Virginia Mayhew (born May 14, 1959,

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

) is a New York-based saxophonist, composer and bandleader. She has led her own groups for over 25 years, and currently leads several quartets, a quintet, and a septet. Mayhew has worked with such artists as Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines, Cab Calloway, Frank Zappa, James Brown, Norman Simmons,

Al Grey Al Grey (June 6, 1925 – March 24, 2000) was an American jazz trombonist who was a member of the Count Basie orchestra. He was known for his plunger mute technique and wrote an instructional book in 1987 called ''Plunger Techniques''. Care ...

Junior Mance Julian Clifford Mance, Jr. (October 10, 1928 – January 17, 2021), known as Junior Mance, was an American jazz pianist and composer. Biography Early life (1928–1947) Mance was born in Evanston, Illinois. When he was five years old, Mance st ...

, Joe Williams,

Chico O'Farrill Arturo "Chico" O'Farrill (October 28, 1921 – June 27, 2001) was a Cuban composer, arranger, and conductor, best known for his work in the Latin idiom, specifically Afro-Cuban jazz or "Cubop", although he also composed traditional jazz pieces a ...

Marlena Shaw Marlena Shaw (born Marlina Burgess, September 22, 1942) is an American jazz, blues and soul singer. Shaw began her singing career in the 1960s and is still singing today. Her music has often been sampled in hip hop music, and used in television ...

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. ...

, Kenny Barron,

Leon Parker Leon Parker (born August 21, 1965 in White Plains, New York) is a jazz percussionist and composer.All Music/ref> He is known for occasionally using a minimalist drum set with fewer components than usual, "sometimes consisting only of a snare dr ...

Ingrid Jensen Ingrid Jensen (born January 12, 1966) is a Canadian jazz trumpeter. Music career Jensen was born in North Vancouver and grew up in Nanaimo. She received a scholarship to the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After graduating from Berklee, she ...

, Claudio Roditi,

Nnenna Freelon Nnenna Freelon (born July 28, 1954) is an American jazz singer, composer, producer, and arranger. Early life and education Freelon was born Chinyere Nnenna Pierce to Charles and Frances Pierce in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she was raised. ...

, and many others. Mayhew has been a guest on

Marian McPartland Margaret Marian McPartland OBE ( Turner;Hasson, Claire"Marian McPartland: Jazz Pianist: An Overview of a Career" PhD Thesis. Retrieved 12 August 2008. 20 March 1918 – 20 August 2013), was an English–American jazz pianist, composer, and wri ...

’s ''Piano Jazz'', the featured artist on NPR’s ''

All Things Considered ''All Things Considered'' (''ATC'') is the flagship news program on the American network National Public Radio (NPR). It was the first news program on NPR, premiering on May 3, 1971. It is broadcast live on NPR affiliated stations in the United ...

'', and has appeared twice on ''Jazz Set'' with Dee Dee Bridgewater. In 2007 she was selected by ''Down Beat'' magazine as a "Rising Star" on soprano saxophone, and has been the subject of several feature articles in ''Down Beat'', ''Jazztimes'' and ''Jazziz'' magazines. Her 2012 recording, ''Mary Lou Williams – The Next 100 Years'', was selected by ''Down Beat'' as one of the Best New Releases of 2012 and by Rhapsody as one of the ten best new CDs of 2012. Mayhew has performed in many of New York City's major jazz venues, including Carnegie Hall,

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 milli ...

, Town Hall, Jazz Standard,

the Blue Note ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the m ...

, Sweet Basil, and Small's, and has performed throughout the United States, Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, as well as in the Caribbean and Bermuda. Mayhew has been featured as a leader at many jazz festivals, both within the United States and abroad, and has traveled twice as a representative of the United States as a Jazz Ambassador. Mayhew earned a black belt in

Seido es, label=none, italics=none, Subprocuraduría Especializada en Investigación de Delincuencia Organizada, lit=Assistant Attorney General's Office for Special Investigations on Organized Crime(SEIDO), is the organized crime division of Mexico's ...

Karate, and is seen engaging in the sport on the cover of her fifth album, ''Sandan Shuffle''. "My karate studies not only inspired the cover photo, but also the title track," she explained in an interview. "Sandan is 3rd level."Richardson, Beatrice, Jazz Artist Interviews: Virginia Mayhew
Jazz Review, January 29, 2011

Discography

* ''Mary Lou Williams – The Next 100 Years'' (Renma, 2011) * ''A Simple Thank You'' (Renma, 2008) * ''Sandan Shuffle'' (Renma, 2005) * ''Phantoms'' (Renma, 2003) * ''No Walls'' (Renma, 2000) * ''Nini Green'' (Chiaroscuro, 1997)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayhew, Virginia American jazz saxophonists American women jazz musicians Living people 1959 births 21st-century American saxophonists Women jazz saxophonists Jazz musicians from San Francisco 21st-century American women musicians