UC Jazz

Ted Moore

Since graduating from the Eastman School of Music, Ted has pursued a career which has taken him to many parts of the world with many different artists. He is leader and composer for his own Brazilian jazz group, Brasilia, which has released its first CD to national acclaim. He has performed with Stan Getz, Paul Winter, Marian McPartland, Eric Gale, Jack Wilkins, Gene Bertoncini, and Joey DeFrancesco. On tour, Ted has performed throughout the US and Canada, as well as Japan, Spain, England and Holland. He also spent two years living in Rio de Janeiro as percussionist with the Brazilian Symphony Orchestra, and performing with many well known Brazilian jazz artists. He has played in Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Cathedral of St. John in New York, Grace Cathedral in San Francisco and Suntory Hall in Tokyo. Ted's latest project with his group, Brasilia, involves a series of concert performances with symphony orchestras. He has arranged his original compositions for full symphony orchestra along with his 5-piece group for an evening of Brazilian music with symphony.

Frank Martin

As an arranger/conductor/keyboardist Frank Martin has performed and/or recorded with a variety of artists that include Andrea Bocelli, Sting, Stevie Wonder, Elton John, Steve Winwood, Whitney Houston, Ray Charles, Diana Ross, Chris Isaak, Tevin Campbell, Cheryl Crow, Philip Bailey, James Taylor, Joe Cocker, Billy Joel, and Madonna. In the jazz world of music his performance credits include Flora Purim and Airto Moriera, Herbie Hancock, John McLaughlin, Narada Michael Walden, Stanley Jordan, Dizzy Gilespie, Mel Torme, Bobby McFerrin, John Handy, Ramsey Lewis, Joe Farrell, and the Slide Hampton Big Band. Orchestra performances included concerts with the San Francisco Symphony, San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Lukes (New York Philharmonic Orchestra).

As a producer he has worked with such artists as Al Jarreau, Lisa Fischer, Bobby McFerrin's Voicestra, the Award Winning A Cappella group SoVoSo, Gospel vocalists NuVision, story telling Jazz vocalist Rhiannon, Jazz guitarist Mimi Fox featuring organist Joey DeFrancesco and vocalist Angela Bofill, jazz vocalist Karin Blixt featuring Buddy Montgomery, Russell Ferrante, Bruce Forman, Alex Acuna, and William Kennedy, as well as Dutch vocalist Ellen Honert featuring Dori Caymmi, Abraham Laboriel, Turtle Island String Quartet, Tuck and Patti, and Pedro Eustache. As Musical Director he has toured with such artists as Patti Austin, Angela Bofill, Narada Michael Walden, Mickey Thomas, Roy Ares, Tevin Campbell, and Clarence Clemens. For two years he also worked as assistant Musical Director for The Afternoon Show on KPIX Television in San Francisco, California.

Glenn Richman

A versatile bassist, Richman has played with names like Bobby Hutcherson, Joe Henderson, Billy Hart, Larry Willis, George Coleman, and Benny Green. Glenn has over 15 years of experience in teaching bass and jazz improvisation.

Marty Wehner

A graduate of the Berklee College of Music, Marty has extensive playing experience. A few of the musicians he's worked with include: Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Henderson, Natalie Cole, Tone Toni Tony, Cecil Taylor, Dr. John, Tito Puente, Josh Redman, Benny Carter, the Mingus Epitaph Orchestra, and Wynton Marsalis. Marty plays with the Bay Area band Mingus Amungus, and leads his own band, Funkbone.

Dann Zinn

Dann has recorded or performed with Joe Henderson, Russell Ferrante (The Yellow Jackets), Chuck Findley (The Tonight Show), Jeff "Tain" Watts, Freddie Hubbard, Maria Schneider, Mary Wells, Martha and the Vandellas, among others. Dann can be heard as a featured soloist on several CD's, such as with Dave Eschelman's Jazz Garden, and with the Ira Stein Group on the classical crossover hit Bach Improvisations. Dann tours throughout the U.S., Cananda, and Mexico, and has played at venues like Yoshi's at Jack London Square, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the SF Jazz Festival, the San Jose Jazz Festival, and the Kuumbwa Jazz Center.

Dann's first solo album of original music, Ten Songs, has garnered critical acclaim through the U.S. and Europe from publications such as Jazz Times and Jazziz. Current projects include original world fusion band Jack, jazz group The Deadly Zinns, and free improv band Spontanous Burstation.

Kai Eckhardt

Kai Eckhardt is an Afro-European musician who has made a significant contribution to the evolution of the electric bass since 1989. Heavily influenced by the emerging fusion of funk, rock and jazz in the late 70's, Kai developed a unique style on his instrument long before attending Berklee College of music in Boston - the renowned music college- from which he graduated with honors in 1987. Under the guidance of Tiger Okoshi, Bob Moses and Gary Burton, Kai was introduced directly to pioneering guitarist John McLaughlin, who at the time was forming a new trio together with Indian born percussionist Trilok Gurtu.

Kai has performed at distinguished venues around the globe such as the Royal Festival Hall in London, the Philharmonic in Munich and the Esplanade in Singapore. Festival engagements include Montreal Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival in the Hague, Womad World Music Festival in Spain and Glastonbury in the U.K. Kai has performed for dignitaries on some occasions like the King and Queen of Norway. In the educational field, Kai teaches clinics and master classes internationally. Engagements include Berklee in Boston, the Musician’s Institute in Hollywood, the Bruckner Conservatory in Austria and Amsterdam Conservatory in the Netherlands. Perhaps the most notably unique band in Kai's career was the pioneering jam-band Garaj Mahal, which he co-lead between 2000 and 2010, producing 9 albums and performing roughly 1000 concerts in the U.S and Canada.

Joseph Escobar

Joseph Escobar is a pianist, composer, arranger, and teacher based in El Cerrito, CA. His biggest musical inspirations from jazz include musicians like Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Brad Mehldau, Bill Evans, Ella Fitzgerald, Gerald Clayton, Sullivan Fortner, Art Blakey, John Coltrane, Esperanza Spalding, and many others. He also draws inspiration from many other diverse sources, such as classical, Indian classical, rock, progressive metal, latin jazz, tango, electronic music, and (perhaps) his first love, JRPG soundtracks, with the works of Nobuo Uematsu, Hitoshi Sakimoto, Masashi Hamauzu, and Yasunori Mitsuda. He performs around the Bay Area with up-and-coming jazz/hip-hop fusion artist Oddity (as a co-composer and performer), and with the jam band Frictal, with bassist Noah Zisser, guitarist Stu Silverman, and drummer Carson Fratus. He also has a jazz project with his younger brother and tenor saxophonist Michael Escobar as part of the Escobros group, performing their own original compositions. He's a noted homebody and constantly dodges gigs and parties (while, paradoxically, simultaneously wishing to be invited to them) which is probably why you haven't heard of him.

Now that the lengthy part of the bio (where a bunch of names are listed for the reader to gloss over) has come to an end, he can inform his valued readers that he loves time spent well with friends, puns and wordplay, abstract discussions, benign mischief, Super Smash Bros, and all types of art across different media. He struggles daily with the unending existential absurdity of the world we all inhabit, while somehow remaining mostly upbeat. He believes the US should pay reparations for slavery, and that custody and care of federal lands should be given to the tribes from whom they were taken. None of this has much to do with his music, per se, but shouldn't it?