Welcome to the website of trumpeter, composer, arranger and educator Jamey Simmons
Feel free to explore media, materials in my store including jazz ensemble charts, brass music and jazz solo transcriptions. Also check out the free materials in the education blog section.
Butler University Jazz Ensemble at the Western International Band Clinic
Matt Pivec and the Butler Jazz Ensemble will be playing my chart on Coltrane’s “Giant Steps” on Saturday, November 23rd in Seattle, WA. They commissioned this chart, and they are seriously burning it up! I’ll make the chart available through sheetmusic plus in the future.
Details at https://www.bandworld.org/WIBC/View.aspx?p=WIBC_Concerts
POLAND ICX JAZZ MISSION 2024
“Sing a new song to the Lord, for He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him.”
Dear friends,
From May 15th - 31st I was honored to be a part of a very special music mission to Poland, the International Cultural Exchange (ICX) Jazz Tour, with some amazing musicians and brothers and sisters in Christ. We toured with a 25-passenger van and a trailer full of equipment to the following cities: Warsaw, Plock, Lublin, Radzin-Podlaski, Siemiatycze, Bialystock, Elk, and back to Warsaw again. We played concerts in Protestant churches in each of these cities, shared about the music and our faith through interpreters and had a “meet-and-greet” after each concert. As an additional service to several communities we held masterclasses at music schools with junior high and high school level students. During the second week we had a video/audio recording that will hopefully help the ICX organization market the group to area churches to help them understand how the gospel message is communicated through the art forms of jazz, blues. and gospel music. So, once that is up on youtube I’ll let you know how to find that.
I am excited about this mission for the following reasons:
1) God was glorified by some unique real connections to local evangelical churches that have been developed through years of relationship-building. We had profound discussions with hurting people (some of them are Ukrainian refugees) after the concerts/presentations and in Bialystok we heard of a gentleman that became a Christian and church member after attending last year. There have been many people active in building the church in Poland and Eastern Europe going back to the communist era. Praise God for all of the faithful servants I met!
2) It was wonderful to spend time with other believers of my same skill set, with a passion for making great music. Toward the end of the two weeks time we were musically tight, and enjoyed seeing arrangements and improvisations mature. The people that were a part of this ensemble are an interesting mix of musicians. They are:
Mark Boling, jazz guitarist and music director, Associate Professor of Jazz Guitar (retired), University of Tennessee – Knoxville
John and Diana Bowers, vocalists, ministry coordinator of Proclaims! Ministries, Jacksonville, FL
Wally Brath, jazz pianist, Assistant Professor of Worship Arts, Grace College, IN
Mike Choby, jazz bassist and church musician, Chicago, IL
Abel Kovacevic, jazz drummer and educator, Croatia
Greg Tardy, jazz saxophonist, Associate Professor of Jazz Saxophone, University of Tennessee – Knoxville
Also, some great team members served in other ways: Greg Davis, the sound engineer that got great sounds every concert, Carey and Holly Homquist, who supported us with many details related to touring, Bob McIntyre, who served as our photographer, and Pavel Shulpuk, who coordinated the tour and played violin on “Will the Circle Be Unbroken.” I encourage you to look up these musicians - they are amazingly creative people and have created some great work. Below this post I’ve posted a youtube video that was posted by the Kingdom Life congregation in Warsaw, a church made up of mostly African nationals living in Poland. Such a warm congregation where they mostly spoke English and some French. With no need for an interpreter, you get the flow of the whole set of music. My favorite is Greg’s arrangement of “Remember Me”, a tune by gospel singer Albertina Walker. Find it at about 12 minutes in. I’ll post some pictures of the tour in my blog part of the website in the coming week.
3) I gained an appreciation for the Polish people and the incredibly generous sense of hospitality they displayed. Post-concert feasts with new foods like borscht, nalesniki, beef cheeks, and (of course!) pierogis, provided constant surprises and made for good conversation around the table. Located on the border of Ukraine and Belarus and experiencing a birth of freedom after the fall of communism, the Polish people are creative, hard-working, and serious and diligent about accepting refugees in a disciplined way.
4) The concerts were generally well-attended and, according to the host church pastors, had many attendees who were not regular church members. We were fulfilling the goal of bringing in the community to hear the message and music.
I’m grateful that God answered prayer on behalf of the group for safe travel, group unity, a worshipful attitude, good attendance, faithful delivery of the Gospel, solid performing, for my stamina as a brass player, and for bringing people to us for spiritual conversations. Keep praying for seeds that were planted to be watered and tended. For those of you interested more in the Proclaim! International Ministries mission, please see their website at https://proclaiminternational.com. Thank you for your prayers for a successful mission. This has been an answer to prayer as I seek to serve Him with my talents. “…He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ…”
Love in Christ,
Jamey Simmons
Normandy, TN, USA
I’m very honored to play and direct the Nashville-based Establishment Big Band on April 2nd, at the WO Smith School. See below for ticket details. I’ve worked up a version of Wayne Shorter’s “Chief Crazy Horse”, and they’ll play a chart I wrote last year for the memory of my father called “A Father’s Love”. Bring 2 friends!
