Axe ’Em, Jacks!
Lawrence Greer
Larry Greer earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in music at SFA with additional guitar study at the University of Texas and has additional study in music therapy from Sam Houston State University. He studied classic guitar with David Kennedy, Bill Krouse, Frank Kimlicko and Ricardo Cobo. He also studied jazz guitar with Garrison Fewell (Berklee), Jack Peterson and played in master classes with Matt Dunn at the University of Texas-San Antonio and the late jazz guitarist Herb Ellis.
In addition to teaching classical and jazz guitar at SFA, Greer teaches guitar and bass at Angelina College and previously taught classical guitar at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, and Eastern New Mexico University in Taos, New Mexico. He has served as an adjudicator and clinician at high school and college jazz festivals around the state, and served as jazz organizer for the Texas Community College Band Directors Association.
He directs, arranges for, and oversees the SFA electric guitar ensemble. This unique ensemble performs repertoire from the Renaissance, Baroque and Classical eras as well as jazz standards and contemporary rock.
Greer maintains an active freelance performance schedule in the East Texas area and has performed with Eddie Daniels, Carlos Fontana, Dennis Dotson, Bobby Shew, Chris Brubeck, the vocal quartet The Diamonds, The Tom Houston Big Band and the late Darrell Holt big band Just Friends. He has recorded four CDs, two as leader, "Shades of Blue/On the Edge" and "Shades of Blue/Jazz Divas." He also has appeared on "An East Texas Christmas" Volume I and Volume II, recorded and produced by the Mixing Room.
He's a member of Texas Jazz Educators Association, Jazz Education Network, Texas Guitar Directors Association and Austin Classical Guitar Society.
Dr. Ben Morris
Dr. Ben Morris is a Texas-based composer and jazz pianist whose music tells unconventional stories and crosses genre boundaries. He earned his bachelor's degree in music composition at University of Miami, master's degree at Rice University and his Doctor of Musical Arts in music composition at University of Colorado Boulder.
Morris's creative work and research is inspired by his Norwegian heritage. He lived in Oslo, Norway, on a Fulbright Grant composing a work for extended big band and video and received an American-Scandinavian Foundation Grant to research the influence of folk music on Norwegian jazz.
His debut album, "Pocket Guides," was released in June 2022 on Origin/OA2 Records and takes elements from Norwegian folk music, jazz and contemporary chamber music. The album garnered him two Downbeat Awards, an ASCAP Herb Alpert Award, a big band commission from New York Youth Symphony's First Music and an invitation to perform with his quintet at Newport Jazz Festival.
Also a versatile film, theatre and opera composer, Morris scored the documentary films "American River," which premiered at Montclair Film in 2021, and "Saving the Great Swamp: The Battle to Defeat the Jetport," which won best documentary at the 2017 New Jersey Film Festival.
A frequent collaborator with librettist Laura Fuentes, he premiered a 20-minute opera, "Las Auténticas," for the Washington National Opera American Opera Initiative, presented a multimedia opera, "The Fall of Man and Other Tales," at the ATLAS B2 Black Box and is currently working with Fuentes on commissions for Glimmerglass Opera and Art Song Colorado.
Morris seeks opportunities to write for unique ensembles that blur established genre expectations. He has worked with:
- American Composers Orchestra
- Aspen Contemporary Ensemble
- Jazz at Lincoln Center trombonist Vincent Gardner
- Unassisted fold
- NOW Ensemble
- Imani Winds
- Boulder Altitude Directive
- The Living Earth Show
- Playground Ensemble
- and the NDR Big Band.
He has been a composer fellow at music festivals and workshops including:
- Aspen Music Festival
- American Composers Orchestra Jazz Composers Institute
- Red Note Festival
- Sibelius Academy Creative Dialogue
- New Music on the Point
- International Gugak Workshop
- highScore
- Source Song Festival
- and the Imani Winds Chamber Music Festival.
