The Tag Team movement, spear-headed by production family Big World Breaks, unifies two pairs of featured artists per episode with contrasting instrument families to invoke emotionally honest experiences for those on stage – and for those off stage.
Launching in New York City, then progressively moving into Seattle, the Bay Area and beyond; this movement is poised to become an unforgettable crossroads of bold cultural exchange and raw human experience.
- Fostering powerful, unique musical conversation
- Helping to break the Euro-centric choke hold on instrumental music (sound, approach, instrumentation, audience experience)
- Pushing the boundaries of future music with ancient inspiration
- Breaking down barriers between generations and cultures, on and off stage, through the power of honest, emotionally-driven expression
Be on the lookout for the next Tag Team episode in a city near you…
Jazz trumpeter and singer Jumaane Smith trained at the Juilliard School of Music 2001-2005 with Wynton Marsalis as his primary teacher. Jumaane’s credits include 5 Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, performances at The White House, on the Grammy Awards with Stevie Wonder, on the Today Show, Tonight Show, Oprah Show, Good Morning America and American Idol. Albums featuring Jumaane have sold more than 40 million copies. Smith has also collaborated with Quincy Jones, and Herbie Hancock, Aretha Franklin and many others. Since 2005 Jumaane has toured and recorded extensively with Michael Bublé and currently performs with Harry Connick Jr.’s band on the syndicated daytime TV show “Harry”. In 2013 Smith toured as guest soloist for Jackie Evancho’s, “Songs of the Silver Screen” world tour. As a composer, Smith has scored music for the films, “Handsome Harry” and “Being In The World”.
Elizabeth Pupo-Walker, artist, educator and composer, grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, but spent three years of her childhood living in Madrid, Spain. She received her B.A. from the University of Kentucky and has been studying percussion since 1990. Her primary focus has been the research of Afro-Cuban percussion. Elizabeth is of Cuban descent and has studied in Havana, Cuba at Conjunto Folklorico Nacional de Cuba, and in Matanzas, Cuba with the world renowned percussion ensemble Los Munequitos de Matanzas.
Her experience runs deep, been featured in DRUM! Magazine and various international tours, and having performed and/or recorded with a wide variety of artists, including Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, John Legend, Mark Ronson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, TV On the Radio, The Roots, Jovino Santos Neto, Nels Cline, Federico Aubele, Meshell Ndegeocello, Mavis Staples, Aloe Blacc, Bilal, Cochemea Gastelum, Sinead O’Connor, Dj Logic, Charles Bradley and The Menahan Street Band and at Peter Gabriel’s WOMAD festival with Zakir Hussain.
Riley Mulherkar has been recognized as a “smart young trumpet player” by The New York Times and praised by The Wall Street Journal as a “youngster to keep an eye on.” As a bandleader, Riley is a founding member of The Westerlies, a new music brass quartet that has premiered over 50 new works since its inception in 2011, creating the rarest of hybrids: music that is both “folk-like and composerly, lovely and intellectually rigorous” (NPR Music). As a musical director, Riley has worked with a number of leading artists of our time, including NEA Jazz Masters Wynton Marsalis and Dee Dee Bridgewater. Riley also serves as Artistic Director for Jazz at The Joye in Aiken Festival, bringing leading young musicians, actors and dancers to the historic city of Aiken, South Carolina.
Born and raised in Seattle, Riley moved to New York in 2010 to study at The Juilliard School, where he completed his Bachelor’s Degree in 2014 and his Master’s in 2015, receiving the Knowles Prize for Jazz and the Peter Mennin Prize for outstanding achievement and leadership in music. He is also an inaugural recipient of Juilliard’s Marks Fellowship. In 2011, Riley was named a “rising jazz artist” by Wynton Marsalis in JET magazine, and in 2014 was the first recipient of the Laurie Frink Career Grant at the Festival of New Trumpet Music.
Photo by Atuanya Priester
Aaron Walker-Loud is an artist, band director, composer, producer and educator. He is a proud alum of the CD Music Factory: Washington Middle School Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Mr. Robert Knatt, and Garfield High School Jazz Ensemble / Drumline, under the direction of Mr. Clarence Acox. He is the founder and director of Big World Breaks (a production company built for performance, studio and education). Aaron began working with youth and families in 1999, eventually becoming the Education Director for Seattle JazzED (2010-2016), a teaching artist for Arts Corps (2008-present) as well as the drumline director for Washington Middle School (2008-2016) and O’Dea High School (2012-2018). Through Big World Breaks, Aaron now designs and leads several on-going youth and family empowerment initiatives; primarily in Central, South and West Seattle.
Most recently, Aaron became a member of the Creative Advantage roster, co-founded 50 Next: Seattle Hip-Hop Worldwide (est. 2012), founded the award-winning intergenerational BWB Drumline (est. 2015) and co-curated The Legacy of Seattle Hip-Hop exhibit at MOHAI (with over 31,000 attendees and 20 co-produced events), which won the 2016 American Association of State and Local History Leadership in History Award, “the most prestigious recognition for achievement in the preservation and interpretation of state and local history”.
Photo by Sol
Avi Loud (aka Young Strong) is a photographer, designer, musician and a dj, born and raised in Seattle. Immersed in artistry since a young age, his passion for creativity has guided him through life. The local Hip-Hop scene is where he began his photography career, working with many budding and established artists alike. During his time at the Commercial Photography program at the Seattle Central Creative Academy, his focus shifted towards working with local clothing designers, helping further establish and document a newly developing fashion scene. Since graduating, he founded a photography studio on Capitol Hill, fostering a shared home for likeminded photographers and visual artists. Working alongside fashion designers, Loud began to work on his own designs, launching pop-up clothing & music experiences.
These events were the start of his immersion in the underground music scene, where he helped start several dance parties with a variety of collaborators, celebrating a more eclectic and intersectional local sound. He has worked with a wide range of clients including Alive & Well, LoveCityLove, Likelihood, Totokaelo, Nordstrom, Meme Kidswear, Capitol Hill Block Party, Beats By Dre & LA Fashion Week. Avi’s work has been published by Nylon Magazine, Gray Magazine, The Seattle Times, City Arts Magazine, Seattle Met Magazine, Rolling Stone & Hypebeast.com.
Pianist/composer Carmen Staaf is an active voice in the NYC and global music scenes. Steeped in straight ahead jazz, her versatile skills and sensitivity have led her to perform in a wide range of settings with some of the most influential musicians of our era. Currently, she is the pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater. She also plays in Jenny Scheinman and Allison Miller’s Parlour Game featuring Tony Scherr, and in Thana Alexa’s band with Antonio Sanchez. She and Allison Miller co-lead Science Fair with Ambrose Akinmusire, Dayna Stephens and Matt Penman (Science Fair’s debut album is due out September 2018).
Carmen’s past major performances have included the Playboy Jazz Festival in a two-piano setting with the legendary Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and the Kennedy Center playing solo piano alongside Kenny Barron and Fred Hersch. She has been heard at the Village Vanguard, Blue Note, SFJazz and major jazz festivals around the world including the Montreal and North Sea Jazz Festivals, among many others.
Evan Flory-Barnes is a Seattle native who has been composing and performing music since he was a student at Garfield High School. While there Flory-Barnes was a member of its award-winning symphony orchestra and performed with the hip-hop group Maroon Colony. For the past 15 years Flory-Barnes has
been performing and composing music with a wide variety of artists from across the musical spectrum, in Seattle and abroad. From classic soul to experimental free improvisation, from son jarocho to hard bop, Flory-Barnes brings a demonstrative passion, joy, presence, and virtuosity to every endeavor.