Dr. Ron McCurdy
C.E.O., Founding Member, Director, Member
Ronald C. McCurdy is a professor of music at the USC Thornton School of Music and serves as past president of the International Association for Jazz Education (IAJE). Prior to his appointment at USC, he served as director of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at USC. He has served as professor of music and chair of the Afro-African American studies department and served as director of jazz studies at the University of Minnesota. He received his undergraduate degree from Florida A&M University and his master’s and PhD degrees from the University of Kansas. In 2001, McCurdy received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Kansas.
McCurdy released his first CD titled Once Again for the First Time on the INNOVA label and is co-author of a vocal jazz improvisation series titled Approaching the Standards, published by Warner Bros., and Meet the Great Jazz Legend, published by Alfred. He is currently touring The Langston Hughes Project, Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz. The multimedia presentation features a jazz quartet, spoken-word performance and images from the Harlem Renaissance. McCurdy is in demand as a guest clinician, soloist, speaker, director of honor jazz ensembles and choirs.
McCurdy is a consultant to the GRAMMY Foundation educational programs, including serving as director of the Grammy Jazz Choir and Combo. He served as director of the Walt Disney All-American Summer College Jazz Ensemble and Jazz Singers in Orlando, Florida, for seven years and continues to serve as a consultant for the college program. He has also served as a member of the Jamey Aebersold Jazz Camp faculty. McCurdy is a performing artist for the Yamaha International Corporation.
Shelton Hull
Director, Founding member, Lead Writer, Member
A veteran journalist with over 20 years’ experience in print and broadcast media, Shelton writes for Void Magazine, Edible Northeast Florida, First Coast Magazine, Orlando Weekly, Creative Loafing Tampa, CityLab (DC), Counterpunch, Charleston City Pages, Section 8 Magazine, the Florida Times-Union and many others, and recently co-founded 'TheUplyft', a monthly newsletter developed by and for the Black Community of Northeast Florida and beyond. He is a regular contributor to “First Coast Connect” on WJCT-FM, and hosts his own jazz show as well. He has also contributed to the Ed Dean Show, UNF Osprey Radio and the Jax Local Radio Show.
Ben Adkins
MANAGING DIRECTOR, Founding Member, A&R, Member
With a musical career starting early in a family blues band, Ben’s study of jazz began in high school at The St. Johns County Center for the Arts. With a music scholarship from the St. Augustine Jazz Society, Ben completed his Bachelor of Music from the University of North Florida (during which he was selected to be a member of the Disneyland All-American College band), and Master of Music from Florida State University, under the tutelage of Danny Gottlieb and Leon Anderson, respectively.
More recently Ben has ventured into the realm of composition and production, releasing an album of original material, entitled Salmagundi, to critical acclaim in 2016, and has been on to producing albums and live tours since. Ben has shared the stage and studied with artists such as Linda Cole, Marcus Printup, Jiggs Whigham, Gary Starling, Marcus Roberts, Ron McCurdy, Wynton Marsalis, John Ricci, Seamus Blake, Dave Douglas, Alphonso Horne, Gary Burton, Keith Urban, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, the Jazz Conceptions Orchestra, and has been featured in JAZZIZ® and DRUM!® magazines.
Jim Daniel
Director of Education and Community Outreach
Widely respected as a musical pedagogue, Jim Daniel is among a rare breed of educators that consistently inspires students towards musical excellence.
With twenty-nine years experience in the Jacksonville, Florida area, Jim Daniel has worked as a music educator at Jacksonville University, Douglas Anderson School of the Arts, Landon Middle School of the Arts, La Villa School of the Arts, and First Baptist Academy. He served as Founding Director of the First Coast Community Music School at FSCJ, Founding Director of the First Baptist Academy Band, Director of Bands and a Founding Teacher at the KIPP Impact Middle School in Jacksonville, Florida. He is currently Band Director for the First Baptist Academy Band in Downtown Jacksonville and the Orchestra Director for the FBC High School Orchestra.
During his twenty years at LaVilla he has shared in the successes of students and performing ensembles, as they consistently received the highest honors on regional, national, and international levels in both classical and jazz genres. Ensemble honors include straight “Superior” ratings for over twenty years in the FBA Music Performance Assessment, 1st Place in the National Adjudicators Invitational (2004 and 2006), performances at the 1997 Midwest Clinic, The Montreux Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival and the 50th Anniversary of D- day in Normandy, France. Recently his LaVilla Middle School of the Arts Jazz Ensemble was the Feature for the Savannah Jazz Festival High School Competition with Marcus Roberts and Marcus Printup.
Jim Daniel’s students have been featured on “From the Top” on National Public Radio and won such awards as the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Solo Competition, International Trumpet Guild Concerto Competition, NFAA ARTS Awards in Jazz and Classical Trumpet, Principal Trumpet in Bands of America Orchestra, and the Jacksonville Symphony Youth Orchestra Concerto Competition. His students have gone on to perform in the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Nicholas Payton, Marcus Printup, Jimmy Cobb, Jason Marsalis, the Rochester Philharmonic, and the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, to name a few.
As many as twenty of his private students perform in the FMEA All-State Band, Orchestra, and Jazz Band every year.
Many of his students have received advanced degrees or are currently pursuing degrees from acclaimed schools such as Julliard, Eastman, Florida State University, Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin, North Western, and Curtis.
