album in its “Favorite Jazz Albums” list, noting the balance of “post-bop harmonies with soulful gospel warmth and contemporary classical sophistication.”

On his 2021 album, Unamuno Songs and Stories, Meder again leveraged these diverse musical influences in a stunning response to recent sociopolitical turmoil in the United States. Using the writings of Spanish Civil War-era philosopher Miguel de Unamuno as a historical analogy, Meder and his trio (with featured guests Philip Dizack and Miguel Zenón), embark on an intensely emotive set that explores the tensions between democracy and authoritarianism, internationalism and nationalism, and religious faith and non-belief. The 2023 album New American Hymnal served as a worthy follow-up, further exploring connections and metaphors between American religion and civic culture.

His original compositions have garnered various awards and commissions, including the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commissioning grant, the ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award, prizes in the International Songwriting Competition, and the First Music Commission of the New York Youth Symphony. Meder has headlined at a host of prominent performance venues and educational residencies around the world, including Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smalls Jazz Club, The Kennedy Center, Beijing Normal University’s International Music Festival, and a US State Department sponsored performance residency in Honduras. He is a recipient of the prestigious Fulbright US Scholar Award for Visual and Performing Awards, which brought him to Egypt as a guest lecturer of jazz improvisation.

Remarkably, the beginnings of Meder’s jazz education were mostly self-guided. Born, raised and classically trained in Tampa, Florida, he was still a teenager when he began teaching professionally at a local music shop, while also building his own private teaching practice. While ensconced in his classical studies, he was persuaded by friends to help them form an after-school jazz band in their middle school, whose music department lacked a formal jazz program. With oversight from a generous band director, the jazz ensemble became a reality and Meder became enamored of the art form, working at it largely on his own until college.

During his undergraduate studies at Florida State University — from which Meder graduated summa cum laude with degrees in jazz studies, Spanish and political science, along with a certificate in sacred music — tutelage under Marcus Roberts bolstered his authentic handle on historical jazz piano styles, while his broad-based academic studies would set the stage for the far-reaching and sometimes counterintuitive influences seen in Unamuno Songs and Stories, New American Hymnal and other recent projects. During his college years, Meder was also fortunate to immerse himself in the jazz lineage firsthand through participation in two of the most crucial incubators in jazz education: the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead program at The Kennedy Center and the Steans Music Institute at the Ravinia Festival (led at the time by the late David Baker). Upon his graduation in 2013, Meder won the esteemed Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition, formerly known as the Great American Jazz Piano Competition.

A later move to New York afforded Meder a chance to study with the leading edge of jazz: Fred Hersch, Mark Turner, Ari Hoenig, Dave Douglas, and a full year under the mentorship of the legendary Kenny Barron — while also studying classical piano with Julian Martin as well as advanced counterpoint and harmony with Philip Lasser, a leading disciple of the famous Nadia Boulanger school of composition. He now holds a professorship at the University of North Texas, one of the most renowned jazz studies programs in the world, where he continues the tradition of direct mentorship that has sustained the legacy of jazz to this day.

Meder holds an MM from New York University and an Artist Diploma from The Juilliard School, where he taught and toured as part of the premier ensemble of the school. Concurrent to his graduate studies, Meder worked for three years as the music director of Fordham Lutheran Church in the Bronx, furthering another creative through-line in his life. “I was raised in the church, and I’ve always played in it too,” Meder says. “In the context of all the other ‘brainy’ stuff I’ve studied in music school, [the church] forced me to make a soulful connection to it—to try and make what I was absorbing more personal and musical.” Indeed, his music conveys a tremendous depth, yet remains eminently soulful, an aspiration not often achieved in modern jazz.

Dave Meder is a Yamaha Artist.

---

Kanoa Mendenhall

Kanoa Mendenhall is a bassist and composer based in New York. Known for her poetic and melodic approach to the bass, Kanoa brings her deep respect and love for multiple musical traditions together, such as jazz, Black American Music, experimental, and folk ritual music from her birthplace Japan. She is a graduate of Columbia University, and an alumni of the Columbia-Juilliard Exchange, where she studied with Ben Wolfe and participated in studio classes with Ron Carter. Kanoa has performed around the world as a sideman with artists such as Joel Ross, Aaron Parks, Dayna Stephens, and has been part of the faculty at JazzDanmark’s Summer Session, Siena Jazz Workshop, Jazz Camp West, and Stanford Jazz Workshop. Her bass playing can be heard on more than 15 released albums as a sideman, with more music to be released in the near future. 

 

 

 

 

 

Lotus Trumpets - Sponsor

Lotus Trumpets will be exhibiting all of their equipment at the University of North Texas from 9am-7pm on October 24th and 25th in room MU262.

---

About our trumpets:
Our 1st generation trumpets were developed with Andy Taylor & Matt Martin in England.  Early on, the horns were being handmade in Andy's shop, aside from our customized MAW valve block, produced by Meinlschmidt in Germany.

