Jesse Montijo has extensive performance experience as a
multi-instrumentalist spanning the past 25 years. He regularly performs
in various jazz festivals, flamenco festivals, and concert venues
throughout the country. He has performed with Grammy Award Artists Roy
Hargrove, Gatemouth Brown, Larry Mitchell, and Dianne Reeves. Recently,
he was a featured performer at the 20th Annual International Flamenco
Festival. Of a recent performance in New York's Lions Den, The Village
Voice wrote, "Jesse's sound was oozing with soul". In addition, Jesse
has performed with jazz giants Joe Bonner and Jimmy Hopps, who are both
renowned for their recordings and performances with Pharaoh Sanders,
Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, and countless other jazz legends.
Jesse is an educator and instructor of Master
Classes at The National Institute of Flamenco and Woodwind Chair for The
American Flamenco Repertory Company. He has also worked educating and
sharing musical knowledge at public and private schools with the
Creative Music Works of Colorado. He has performed and served as a jazz
educator for a large number of primary schools and colleges throughout
Colorado.
Some of Jesse's teachers and mentors include
Pulitzer Prize winner Phyllis Larsen (Blood on the Fields, Wynton
Marsalis), Arthur Bouton (Associate Professor of Saxophone and Chair of
the Woodwind Department at the University of Denver Lamont School of
Music), and Malcolm Lynn Baker (Director of Jazz Studies at the
University of Denver Lamont School of Music and 2005 Down Beat
Achievement Award Winner for Jazz Education). He has also studied with
jazz legends Eddie Harris, Kenny Garrett, Javon Jackson, Jimmy Hopps,
Joe Bonner, and Jesse Davis. In addition, he is a devoted student of Joe
Allard's woodwind instruction (renowned for his teaching at Julliard
School of Music, Columbia University, NYU, New England Conservatory, and
Manhattan School of Music). As an undergraduate, he attended the
University of Denver Lamont School of Music as a performance major.
Although Jesse spends a great deal of time
performing, recording, and traveling, one of his greatest passions is
mentoring students in both private and group settings.