Karlton Hester (born February 11, 1949) is an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

performer The performing arts are The arts, arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which are the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art object ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

scholar A scholar is a person who pursues academic and intellectual activities, particularly academics who apply their intellectualism into expertise in an area of study. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researche ...

, and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

Biography

Hester earned his B.M. at

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public research university in El Paso, Texas. It is a member of the University of Texas System. UTEP is the second-largest university in the United States to have a majority Mexican American stud ...

, his M.A. in Music Education from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

, and his Ph.D. in composition from the

City University of New York Graduate Center The Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York (CUNY Graduate Center) is a public research institution and post-graduate university in New York City. Serving as the principal doctorate-granting institution of the Ci ...

. He formally studied flute with Harry Nelsova and Paul Renzi, saxophone with Frank Chase and Bill Tremble, composition with

Bruce Saylor Bruce Saylor (born April 24, 1946, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American composer. Biography Saylor was born in the Germantown section of Philadelphia. In 1952, his family moved to Springfield Township, just outside the city, where he attende ...

and

Robert Starer Robert Starer (8 January 1924 in Vienna – 22 April 2001 in Kingston, New York) was an Austrian-born American composer, pianist and educator. Robert Starer began studying the piano at age 4 and continued his studies at the Vienna State Academy ...

, and improvisation with

Joe Henderson Joe Henderson (April 24, 1937 – June 30, 2001) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. In a career spanning more than four decades, Henderson played with many of the leading American players of his day and recorded for several prominent l ...

and

John Handy John Richard Handy III (born February 3, 1933) is an American jazz musician most commonly associated with the alto saxophone. He also sings and plays the tenor and baritone saxophone, saxello, clarinet, and oboe. Biography Handy was born in ...

. He began his career as a studio musician and music educator in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

and would later serve as the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz Studies at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

from 1990 to 2000. At Cornell, Hester directed the Traditional and Experimental Lab Ensembles and coordinated university festivals and conferences that included a diverse array of “jazz” and African artists including

Jaki Byard John Arthur "Jaki" Byard (; June 15, 1922 – February 11, 1999) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and arranger. Mainly a pianist, he also played tenor and alto saxophones, among several other instruments. He was known for hi ...

Cecil Taylor Cecil Percival Taylor (March 25, 1929April 5, 2018) was an American pianist and poet. Taylor was classically trained and was one of the pioneers of free jazz. His music is characterized by an energetic, physical approach, resulting in complex ...

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (from 1960 to 1965) and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Masters, NEA ...

Toshiko Akiyoshi is a Japanese–American jazz pianist, composer, arranger, and bandleader. Akiyoshi received fourteen Grammy Award nominations and was the first woman to win Best Arranger and Composer awards in ''Down Beat'' magazine's annual Readers' Poll. ...

Stanley Turrentine Stanley William Turrentine (April 5, 1934 – September 12, 2000) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist. He began his career playing R&B for Earl Bostic and later soul jazz recording for the Blue Note label from 1960, touched on jazz fusion dur ...

Louis Jordan Louis Thomas Jordan (July 8, 1908 – February 4, 1975) was an American saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist, songwriter and bandleader who was popular from the late 1930s to the early 1950s. Known as " the King of the Jukebox", he earned his high ...

Buddy Collette William Marcel "Buddy" Collette (August 6, 1921 – September 19, 2010) was an American jazz flutist, saxophonist, and clarinetist. He was a founding member of the Chico Hamilton Quintet. Early life William Marcel Collette was born in L ...

, Dr.

Donald Byrd Donaldson Toussaint L'Ouverture Byrd II (December 9, 1932 – February 4, 2013) was an American jazz and rhythm & blues trumpeter and vocalist. A sideman for many other jazz musicians of his generation, Byrd was one of the few hard bop m ...

, Dr.

Billy Taylor Billy Taylor (July 24, 1921 – December 28, 2010) was an American jazz pianist, composer, broadcaster and educator. He was the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, and from 1994 was the ...

