ESSENTIALLY ELLINGTON 2024 ADJUDICATOR BIOS

Jazz at Lincoln Center Adjudicators: 

Gregg Gelb 
Gregg Gelb, D.M.A is a saxophonist, clarinetist, band leader, arranger, composer and educator. He is director of the Triangle Youth Jazz Ensemble (which has been in the finals of Essentially Ellington for eight years), founder and director of the Heart of Carolina Jazz Orchestra and Jazz Society, and co-founder and player with the North Carolina Jazz Repertory Orchestra. He also leads La Fiesta Latin Jazz Quintet, the Second Line Stompers, the Gregg Gelb Swing Band and his Jazz Quartet. Gelb was given the Raleigh Medal of Arts in 2018. Gelb is a recipient of a Jazz Composers Award from the North Carolina Arts Council. Gelb holds a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Berklee College of Music, a Master of Music degree from the North Carolina School of the Arts and a Doctor Musical Arts from University of North Carolina at Greensboro.

Summer Camargo
Summer Camargo, 23, is a native of Hollywood, Florida. She is a Jerome Greene Fellowship recipient at The Juilliard School, where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees. Not only is Summer a regular performer at notable NYC jazz clubs like Dizzy’s, Birdland, and at the Drom with the Mingus Big Band, but she also became the newest and youngest member of the Saturday Night Live house band in 2022.

​Steadily collecting a list of competition wins, grants, and awards, Summer was the recipient of the Laurie Frink Grant, was awarded the Ella Fitzgerald Outstanding Soloist Award, the Dr. J. Douglas White Student Composition Contest, the International Trumpet Guild’s Ryan Anthony Trumpet Memorial Competition, and the Outstanding Trumpet Soloist Awards at Jazz at Lincoln Center's 2017, 2018, and 2019 Essentially Ellington Festivals.

In her young career, Summer has toured with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on the Big Band Holidays tour, served as a panelist for Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Jazz Congress, was featured in the FENDI Renaissance - Anima Mundi project in New York City, performed with Jon Batiste at the Newport Jazz Festival, was a guest artist at Wynton at 60, participated in Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead at The Kennedy Center, performed her original composition “Alalazoo” at the 2022 Jazz at Lincoln Center Gala, played in the Broadway pit for Disney’s Aladdin, and much more.

As an educator, Summer has conducted masterclasses at the JEN conference, the Louis Armstrong House Museum, as well as at multiple jazz camps. She has also adjudicated jazz festival competitions at Northern State University, the Eau Claire Jazz Festival, and Essentially Ellington Regional Festivals.

Summer released her debut album To Whom I Love with Blue Engine Records in March of 2024, which received a notable review in DownBeat magazine and was featured in their Hot Box. DownBeat also included her in their 2024 list of “25 for the Future” rising stars of jazz. Summer is a proud Conn Selmer/Bach artist.

LIU Post Music Adjudicators:

Jeff Lederer 
Jeff Lederer is a New York based saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and educator whose work crosses the genres of jazz, Latin and creative improvised music. Since 2014 he has been consistently named in both the critics and Readers Polls of Downbeat and JazzTimes Magazine recognizing his work on tenor and alto saxophones and clarinet. He has worked for many years in the Matt Wilson Quartet and the Grammy nominated ensembles of Bobby Sanabria and Salsa trombonist Jimmy Bosch. He has recorded for Gunther Schuller’s GM Recordings, CIMP Records, Palmetto Records and his own Little (i) Music label. His quartet “Sunwatcher” made it’s debut in 2011 on the Jazzheads label featuring Buster Williams on bass, Jamie Saft on piano and Matt Wilson, drums. His longstanding ensemble “Shaker n’ Bakers” performs modern jazz interpretations of the Vision songs of the Shaker religious sect and has released two recordings of Shaker music and performed at the World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles. His group “Brooklyn Blowhards” examines the repertoire of traditional Sea Shanties and Whaling Songs through the lens of the free jazz of Albert Ayler. Lederer was recently named as a “Musician to Watch” in the 2017 JazzWise (UK) Magazine. 2020 saw the release of his new Sunwatcher Quartet recording “Eightfold Path”.

Jeff’s cross-stylistic composition/arranging projects include “Los Sazones”, a salsa reimaginng of Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” which was commissioned by the Ravinia Festival for the Chicago Symphony and has been performed by many major orchestras including the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl.

Jeff has performed at numerous major jazz festivals including the Newport Jazz Festival, JVC Jazz Festival , Monterey Jazz Festival, Litchfield Jazz Festival, Pori Jazz Festival, Moldes Jazz, Guimaraes Festival (Portugal), Tiempo Latino (France) and many, many others. In 2013 Jeff performed a duo concert with drummer Allison Miller at the mainspace of the San Francisco Jazz Center. In 2010 he was invited as a special guest to perform spontaneous improvisations with the pianist Shahin Novrasli at the Baku Jazz Festival in Azerbaijan.

Jeff Lederer is currently serving as the Director of Jazz Studies and Director of MTEP (Music Technology, Entrepreneurship and Production) at Long Island University, Post Campus.

 

Richie Iacona 
Free Lance Pianist, Arranger, Composer and Conductor. Arranger/Conductor with Julius LaRosa, Toni Arden, Fran Jeffries, Gerard Carelli, Marilyn Michaels, Claiborne Cary, John Pizzerelli Jr. Madeline Kole, Peter Lemongello, Ray Alexander,and many others. Had the opportunity to performed with Kate Baldwin, Charles Aznevour, Marvin Stamm and the Norfolk Symphony orchestra, Tommy Tune, Julie Budd, Scott Record, Les DeMerle, Urbie Green, Clark Terry, Jerome Richardson, George Shearing, Liza Minelli, Diahan Caroll, Vic Damone, Leslie Uggams, Marlo Thomas, Phil Donahue, Clint Holmes, Elizabeth Taylor, Hugh O’Brien, Bill Cosby, Peter Noone, Darlene Love, Suzanna McCorkle, Chuck Jackson, Kathy Lee Gifford, Marvin Stamm and the Norwalk Symphony Faculty member - Interplay Summer Jazz Workshop Camp Woodstock, Vermont Staff - Arranger for The Rainbow Room Orchestra Rockefeller Center N.Y.C. Staff Composer/Arranger Omni Music Library. Omni projects and jingles 
include various music for: K-Mart, Telemudo and Univision Cable networks, Saturday Night Live, Heileman Breweries Inc., World Book, Sears Dept. Stores, Acura Motors, Theme song for 12 
Corazones, Lever Bros, Late Night with Seth Meyers, The Office, Law and Order, Folgers Coffee, the USA Cable Network, Netflix and various Radio and Television spots both in the USA and Europe. Some of his major works are available and published by Carl Fisher, Omni Music Inc., and Smart Chart Music. Leader of “The Bad Little Big Band” since 1979. Member of ASCAP, and Local #802 American Federation of Musicians. Associate Adjunct Professor Of Music at LIU CW POST Appeared and performed in motion pictures- Woody Allen’s “Mighty Aphrodite”, “Celebrity” and “It Could Happen To You”