Jay Hoggard


Vibraphonist Jay Hoggard has long ranked with the greatest vibraphone innovators, and his music has touched the hearts and souls of listeners around Planet Earth for 40 years.

Jay’s music is positive, spiritual, uplifting, and happy. He masterfully draws on traditional and contemporary musical vocabulary to develop new directions for the vibraphone. Jay seamlessly blends jazz and gospel roots with African marimba rhythms. His performance repertoire represents the three B’s of the jazz tradition – Blues, Bop, Ballads – with original innovations.

Born in Washington, DC, Jay Hoggard was raised in Mt. Vernon, NY in a religious family. His father was a Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination. At age 15, Jay began playing the vibraphone. “One night I had a dream that I was playing the vibes. I asked my father to rent me a set and from the first moment, I knew that this was what I was supposed to do.”

Jay majored in the renowned World Music program at Wesleyan University. He toured Europe and played at Carnegie Hall during his freshman year. In his junior year, he traveled to Tanzania to study East African marimba music. Jay graduated from Wesleyan in 1976 and returned to New York City in 1977 to be proclaimed a young lion of the vibraphone.

Jay Hoggard has recorded 22 CDs as a leader and over 50 as a collaborator. His newest CD, released in 2016 on the JHVM label, is Harlem Hieroglyphs. This two disc recording features Gary Bartz on sax, James Weidman and Nat Adderley Jr on piano and organ, Belden Bullock on bass, and Yoron Israel on drums. Noted jazz writer and NPR broadcaster Owen McNally called it “a triumphant jazz album, a dramatic showcase for his diverse composing skills… [where] the standards [also] get royal treatment…”

Part of what fuels Hoggard’s soaring, imaginative flights are his passion for jazz in all its historic and cultural breadth and depth, and his fascination with the legacy of Harlem’s Golden Age, its rich, vibrant social and cultural life from sacred churches to secular shrines for jazz.

Jay Hoggard has toured the globe to rave reviews, performing in many of the finest venues including the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, the Schomberg Center; jazz festivals in St. Lucia, JVC, Montreux, Mt.Fuji, Pori, Hartford; colleges, universities, churches, galleries, libraries, and clubs around the globe. Jay has been featured on radio (NPR, Pacifica) and television (ABC Times Square, CBS Sunday Morning, BETJazz).

He led a quintet on an extensive tour sponsored by the United States government to North Africa, the Middle East and India. Jay performed in special concert collaborations with vibraphone masters Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Tito Puente and Bobby Hutcherson. He has recorded and toured with creative artists such as Kenny Burrell, Dr. Billy Taylor, Max Roach, James Newton, Hilton Ruiz, Oliver Lake, Bennie Maupin, Sam Rivers, Anthony Braxton, Jorge Dalto, Terumasa Hino, Dwight Andrews, Geri Allen, Anthony Davis, Henry Threadgill, Vishnu Wood, Chico Freeman, Muhal Richard Abrams, Sherry Winston, Ahmed Abdullah, and was a guest artist with the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band. Jay has accompanied singers, instrumentalists, and poets and has performed with gospel, theater, dance, percussion, and orchestral ensembles.

Jay Hoggard is a tenured Professor of Music at his alma mater, Wesleyan University. For over 25 years, he has been the director of the Wesleyan Jazz Orchestra and has taught and mentored thousands of students.

PJS is thrilled to welcome Jay Hoggard back to our stage for another exciting concert of Blues, Bop and Ballads on the Vibes!

Event Location and Ticket Information

Loading Map....

PJS Jazz Society (at First Presbyterian Church)
199 North Columbus Ave
Mount Vernon, NY
Handicap Accessible? Yes

Date: Sunday, February 11, 2018
Times: 5:15 pm - 9:00 pm

Ticket pricing:

$25.00 - Regular Admission
$10.00 - Student Admission

Presenter: PJS Jazz Society, Inc.
Presenter Phone: 914-667-0823
Presenter Website: www.pjsjazz.org

Sponsor Message

PJS Jazz Society presents the best in jazz every Second Sunday at First Presbyterian Church, September through April. Most concerts start with a Young Musicians opening set from 5:15-6:00 pm, followed by two Headliner sets from 6:30-9:00 pm. Concerts are held in a cabaret setting. Additional parking available at the Holmes School (next to the First Presbyterian Church on Columbus Avenue). This perforance made possible, in part, by the Arts Alive program of ArtsWestchester, with funding from the Decentralization Program of the New York State Council on the Arts.