His concert music has received accolades including an ASCAP Morton Gould Award and the International Society of Bassists Composition Contest Grand Prize.
Showcased works
Dr. JD Salas
Dr. JD Salas received his bachelor's degree in tuba performance from Baylor University in Waco, where he studied with Dr. Michael A. Fischer, and his master's degree from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts at the University of Kentucky where he served as the teaching assistant studying under Dr. Skip Gray.
Prior to joining SFA's School of Music in 2006, Salas served as Bangkok, Thailand's, first full-time tuba-euphonium professor served as artist/instructor of Tuba and Euphonium Studies at Mahidol University. Other previous teaching appointments include adjunct positions at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, where he taught low brass and jazz bass, and instructor of tuba at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia.
Salas currently performs with the Longview Symphony, The Four Horsemen Tuba-Euphonium Quartet, and the SFA Jazz Doctors. He has performed extensively throughout the United States, Mexico, Europe and Asia through invited participation in many International Tuba Euphonium Association Conferences and solo tours. He also has presented panel discussions and clinics on the tuba's use in the Mexican regional music of Banda Sinaloense.
An accomplished jazz bass player, Salas serves as the director of jazz studies at SFA, coordinating jazz minor studies and directing SFA's Swingin' Axes.
He's performed with:
- Temple Symphony Orchestra
- Louisville Orchestra
- Lexington Philharmonic
- Shreveport Symphony Orchestra
- Disneyland All-American College Band in Anaheim, California
- and the Disneyland Paris International Show Band in Paris, France.
He's performed with many musical legends, including:
- Bobby Shew
- Jiggs Wigham
- Steve Houghton
- Rick Baptist
- and Marvin Stamm.
Salas is a performing artist with Buffet-Crampon U.S.A. and performs on B&S tubas.
Dr. Deb Scott
Professor of trombone and bass trombone, Dr. Deb Scott is active worldwide as a teacher and performer. She is a performing artist for Rath Trombones, England, and the director of the Composers’ Workshop for the International Trombone Festival, which helps bring new music compositions for trombone.
Scott is a performing member of Monarch Brass, a group that represents "the very best women brass... players throughout North America and Europe." She also was a featured artist at Trombonanza in Argentina and has been featured at other international venues including Germany, Brazil and the Czech Republic.
Her solo CD, "Playing Favorites," was released in 2017 by Navona Records, and she has been described as “one of the premiere soloists for her instrument” (Cinemusical 2017). She was part of the Christopher Bill's "Bonehemian Rhapsody" Youtube sensation featuring 28 trombonists from throughout the world. She also is regularly featured in radio broadcasts throughout North America and the world.
Scott has performed several times as a soloist and within groups at the International Trombone Festival, and under her direction, the SFA Trombone Octet has been featured twice. She also performs regularly throughout North America with her trio, TexiCali.
She has been a member of the:
- Shreveport Symphony
- Shreveport Opera
- Longview Symphony
- Twentieth Century Unlimited Orchestra in Santa Fe
- New Mexico Music Festival Orchestra in Taos
- SFA Symphony Orchestra
- Lubbock Symphony Orchestra
- Greeley Philharmonic in Colorado
- and Barnum and Bailey Greatest Show on Earth Circus Band.
As a jazz artist, Scott performed frequently in the Houston area as the lead trombonist for the Ronnie Renfrow Big Band where she also often freelanced. She has performed with such artists as JJ Johnson, Louis Bellson, Diane Reeves, Frank Mantooth, Phil Woods, Lee Greenwood, Kay Starr, the Mills Brothers and the Ink Spots. Scott conducted jazz bands for over 30 years and was formerly the director of jazz studies at SFA.
She remains active as a clinician and performer for All-Region jazz ensembles and jazz festivals. Scott has twice directed the Texas All-State Community College Jazz Ensemble at the Texas Music Educators Association Conference.
