Cleveland JazzWorks
About Us
Cleveland-based JazzWorks is a distinguished jazz octet playing original compositions and arrangements of jazz across the decades.
Inspired by renowned jazz ensembles such as Art Blakey’s “Jazz Messengers” and the SF JAZZ Collective, JazzWorks serves as a laboratory for some of the most acclaimed writers, arrangers, and jazz improvisers in Northeast Ohio. This exciting and versatile ensemble celebrates jazz greats of the past and present, emerging icons of today, and explores other music through a unique, jazz lens.
JazzWorks members are active educators, adjudicators, and performing guest artists throughout the U.S. Together for over 15 years, JazzWorks continues its legacy of showcasing members’ compositions and arrangements. They perform in jazz clubs and concert venues around Northeast Ohio.
Howie Smith (alto sax)
Howie Smith has presented concerts and workshops throughout the United States, Canada, South America, Europe and Australia, and has worked with musicians, composers and ensembles as varied as Anthony Braxton, Gary Burton, Dizzy Gillespie, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Elvis Presley, Pauline Oliveros, the Cleveland Orchestra and the Tone Road Ramblers. His recorded performances are equally diverse and his catalogue of compositions includes works for conventional big bands and combos; for string, wind and percussion ensembles; for electronics; and for mixed media.
Smith is a professor emeritus at Cleveland State University, where he was the coordinator of jazz studies from 1979 to 2006 and served as chair of the Art Department from 2003 to 2007. He has received two Fulbright grants, was awarded the Cleveland Arts Prize for Music in 1985, has been the recipient of an Individual Artist Fellowship from the Ohio Arts Council on seven different occasions, and in 2012 was awarded a Creative Workforce Fellowship from Cleveland’s Community Partnership for Arts and Culture. He has twice served as co-chair of both the Jazz Fellowships and the Music Overview panels of the National Endowment for the Arts, and has been associated with Yamaha as an artist/clinician since 1971.
Chris Anderson (trombone)
Chris Anderson is the founder of Open Tone Music, which works to make music accessible to young people. Through Open Tone Music he has reached hundreds of youth in the Cleveland and Akron area. After studying music education at Baldwin Wallace University, where he received his bachelors, he went on to get his masters degree in music from The University of Akron.
In addition to being a successful music educator, Mr. Anderson composes and performs many different styles of music. He has performed trombone with some of the best in the Classical, Jazz, Gospel, Latin and other musical idioms both in the United States and abroad. Chris Anderson has also displayed success in local and national competitions. In addition to performing with the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Heritage Orchestra and many others, you can also hear him featured on several CD’s.
Aidan Plank (bass)
Aidan Plank studied the double bass with bassist and composer Dave Morgan, as well as with Kevin Switalkski of the Cleveland Orchestra. During his studies with Dave Morgan he also developed an interest in composing.
Aidan has performed in a wide range of musical genres with many musicians. Some performances and collaborations include: Dan Wall, Carol Veto, Joe Maneri, Frankie Avalon, Grease, Chubby Checker, The Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, The Jazz Unit, Jack Shantz, Howie Smith, Bob Fraser, Sean Jones, Matt Perko, Bobby Selvaggio, Dominic Ferannaci, Jackie Warren, Tommy LiPuma, The Case Baroque Orchestra, The Oberlin Baroque Orchestra, The Oberlin Opera, The Houston Ballet, Andy Hunter, Kevin Jones, Kip Reed, The Cleveland Ballet, Joshua Smith, Collegium Musicum, Cynthia Kaay Bennett, Daniel Lippel, Daniel Bruce, Paul Samuels, Bobby Stevens, Debra Nagy, Mary Larew, Aurora Nealand, J. Scott Franklin, Karel Paukert, William Bolcom, Real Time Opera, Randall Woolf, The Bits, Ladia Yates, Alexis Cole, Oblique Orchestra, The Jack Cameras, Gerald Clayton, Janis Siegel, Jim Rupp, Tom Tallitsch, Joe Lovano, Judi Silvano, Carmen Castaldi, Roderick Dixon, Curtis Taylor, Nancy Kelly, Tia Brazda, Bruce Johnstone, Nia Drummond, Kenny Davis, Vanessa Rubin, John Jennings, Paul Roth, Wayne Bergeron, Jimmy Mulidore, Michael Stryker, Mike Lee, Nadav Remez, and many others.
Aidan has performed at Carnegie Hall, Severence Hall, The Knitting Factory, The House of Blues, The Beachland Ballroom, The Bop Stop, Blossom Music Festival, and other venues throughout the United States.