We're now making 2nd Generation LOTUS Trumpets, which are very different beasts. Working with companies across Europe that specialize in particular aspects of our operation brings us the highest quality products and services available.

Our glorious bells are now made by Bernd Sandner in Germany.

Our extended team includes various European companies for services like scanning & 3D printing, and consultants such as renowned acoustic physicist, professor Gregor Widholm in Vienna. Meanwhile, Mark Schwartz, "accountant to the trumpet stars" lends his expertise to our financial and legal needs from the comfort of his home in Arizona.  In the 21st century, geography is no barrier. Actually, the distance greatly improves our ability to assemble an all-star team. And our circle grows everyday with each new LOTUS owner or dealer who falls in love with our instruments, some of whom inevitably bring new ideas and requests; itches that we take pride in scratching for you.  

About our mouthpieces:
To design our mouthpieces, we worked with the phenomenal team of historical brass instrument specialists, Egger in Switzerland, who also manufactured the mouthpieces for us until earlier this year.

Rainer Egger, Gert Friedel & Ralf Masurat are a dream team, and it was a huge honor getting to work with them. Our goal has always been to bring impeccable quality mouthpieces to as 
many people as possible. Our mission is making cutting edge, artisanal mouthpieces available at a price even suitable for children, yet designed to turbo-charge the greatest of performers.

There should be no "barrier to entry" for anyone to have a mouthpiece that really does make the job easier. That mouthpiece should be the standard from Day 1. We've spent an outrageous amount of time and money on optimizing our designs, introducing new models and updating all of our existing models.

We've added material options, and incorporated the most common requests and feedback we've received. These are undoubtedly better mouthpieces, and we are in LOVE with them!

We're also happy to unveil a series of mouthpieces created to breathe new life into your flugelhorn. In 2023, we introduced our Generation 3 mouthpieces featuring new LOTUS Golden coating. Based on data collected from LOTUS Artists and during many in-person testing sessions with customers, we settled upon throat sizes and backbore tapers that best serve our customers. HC vs non-HC models were eliminated and we now offer one model per cup.

Additionally, the M2, S, XS and XS2 now come with our new "Marathon Rim" shape. The "Marathon Rim" was designed to be as comfortable and forgiving as possible for high-note playing. Adam Rapa changed his 2M2 and 3S to this new rim shape within a few notes of trying the prototypes. He says it it by far the most comfortable rim shape he's ever felt.

Location

The Carmine Caruso Competition will take place at Paul Voertman Concert Hall, located on the University of North Texas (UNT) campus:

Paul Voertman Concert Hall
415 S Avenue C
Denton, TX 76203

Directions

From Airports:

Visitors traveling by air can fly into one of the following airports:

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) – 25 miles from Denton
Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL) – 35 miles from Denton

From DFW Airport (Recommended Option - 30 minutes)

1. Take TX-121 N from the airport.
2. Merge onto I-35E N toward Denton.
3. Take exit 467 for North Texas Boulevard.
4. Turn right onto North Texas Boulevard.
5. Turn right onto West Highland Street.
6. Turn left onto South Avenue C.
7. The venue will be on your left.

From Dallas Love Field (40 minutes)

1. Take Herb Kelleher Way to Mockingbird Lane and head west.
2. Merge onto I-35E N toward Denton.
3. Follow the same steps as above from exit 467.

Driving Directions:

From the North (Oklahoma & Gainesville, TX)

1. Take I-35 S toward Denton.
2. Merge onto I-35E S toward Dallas.
3. Take exit 467 for North Texas Boulevard.
4. Turn left onto North Texas Boulevard.
5. Turn right onto West Highland Street.
6. Turn left onto South Avenue C.
7. The venue will be on your left.

From the South (Dallas & Fort Worth)

1. Take I-35E N toward Denton.
2. Take exit 467 for North Texas Boulevard.
3. Turn right onto North Texas Boulevard.
4. Turn right onto West Highland Street.
5. Turn left onto South Avenue C.
6. The venue will be on your left.

From the East (McKinney & Frisco)

1. Take US-380 W toward Denton.
2. Turn left onto North Texas Boulevard.
3. Turn right onto West Highland Street.
4. Turn left onto South Avenue C.
5. The venue will be on your left.

From the West (Decatur & Bridgeport)

1. Take US-380 E toward Denton.
2. Turn right onto North Texas Boulevard.
3. Turn right onto West Highland Street.
4. Turn left onto South Avenue C.
5. The venue will be on your left.

Hotels

For your stay in Denton, we recommend the following hotels:

Embassy Suites by Hilton Denton Convention Center
3100 Town Center Tr, Denton, TX 76201
(940) 243-3799
Website

Best Western Premier Crown Inn & Suites
2450 Brinker Rd, Denton, TX 76208
(940) 387-1000
Website

Both hotels offer comfortable accommodations and are within a short driving distance to the UNT campus.