Fredrick J. Berry
Fredrick J. Berry, jazz educator and professional trumpet player, is a member of the faculty of Stanford University, where he teaches Jazz History and is Director of the Stanford Jazz Orchestra. At Stanford University he instituted the visiting artist program in which world renown artists do mini residencies which culminate in performances with the Stanford Jazz Orchestra. He is Emeritus professor of Music from the College of San Mateo where he taught for thirty five years and founded the College of San Mateo Jazz Festival.
He taught brass instruments at the Nueva Center for Gifted Children for ten years. He is also involved in Jazz education as a director, clinician, and adjudicator. Performance credits include artists such as Roscoe Mitchell, Count Basie, Tony Bennett, Benny Carter, Ray Charles, Natalie Cole, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner and Nancy Wilson.
He is actively involved in bay area music as a trumpeter, contractor, conductor, and band leader, and is presently musical director for vocalist and recording artist, Jaime Davis. He was musical director for the Northern California Louie Bellson Orchestra for five years. He is a charter member of the AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Music) and is an original member of the Roscoe Mitchell Quartet which became the Art Ensemble of Chicago.
He is one of the few remaining musicians who played with the Basie orchestra when Count Basie was alive. His most recent 2015 performances include a two week Stanford Jazz Orchestra European tour of Jazz festivals with Jon Faddis, and a performance with Aretha Franklin at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA, in which he contracted the horn section. He and his wife Quereda, were married in 1970 and reside in Redwood City, California.