|
BOB BYRD - 1st Alto Sax |
Bob Byrd, a native of Erie, Pennsylvania, graduated from The Pennsylvania State University in 1970,
where he majored in music education. Although he subsequently pursued a career in health care administration, having earned
the Master of Health Administration degree from Duke University, Mr. Byrd has led an active musical life.
He studied saxophone privately with Craig Whittaker of UNCG and flute with Linda Cykert of Elon University, each for nearly
two years. He is co-founder, music director, and lead saxophonist of the Alamance Jazz Band. He has performed as a single-engagement
sideman throughout North Carolina with such bands as the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra, the Guy Lombardo
Orchestra, the Atlantic Jazz Orchestra, Reflections, and several other regionally known big bands, jazz combos and orchestras.
With the US Airways Jazz Orchestra, he has performed in Germany, Holland, Bermuda, and throughout the United States.
He is a frequent soloist for area weddings, services, and receptions, and he can be seen in the pit orchestra of many local productions
of musical theater.
Active civically, Mr. Byrd is a past president of the Alamance County Arts Council, the Alamance County
Chapter of the North Carolina Symphony Society, the Alamance County Community Services Agency (ACCSA), and past board and campaign
chairman of the United Way of Alamance County. He currently serves on the board of directors of the Alamance County Arts Council,
Burlington-Alamance Sister Cities, Alamance ElderCare, and ACCSA. Mr. Byrd is senior vice president of Alamance Regional Medical Center,
where he has served on the management staff since 1978. He is a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives,
Secretary/Treasurer of the Triad Healthcare Executive Forum, and a member of the Carolinas Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market
Development. He and his wife, Barbara Bennett Byrd, live in Burlington.
|
JANET ESKRIDGE - 2nd Alto Sax |
BIO COMING SOON! |
SHAWN KIRKHAM - 1st Tenor Sax |
Shawn Kirkham was born in Schenectady NY in 1967. While living in NY State, Shawn attended the Schenectady Community College for Music Performance and the Crane School Of Music at Potsdam College for Music Education.
Since his Saxophone career started in 1979, he has performed with several bands, big bands, jazz groups, and other miscellaneous bands. He has had the opportunity to perform with many different musicians including Chris Vadala, Rob McConnel, Jamey Aebersold, Duffy Jackson and more. Shawn not only remains active playing with the Alamance JazzBand, but also enjoys playing in the St. Mark's Church in Burlington, NC on the weekend services with the Worship and Arts Band. You can also find Shawn playing in musicals in the Burlington, NC area.
Shawn is the current President and Marketing Director for the Alamance Jazz Band, and has developed this web site for the band. He works for Alamance Regional Medical Center in Burlington, NC as an Interface Analyst.
Shawn and his wife, Beverly, reside in Graham, NC. |
JEFF HOLLAND - 2nd Tenor Sax |
BIO COMING SOON! |
ROD FOX - Baritone Sax |
BIO COMING SOON! |
NATHAN HATLEY - 1st Trombone |
BIO COMING SOON! |
SONIA (Sam) BLAKENEY - 2nd Trombone |
BIO COMING SOON! |
JESS GILLIAM - 3rd Trombone |
Jess Gilliam, a native of Burlington, grew up in a family tire business that his dad & uncle had started in the 50’s.
His father started him out at 12 years old doing small jobs around the shop. He joined the Turrentine middle school band in the 6 grade
under Johnny Albea who was well known in the area. Mr. Albea persuaded Jess to join his jazz band in the 8th grade and play in the Williams
High school band before attending high school. Mr. Albea retired in 1982 and was replaced by Mark Payne who carried on the jazz band,
concert band and marching band from which Jess was a member of until graduation in 1984.
In 84, he went to UNCC to major in business administration but did not put down his horn. He Joined the UNCC
Concert band under the direction of Bill Hanna & before long, joined their jazz band, brass quintet and pep band. He played concerts
around North Carolina from Wilmington to Boone. He had attended music workshops by Winton Marsales & others at UNCC, UNC and ASU.
On Sundays, he played at local churches for extra cash and during the summers he continued working at his father’s shop.
After college, in 1988, he moved back home and took a 10 year music hiatus while he worked to grow with their family business.
In 1998 one of his best friends who had been playing with the band informed him there was an opening for a trombonist.
They invited him to play and has been playing with them since.
