Her mezzo "sounds a crystalline note of vulnerability," according to the New York Times. And her touch on ebony and ivory has a "hard-swinging grace."
Jazz vocalist, pianist, arranger and composer Dena DeRose is one of 70 artists who will sizzle at the Stanford Jazz Festival in July and August. And, like many of the performers, DeRose will teach tomorrow's aspiring headliners at the workshop that accompanies the festival.
"This will be my sixth summer at Stanford, and I've now got some students who come back every year," says DeRose, who teaches at Long Island University during the school year. "It's cool that they've actually been working on the stuff I've given them the previous summer -- I love to see that progress."
DeRose is among the hundreds of musicians Jimmy Nadel has brought to campus in the 29 years he's been running the summer workshop. Like many of them, she's matured professionally as the workshop has grown. "When she first came out here, Dena was just establishing herself in New York and wasn't that well known," says Nadel, '72, a lecturer in the music department and one smooth alto sax player. "But she's definitely a rising star now and her concert will sell out this summer."
More than 700 teenagers and adults have signed up for classes with such jazz legends as drummers Tootie Heath and Louie Bellson, bassist Christian McBride, singer Madeline Eastman, pianist Benny Green and trumpeters Jim Cullum and Brazilian-born Claudio Roditi. Nadel will teach Inside Jazz, a four-session Continuing Studies course for nonmusicians.
The festival will feature a new big band work by Sam Rivers, co-commissioned by Stanford and the National Endowment for the Arts. A 75-year-old saxophonist who started his career in 1940s Boston, Rivers went on to perform with Miles Davis and launch New York City's loft-jazz scene in the '60s. "Rivers is a visionary of jazz," says Nadel. "He's an energy player who's associated with the avant-garde, but he has his feet solidly on the ground and knows how to produce complex arrangements for big band -- not the swing of the '40s, but a contemporary musical statement. Like August 2001." Like, cool.
