Stanford Jazz Hero
When the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians was being born in Chicago in 1965 trumpeter Fredrick J. Berry was in the room, helping the organization take shape. In fact, many of the first meetings took place in his basement. An original member of the Roscoe Mitchell Quartet (which evolved into the Art Ensemble of Chicago), he was in the thick of the action during a brief but intensely fertile period.
It wasn’t long before he traded the Windy City for the San Francisco Bay Area, but he carried that experimental, DIY ethos with him, and Berry has been a mainstay on the Northern California jazz scene since 1966 as a player, contractor, conductor, bandleader and educator. An emeritus professor of music from the College of San Mateo, where he taught for 35 years and founded the College of San Mateo Jazz Festival, he also taught brass instruments at San Mateo’s Nueva Center for Gifted Children for a decade.
A Redwood City resident, Berry is probably best known for his manifold contributions to Stanford University, a perch from which he retired in 2017. As a longtime faculty member he taught jazz history and directed the Stanford Jazz Orchestra. He also launched the ensemble’s visiting artist program, which brings in world-renowned artists for mini-residencies that culminate in performances with the SJO. A buoyant spirit always ready to share his knowledge and invaluable experience—he’s one of the last musicians who played with the Count Basie Orchestra with the founder at the piano–Berry has played an essential role in stoking jazz’s flame in the Bay Area. And in 2019 he rejoined Roscoe Mitchell in the Art Ensemble of Chicago’s Large Ensemble album, We Are on the Edge: A 50th Anniversary Celebration. Jazz Hero Fredrick J. Berry stays connected to the where the action has been and remains.
By Andrew Gilbert