Randy Weston Randolph Edward "Randy" Weston (April 6, 1926 – September 1, 2018) was an American jazz pianist and composer whose creativity was inspired by his ancestral African connection. Weston's piano style owed much to Duke Ellington and Thelonious M ...

, Charles Lloyd,

Geri Allen Geri Antoinette Allen (June 12, 1957 – June 27, 2017) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and educator. In addition to her career as a performer and bandleader, Allen was also an associate professor of music at the University of Pittsburgh ...

Benny Powell Benny Powell (March 1, 1930 – June 26, 2010) was an American jazz trombonist. He played both standard (tenor) trombone and bass trombone. Biography Born Benjamin Gordon Powell Jr in New Orleans, Louisiana, he first played professionally ...

Charles Tolliver Charles Tolliver (born 1942) is an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and co-founder of Strata East Records. Biography Tolliver was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1942 and moved with his family to New York City when he was 10. During his chi ...

Steve Turre Stephen Johnson Turre (born September 12, 1948, in Omaha, Nebraska) is an American jazz trombonist and a pioneer of using Conch (instrument), seashells as instruments, a composer, arranger, and educator at the collegiate-conservatory level. For ...

, Sam Rivers,

Thomas Mapfumo Thomas Tafirenyika Mapfumo (born July 3, 1945) is a musician nicknamed "The Lion of Zimbabwe" and "Mukanya" (the praise name of his clan in the Shona language) for his immense popularity and for the political influence he wields through his mu ...

, George E. Lewis,

Roscoe Mitchell Roscoe Mitchell (born August 3, 1940) is an American composer, jazz instrumentalist, and educator, known for being "a technically superb – if idiosyncratic – saxophonist". ''The Penguin Guide to Jazz'' described him as "one of the key figures ...

Hotep Galeta Hotep Idris Galeta (7 June 1941 – 3 November 2010) was a South African jazz pianist and educator. His legal name at birth was Cecil Galeta, but according to local custom he was more commonly known as a child and young man as Cecil Barnard, his ...

Victor Goines Victor Louis Goines (born August 6, 1961) is a jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who has served as president and chief executive officer of Jazz St. Louis since September 2022. From 2000 to 2007, he was director of the jazz program at Juilliard. ...

Akua Dixon Akua Dixon is an American composer, classical cellist, and lawyer . Early years Dixon was born and raised in New York City. Her early musical experience included singing in a Baptist church. She was educated at the High School of Performing Arts ...

Mamadou Diabate Mamadou is a common given name in West Africa among predominantly Muslim ethnic groups such as the Mandé and Wolof people. It is a variant of the Arabic name Muhammad. Academics *Mamadou Diouf (historian), Senegalese professor of West African his ...

, Samite Mulondo, Cecilia Smith,

Phil Bowler Phillip Charles Bowler (born March 2, 1948, New York City) is an American jazz double-bassist and radio host. Career Bowler attended the University of Hartford, where he received a bachelor's degree in music in 1972. He played with Roland Kirk ...

, Adela Dalto, Pamela Wise, and Nick Mathis. As of 2000 Hester directs the "jazz" program at

UC Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

and is a Professor of Music in the Music Department. Hester is the founder and director of the San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band and Hesterian Musicism. Hester's music involves a synthesis of Afrocentric and Western tonal, modal, quartal, serial, and electronic elements into an expressive voice that defies simple categorization as either premeditated or spontaneous composition. Hester's Ph.D. dissertation is titled "The Melodic and Polyrhythmic Development of John Coltrane's Spontaneous Compositions in a Racist Society," and the music of John Coltrane has been a lasting influence on his work. He coined the term musicism to “represent the creative process by which musicians, visual artists and poets, through the merging of composition and performance, produce new art forms.” This interdisciplinary approach is realized in projects such as “Three Bodies” where Hester collaborated with astrophysicist Greg Laughlin and dancer Ted Warburton to create a multimedia performance that offers a “solution” to the

three-body problem In physics and classical mechanics, the three-body problem is the problem of taking the initial positions and velocities (or momenta) of three point masses and solving for their subsequent motion according to Newton's laws of motion and Newton's ...

