Karlton Hester

Not to be confused with Charlton Heston.
Karlton Hester
Background information
Born (1949-02-11) February 11, 1949
El Paso, Texas, US
OriginEl Paso
GenresJazz
Occupation(s)Musician and Professor
InstrumentWoodwinds
Years active1970s–present
LabelsHesteria Records
Websitekarltonhester.com

Karlton Hester (born February 11, 1949) is an American performer, composer, scholar, and educator.

Early life and education

Hester began taking piano lessons with piano teacher Drusilla Nixon[1] and a few years after that, began singing in the El Paso Boys' Choir,[2] founded and directed by the Chair of the music department at Texas Western College, Dr. E.A. Thorsmodsgaard.[3] Hester began learning flute and other wind instruments in the 6th grade, later learning from African American music masters in the Los Angeles community.[4] He studied music at the University of Texas and soon headed to Southern California, where he was employed as a symphonic band, orchestra, marching band, and jazz band director[5] at Eisenhower High School in Rialto, California.[6]

Hester earned his B.M. at University of Texas at El Paso, his M.A. in Music Education from San Francisco State University, and his Ph.D. in composition from the City University of New York Graduate Center.[7] Hester's Ph.D. dissertation is titled "The Melodic and Polyrhythmic Development of John Coltrane's Spontaneous Compositions in a Racist Society," and the music of John Coltrane has been a lasting influence on his work.[8][9] Hester taught for a decade at Cornell University immediately after graduating.[10]

Career

Hester began his career as a studio musician and music educator in Los Angeles and was the Herbert Gussman Director of Jazz Studies at Cornell University from 1990 to 2000.[11] At Cornell, Hester directed the Traditional and Experimental Lab Ensembles[12] and coordinated university festivals and conferences that included jazz and African artists such as Jaki Byard, John Handy, Joe Henderson, Cecil Taylor, McCoy Tyner, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Stanley Turrentine, Louis Jordan, Buddy Collette, Dr. Donald Byrd, Dr. Billy Taylor, Randy Weston, Charles Lloyd, Geri Allen, Benny Powell, Charles Tolliver, Steve Turre, Sam Rivers, Thomas Mapfumo, George E. Lewis, Roscoe Mitchell, Hotep Galeta, Victor Goines, Akua Dixon, Mamadou Diabate, Samite Mulondo, Cecilia Smith, Phil Bowler, Adela Dalto, Pamela Wise, and Nick Mathis.[7]

Hester set up and directs the San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band[13] and Hesterian Musicism. He coined the term musicism[14] to “represent the creative process by which musicians, visual artists, and poets, through the merging of composition and performance, produce new art forms.”[9] This interdisciplinary approach is realized in projects such as “Three Bodies” where Hester collaborated with astrophysicist Greg Laughlin and dancer Ted Warburton to create a multimedia performance that offers a “solution” to the three-body problem.[15]

Hester has received composer fellowships, grants, and commissions from the National Endowment of the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, New England Council of the Arts, ASCAP, and the William Grant Still Foundation.,[16] as well as a 2022 collaborative grant from the National Endowment for the Arts for the "Surge" Afrofuturism Festival.[17] He was the vice president of the International Society for Improvised Music (2008-2018) and is founding director of Interdisciplinary Artists Aggregation, Inc. (1970–present).[18][19]

Hester is the director and member of the principal faculty for the University of California, Santa Cruz Digital Arts and New Media (DANM) MFA program,[20] and serves as Associate Dean of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion for the UCSC Arts Division.[21] As one of the organizers of the event entitled “Surge Afrofuturism”, Hester and Dance Professor Gerald Casel won a grant from the National Endowment for their year-long Festival for the academic year 2021-2022. This was Hester’s third NEA grant.[17]

Grove Music Online wrote of him "This disciplined spontaneity also informs Hester’s later works in the albums Trans-Cultural Musicism (2015) and Quantum Elders Ballet (2019), resulting from collaborating with Japanese, Korean, and Chinese musicians. These albums represent a contribution to transcultural Afrofuturism through a combination of ancient Egyptian symbolism and a hopeful view of the future, and present a post-modern blend of avantgarde, world music, and hip hop. The multi-media work Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine (2021) allows for new modes of interaction and artistic expression during the COVID-19 pandemic."[22]

Awards

Hester is a Gold Medal winner of a Global Music Award for Experimental Jazz in December 2017, for his 2016 album Trans-Cultural Musicism,[23] the Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cornell University,[24] and the National Endowment for the Arts, composer grant.[24]

Discography

  • 1981: Karlton Hester and the Contemporary Jazz Art Movement (Hesteria Records)[25]
  • 1982: Hesterian Musicism (Hesteria Records)[26]
  • 1988: Dances Purely for the Sake of Love (Hesteria Records)
  • 1998: Musicism for the Sake of Love (Hesteria Records)[25]
  • 1998: Sacred Musicism (Hesteria Records)
  • 1998: Retrospective: Cornell University Lab Ensembles & Guest Artists 1991–1998 (Hesteria Records)
  • 1998: Hesterian Liberation (Hesteria Records)
  • 1999: Reconstructive Musicism (Hesteria Records)
  • 2000: Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000 (Hesteria Records)[25]
  • 2006: Musicism for Your Imagination (Hesteria Records)[14]
  • 2006: Twenty-first Century Musicism (Hesteria Records)[25]
  • 2006: Live at Herbst Theatre with The Fillmore Jazz Preservation Big Band (featuring John Handy and Denise Perrier) (Hesteria Records)[25]
  • 2007: Divine Particle's Vision (Hesteria Records)[25]
  • 2008: Sixth Sense - Stillness (Hesteria Records/Blue Cliff Records)
  • 2015: Trans-cultural Musicism (Hesteria Records)[27]
  • 2018: Hip-Hop Hesteria (Hesteria Records)[25]
  • 2018: Quantum Elders Ballet (Hesteria Records/Centaur Records)[22]
  • 2021: Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine (Hesteria Records/Blu-ray video)[22]
  • 2022: Quantum Elders Consciousness Vaccine (Centaur Records/CD)[22]
  • 2024: Hesterian Ballet -- dramatic Operetta - Centaur: CRC4098