Anthony Fuoco (piano)
Anthony Fuoco is a lecturer at Baldwin Wallace University and is the coordinator of secondary piano. He currently teaches courses in piano, pedagogy and jazz. His musical interests include improvisation, composition and classical piano repertoire. As a pianist, Fuoco frequently performs as a member of groups such as the Pulse Quartet (with Brad Wagner, Aidan Plank, and Dustin May), the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and the Wedmedyk/Fuoco duo.
In 2020, he and William Wedmedyk released their recording Finding Home, featuring their compositions and improvisations. He has also collaborated with well-known artists such as Joe Lovano, Carmen Castaldi, Jamey Haddad and John Daversa. In 2019, his performance with Joe Lovano at the BopStop was recorded and featured on the NPR program Jazz Night in America. He also has extensive experience performing the classical piano duo repertoire with his wife, Christine Fuoco. Degrees earned are an M.M. in piano performance from the University of Illinois, and a B.M. in piano performance from SUNY Potsdam.
Garrett Folger (trumpet)
Freelance composer, educator, and performer Garrett Folger has been searching for musical truth for his whole life. His father, a percussionist and educator himself, exposed him to a wide variety of music from an early age. Whether through records by Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, and John Coltrane, or through live performances of artists like Charles Lloyd, Zakir Hussein, and Keith Jarrett, this early education in music was pivotal in shaping his belief in truth through music. A graduate of the conservatory of music at Baldwin-Wallace University, Garrett has been performing in many varied styles throughout Northeast Ohio, where he resides in Cleveland. Notable musical collaborations include performances with Sammy DeLeon y su Orquesta, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, and his own group co-led by Carmen Castaldi, Anthony Fuoco, and Aidan Plank where many of his own compositions are interpreted. His other project Community Shoe showcases a more pop/rock orientation to his playing and writing. Performances of Garrett’s large ensemble compositions have been heard from groups such as the Third Law Collective and the Skatch Andersson Orchestra."
John Klayman (tenor sax)
John Klayman is one of the most in-demand tenor saxophonists in the Northeast Ohio area. He is highly regarded as an all around woodwind player and jazz soloist.
John began his professional career playing in a summer resort band in New Jersey while attending The Ohio State University. After college, he joined The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra under the direction of Buddy Morrow as a featured soloist. After settling in the Cleveland area, Klayman’s reputation as an outstanding multi-reed player made him a first-call musician for pit orchestras and recording studios. He is a charter member of the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra and featured tenor sax soloist with the CJO. In addition, John is a charter member of JazzWorks (formerly Tri-C JazzFest SoundWorks), an 8-piece collective of some of the best jazz musicians in N.E. Ohio. He can also be heard leading small groups in area clubs and concerts and has appeared as a soloist/clinician at numerous area high schools and colleges.
Bob Ferrazza (guitar)
Bob Ferrazza was born in Cleveland Ohio and began studying the guitar at fifteen years of age after having developed a passion for music from listening to rock and the popular music of the time. Very shortly after picking up the guitar, Ferrazza’s interests branched out dramatically into many diverse forms of music including classical, blues, ragtime, bluegrass and others. But it wasn’t until he heard a George Benson record that Ferrazza started to concentrate his efforts on jazz, an entirely new genre to him. Inside of his first year on the guitar, Ferrazza sought out jazz guitar legend Bill deArango for lessons. DeArango had been a jazz star in the 1940s, having played with all of the greats of those days: Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Ben Webster and many others. The lessons with deArango were extremely formative for Ferrazza who went on to study music at the Cleveland State University. Other lessons followed with jazz guitar greats such as Joe Pass and Pat Martino.
Having been a professional musician for over 25 years, Ferrazza has performed all over the United States and beyond, including such places as Japan, Europe and South Africa, concertizing with some of the most celebrated jazz musicians in the world, including: Donald Byrd, Joey DeFrancesco, Joe Lovano, Art Farmer, Benny Golson, J.J. Johnson, Slide Hampton, Curtis Fuller, Billy Hart, Robin Eubanks, Gary Bartz, Dan Wall, Marcus Belgrave, Clark Terry, Steve Turre, Bill Watrous, Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Greg Bandy, Ernestine Anderson, Vanessa Rubin and many others. All of these musical experiences, both educational and professional, have instilled in Ferrazza the passion to pass music on to others and to teach. Bobby Ferrazza has taught at the Oberlin Conservatory since 1988, where he is currently Professor of Jazz Guitar and Director of the Jazz Division. He also taught at the Interlochen Arts Academy from 1992-1996.
Dustin May (drums)
(bio coming soon!)