BMCC Jazz Ensemble Selected for Prestigious 47th Annual DownBeat Student Music Awards

BMCC Jazz Ensemble at performance
DownBeat Awarding winning BMCC Jazz Ensemble at performance

May 9. 2024

The Jazz Ensemble at Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC/CUNY) has been selected for DownBeat magazine’s 47th Annual Student Music Awards. (The announcement that BMCC is the Community College Winner in the Blues/Pop/Rock category can be found on page 106 and the announcement that BMCC also received Community College Outstanding Performances recognition in the Small Vocal Jazz Group category on page 92.)

“This is the first time a BMCC ensemble has won this prestigious award,” says Music Professor and jazz musician Can Olgun, who directs the Ensemble. “They won it in the Best Community College Pop and Rock Ensemble, as well as getting honorary mention in the Vocal Ensemble category.”

Music majors in the Jazz Ensemble include Isabel Alvarez, Jaime André Díaz Granados Almanza and Stephanie Marrowon vocals; Jhakenson Cetoute on clarinet; Russell Bieber, Mike O’Donnell and Elias Solomon on guitar; Simeon Braithwaite on piano; Amaree Bowen on bass guitar and Jaden Shafe on drums.

Students bring global range of songs to their repertoire

BMCC Music Professor and Director of the BMCC Jazz Ensemble, Can Olgun
BMCC Music Professor and Director of the BMCC Jazz Ensemble, Can Olgun

“This semester is the strongest ensemble we’ve had,” says Professor Olgun. “We do a wide repertoire—a couple gospel songs, a little funk, R&B and soul.”

“Our students come from all over the world,” he says, “so when I ask them to bring in songs they want to play, they bring songs from all over the world.”

The students not only select songs to play, they prepare the sheet music and do the arrangements for them.

“We critique them as a group, and help them adjust the sheet music, for example if they need to rethink the chord symbols or make sure it’s in the right key,” says Professor Olgun.

The students use software to write the sheet music, and that allows them to hear a digitized version of what they’re writing, he explains, “but having the Ensemble actually do a live performance of what they’ve written, makes such a huge difference.”

Many of the students in the Ensemble got their musical start in a church background, Professor Olgun says, “so there’s also a lot of learning from aural transmission of knowledge. That student won’t need as much information on the page. Others are used to learning by reading sheet music.”

As the students from different musical backgrounds hear each other in class, “There begins to be crossover in how they learn and notate music,” he says.

In academia, he adds, “We focus more on the written side but originally this music was transmitted aurally. The really big, early jazz artists remind the younger ones, ‘You should know the songs by heart, you shouldn’t rely on the sheet music.’”

Musical talent yields full scholarships for Fall 2024

BMCC Jazz Ensemble member Jaime Diaz Granados
BMCC Jazz Ensemble member Jaime Diaz Granados

“I began as a drummer/percussionist and then began singing at the age of 14,” says Jaime André Díaz Granados Almanza, who graduates from BMCC in June 2024 and will transfer on a full scholarship to the Berklee College of Music this fall.

“I love to push myself as a performer and musician,” he says. “The level of the BMCC ensemble gets higher every year and I am so proud to share this DownBeat Award with all the other members.”

As for long-term goals, “I want to go to the biggest stages in music, theater, film, and be able to share something unique and powerful with the audience,” he says. “Hopefully, with my work, I will advocate for Latinos and immigrants in the world.”

He adds that he is thankful for opportunities the Music department at BMCC provided, “like appearing on SNL, at Carnegie Hall, the Perelman Arts Center, Radio City, Trinity Church and more. GRACIOS!”

BMCC Jazz Ensemble member Stephanie Marrow
BMCC Jazz Ensemble member Stephanie Marrow

Another BMCC Jazz Ensemble member who landed an impressive transfer scholarship is former flight attendant and current Music major Stephanie Marrow.

In addition to being a singer, she is an outstanding student and earned a full scholarship to New York University starting Fall 2024.

“I’ll be attending NYU Gallatin in the fall on a scholarship from the GUIDE Gallatin program that I was part of, through BMCC,” Marrow says. “I plan to finish my bachelor’s degree at NYU. My concentration will be Racial Justice and Equity in the Media and Performing Arts.”

As a singer, Marrow identifies as a contralto. “My major is Music Studies, with applied studies in Classical Voice,” she says. “I’ve been singing since I was a kid. I always loved to sing, but because my voice is so low, I never saw myself as a singer until I started seeing and hearing more representation of voices like mine—Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse, Adele and others.”

After a successful audition, she joined the BMCC Jazz Ensemble.

“I usually sing Classical music for my Music classes, so it’s a breath of fresh air to focus on other genres with the Ensemble,” she says. “It’s also a real collaboration. From picking the songs, to how we arrange them, it’s a collective decision-making process. It’s a small enough group that you become really close as well.”

Her long-term goals show the wide range of her interests.

“I’d love to have a residency as a lounge singer, or even be in a rock band, or record an album,” she says. “I’m not much of a writer, but I know so many talented song-writers. I also love musical theatre, and would love to be in a Broadway show.”

Being at BMCC, she says, has helped her talent grow.

“I’m thankful for the amazing opportunities going to BMCC has given me,” she says. “The whole Music Department is amazing and I’ll always tell people about this college, because it’s a life-changing place.”