In 2003 his family sold their tire shop and in 2004 he was married. In 2005 he entered the self storage business with his brother
and in 2006 he had joined into a partnership with his brother and an established developer in the construction of self storage
facilities.
He and his wife now reside in Burlington. He enjoys rehearsals and playing concerts for the public & private parties.
|
NO PICTURE AVAILABLE
DAVID RICH - 4th Trombone |
BIO COMING SOON! |
EARL THOMPSON - 1st Trumpet |
Born in the little riverside town of Bridgeport, PA, twenty miles west of Philly, I started to play the trumpet at age seven.
I had broken my leg and my Aunt Mary gave me an old trumpet she had played in college and told my Mom: “Anne, maybe this boy
would like to play the trumpet.” According to my Mom, I grabbed the trumpet, turned the radio on, and started making the most
gosh-awful sounds she had ever heard, trying to play along with the radio. The next year I started group lessons in school and
soloed at age eleven in district band.
At age twelve I took lessons from a Professor Zeigler of the Philadelphia Orchestra. After three lessons he called my father and
told him: “Mr. Thompson, you are wasting your money, this boy will never be a trumpet player. He won’t practice.” I was glad. I wanted
to be a big league shortstop, not a trumpet player. I got many a whuppin’ from Big Earl because I wouldn’t practice. I still don’t
like to practice, but I love to play. God has truly given me a gift. I dread to think what my life would be like without music.
At age fourteen, some guys at my church, Grace Chapel, formed a brass ensemble. Our leader, Chuck Pugh, who was much older and had
played in the Radio City Symphony and St. Louis Symphony, had connections in New York City. For three years we performed mostly
sacred music in such venues as: Town Hall, Carnegie Hall (a Billy Graham film premier), Boston Garden, Madison Square Garden (with
George Beverly Shea), and excursions on the Hudson, Delaware and Potomac Rivers.
I moved to Burlington in 1959 and married Linda Steele of the Town of Elon in 1963. When our kids came along, I gave up playing until
1982, when Dr. Jack White, band director at Elon College, to whom I will ever be grateful, chided me into start playing again.
Dr. Tom Erdmann at Elon, also, was an inspiration, and did the best he could with this untrained, play-by-ear, musician.
In 1990, during the perestroika period, the Emanons Jazz Ensemble of Elon College invited me to tour the Soviet Union with them.
In Ukraine I met cousins I never knew I had (my Mom's parents came from Ukraine).
Since retiring from the real estate business, playing trumpet has become my primary interest, besides my family. I have been with
Alamance Jazz Band since its inception, where I was forced by virtue of that situation to learn how to read music (before that I would
memorize or just “wing it”). I also played with the combo Reflections for ten years, a group called The Jesters in the early sixties
and still do jazz and combo work at the country club and other places.
I have been fortunate enough to have played in over fifty churches in and around North Carolina, also playing weddings and special events.
I was part of the North Carolina Baptist Singers’ Orchestra, First Baptist Band and The Celebration Singers. I sang with Fred Waring
one summer and was President of the Alamance Chorale in the 80s.
Bob Byrd (AJB director), Joel Marshall(Music Minister at First Baptist Church) and Ray Brooks (First call trumpet player in Knoxville
and Dollywood) have been very influential in my growth as a trumpet player. I am, truly, a blessed man. To God goes all the glory.
[ET resides in Mebane. Home phone: 919-563-0200, Cell: 336-516-HORN (4676), email: earltrumpet@earthlink.net.]
|
TOM MANNING - 2nd Trumpet |
Tom Manning was born and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, where he was active in music at an early age.
He began playing piano in the second grade and started taking trumpet lessons in the fourth grade.
Actively involved in the public school system, he participated in many all-county functions and was drum major of his high school band.
He also participated in various church music programs, where he served as an instrumentalist, choir member, and bell choir participant.
Tom graduated from the Ohio State University where he was a member of the OSU Marching Band, considered to be the best marching band
in the country. He returns to Columbus, Ohio, annually, to participate in the marching band reunion, an event that typically draws
over six hundred band alums. He received an MBA degree from UNC-Chapel Hill.
In addition to being a charter member of the Alamance Jazz Band, Tom continues to remain active in musical circles,
playing the trumpet for church services, area schools, and as a member of the Lumpsters, a local charity band.
He is the director of the First Presbyterian Church adult bell choir in Burlington.
