The Dameron Project

THE DAMERON PROJECT:
The Dameron Project is an eight member all-star jazz ensemble focused on the music of legendary composer and arranger Tadd Dameron. The ensemble came into existence as a result of a special commission by the Tri-C JazzFest for their 25th anniversary festival. Radio personality Bobby Jackson of WCPN-FM dubbed the performance "by far the most important and entertaining showcase of Tri-C JazzFest's Silver Anniversary." The arrangements by fellow Cleveland native Eric Gould are modern and original, yet true to the essence of Dameron's music. Guest soloist Jimmy Heath described Gould as "a composer/arranger with exceptional depth and musical understanding." The performance by the all-star ensemble provides a myriad of thrills.

ERIC GOULD:

While his first three CD’s have met with success, and have enabled him to make a mark on the national jazz scene, these are but the latest moves in a 25-year career for pianist, composer, and arranger Eric Gould. As a bandleader, he has shared the stage with some of jazz’s brightest stars, opening for Earl Klugh, Azymuth, Larry Coryell, Wayne Shorter, and the New York Jazz All-Stars, and performing on television with Louie Bellson and James Moody. He has performed and recorded in collaboration with world-reknowned instrumentalists such as Jimmy Heath, James Newton, Bobby Watson, Antonio Hart, Winard Harper, Cindy Blackman, Vanessa Rubin, Cecil Bridgewater, Talib Kibwe (T.K. Blue), Don Braden, Robin Eubanks, and Leon Lee Dorsey in addition to leading his own trio in performances from the Midwest to the East Coast. Gould has been a guest soloist with the Canton Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Philharmonic Orchestra. His debut CD, “On the Real” rose to number 11 on the national jazz radio charts in the first quarter of 1999. His second CD, “Miles Away… Wayne in Heavy” rose to number 10 on the national charts and to number 45 (out of over 2500 releases) for the year 2000. His third CD, “Who Sez?” has sold well from coast to coast.

Gould has composed music for various other ensembles as well. The Cleveland Chamber Symphony premiered his piece “Midnight Excursion” in 2003. In 1996 his piece for string quartet entitled “He Speaks in Shadows” was performed by the critically acclaimed Cavani String Quartet at Merkin Concert Hall in New York, at the Chamber Music America Festival in New York, and at the Britt Music Festival. His arrangement of the same piece for jazz quintet and orchestra was commissioned by the Canton Symphony Orchestra for a performance that took place in March, 2001. He was awarded a Meet the Composer Grant from Arts Midwest in 1994, and was selected as a member of their touring roster in 1985. He has also been a recipient of an Ohio Arts Council Individual Artists Fellowship for Composition.

As an educator, Gould is currently on the faculty at Cleveland State University. He has also conducted numerous workshops, residencies, and classes, in addition to private instruction, festival organization, and arts management consultation. In his roles as Executive Director and Managing Consultant of the Excellence in Music Initiative in Cleveland, Ohio Gould played a substantial role in the development of the preparatory music program at Cuyahoga Community College.

His television credits include the 1984 PBS series entitled “North Coast Jazz,” which featured his duo “Umoja,” and a 2000 BET series entitled JazzEd TV that featured his Tri-C JazzFest concert with Cecil Bridgewater. He is the co-producer and host of an educational television show for the Smithsonian Institution entitled “Duke Ellington: Beyond Category” that aired in November, 1999 to over 4 million viewers at schools across the country.

In 2000, Gould served as a consultant for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz National Curriculum Project. Gould has served as an advisory panelist for the National Jazz Service Organization, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Music School Settlement, the Society for Public Access Computing (in the early days of the internet), and the Cleveland Arts Initiative Task Force. He served as Co-Chair of the Jazz/Special Projects grants panel for the National Endowment of the Arts in 1994 and as an individual artists grants panelist for the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo in 1986 and 1987. He holds a Master of Music degree in Composition from Cleveland State University, where he studied with Edwin London, Rudolph Bubalo, P.Q. Phan, and Andrew Rindfleisch.

Eric Gould currently resides in Shaker Heights, Ohio, where he is active in composing, performing, teaching, recording, production, and arts management consultation.