BOSTON, September 13, 1999 -- Berklee College of Music is pleased, for the fourth year, to present some of its finest student musicians in association with the Monterey Jazz Festival. This year's performance by the Berklee Monterey Quartet will take place on Sunday, September 19 on the Garden Stage, at 4:30 p.m. The group will be joined onstage by this year's winner of the full-tuition Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to Berklee, 15-year-old drummer Thomas Pridgen, of Berkeley, California.

The Berklee Monterey Quartet

Bob Reynolds - leader & tenor saxophone (Jacksonville, FL)
Bob Reynolds made his New York debut in May at the Blue Note jazz club, performing the music of Thelonious Monk with the Berklee Scholarship Jazz Sextet. Bob originally wanted to be a film director and started his own video production company at age 13 with money he earned acting in TV commercials and films. He started to play the saxophone the following year in order to compose and play music for his videos.

After playing sax for a year and a half, Bob auditioned and was accepted to the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts in Jacksonville, Florida, and was chosen for the All-State Jazz Band his junior and senior years. While in high school he studied and performed with Bunky Green, director of the jazz department at the University of Northern Florida. Bob was a National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Scholarship recipient and played the Jacksonville Jazz Festival during his first semester at Berklee, where he studies with saxophonists George Garzone and Billy Pierce.

Last year, Bob performed some of his own compositions with a Berklee quintet at the JVC Jazz Festival in New York City. He also went to France to play at Juan-les-Pins with the Berklee Rainbow Band, one of the college's top student groups, led by trombonist Phil Wilson. He has just returned, along with Monterey bandmates Scott and Kelley, from a tour of Japan. Bob appears on the new Berklee "Summa Cum Jazz II" CD on the BMG Jazz Foundations label.

Mark Kelley - bass (Houston, TX)
Mark Kelley grew up in a musical family, the son of a physician mother and a classical pianist father. He began playing piano at age 4, cello at age 10, and bass at age 13. His freshman year at Houstonis High School of Performing and Visual Arts, he began studying bass with Ms. Erin Wright and jazz studies with noted jazz educator Dr. Robert Morgan. Mark performed with many visiting jazz artists and clinicians at the school, including Berklee alumnus Cyrus Chestnut, Kenny Barron and Ahmad Jamal bassist Sabu. In 1998, Mark was the only high school bass player in the United States selected for the National Honors Jazz Band.

Since January of 1999, Mark has been the bassist for Kendrick Oliver and the New Life Jazz Orchestra, performing regularly at Boston's Scullers Jazz Club with special guests like Roy Hargrove, Nicholas Payton, and Christian McBride, with whom Mark played a bass duet. The band made their New York debut in April at the Blue Note. Mark appears on the new Berklee "Summa Cum Jazz II" CD, and has just returned from a tour of Japan with bandmates Reynolds and Scott.

Milan Milanovic - piano
Milan Milanovic was born and raised in Yugoslavia, where he began his musical training. His first instrument, at age 7, was the trombone. At age 11, he won first prize in the state music competition, and two years later the national classical trombone competition. At age 15, Milan became interested in jazz, and two years later he began playing piano and touring Europe with Yugoslavia's leading young jazz group, the New Age Band.

In 1995, Milan moved to Boston to study at Berklee College of Music. He has studied and performed with some of the biggest names in jazz, including JoAnne Brackeen, Bill Pierce, George Garzone, Andy McGhee, Ray Santisi, Herbie Hancock, Joe Lovano, Lewis Nash, Ray Brown, John Pattitucci, Christian McBride, Nicholas Payton, Roy Hargrove, Geoff Keezer, and Charlie Banacos. Milan was selected to participate in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Camp in Aspen, Colorado, this past August.

Kendrick Scott - drums (Houston, TX)
Kendrick Scott recently returned from a performance at the Clifford Brown Jazz Festival. One of five recipients of the 1999 Clifford Brown/Stan Getz fellowships from the International Association of Jazz Educators and the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, Kendrick also performed in January with the other honorees at the IAJE conference at Disneyland. Kendrick also attended the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Houston, Texas, studying with Dr. Robert Morgan and Nathan Carter, and privately with Darryl Singleton, percussion instructor at Texas Southern University. At the end of his junior year, he won a Blue Note Records scholarship to the Skidmore Summer Jazz Institute. In 1998, Kendrick received the Annual Down Beat Student Music Scholarship for Outstanding Performer-Best Jazz Soloist and the Longhorn Jazz Festival Outstanding Soloist Award, and was a member of the National Honors Jazz Band.

Kendrick has performed with artists including Kenny Barron, Cyrus Chestnut, Ellis Marsalis, Mark Whitfield, Bill Mays, Bill Watrous, Billy Harper, and T.S. Monk. At Berklee, he's performed with alumni Roy Hargrove, Darren Barrett, Reuben Rogers, and Doron Richard Johnson, as well as Nat Reeves and Jamal Haynes. Recipient of Berklee's Most Active Drummer Award, Kendrick appears on the new "Summa Cum Jazz II" CD.

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Journalists, for further information:

Rob Hayes, Director of Public Information
Berklee College of Music
617-747-2566 rhayes@berklee.edu

IN MONTEREY, Sept. 16-19 at the Hyatt Regency 831-372-1234