While still in his early 20s Ernest has played all over the country and plans to travel abroad. He cites Charles Mingus, Igor Stravinsky, and Wayne Shorter as his favourite all around composers and still tries to implement their techniques in his music todayĪfter being accepted into Berklee College of Music he decided not to go and started his career playing music in bands of every genre around Kansas City. An avid composer as well, Ernest studied with tutors in classical orchestration, big band arranging and Afro-Cuban drumming. Pharoah’s polyphony (or growls) were like echoes of his father – a Primitive Baptist preacher and became a big part of his playing. It was during this time he found his first major influences in jazz like Dexter Gordon, John Coltrane, Kenny Garrett and Pharoah Sanders. With kind neighbours and a very lenient mother, Ernest was allowed to practice his sax, listen to albums, and write compositions at any hour of the day. Naturally excelling, he left school at age 16 to practice on his own. He joined his jazz band at Lincoln High School and many other programs around Kansas City. By then he was playing mostly tenor saxophone. Ernest studied more contemporary genres of music and the guitar until the age of 14 when he joined a jazz program through the American Jazz Museum. Bored with the classical curriculum of that institution. The year was 1983, and the Kansas City Jazz Festival presented Count Basie, Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and George Benson. He picked up the saxophone that same year when he was enrolled in Longfellow Academy of the Arts. The upscale department store, Saks Fifth Avenue rolled onto the Country Club Plaza with a fundraising event in honor of the Elder Statesmen of Kansas City Jazz. He relocated to Kansas City, MO (his mother’s hometown) at age 10. Ashlock was recently featured as a soloist at the First Jazz Education Festival in Shanghai, China, and as the International Trumpet Guild Conference in Sydney, Australia, in addition to performing locally.Įrnest Melton was born in Goldsboro, NC. Alongside his position as the Artistic Director and conductor of the esteemed Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, he has performed with such luminaries as Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Nicholas Payton, and Natalie Cole, as well as being a mainstay on the local Kansas City performing circuit, most notably with his own groups, the quintet Forward, his ‘other’ big band, New Jazz Order (releasing that group’s first CD in 2012, featuring such musicians as Hermon Mehari, Mark Lowrey, and Bobby Watson), and the singer/songwriter/bandleader Jessica Paige.Īs a student of jazz, Ashlock reflects the lineage of his hard bop idols such as Lee Morgan, Freddie Hubbard, and Woody Shaw, and his big band writing is heavily influenced by Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, and his teachers Paul McKee, Frank Mantooth, and Kerry Strayer. An in-demand musician across various genres, Clint is a dedicated and tireless contributor to the scene. Trumpeter/composer/bandleader/educator Clint Ashlock grew up in the Kansas City area.
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