As an active member of the Alamance County community, Tom serves as Chairman of the Alamance-Burlington School Board,
where he has been a member since 1998. He is past chairman and president of the Alamance County United Way,
the Alamance County Area Chamber of Commerce, and currently serves on the Love School of Business Advisory Board at Elon University.
He is also president of Junior Achievement of Central North Carolina and is a board member of the North Carolina School Boards Association.
Tom is a member of the Alamance Rotary Club.
Tom is senior vice president and area supervisor for the Fidelity Bank. He and his wife, Deanna, live in Burlington.
|
JOEL MARSHALL - 3rd Trumpet |
JOEL MARSHALL has served as Minister of Music at First Baptist Church, since December, 1986. Previously Joel served churches in Virginia and Tennessee. Before being called into full-time ministry, he worked with Airborne Air Freight and at Kings Dominion Theme Park in Virginia.
Joel is originally from Knoxville, Tennessee. He is married to Becky Bass Marshall and they have three children – Grant, a senior at N.C. State University, Benjamin, a senior at Williams High School, and Anna, a sophomore at Williams High School. In his spare time Joel enjoys golf, spending time with family, and traveling.
Joel graduated with a Bachelor of Music Education degree from Shenandoah College & Conservatory of Music, Winchester, Virginia, in 1977. He also earned a Master of Church Music degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, where he graduated in 1986.
Joel is active in the North Carolina Baptist Singers & Wind Ensemble and has been a member of the Alamance Jazz Band since 1988. His calling is serving the local church through music and worship, which provide ways for people to find community through choral music, handbells, and instrumental music.
You may email Joel Marshall at:
joelmarshall@fbcburlington.org
|
TERESA SMITH - 4th Trumpet |
BIO COMING SOON! |
MARILYN FOX - Piano |
BIO COMING SOON! |
JEFF HATLEY - Bass |
Jeff's musical adventure commenced with eight years of clarinet in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools, where he jumped to upright bass due to the influence of the notable Mr. Bill Hanna, landing the bass seat in Bill's stage band consisting of accomplished high school players.
Participation in numerous bands in Charlotte continued, including "Nothing Finer", "Tapestry", "Mainstreet", in various genres, and he even shared the stage with "The Fifth Dimension" during a tour stop in Charlotte. Jeff was offered an opportunity to tour with "Blacksmith", a well known variety band of the day, precursor to "The Poor Souls", a popular beach band.
Jeff however elected to pursue an engineering degree relegating music for enjoyment and side income. Jeff continued bass through his engineering schooling, learned cello, and ultimately joined the Charlotte Philharmonic Orchestra where he played for three seasons.
Christian ministry has always been one of Jeff's priorities, being a regular contributor at Hickory Grove Baptist Church where he was the first non-compensated musician, assisting and leading in the growth of the 40 piece orchestra present at that mega-church today.
Jeff relocated to Mebane in 1998 with his family due to an IBM transfer, and now enjoys the bass seats in the Alamance Jazz Band, St. Mark's Worship Arts Ministry (Mebane campus), The Will McBride Group, The Big Tippers, and Central Church of God Orchestra (Charlotte). Additional information is available at
http://www.myspace.com/jeffhatley.
|
NO PICTURE AVAILABLE
JASON JOHNSON- Drums |
BIO COMING SOON! |
LEONARD MATHERLY - Guitar |
Leonard was first inspired at early age to play guitar after hearing gyspy guitarist Django Reinhardt with the Quintet of the Hot Club
of France. This group also featured violinist Stephane Grappelli. The big influence and real love of the jazz guitar style came during
teen age years listening to the great sounds of guitarist Tal Farlow with the Red Norvo Trio. The musical highlight came after meeting
Tal and becoming close freinds with occassional visits that lasted until his death in 1998.
Leonard has always enjoyed the big band sound, but musical past has been mostly with small combo's including over thirty years with
Jim Crisp Trio as both guitar and bass player. Over the years there have been occassions to meet and play with artist such as vocalist
Teresa Brewer, Vaughn Monroe, Johnny Ray, trumpeter Clark Terry; saxophonist Eddie Harris, Stan Getz, Jerry Coker and trombonist Bill Waltrous.
In addition to private lessons at home, Leonard has taught guitar at Emmons Guitars and the first guitar instructor at Elon University.
|
SUE RICH - Vocalist |
BIO COMING SOON! |
RANDY TATE - Audio Technician |
BIO COMING SOON! |
|
