2020 John Moawad Jazz Festival

Fri./Sat. May 15-16, 2020

CWU Jazz is proud to announce Dafnis Prieto, 2019 Jazz Festival Guest Artist (2020 artist TBA)

The astonishingly talented and prolific drummer Dafnis Prieto has done a lot since moving to the States from his native Cuba in 1999. He's made a host of sideman appearances with musicians of widely varying stripes, including Peter Apfelbaum, Michel Camilo, Steve Coleman, Marilyn Lerner, Brian Lynch, Henry Threadgill, Chucho Valdes, and John Zorn. He won a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2011. He published an influential instructional guide, A World of Rhythmic Possibilities, in 2016. And he's recorded a significant number of his own dates, with small groups ranging from trios to sextets, all of which highlight Prieto's distinctive approach to using the Afro-Cuban musical tradition as a springboard for all manner of stylistic and rhythmic innovation.

The one project he hadn't yet attempted? A big-band album. But with Back to the Sunset, that's now been fixed. And the results are as invigorating, imaginative, and rhythmically exhilarating as one would expect from such a fearless and restlessly creative musician.

Dafnis Prieto will perform selections from his Grammy-nominated CD “Back To The Sunset” with the CWU Jazz Band 1 during the final concert of the CWU Jazz Festival, May 17-18, 2019.

Read the DownBeat article here.

2019 Clinicians

• Deb Schaaf - Jane Addams MS, Seattle, WA
• Terry Lack - Mead HS (retired), Spokane, WA
• Brian Kirk - Seattle Central CC, Seattle, WA
• Cynthia Plank - Beaumont MS, Portland, OR
• Darin Faul - Mountlake Terrace High School, WA
• Collin Wilson - Columbia Basin College, Pasco, WA

The John Moawad Invitational Jazz Festival is open to all college, high school and middle school jazz bands. For all of the details, please check out our Festival Information page.

For more information:

Festival Director
Chris Bruya
509-963-1426
christopher.bruya@cwu.edu