Joe Elefante
Pianist/Composer
Joe Elefante is a pianist, saxophonist, vocalist, composer, arranger, and bandleader.
"Elefante is a thoroughly modern musician... talented, charismatic." - Dave Marash, ABC News
Joe has traveled 4 continents playing and conducting jazz and musical theater. Joe founded the Joe Elefante Big Band in 2001, which was the house band at Cecil's Jazz Club for three years, and was featured on ABC's Nightline and in the Wall Street Journal. He was named a Jazz Ambassador by the Kennedy Center, and has toured Eastern Europe and the Middle East as a jazz pianist for the U.S. State Department. He has also been selected to the prestigious BMI Jazz Composers Workshop in NYC and the Betty Carter: Jazz Ahead program at the Kennedy Center. He has also musically directed, conducted or played countless theater productions, including several at the Paper Mill Playhouse and Jersey Boys on Broadway and National Tour.
After majoring in jazz saxophone and piano at New Jersey City University, Joe performed and recorded music full time for the next fifteen years before settling down to raise a family. He worked as a school teacher and part-time musician for the next decade, losing touch with his jazz roots as the years passed and responsibilities piled up. After the tragic death of his wife of 16 years to cancer in 2024, Joe realized that life is too precious and fragile to not follow his true north: writing and performing vital, original jazz music with the best artists on the scene. This realization, in conjunction with his passion for Buddhist teachings - or dharma - are the fuel that ignites his artistry.
Joe's latest project is Joe Elefante's Wheel of Dharma, a jazz quintet featuring Freddie Hendrix on trumpet, Erena Terakubo on saxophone, Sameer Shankar on bass, and David Heilman on drums. WOD performs all original material, but with a reverent eye on the past, present, and future of the music.
Freddie Hendrix
Trumpet
Over the past two decades, The 3-time grammy winning, dynamic jazz trumpeter Freddie Hendrix has become one of the most in demand trumpeters in jazz and beyond. Also an accomplished composer and educator, The Teaneck, NJ native’s skill and versatility has resulted in him working with a wide array of performers that include 3 Dizzy Gillespie Ensembles, the Christian McBride Big Band, the Roy Hargrove Big Band, Billy Harper Quintet, The Baylor Project, 2 Elio Villafranca Projects, Fred Wesley and the JB’s, the late great Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Alicia Keys amongst countless others.
Freddie Hendrix is a graduate of the esteemed Jazz programs at William Paterson University and New Jersey City University. Obtaining both bachelors and Masters Degrees in Jazz Studies and Performance, Hendrix also shares his knowledge and passion for music as an educator. Currently he serves on occasion as a guest Artist/clinician for Melissa Walker’s Jazz House Kids Jazz Program in Montclair, NJ and Substitute Ensemble Instructor at William Paterson University. Former professorship positions have been served on the faculty for the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford, CT, The New School in NYC, Princeton University, and Hanzehoge School Prins Claus Conservatorium in Groningen, The Netherlands.
Freddie Hendrix’s expertise as a performer extends over 50 countries. He has a discography of over 100 recordings as a sideman, 2 live performances for former President Barack Obama at The White House in Washington, DC, and is well documented on multiple televised productions for the PBS, ABC, and CBS Television corporations.
Whether leading his own groups, or lending his talents as a lead or section player in much larger ensembles, Freddie Hendrix continues to flourish as one of the most exciting trumpet voices on the music scene.
Erena Terakubo
Saxophone
Erena Terakubo is a multi-talented saxophonist, flutist, clarinetist, composer, arranger, and educator from Sapporo, Japan. She is an international sensation whose career performances stretch five different continents. While still in high school, Terakubo released her debut album North Bird, a collaboration with Kenny Barron, Christian McBride, Lee Pearson, and Peter Bernstein, which reached #1 on the Japanese jazz charts and was awarded Swing Journal's Gold Disc. Her broad experience has inspired five albums since. Recently, Terakubo has been sharing her expertise by teaching workshops at U.S. universities and touring Europe and Japan.
Terakubo has played notable venues and events such as International Jazz Day 2022 at the UN General Assembly Hall in New York, the Tokyo Jazz Festival, the Playboy Jazz Festival at the Hollywood Bowl, Dizzy's Jazz Club Jazz at Lincoln Center, Smoke Jazz Club (where she led a band featuring special guest Louis Hayes), the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Beantown Jazz Festival, the Blue Note Tokyo, Blue Note New York and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC. Terakubo has performed in Burkina Faso, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, France, Austria, Israel and Australia.
In addition to leading the Erena Terakubo quartet, she has appeared with a wide variety of ensembles. These ensembles include Jon Faddis and his All-Star Big Band, the Kenny Barron Quartet (with Kenny Barron, Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and Jonathan Black), the Mingus Big Band, and the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. In addition, she was a part of "Bird Calls," a special livestream event celebrating the centennial of Charlie Parker's birth presented by The Jazz Foundation of America. In 2023, she joined the Ulysses Owens Jr. & Generation Y Band on a European Tour.
Terakubo has collaborated to produce a total of six albums. Since the debut of North Bird in 2010, she has released New York Attitude (with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Lee Pearson and Dominick Farinacci) and Burkina (with Kenny Barron, Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, and Lenny White). Downbeat and Jazziz Magazines commended her 4th album, A Time for Love from Celler Live (with David Hazeltine, David Williams, and Lewis Nash). King Records, a major Japanese label, released her 5th album Little Girl Power with Mayuko Katakura, Motoi Kanamori, and Shinnosuke Takahashi, as well as her latest album, Absolutely Live. Aside from these projects, Terakubo wrote the theme song "High Touch (High Five)" for a TV broadcast which aired in Hokkaido, Japan every day in 2018.
Terakubo was the first Japanese recipient of the prestigious Presidential Scholarship at Berklee College of Music, where she received her bachelor's degree in 2018.
Sameer Shankar
Bass
Sameer Shankar has been studying the bass for nearly fourteen years, and has had the pleasure of working with many excellent musicians, such as Gary Smulyan, Pete Malinverni, and several others. Sameer graduated SUNY Purchase, having worked with bassist Ugonna Okegwo, and has had the opportunity to study with Doug Weiss and Todd Coolman.
Dave Heilman
Drums
Dave earned his Bachelor's degree from New Jersey City University in Music Education and Jazz/Classical Performance. While studying, he had the pleasure of playing alongside pianist Joe Elefante and trumpeter Freddie Hendrix for countless performances with jazz legends such as Barry Harris, Frank Foster, Randy Brecker, Michael Brecker, Jon Faddis, Jerry Bergonzi, and John Scofield. Upon graduation he began performing in the Broadway shows Swing!, Spring Awakening, American Idiot, Burn the Floor, and the long-running, fiercely creative, hit show STOMP.
Dave was a founding member of the synth-pop group Jupiter One, which celebrated years of national touring and two full-length albums on Warner Music Group. He has collaborated and recorded with grammy-nominated artists Regina Spektor, Lars Vaular, Bernhoft, and Sondre Lerche leading to several world tours with performances on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and CBS's Late Night with David Letterman. Heilman became a mentor on Norway's number one-rated TV show The Voice and his latest work on the Sondre Lerche album Avatars of Love garnered a Norwegian Grammy for Album of the Year. He can be seen performing in the series finale of FX’s American TV drama POSE and just finished an eight month sold-out run of the hit musical Moulin Rouge in Oslo. Dave is currently working on the upcoming album of his duo project Fancy Colors and the release of an independent Musical he produced, arranged, and performed called Petunia.