Contact
Office Phone:
(585) 274-1433
E-mail:
jcampbell@esm.rochester.edu
Sounds
About Jeffrey Campbell
Associate Professor of Jazz Studies & Contemporary Media
ECMS Collegiate Instructor in Jazz Double Bass and in Jazz Combo & Improvisation
Jeff Campbell has carved out an impressive career as bass player of extraordinary artistry, fluent in both the jazz and classical idioms. As a jazz bassist, he maintains an active schedule performing with Marian McPartland, Gene Bertoncini, Rich Perry, Trio East, Harold Jones, and the Eastman Jazz Quartet featuring Harold Danko, and has appeared on McPartland's Piano Jazz program on National Public Radio. In high demand across the globe, Jeff has performed at such prestigious European musical events as the Nice, Montreux, North Sea, Riga, and Parnu Jazz Festivals and has also appeared in the former Soviet Union and the Baltic Republics. His first CD, West End Avenue, with John Hollenbeck and John Wojceichowski, features a combination of original compositions and jazz standards. Additionally, Jeff is a member of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra bass section. His summers are occupied with the Birch Creek Music Performance Center in Door County, Wisconsin, where he serves as program director, and the Eastman Summer Jazz Studies and Bass Day, of which he is co-director.
In addition to a busy performing schedule, Jeff maintains an active career as a jazz educator with a keen interest in bass playing of the past, present, and future. A full-time professor at Eastman since 1997, his teaching duties include jazz bass, jazz history, jazz theory and aural skills, and small group performance. He is a regular contributor to the Double Bassist magazine, and is the Jazz Editor of Bass World, the official publication of the International Society of Bassists. Jeff's book on the famous Duke Ellington-Jimmy Blanton duets (in preparation for publication) provides bassist with an opportunity to study the bass playing of the great Jimmy Blanton.
Jeff's music education began at an early age under the influence of his professional-musician parents. As a young musician, Jeff received much of his musical training working with local professional musicians in a myriad of musical styles and venues. Through these experiences, Jeff developed a healthy balance between the artistic and practical issues faced by today's professional musician. Jeff holds degrees in double bass performance and music education from Brigham Young University (BM) and the Eastman School of Music (MM, DMA). He has studied bass with John F. Clark, James VanDemark, Jeffrey Turner, and Robert Zimmerman, and jazz composition with Bill Dobbins and Fred Sturm.
For more information on Jeff's activities with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, visit his RPO page.
Read Jeff's latest CD review at AllAboutJazz.com.
Copies of West End Avenue are available on CDBaby.com.
Copies of Trio East are available through the Eastman Bookstore.
Reviews of West End Avenue:
"The music is serious without being pretentious - thoughtful and open, yet groovy and swinging. Campbell is a strong player with a classic upright sound, great intonation, and chops to spare."
- Bass Player
"Campbell bridges the span between melody and rhythm well when backing, and his moments in the spotlight are inventive and controlled...Tone Poem for the Desert has a sound-painting intro made all the more intriguing by Campbell's clever use of his bow to simulate the berimbau."
- allaboutjazz.com
"[Campbell has] got great tone, fast fingers, and sure articulartion. It takes real chops to play the busy bass parts of Tone Poem for the Desert for over seven minutes; Campbell handles it with no strain."
- Cadence Magazine
Discography
As A Leader
Birch Creek Academy Band, Three Miles East (BC Records), 2005
Jeff Campbell with John Hollenbeck, West End Avenue (Musique Cambeaux Records), 2004
As A Sideman
Reggie Thomas & Harold Jones, Eastern Central Pacific Standard Time, 2005
Charles Davidson, A Singing of Angels (Naxos), 2005
Capitol Quartet, Dig (Admlive!), 2004
Kim Richmond / Clay Jenkins Ensemble, CrossWeave (Origin Jazz), 2004
Tom Garling, Campin' Out, 2004
Trio East, Live At The Little (Earring), 2004
Trio East, Stop-Start (Sons of Sound), 2003
Rich Perry, Rich Perry at Eastman (SteepleChase), 2002
Eastman Jazz Trio, The Question Is (Eastman in Concert), 2000
Bob Dibaudo Trio, It Might As Well Be Swing, 2000
Birch Creek Academy Band, Silver Celebration (BCMC Productions), 2000
Rochester Chamber Society, Chamber Jazz (SCMR Productions), 2000
Phil Freeman, Time To Get Ready, 1998
Bob Sneider, Introducing Bob Sneider, 1998
Craig Larson Quartet with Frank Vignola, Classic Standards (HMF Records), 1997
Birch Creek Academy Band, Barn Burner (Door Voices), 1995
Brian O'Hern, Jazz for the Trippy, 1992
Orchestral Recordings
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 with Olga Kern (Harmonia Mundi USA), 2003
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Holiday Pops Live II, 1999
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Holiday Pops, 1998
Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, 75th Anniversary Double CD, 1997
Educational Recordings
The Ramon Ricker Improvisation Series (books and CDs) Advance Music (Germany)
Vol. 1: The Beginning Improviser
Vol. 2: Blues
Vol. 3: The II-V-I Progression, Standard Tunes and Rhythm Changes
Vol. 4: The Developing Improviser; the Melodic Minor Scale
Richard Grunow, Jump Right In (GIA Publications), 2004
Playing in a Big Band Series (Advance Music), 2003
Richard Grunow, Jump Right In (GIA Publications), 2000
Fred Lipsius, Reading Jazz Rhythms (Advance Music), 1997