Biography
Virginia Mayhew reveals fully developed tone across her woodwinds and a bold, inventive approach to improvisation on the 1996 Chiaroscuro release, one that honors jazz lineage while embracing risk and unpredictability; her gifts as a writer of original material are equally evident. She first took up the clarinet at age ten, then shifted to alto saxophone six years afterward so she could participate in her high-school jazz ensemble. At twenty she relocated to San Francisco, where local study and performances brought her into contact with Earl Hines and Frank Zappa. In 1987 she received the New School’s inaugural Zoot Sims Memorial Scholarship and moved to New York. Since that time she has collaborated with trumpeter Rebecca Franks—with whom she jointly directed a quintet that appeared at the 1990 Monterey Jazz Festival and cut a 1988 session for the Italian Philology imprint—as well as the Toshiko Akiyoshi Orchestra, the Sahib Shihab big band, Al Grey (documented on his Capri CD Fab), Clark Terry, Terry Gibbs, Kenny Barron, and DIVA. Beyond her work as an educator and adept arranger, Virginia Mayhew has regularly fronted ensembles of her own.
Albums
