 | JAZZ MAYHEM: Jazz Mayhem
Jazz septet, original four-horn arrangements featuring inventive post-bop improvisation.
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 | WK.END BAND: How 'Bout Us
Smooth and sexy jazz
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Jeff Helgesen, a native and resident of Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, has been an active fixture in east central Illinois music circles for over twenty-five years. The son of a prominent local trumpet player, Helgesen began playing trumpet professionally in local dance bands at the age of 15, later studying music at the University of Illinois under Ray Sasaki while working actively as a freelance performer and studio musician. In 1987, Helgesen accepted a position as a featured soloist with the Ray Charles Orchestra, with whom he recorded and toured internationally until late 1990.
Helgesen's credits include live performances with Aretha Franklin, Natalie Cole, Manhattan Transfer, Jon Faddis, Clark Terry, Louis Bellson, Jimmy Heath, Ed Thigpen, Pete Christlieb, Bill Watrous, and Anthony Braxton, as well as the Les Elgart and Tommy Dorsey Orchestras, and the Jazz Members Big Band of Chicago. He has recorded with such artists as Ray Charles, Anthony Braxton, Chicago pianist Joan Hickey, the Jazz Members Big Band of Chicago, Medicare 7-8-9, and the Craig Russo Latin Jazz Project.
Helgesen's influences on the trumpet and flugelhorn include Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Clifford Brown, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, Carl Saunders, and Woody Shaw. He is at equally at ease playing dixieland, bebop, big band, commercial pop music, and modern small group jazz.
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