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JAY HOGGARD
About the Artist
Born in Washington, DC and raised in Mt. Vernon, New York, vibraphonist JAY HOGGARD took piano lessons from his mother and studied alto saxophone at Duke Ellington’s Second Sacred Concert at Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem. After meeting Ellington, Hoggard knew that he “wanted to play music,” and at 16 he began playing the vibraphone.
Hoggard majored in the music program at Wesleyan University and later toured Europe, played Carnegie Hall with Wesleyan teacher Clifford Thornton, and traveled to Tanzania on a Wesleyan grant to study East African xylophone music. After graduation, he returned to New York City, where the New York Times soon proclaimed him “the most dazzling new vibraphonist in jazz”.
Hoggard has recorded and performed with artists including Kenny Burrell, Oliver Lake, James Newton, Anthony Davis, McCoy Turner, Vernon Reid and Sam Rivers. He performed in special collaborations with Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Tito Puenta and Bobby Hutcherson, and was a guest artist with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band. He has recorded soundtracks, jingles and over forty albums. He is currently a professor at Wesleyan University, teaching theory and directing the Jazz Orchestra and is in constant demand as a concert-recording artist and composer-arranger.
Past Performances
December 2, 2002
Jay Hoggard, premier vibraphone player and composer, pays tribute to 1992 Honoree Lionel Hampton. THE KENNEDY CENTER CELEBRATES ITS PAST HONOREES
