Guest Artist and Clinicians

2024 Jazz Festival Guest Artist: Shirazette Tinnin

Photo Credit: Bex Wade

We are thrilled to welcome Shirazette Tinnin as the guest artist for the 2024 University of Portland Jazz Festival!

Shirazette Tinnin is a drummer, composer, bandleader, educator, music director, published author, and health coach. She serves as a full-time Associate Professor of Percussion at the Berklee College of Music, where she directs the Dee Dee Bridgewater Ensemble and teaches private lessons. Tinnin, a Latin Grammy Nominee (2022), Make Jazz Fellow, and Fulbright recipient, is also the American drummer with Bridgewater and loves being a member of her band.

Additionally, Tinnin performs and freelances with other artists that include Deborah Cox, Lea Delaria (Orange Is the New Black), Endea Owens, Yuri Juárez’s Afro-Peruano, Afrikkanitha, Alan Harris, Alicia Olatuja, Nicole Mitchell, Tia Fuller, Mimi Jones, Orange Coffee, Alicia Keys, and Black Girls Rock (BET), and she leads her own projects The Sonic WallPaper Band and her jazz trio for political injustices, Moods of Her.

Tinnin has served as Music Coordinator for Urban Bush Women (2017-2023), founded by Jawole Zollar, and was Music Director for Alan Harris’s “Cross that River,” curating the final festival presentation at Little Island (summer 2021), called “Jazz Women.” She also has television credit for the first season of The Meredith Viera Show on NBC.

Tinnin has a background in marching percussion, classical percussion, world percussion, and her primary instrument, drum set. She studied at Appalachian State University for her undergraduate degree and is currently on their advisory board. She earned a master’s degree in music is from Northern Illinois University in Jazz Pedagogy under the direction of saxophonist Ron Carter. She also has a diverse background in fitness, with certifications in TRX, DNA Fitness Programming, Corrective Exercise, and Exercise Therapy from ISSA and NASM.

Her latest album, The Cards that Life Can Deal, which was featured on JAZZIZ magazine’s “Inside Track,” was released in 2021 and is available on SoundCloud, iTunes, and Spotify. She plans to release new music featuring bassist Christian McBride in 2024.

Read about our Past Guest Artists and Clinicians!

Dan Davey

Dan Davey is the Director of Jazz Studies and tenured Music Instructor at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon where he directs the premiere jazz ensemble and teaches core music courses. He is the Festival Director for the historic Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, and he is on the assessment faculty for the American Band College of Central Washington University. Dan also serves on the board of the Oregon Music Educators Association as the State Jazz Championship Chair. Dan received a Bachelor of Music in Music Education from the Berklee College of Music and his Master of Music from Sam Houston State University. He taught high school for eight years in Massachusetts before moving into higher education at Stonehill College and now at MHCC.

Dan works as a pianist, organist, and trumpet player and has performed at several notable venues around the country. He has played with the Southcoast Jazz Orchestra, the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, and Herb Reed and the Platters. In addition, Dan has performed and collaborated with several leaders in the industry, including Doc Severinsen, Bobby Shew, Allen Vizzutti, Terell Stafford, John Riley, Tiger Okoshi, Dominick Farinacci, Earl MacDonald, Marcus Printup, and the late Chris Vadala. Above all, his greatest passion is spending time with his wife and their two sons!

Jessika Smith

Jessika Smith is an award-winning jazz composer, saxophonist, and music educator. She teaches at Parkrose Middle School and High School in Portland, and she directs the Jessika Smith Big Band. She plays frequently with jazz groups throughout Oregon and Washington currently including Torrey Newhart’s Obsidian Animals, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and the Frank Irwin Sextet. Jessika has worked with numerous young jazz groups in the Northwest, presents regularly at music education conferences, and frequently adjudicates jazz festivals and competitions along the West Coast. She is the newly elected jazz area chair for the Oregon Music Educators Association.