Jim Daniel’s formal studies include training in music performance and education at Austin Peay State University and Western Kentucky University. Among Daniel’s principal teachers are John Rommel (Principal Trumpet - Louisville Symphony and Department Head at Indiana University), Jeff Bailey (Co- principal - Nashville Symphony), Richard Steffen (Austin Peay State University), and Gary Dilworth (California State University). He has also undertaken additional studies with renowned teachers such as Vincent DiMartino, Armando Ghitalla, and Raymond Crisara.
He is a member of the Florida Music Educators Association, Music Educators National Conference, and The International Trumpet Guild.
Joshua Bowlus
DIRECTOR, FOUNDING MEMBER, LEAD ARRANGER, MEMBER
Originally from Port Orange, FL, Joshua was the eldest of three children, and from a very young age he had a natural attraction to the piano. Seeking out private lessons by the age of 5, Joshua continued to train classically throughout his childhood and teenage years at Stetson University. He credits both his high school band director Andrew Kidd and local jazz pianist/teacher Harold Blanchard for sparking his interest in jazz. Noticing his strong passion and dedication to this American art form, his teachers and peers awarded him with the prestigious Louis Armstrong Jazz Award upon graduation. Starting in 2002, Bowlus continued his jazz education at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, studying under pianists Kevin Bales & Keith Javors. The head of UNF jazz and extraordinary alto saxophonist Bunky Green served as Joshua’s primary mentor through his later years in college. Since graduating from UNF in 2006, he has built his career as a jazz pianist while residing in Jacksonville, acting as both a bandleader for his own groups as well as a sideman for various other groups.
Joshua’s musichas allowed him to perform in multiple popular jazz festivals and venues around the country, including the Jacksonville Jazz Fest, the Savannah Jazz Fest, the Monterey Jazz Fest, Kokopelli's Jazz Club, B-Sharp's Jazz Cafe, The Jazz Corner, and Iridium Jazz Club in NYC. He has also performed in a number of other locations around the globe, including France, Spain, and China. As the pianist for the UNF Jazz Ensemble One during his college years, the band played a two-week concert tour of China, and was the first jazz big band to perform on the Great Wall of China.
While currently still residing in Jacksonville, Joshua currently performs as the bandleader for The Joshua Bowlus Trio, and plays regularly in local venues such as The Parlour, The Brick, Mudville Music Room, The Volstead, and the Ritz Theatre. He has performed on stage with numerous well-known jazz artists on the scene including Wynton Marsalis, Bunky Green, Christian McBride, Ulysses Owens, Barry Greene, Dennis Marks, Danny Gottlieb, Annie Sellick, John Lee, Yotam Silberstein, Doc Handy, Lisa Kelly, J.B. Scott, Patrick Bartley, Jon Irabagon, Sofija Knezevic, and Christie Dashiell. Bowlus collaborates regularly with singing sensation Linda Cole, who is a family member of the Nat King Cole dynasty. Joshua is also a member of the Jazz Conceptions Orchestra, a NYC-based 9-piece jazz ensemble who so far has released one self-titled album. More recently he has joined the Jax Jazz Collective, a modern jazz sextet which attempts to blend multiple jazz influences and flavors into one mosaic. Joshua has recorded as a sideman with many other celebrated musicians on their own projects, including tenor saxophonist John Ricci, drummer Ben Adkins, electric bassist Jon Reshard, fusion guitarist Greg Howe, drummer Larry Wilson, vocalist Carter Calvert, alto saxophonist Daniel Dickinson, and world-renowned drummer Dave Weckl.
Joshua has developed his own unique voice in the jazz world, and so far has released his first official album as a bandleader as a collaboration with vocalist Linda Cole under his own record label, J-Bo Records. In addition, he has co-produced and released two albums with the Jax Jazz Collective under the same label. Bowlus currently resides in Jacksonville, and performs locally and regionally as a freelance pianist.
Jack Miller
Manager, Engineer, Producer
Jack Miller is a native of Atlanta, GA and is currently residing in Jacksonville, FL. Jack moved to Jacksonville to study at the University of North Florida with jazz drumming great, Danny Gottlieb. While in Jacksonville, Jack has become a musical chameleon having played and accompanied groups from every genre imaginable. His versatility has allowed him to play with artists such as: Teddy Adams, Miguel Zenon, Dave Steinmeyer, Kevin Bales, Lyn Avenue, Bill Prince, and many others. Jack is also active in his community having put together two benefit concerts for Leukemia and Lymphoma; in total raising 8,000 dollars! Also providing audio services, Jack runs his own project studio and has engineered projects that have appeared in commercials and has worked with producers and artists related to Paul McCartney, James Brown, Pat Metheny, Ray Charles and many others. Jack also teaches regularly and has given masterclasses at University of North Florida’s Music Camp, the Georgia Governors Honors Program, and many local public schools. Jack received his Masters in Music Performance from University of North Florida.
Dewin Barnette
Lead Grant Writer, Member
Dewin Anguas Barnette holds a Bachelor of Science degree in human development from the University of Rhode Island. With more than twenty years experience in social work and education (specializing in working with children with emotional and learning challenges), in addition to leading Bold City, Dewin is an active writer, researcher, and transcriptionist, focusing on African-American history and oral histories.