Scott graduated with top honors from Texas Tech University with two bachelor's degrees. She received the dean’s award for her master’s degree at the University of Northern Colorado. Scott also was the the first doctoral trombone performance candidate at University of North Texas to earn a 4.0 GPA and first woman to complete a doctorate in trombone performance at UNT. She was the first woman to direct a university jazz band in the state of Texas.
Showcased works
TMEA All-State Trombone Audition Etude 1, Veloce by Blazhevich
Dr. Jacob Walburn
Dr. Jacob Walburn holds degrees in trumpet performance from Bowling Green State University, where he studied with Todd Davidson, and the University of Southern Mississippi, where he studied with Joel Treybig. He earned his Doctor of Musical Arts in trumpet performance at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he studied with Michael Ewald, Ronald Romm and Tito Carrillo. His previous teaching experience includes appointments at Oklahoma State University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
While a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Walburn performed extensively with the Illinois Brass Quintet and was a featured artist and clinician throughout the United States and Europe, having played recitals and given masterclasses at:
- the University of Miami
- the University of South Florida
- the University of Central Florida
- Florida State University
- Bowling Green State University
- the University of Michigan
- Michigan State University
- Eastern Michigan University
- the University of North Texas
- the University of Texas-Austin
- Baylor University
- the University of Texas-Arlington
- and Texas A&M Uiversity-Commerce.
The Illinois Brass Quintet also was featured at the inaugural Master Class for Brass in Bornem, Belgium, and at the International Trombone Federation Conference in Warsaw, Poland.
Walburn joined the SFA School of Music faculty in 2017, where he teaches applied trumpet, trumpet repertoire, brass methods and jazz improvization. He also directs the Trumpet Ensemble and the Swingin' Aces jazz ensemble, and performs as a member of the SFA Faculty Brass Quintet. Walburn also performs regularly with The Jazz Doctors, a jazz combo comprised of members from the SFA School of Music. He plays second trumpet with the Shreveport Symphony Orchestra.
Prior to his appointment at SFA, Walburn taught for six years at the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley, where he was a frequent clinician, adjudicator and performed as principal trumpet with the Valley Symphony Orchestra.
He also has taught on the faculties of the Illinois Summer Youth Music Trumpet Camp and at Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Twin Lake, Michigan.
Walburn has been featured as a soloist with:
- the University of Southern Mississippi Wind Ensemble
- the University of Illinois Brass Choir
- Southern Arts Pro Musica
- Valley Symphony Orchestra Chamber Music Series
- and the SFA Wind Ensemble, where he performed John Mackey's "Antique Violences for Solo Trumpet and Wind Ensemble."
He was a featured soloist on the “New Works Recital” at the 2014 International Trumpet Guild Conference in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, and was invited to perform as a soloist at the 2021 ITG Conference in Anaheim, California.
He has performed with orchestras in Ohio, Mississippi, Illinois, Texas and Louisiana, including:
- Mississippi Symphony Orchestra
- Gulf Coast Symphony Orchestra
- Sinfonia da Camera
- Peoria Symphony Orchestra
- Texarkana Symphony Orchestra
- Longview Symphony Orchestra
- and Shreveport Symphony Orchestra.
As a clinician, Walburn has presented sessions and master classes at:
- Texas Music Educators Association convention
- Texas Bandmasters Association convention
- the University of Texas-Rio Grande Valley Brass Day
- SFA Brass Day
- inaugural Master Class for Brass in Bornem, Belgium
- and Frederick Chopin Conservatory in Warsaw, Poland.
He is married to Alba Madrid, the director of the SFA Music Preparatory Division. Together, they live in Nacogdoches with their two children, Melanie and Jacob.
Contact
School of Music
936.468.4602
schoolofmusic@sfasu.edu
Faculty directory
Physical Address:
Wright Music Building
Room 150
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 13043, SFA Station
Nacogdoches, Texas 75962