. Hester has been the recipient of composer fellowships, grants, and commissions from the

National Endowment of the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal ...

New York Foundation for the Arts The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is an independent 501(c)(3) charity, funded through government, foundation, corporate, and individual support, established in 1971. It is part of a network of national not-for-profit arts organizations ...

, New England Council of the Arts,

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

, and the William Grant Still Foundation. He served as the vice president of the International Society for Improvised Music (2008-2018) and is founding director of Interdisciplinary Artists Aggregation, Inc. (1970–present). Hester is a Gold Medal winner of a Global Music Award for Experimental Jazz in December 2017, for his 2016 album ''Trans-Cultural Musicism''. Hester is currently the director and member of the principal faculty for the University of California, Santa Cruz Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) MFA program.

Discography

* 1981: ''Karlton Hester and the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement'' (Hesteria Records) * 1982: ''Hesterian Musicism'' (Hesteria Records) * 1988: ''Dances Purely for the Sake of Love'' (Hesteria Records) * 1998: ''Musicism for the Sake of Love'' (Hesteria Records) * 1998: ''Sacred Musicism'' (Hesteria Records) * 1998: ''Retrospective: Cornell University Lab Ensembles & Guest Artists 1991-1998 (Hesteria Records) * 1998: ''Hesterian Liberation'' (Hesteria Records) * 1999: ''Reconstructive Musicism'' (Hesteria Records) * 2000: ''Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000'' (Hesteria Records) * 2006: ''Musicism for Your Imagination'' (Hesteria Records) * 2006: ''Twentieth Century Musicism'' (Hesteria Records) * 2006: ''Live at Herbst Theatre'' with the Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band (Hesteria Records) * 2007: ''Divine Particle's Vision'' (Hesteria Records) * 2008: ''Sixth Sense - Stillness'' (Hesteria Records/Blue Cliff Records) * 2015: ''Trans-cultural Musicism'' (Hesteria Records) * 2017: ''Divine Consanguinity Ritual'' (Hesteria Records) * 2018: ''Hip-Hop Hesteria'' (Hesteria Records) * 2018: ''Quantum Elders Ballet'' (Hesteria Records/Centaur Records) * 2021: ''Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine'' (Hesteria Records/Blu-ray video) * 2022: ''Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine'' (Centaur Records/CD)

Books

* 1997: ''The Melodic and Polyrhythmic Development of John Coltrane's Spontaneous Compositions in a Racist Society'' (Edwin Mellen Press) * 2000: ''From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations Some Call "Jazz"'' (SUNY Press) * 2009: ''Bigotry and the Afrocentric Jazz Evolution 4th Edition'' (Cognella Publishing) * 2010: ''Exploratory Musicism: Ideas for Spontaneous Composition'' (Cognella Publishing) * 2011: ''Survey of African Music'' (Cognella Publishing) * 2016: ''African Roots of the Jazz Evolution'' (Cognella Publishing) * 2019: ''Jazz Nucleus of Global Fission'' (Kendall Hunt Publishing)

References

Further References

* (September 1983). "Review of Hesterian Musicism." ''Downbeat Magazine.'' p. 43 * (January 1983). "Review of Karlton Hester's Contemporary Jazz Art Movement." ''Cadence Magazine.'' p. 38 * (May 1983). "Review of Hesterian Musicism." ''Cadence Magazine.'' p. 42 * Bivins, Jason. (January 2009). "Review of Divine Particle's Vision." ''Cadence Magazine.'' p. 120-121 * Elcombe, Chris. (March 2010). "Review of Stillness: Improvisations 2008." ''The Strad.'' p. 95 * Loewy, Steven. (August 2001). "Review of Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000." ''Cadence Magazine.'' p. 101-102 * Soergel, Brian. (April 2007). "Review of Live at Herbst Theatre." ''Jazz Times.'' p. 89-90 * Watrous, Peter. (April 1989). "Review of Dances Purely for the Sake of Love." ''Musician'' p. 90

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hester, Karlton American jazz musicians American composers Living people Cornell University faculty 1949 births University of California, Santa Cruz faculty San Francisco State University alumni CUNY Graduate Center alumni