KCSM Community Stations | San Mateo, California

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Frank Sumares (2010)
Visit Website	Bay Area-born Frank Sumares is known for his work on piano, an instrument he came to via the clarinet and saxophone. Both instruments were played in turn by a brother who was leap-frogged to the piano by young Frank. For decades, Frank's "day job" has been in education, and by now he has hundreds, perhaps thousands of former students throughout the jazz world. At Chabot College, he was director of jazz studies and instrumental music for a quarter of century, running the award-winning jazz band there for many years. Nominally retired, at least from Chabot, where he holds professor emeritus status, he keeps busy as professor in jazz studies at San Jose State. He's taught at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, and at jazz camps around the world. In his "spare time", he's also written three books on jazz improvisation. Demonstrating that those who can teach are sometimes also those who can do, Frank has worked with everybody, including a litany of vocalists, such as Mel Tormé, Patti Page, Sarah Vaughan, and Della Reese. He's also arranged and composed for a variety of bands, most recently directing the Count Basie Orchestra for Verve recording artist Ledisi at Yoshi's in San Francisco, and also the Blue Note in New York City.

Frank Sumares (2010)

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Bay Area-born Frank Sumares is known for his work on piano, an instrument he came to via the clarinet and saxophone. Both instruments were played in turn by a brother who was leap-frogged to the piano by young Frank.

For decades, Frank's "day job" has been in education, and by now he has hundreds, perhaps thousands of former students throughout the jazz world. At Chabot College, he was director of jazz studies and instrumental music for a quarter of century, running the award-winning jazz band there for many years. Nominally retired, at least from Chabot, where he holds professor emeritus status, he keeps busy as professor in jazz studies at San Jose State. He's taught at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, and at jazz camps around the world. In his "spare time", he's also written three books on jazz improvisation.

Demonstrating that those who can teach are sometimes also those who can do, Frank has worked with everybody, including a litany of vocalists, such as Mel Tormé, Patti Page, Sarah Vaughan, and Della Reese. He's also arranged and composed for a variety of bands, most recently directing the Count Basie Orchestra for Verve recording artist Ledisi at Yoshi's in San Francisco, and also the Blue Note in New York City.

Pick	Artist	Album	Song	Label
# 1	Count Basie	Basie in Europe	Blues in Hoss' Flat	LRC
# 2	Chick Corea Akoustic Band	Alive	How Deep Is the Ocean?	GRP
# 3	Gene Harris	Gene Harris and the Philip Morris Superband	Old Man River	Concord
# 4	Oscar Peterson	Nigerian Marketplace	Nigerian Marketplace	OJC
# 5	Bill Evans	Live at the Village Vanguard	All of You	OJC
# 6	Jack Sheldon	Jack Sheldon Sings	Just Friends	Butterfly
# 7	The Gene Harris Quartet	Brotherhood	A Beautiful Friendship	Concord
# 8	Shirley Horn	Here's to Life	If You Love Me	Verve

Book	Bill Crow, "Jazz Anecdotes"

Luxury Item	"Donna Lee's Soup"

Castaways by dateNo castaways found for 2023.