Books

  • 1997: The Melodic and Polyrhythmic Development of John Coltrane's Spontaneous Compositions in a Racist Society (Edwin Mellen Press)[25]
  • 2000: From Africa to Afrocentric Innovations Some Call "Jazz" (SUNY Press)
  • 2009: Bigotry and the Afrocentric Jazz Evolution 4th Edition (Cognella Publishing)<[25]
  • 2010: Exploratory Musicism: Ideas for Spontaneous Composition (Cognella Publishing)[25]
  • 2011: Survey of African Music (Cognella Publishing)[25]
  • 2016: African Roots of the Jazz Evolution (Cognella Publishing)[28]
  • 2019: Jazz Nucleus of Global Fission (Kendall Hunt Publishing)[29]

References

  1. ^ "Nixon, Drusilla Elizabeth Tandy".
  2. ^ "El Paso Boys Choir - 1970 - 1979 | wall".
  3. ^ "El Paso Boys Choir - 1970 - 1979 | wall".
  4. ^ "Hitting a high note".
  5. ^ EAGLE’S EYE, VOL. 14, NO. 10, page 2 Eisenhower High School, Rialto, California 92376 February 9, 1973
  6. ^ EAGLE’S EYE, VOL. 14, NO. 10, Eisenhower High School, Rialto, California 92376, February 9, 1973,
  7. ^ a b Karlton Hester Profile Archived 2016-12-12 at the Wayback Machine, UC Santa Cruz.
  8. ^ (October 2005). Medwin Marc. "Review of 21st Century Musicism." Cadence Magazine. p. 32
  9. ^ a b Spencer, Robert. (April 1999). "Review of Reconstructive Musicism." Cadence Magazine. p. 102
  10. ^ "Karlton Hester and Roberto Sierra each garner their 7th ASCAP awards | Cornell Chronicle".
  11. ^ Karlton Hester Profile, UC Santa Cruz Arts.
  12. ^ (October 1999). "Review of Sacred Musicism." Cadence Magazine. p. 105
  13. ^ Donaldson, Bill. (May 2007). "Review of Live at Herbst Theatre." Cadence Magazine. p. 43
  14. ^ a b "Karlton Hester: Musicism for Your Imagination: Alive at Barnes Hall album review @ All About Jazz". All About Jazz. August 1, 1999.
  15. ^ Featured Faculty Article, UC Santa Cruz.
  16. ^ "Karlton Hester | CD Baby Music Store". www.cdbaby.com.
  17. ^ a b "Natural Endowment for the Arts Award to Support UC Santa Cruz's Surge: Afrofuturism Festival". 19 January 2022.
  18. ^ "ISIM Website". Archived from the original on 2016-12-03. Retrieved 2017-01-02.
  19. ^ "Interdisciplinary Artists Aggregation, Inc. | San Francisco Classical Voice".
  20. ^ "Principal Faculty | danm.ucsc.edu".
  21. ^ "Karlton Hester | arts.ucsc.edu". arts.ucsc.edu.
  22. ^ a b c d Polzonetti, Pierpaolo (23 April 2025). "Hester, Karlton". Grove Music Online.
  23. ^ "Global Music Awards - Music Competition".
  24. ^ a b "Campus Directory - UC Santa Cruz". campusdirectory.ucsc.edu.
  25. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Rappaport, Scott (April 11, 2018). "Hip-Hop Hesteria heading to Music Center Recital Hall on April 20".
  26. ^ "Karlton Hester And The Contemporary Jazz Art Movement – Hesterian Musicism (LP) – Soundohm". www.soundohm.com.
  27. ^ Jazz, All About (September 5, 2019). "Karlton E Hester: Trans-Cultural Musicism album review @ All About Jazz". All About Jazz.
  28. ^ "African Roots of the Jazz Evolution". titles.cognella.com.
  29. ^ "Search | Higher Education". he.kendallhunt.com.

Further reading

  • (September 1983). "Review of Hesterian Musicism." Downbeat Magazine. p.43
  • (January 1983). "Review of Karlton Hester's Contemporary Jazz Art Movement." Cadence Magazine. p.38
  • (May 1983). "Review of Hesterian Musicism." Cadence Magazine. p.42
  • Bivins, Jason. (January 2009). "Review of Divine Particle's Vision." Cadence Magazine. pp.120-121
  • Elcombe, Chris. (March 2010). "Review of Stillness: Improvisations 2008." The Strad. p.95
  • Loewy, Steven. (August 2001). "Review of Harmonious Soul Scenes 2000." Cadence Magazine. pp.101-102
  • Soergel, Brian. (April 2007). "Review of Live at Herbst Theatre." Jazz Times. pp.89-90
  • Watrous, Peter. (April 1989). "Review of Dances Purely for the Sake of Love." Musician p.90
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