You simply have to hear this recording of my chart on “Coventry Carol” by the Taiwanese Taipei Professional Orchestra as led by alto saxophonist Jim Geddes. A great sounding band all around, playing a challenging chart.
NEW CHART OUT ON HERBIE HANCOCK’S “CHAMELEON”
Ever get tired of the jam band approach to this tune? Here’s a twist on a fusion classic. Right now order at
sheetmusic direct https://www.sheetmusicdirect.com/en-US/se/ID_No/1378217/Product.aspx
Sheet Music Plus https://www.sheetmusicplus.com/title/chameleon-digital-sheet-music/22572699
Check out the video below, and don’t forget about the fall jazz chart sale in my store!
I’m very proud of the students in MTSU Jazz Ensemble 1 for their excellent recording of my chart on Gary Smulyan’s tune “Olivia’s Arrival”. Check out one of the greatest baritone saxophonists on the chart with special efforts by MTSU seniors Jordan Morack and Zach Tyler.
I’m pleased to announce the release of a recording by my MTSU colleague, tubist Chris Combest, featuring the newly commissioned solo tuba piece I composed for him called Under Tennessee Skies. It is now available on Apple Music, and I’ve posted the program notes below as a teaser. For more information on the recording go to https://www.chriscombest.com/recordings
For the published sheet music see the Cimarron Press website https://www.cimarronmusic.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=under+tennessee+skies
“Under Tennessee Skies” by Jamey Simmons
“The Incident in Nickajack Cave” reflects a moment in the life of country music legend Johnny Cash. While visiting Nickajack Cave, outside of Chattanooga, the singer decided to end his life. He described it this way: “There in Nickajack Cave I became conscious of a very clear, simple idea: I was not in charge of my destiny. I was not in charge of my own death. I was going to die at God’s time, not mine.” The movement utilizes the ambiguity of augmented chords, and finally resolves to a slower, more relaxed ending.
The Sultana was a 260-foot long steamer that worked on the Mississippi River during the Civil War. Designed to hold 376 passengers, the boat was loaded with over 2100 Union prisoners-of-war from Andersonville and other Confederate prisons. Due to corruption among army officials and steamboat operators, the mechanically compromised vessel went north from Memphis, leading to a boiler explosion that killed approximately 1700 people. In “Lament of the Sultana,” the recurring steamboat horn (a concert C) can be heard throughout, with increasingly frantic chromatic melodies that die down to the ending pedal C.
The reel is an ancient Scottish dance that migrated to North America that influenced bluegrass, country, and zydeco music. “Jonesborough Reel” was inspired by a family visit to the East Tennessee town in summer 2020. Nestled west of the Appalachians, it is the oldest city in the state. Using the classic ABA form of the reel, the tuba plays a line that incorporates some unexpected contemporary sounds, but still retains the dance feel and “twangy” approach of a fiddle player.
I’m very proud of MTSU’s jazz area students and faculty for being featured in a recent Downbeat Magazine article as one of “Five Gems of Jazz Education.” See the link for the article: https://www.mtsu.edu/music/pdf/5gemsdownbeatmtsu.pdf
Check out video and audio of The Duo/Trio Project featuring Matt Endahl and Rory Hoffman performing Django Reinhardt’s lovely tune “Nuages.”
“Who Am I?” was inspired by the poem of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Below is the poem, and my dedication to prisoners of faith and conscience. Feel free to download, read stories of the prisoners below, and consider a donation to https://www.persecution.com/
Who am I?
Music by Jamey Simmons
Poetry by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Who am I? They often tell me,
I step from my cell’s confinement
Calmly, cheerfully, firmly,
Like a squire from his country house.
Who am I? They often tell me,
I used to speak to my warders
Freely and friendly and clearly,
As though it were mine to command.
Who am I? They also tell me,
I carried the days of misfortune
Equably, smilingly, proudly,
like one who is used to win.
Am I really then what others say of me?
Or am I only what I know of myself?
Restless, and longing and sick, like a bird in a cage,
Struggling for breath, as though hands were compressing my throat,
Yearning for colors, for flowers, for the voices of birds,
Thirsting for words of kindness, for neighborliness,
Tossing in expectations of great events,
Powerlessly trembling for friends at an infinite distance,
Weary and empty at praying, at thinking, at making,
Faint, and ready to say farewell to it all.
Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
And before myself a contemptible woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?
Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am thine!
I dedicate this composition to the following prisoners:
Zhao Weilang, China, unregistered church member, held 1693 days through the present
Twen Theodros, Eritrea, illegal convert, held 2004 - present
Abraham Ben Moses, Indonesia, illegal proselytizing, held 434 days - present
Wang Quanzhang, China, legal defense of dissidents, held 2015 - present
Dr. Kiflu Gebremeskel, Eritrea, former mathematics professor, pastor of unrecognized church, held 2004 - present