John LaBarbera

John LaBarbera (born November 10, 1945 is a trumpet player and arranger in the great Buddy Rich Orchestra in the late 1960s, also leading his own big band in more recent years.

Born in Mount Morris, New York, he went on to play and write for many of the great big bands and is now one of the most respected composer/arrangers in the music field. His works have been recorded and performed by Buddy Rich, Woody Herman, Count Basie, Dizzy Gillespie, Sammy Davis Jr., Mel Tormé, Chaka Khan, Harry James, Bill Watrous, The Glenn Miller Orchestra, Al Cohn, Bill Perkins, and Phil Woods. He is a two time recipient of the National Endowment For the Arts award for Jazz Composition.

John’s Grammy nominated big band CD “On The Wild Side” and his latest “Fantazm,” on the Jazz Compass label, have been met with tremendous artistic and commercial success and are on the way to becoming a jazz big band standards. As co-producer and arranger for The Glenn Miller Orchestra Christmas recordings (In The Christmas Mood I & II) John has received Gold & Platinum Records. Mr. La Barbera is also a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed women’s big band, DIVA.

In addition to his professional writing career, John is actively involved in the field of Intellectual Property Rights and has served as an expert witness in many major copyright cases. Mr. La Barbera is the former Director of Jazz Ensembles at Cornell University and is now a Professor of Music at the University of Louisville, where he has implemented and teaches courses in Composition & Arranging, TV & Film Scoring, Music Industry, and MIDI/Computer techniques in music. During his seven year term as Jazz Editor of the International Trumpet Guild, Mr. La Barbera's interviews with the world’s leading jazz trumpet artists were a regular feature of the ITG Journal. Among his numerous organizational affiliations are Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, NARAS, the International Association for Jazz Education for over 20 years and a writer/publisher member of ASCAP since 1970. Mr. La Barbera is also active as a clinician and lecturer in colleges and high schools throughout the U.S. and abroad. He is a two-time recipient of The National Endowment for The Arts award for Jazz Composition and has served as a panelist for the NEA in the music category. His career has been profiled in dozens of publications and encyclopedias, most notably the New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, and the Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. John’s published works distributed by Kendor, Hal Leonard, Warner Brothers, Sierra Music, C.L. Barnhouse, Educational Programs Publications, William Allen Music, and Arrangers Publications are considered standards in the field of jazz. education.

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* [http://www.kendormusic.com/composer/labarbera.htm "Kendor Music"]