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Sharel Cassity

Saxophonist, Woodwindist, Composer & Educator Sharel Cassity (pron. Shah-Relle) is a musician on the New York, Chicago, and international jazz scenes. Listed as “Rising Star Alto Saxophone” in Downbeat Magazine for the past 11 consecutive years, Sharel has appeared on the Today Show, earned her MA from The Juilliard School under full scholarship, won the 2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award & has been inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame. Cassity has shared the stage with jazz luminaries including Herbie Hancock, Wynton Marsalis & the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; as well as mainstream artists Aretha Franklin, Natalie Merchant, Vanessa Williams & Trisha Yearwood. She has released five albums as a bandleader and appeared on over 30 as a sideman, toured 24 countries and performed at leading venues like the Newport Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival & the North Sea Jazz Festival. Relocated to the Chicago area with her husband and son, Cassity is currently a professor of saxophone and piano at Elgin Community College in Elgin, IL; Columbia College and DePaul University in Chicago, IL. Sharel is a proud Vandoren Performing Artist.

Awards

2010-2020 Rising Star Alto Saxophone—Downbeat Critics Poll
2012 Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame, Legacy Tribute Award
2008 Ravinia Steans Institute Residency
2007 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer's Award
2007 Downbeat Student Music Award, Composition
2007 Downbeat Student Music Award, Jazz Combo
2006 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency
2006 IAJE Sisters in Jazz

Gear

Sharel is a Vandoren performing artist and plays Vandoren reeds, mouthpieces, and ligatures exclusively.

Michael Dease: Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill

Read "Found in Space: The Music of Gregg Hill" reviewed by Paul Rauch

by Paul Rauch
October 16, 2024

Leaving a legacy in this life is a subject that holds different meanings for people. For some, it involves building a structure of permanence that will stand up to the test of time after one's entrance into eternity. For others, it is more fleeting, something that can be shaped and reshaped, and if desired, completely torn down. For some it is a function of building a monument to oneself. For others, like Central Michigan composer/arranger Gregg Hill, it is a ...

Liner Notes

Michael Dease: Found in Space - The Music of Gregg Hill

by Bill Milkowski
August 9, 2024

The title itself is revealing. A clever play on words of the old '60s sci-fi show Lost in Space, it immediately suggests an irreverent wit and slightly twisted perspective; qualities that also permeate the unique music of prolific Michigan-based composer Gregg Hill. How this fairly obscure presence on the national music scene has managed to garner such a fervent following remains a mystery to those of us outside the Great Lakes State. Converts include bassist-educator Rodney Whitaker, Director ...

Album Review

Alliance: Alliance

Read "Alliance" reviewed by Dan Bilawsky

by Dan Bilawsky
July 1, 2024

The eponymous debut from Alliance--a collective quartet spearheaded by saxophonist Sharel Cassity and drummer Colleen Clark, and harmonically hinged on pianist Hannah Mayer and bassist Carmani Edwards-- is a shining example of the strength behind a pact in play. A sorority built on substantial musical prowess and possibilities, this is a band that's locked and loaded for action. Mixing carefully-chosen covers with winning originals, Alliance confidently endears itself to ears across this nine-song program. Opening on Mulgrew ...

Album Review

Precarious Towers: Ten Stories

Read "Ten Stories" reviewed by Jack Bowers

by Jack Bowers
September 28, 2023

Precarious Towers is a Midwestern-based quintet whose second recording, Ten Stories, is as bare-bones an album as one could imagine: a plain CD (without name or artwork) resting in a pale-blue jacket (no tray or protective sleeve) that includes a list of songs, composers and personnel plus recording details. That's it. From a reviewer's point of view, however, such cosmetic details are irrelevant, as the only component that matters is the music itself. Judged solely on that ...

Liner Notes

Joe Chambers: Moving Pictures Orchestra: Live at Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola

by John Kelman
April 27, 2023

It's one thing to have an established `place in the jazz pantheon, another to continue redefining that position, long after others might be content to rest on their laurels. Joe Chambers' work behind the drum kit with artists including Andrew Hill, Bobby Hutcherson, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Mingus, and McCoy Tyner has already ensured a prominent place in jazz history. His output as a leader may be small, but he's delivered two outstanding Savant recordings in 2006's The Outlaw ...

Album Review

Johannes Wallmann: Precarious Towers

Read "Precarious Towers" reviewed by Dan McClenaghan

by Dan McClenaghan
May 24, 2022

Pianist Johannes Wallman set himself up with a hard act to follow when he released 2021's Elegy For an Undiscovered Species (Shifting Paradigm) an ambitious set of the leader's distinctive compositions played by an all-star quintet and string orchestra. It is a jazz with strings that leans to a spirited jazz side--cerebral and approachable at the same time. Precarious Towers, Wallmann's 2022 offering, finds the pianist bringing in a different quintet, one which proves itself as adept as ...

Album Review

Michael Dease: Give It All You Got

Read "Give It All You Got" reviewed by Kyle Simpler

by Kyle Simpler
March 20, 2021

Jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell once discussed his views on playing music by making a point that, “you are unique, be yourself, put out that thing that is you, then use your work ethic and produce great music." Trombonist Michael Dease embodies the spirit of Burrell's statement. Dease is a dedicated musician who is rapidly making a name for himself as both a recording artist and an educator. He won the Downbeat Critics Poll for rising star trombonist along with winning ...

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Recording

Sharel Cassity - Relentless (Jazz Legacy Productions)

Source: Master of a Small House
March 7, 2010

Despite the global proliferation of jazz, New York City remains the foremost proving ground for the music's practitioners. Making it in the Apple still ostensibly means making it on the world stage. Classically trained, with diplomas from both the New School and Julliard, saxophonist Sharel Cassity's credentials are not uncommon to the caliber of player competing for gigs. Cassity's made the most of her residency by networking with a wide swathe of her peers. She convenes a cadre of their ...
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"[Cassity] plays alto and soprano with a seriously soulful tone that’s impressive enough to stop a roomful of seasoned jazz fans in their tracks" —Ken Micallef, Downbeat Magazine "With any luck, Evolve will establish her [Sharel] as a household name among jazz audiences." — Michael J. West, Jazz Times “Sharel Cassity has the potential to be one of the leaders of this genreʼs next  generation” —J. Hunter, All About Jazz Sharel Cassity is another no-nonsense lady of the horn...her solos have an insurgent quality..and her deep blue alto wanes with melancholy”—Eric Fine, Downbeat Magazine “Itʼs Cassityʼs amazing alto that takes canter stage