In December, the HF-L High School Jazz Ensemble was fortunate enough to be visited by renowned jazz musician, Vanessa Collier. Collier gave an hour and half masterclass on jazz where she improvised for and with multiple students on several jazz standards such as Mr. PC, Watermelon Man, and Blue Bossa.
““I am driven to do this because I find it a total form of expression and connection. I love connecting with an audience and feeling their energy and I hope to inspire people to follow their dreams and passions, to find what brings them joy, and then to pursue it doggedly.””
“Vanessa gave some excellent insight into improvisation and gave technical feedback to help students be more creative and emotional with their playing,” said Ken Kreuzer, HF-L High School Band Teacher. “She talked about the value of confidence, holding your horns up, and ‘owning what you play.’”
As a master musician and multi-instrumentalist, Collier has accumulated many accolades including two Blues Music awards for “Horn Player of the Year,” three BMA’s for “Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year,” and eight Blues Music Award Nominations (BMAs), a Blues Blast Award nomination, the Jammingest Pro Award bestowed by the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise, First Place for lyrics in the International Songwriting Competition, Best of 2014 Blues Breaker on Dan Aykroyd’s BluesMobile -- it’s the fact that she has accumulated all these honours even while her career is still in its infancy. A 2013 graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music, she’s toured nationally and internationally, released four critically acclaimed albums (2014’s Heart, Soul & Saxophone, 2017’s Meeting My Shadow, and 2018’s Honey Up, 2020’s Heart On The Line. Honey Up spent 9 weeks atop the Billboard Blues Album Charts Top 15, 3 months on the Living Blues Charts at #10 and #23, and continues to be spun on Sirius XM’s B.B. King’s Bluesville radio station!
Having first picked up the saxophone at the age of nine, Collier embarked on her road to recognition at Berklee, earning dual degrees in Performance and Music Production & Engineering. While still completing her degree, Collier landed a position touring with Joe Louis Walker for a year and a half before Joe encouraged her to strike out on her own.
“I am driven to do this because I find it a total form of expression and connection,” Collier said. “I love connecting with an audience and feeling their energy and I hope to inspire people to follow their dreams and passions, to find what brings them joy, and then to pursue it doggedly.”
Collier also takes that message to young people as she runs clinics across the country and is active with Blues in the Schools programs. The Blues in the Schools Program is sponsored by the HF-L Music Boosters and Jim Shelley, owner of Fanatics in Lima.
“She gave our students a license to hit a wrong note or two, and continue with their creativity fearlessly, as improvisation is creation in the moment. She spoke of the value of listening to each other and talked about the value of preparation- with tracking harmonies, knowing notes and scales that will work, and playing with rhythm and confidence,” said Kreuzer.
Collier and her band played two concerts at Fanatics in Lima following the visit to the school, and HF-L high school drummer, Noah Close, sat in with her band!
“She was very gracious with her time and energy, and I hope this will not be the last time she makes a pit stop at HFL high school,” said Kreuzer.