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.
Davy Mooney is a jazz guitarist from New Orleans who records for Sunnyside Records and is assistant professor of jazz studies and head of the jazz guitar program at the University of North Texas, where he teaches private lessons and advanced jazz improvisation.
“Aggressive but never forced” describes the music of Noel Johnston to a T. His is a veritable wall of sound across which is graffittied a diagram of fire, sweat, and professionalism. The Dallas area-based guitarist grew up in Southern California, where he began his musical training on violin from an early age before switching to cello at 7. In spite of his keen abilities with a bow, his fingers yearned for a pick.
Born and raised in a small town in Southwestern Pennsylvania, Alan Baylock has composed music that is performed throughout the world. One of the most respected and sought-after jazz composers and educators in the industry today, he is the director of the Grammy-nominated One O’Clock Lab Band at the University of North Texas, and previously served 20 years as Chief Arranger for the USAF Airmen of Note in Washington, D.C. The Alan Baylock Jazz Orchestra recorded three critically acclaimed CDs and performed throughout the United States for 15 years.
Lynn Seaton is a Regents Professor in the Jazz Studies Division of the College of Music. Professor Seaton teaches jazz bass Lessons, Jazz Performance Fundamentals I for Bass, Jazz Performance Fundamentals II for Bass, and coaches small groups. He serves as director of the Jazz Double Bass Workshop at UNT. He was honored to be named a Fulbright Scholar to teach and perform in Latvia.
Stockton Helbing is always moving. If he is not playing the drums he is busy being a composer, arranger, producer, bandleader, educator, music director, author, and entrepreneur.
Craig Marshall has served as manager of the Jazz Studies Division at UNT since 1995. Marshall earned degrees in jazz studies from UNT, where he is now manager of the lab bands and producer for the North Texas Jazz record label. As former trombonist in the UNT One O'Clock Lab Band, Marshall appeared on six CDs, including the Grammy-nominated composition "Values" by Neil Slater on Lab '91, and the commemorative box set North Texas Jazz: Fifty Years that he also co-produced.
“His solos are sparkling and Cannonball Adderley influenced" (Evening Standard, London). “Saxophonist Brad Leali was among the most soulful and exciting I’ve heard recently” (New York Times). With a unique style and sound, which echoes the influences of his past, Brad Leali is one of the most notable saxophonists of current times. A native of Denver, Colorado, Brad was raised in the Baptist Church.
Praised as a world-class artist, and with an international reputation in several facets of the music industry, Rosana Eckert wears many hats as a versatile live and studio vocalist, a dynamic improviser, a creative songwriter and arranger, and a masterful educator of jazz and voice. She has performed and recorded with many jazz luminaries, including Christian McBride, Bobby McFerrin, George Duke, Bill Mays, Jon Faddis, Marvin Stamm, and the New York Voices.
Richard DeRosa received a Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Composition in 2015 for his big band composition Neil which is dedicated to Neil Slater, the former director of the One O’Clock Lab Band (University of North Texas). His 8-movement work titled Life in Poetry and Music, featuring world-renowned vocalist Kurt Elling supported by a jazz quartet, orchestra, and treble choir, was premiered at UNT in March 2022.
