LJW 2025 to be announced. 2024 artists were:
Scott Wendholt – Trumpet
Scott Wendholt is an articulate, passionate, and lyrical trumpeter who approaches music with energy and spirit. He communicates to audiences with sincerity and ease.
Born in the mid-sixties and nurtured in the Mile High City (Denver), this young veteran left for Indiana University and subsequently moved on to Cincinnati, Ohio. Still feeling a pull from farther East, he, like so many other musicians, migrated to New York City and has remained ever since.
Mr. Wendholt is a much in demand artist and has found himself in a variety of settings. He has recorded and/or worked extensively with artists including Kenny Garrett, Cyrus Chestnut, Christian McBride, Don Braden and Bruce Barth. For nearly 7 years, Scott found a home with Vincent Herring’s quintet. This highly acclaimed band has recorded three albums, including Folklore-Live At The Village Vanguard. He has toured extensively throughout the United States, Europe, South America, Africa and Japan with these bands as well as others.
To his credit, Scott has been recorded on more than 100 CD’s. However, he is recognized as a leader as well. His second recording for the Doubletime Jazz label was released in the spring of 2000, following three successful Scott Wendholt offerings on Criss Cross. This CD has received much favorable press including a 4 star review in Downbeat. Look for his most recent release with a new quartet he co leads with Adam Kolker on tenor saxophone. The recording features Victor Lewis on drums and Ugonna Okegwo on bass in a “chord-less” quartet setting with all new music. (Fresh Sound)
The “Big Band Scene” has also sought out this trumpeter for his versatility and formidable abilities. His list of credits include: The Carnegie Hall Big Band (led by Jon Faddis), Maria Schneider’s Big Band, the Bob Mintzer Big Band and Toshiko Akiyoshi’s big and. He currently has the honor of being included in the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra (formerly Thad Jones/Mel Lewis) where he has been a featured soloist for more than 20 years.
Mr. Wendholt continues to be in demand on the playing scene as well as in the educational arena. Scott is currently on the faculty at Manhattan School of Music and the Jamey Aebersold summer jazz camps and is in demand as a player/clinician in many colleges and various other learning institutions around the world.
Tom Walsh – Saxophone
Saxophonist Tom Walsh is Professor of Saxophone and Chair of the Jazz Studies Department at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. An active performer of jazz and classical music, he has presented concerts and workshops in South Africa, China, Brazil, Japan, Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, and across the United States. He is the co-author with Scott Reeves of the 5th edition of Creative Jazz Improvisation (Routledge, 2022). His beginning improvisation book, Jazz Master Teaches You to Improvise was published by Shanghai Music Publishing House in 2019. Recent recordings include The Gennett Suite with the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra (Patois Records), The Pandemic Sessions by the IU Jazz Faculty, Luke Gillespie’s Moving Mists, Basically Baker, Volume 2 with the Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra (Patois Records), and Mike Hackett’s CD New Point of View (Summit Records) and two CDs released on the IUMusic label: Holiday Celebration and Sylvia McNair’s Romance. Premiere performances include Scott Jones’s concert band arrangement of Russell Peck’s The Upward Stream, Chris Rutkowski’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Wind Ensemble, and David Baker’s Concerto for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra. His solo CD releases are Intersections (Arizona University Recordings) featuring Luke Gillespie on piano, New Life (RIAX), and Shaking the Pumpkin (RIAX). Other CD releases include the David Baker Concerto with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra (Paul Freeman Introduces David Baker, Volume XII–Albany Recordings), Basically Baker with the Buselli/Wallarab Jazz Orchestra (Patois Records), and Sky Scrapings: Saxophone Music of Don Freund (AUR Recordings).
Walsh has performed and presented at conferences of the International Association for Jazz Education, the Jazz Education Network, the North American Saxophone Alliance, and the World Saxophone Congress. He is a Yamaha Performing Artist and a Vandoren Artist. Dr. Walsh taught at the Jamey Aebersold Summer Jazz Workshops for 28 years. He co-leads the Indiana University Summer Saxophone Academy with Dr. Otis Murphy and is an organizer for the IU Summer Jazz Workshop and the IU Jazz Band Directors Workshop.
Dr. Walsh holds degrees in Saxophone Performance and Jazz Studies from Indiana University, where his principal teachers were distinguished classical saxophonist Eugene Rousseau and renowned jazz educator David Baker. Other influential teachers in his development were Mike Tracy, Pat LaBarbera, Jerry Coker, and David Liebman.