Guitarists find the inspiration to “put themselves out there”

Elias Soloman started playing guitar at the age of six. “I love the variety of music that we play in our repertoire with the Jazz Ensemble,” he says. “I’ve become good friends with all the people in the band, and it’s awesome seeing the growth and progress we all make.”

Envisioning his future after BMCC, Soloman says he wants to “gig and play music as much as possible. I want to make playing music a career. I want to play and tour a bunch.”

He adds that he plays in an instrumental rock band called “Pulseweaver” and plays in a hip-hop/pop group with fellow BMCC classmates.

BMCC jazz Ensemble member Amaree Bowen
BMCC jazz Ensemble member Amaree Bowen

Amaree Bowen picked up his first guitar when he was 16.

“I started on acoustic guitar, transferred to electric within a few years, and then picked up the bass guitar for the first time when I was 20,” he says. “I wanted to learn how to play my favorite metal and hard rock songs, but then I found out that I also like to write, so now I’m learning how to write music for myself and other people.”

“My next steps are hopefully transferring to NYU in the fall to get my bachelor’s degree in contemporary production and songwriting major,” says Bowen, who plans to graduate over the summer.

“I’m trying to set up a gig or two over the summer, writing a lot more music, learning some new instruments—specifically, the drums and getting better at the keyboard—and I’ll maybe do a little light traveling. Boston is one of the places on my list.”

He says his “main long-term musical goals are to produce and compose, working as a session musician on the side and performing live.”

Most of all, though, he says he enjoys writing music for others: “The ability to help make their musical ideas come to life with just a touch of my flavor is one of the best feelings.”

In addition to being in the Jazz Ensemble, Bowen was a member of the BMCC Guitar Ensemble led by Program Coordinator of Jazz & Popular Music, jazz guitarist and composer, Professor Quentin Angus.

“I love the people you meet in the ensembles,” Bowen says. “Being in the jazz ensemble has given me more community and enjoyment than I have ever felt. They have pushed me to improve technically and to innovate, to believe in my talent and put myself out there more.”

Music gets people through tough times

BMCC Jazz Ensemble member Isabel Alvarez
BMCC Jazz Ensemble member Isabel Alvarez

Isabel Alvarez, who performs under the name “Velise,” is a singer and songwriter influenced by jazz, Motown, opera and hip-hop. According to her LinkedIn profile, she has recorded with Starlight Girls, PENPALS and Thonio, as well as performing regularly with Evan Crommett. She adds that she has been working on an album for a few years, and it is set to be released this July.

“My grandma introduced me to the piano—she is still playing at 92 years young!,” says Alvarez. “I was fortunate that the grammar school I attended, St. Ann’s in Ossining, New York, offered choir and music lessons starting in second grade.”

She plans to graduate in 2025, and “to continue singing, writing music and allowing music to keep paving the way.”

Benefits of being a member of the BMCC Jazz Ensemble, she says, include “the community of peers, our instructor’s guidance, and the consistency of meeting for a few hours weekly—it has truly gotten me through some extremely tough times.”

Simeon Braithwaite has been a member of the BMCC Jazz Ensemble since 2020 and recently earned his Associate degree in Music from BMCC.

He started playing piano in his early teens: “The person who got me started was my wonderful mother who pushed me to learn the instrument to play in church.”

He adds that what he appreciates about the Jazz Ensemble is “Everything. Performances, theory, lessons, the people and just jamming to some amazing music.”

Eventually, he wants to form “an amazing band” for his church, where he now serves as music director.

Student performers get a jump start at BMCC

While the DownBeat Award is a first for the Jazz Ensemble, BMCC student singers and musicians are no stranger to the limelight.

Thanks to the efforts of Professor Olgun as well as jazz guitarist, Program Coordinator of Jazz & Popular Music and Professor Quentin Angus, Music and Art Chair Eugenia Oi Yan Yau and others, BMCC students get a jump start on performing before a live audience.

In April 2024, a group of BMCC Music majors performed as backup singers for singer-songwriting Raye, on NBC’s Saturday Night Live. In 2023, the Jazz and Guitar Ensemble took part in WBGO’s annual college focus. In 2019, the BMCC Jazz Ensemble was featured on WBGO, National Public Radio.

Coming up on May 20, the Guitar and Jazz Ensemble will perform at Theatre II in BMCC’s main campus at 199 Chambers Street in lower Manhattan.

In addition to the Jazz Ensemble, BMCC music ensembles include the Downtown Chorus and BMCC Select Chorus, directed by Music and Art Chair Eugenia Oi Yan Yau and which has performed at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center and Carnegie Hall.

Other ensembles that perform each year include the BMCC String Ensemble, directed by Music Professor Robert Reed and the BMCC Guitar Ensemble, directed by Professor and Deputy Chair in the Music and Art Department, Quentin Angus.

 

The BMCC Music and Art department offers an Associate Degree in Music with specializations in Music Studies, Music Education and Music Performance. Students are required to audition for entrance to the program, which provides practice rooms and music tutoring. Graduates gain the basics of musical performance, music theory, keyboard skills, ear training and sight singing. For more information, call (212) 220-1464.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

  • A big first: BMCC Jazz Ensemble selected for DownBeat magazine’s 47th Annual Student Music Awards

  • Award is in Best Community College Pop and Rock Ensemble category; honorary mention earned in Vocal Ensemble category

  • Two Jazz Ensemble members will transfer with full scholarships in Fall 2024:  Jaime André Díaz Granados Almanza to the Berklee College of Music and Stephanie Marrow to NYU

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