CAMDEN HUGHES is the Founder and Owner of Learn Jazz Standards.com. A dedicated musician and educator, Camden is a K-12 Music Teacher in Bruneau, ID. He is also an adjunct professor of jazz studies at Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa, Idaho. Camden’s resume as an educator includes teaching music classes to students at EVERY grade level from Kindergarten through seniors in college. He founded Learn Jazz Standards in June of 2010 to help his students and jazz musicians all over the world learn more tunes and become better musicians.
As a professional musician, Hughes has had the opportunity to share the stage with many jazz artists including Bruce Forman, Carl Saunders, Bill Watrous, Pete Christlieb, Mike Vax, Brent Jensen, Kobie Watkins, Clark Sommers, Stanton Kessler, and Monte Muza, among many others. Camden has had many teachers including Mark Levine, Bruce Forman, Justin Nielsen, Chuck Smith, and Brent Jensen. After living in Kansas City, where he was playing and teaching professionally for a time in 2010-11, Camden moved back to his home town of Boise, Idaho to teach and play.
Camden has B.A. in music education and music theory from Northwest Nazarene University, and has taught music at Northstar Charter School, Arts West School, the Boise School District. He currently teaches for the Bruneau-Grand View Joint School District. He can frequently be heard playing jazz piano at Chandler’s Steakhouse in Boise, ID with Trio 43.
BRENT VAARTSTRA is the General Manager of Learn Jazz Standards. A gifted performer, Brent is also a professional jazz guitarist living in New York City.
Originally from Boise, Idaho, Brent Vaartstra studied and performed professionally playing at festivals, cafés, private parties and some of the most esteemed venues in the area. He studied briefly with renowned guitarist Bruce Forman based in Los Angeles before moving to Seattle, Washington to further his studies and work.
While studying at Cornish College of the Arts, he gigged regularly at restaurants in the Seattle area. After studying with Pacific Northwest greats such as bassist Chuck Deardorf and guitarist Dave Peterson, he moved to New York City early 2010.
Brent currently studies at the City College of New York as a BFA student in jazz performance, where he has studied with world-renowned guitarists Vic Juris and Steve Cardenas among others. He actively gigs and teaches around the city.
BRENT JENSEN is the Director of Jazz Studies and Woodwinds at the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls. He is the artistic director for the CSI Jazz Summit and the Jazz Saturdays workshop series.
Brent has shared the stage with many great jazz artists including Gene Harris, Bobby Shew, Bill Watrous, the Lionel Hampton Big Band, Curtis Stigers, Gary Foster, Dianne Schuur, Lew Soloff, Don Menza and others. His recordings have received national jazz radio airplay and have been featured in jazz periodicals such as Jazziz, Cadence, Jazz Improv, and Saxophone Journal. In 1986-87, Brent studied in New York City with jazz legend Lee Konitz on a grant from the Idaho Commission on the Arts. He was a featured winner of the Woodwinds on Fire international talent search conducted by Jazziz magazine (August 1996).
Brent made a striking debut on Origin with 2002′s “The Sound of a Dry Martini: Remembering Paul Desmond,” (Origin 82396) charting on National Jazz Top 50 for over thirteen weeks in the spring of 2002. Selections from Dry Martini held the #1 spot on a number of jazz radio station charts across the country including WRTI (Philadelphia, PA), WICN (Worcester, MA), and KUSD (Sioux Falls, SD). His 2008 release with Bill Anschell, Jeff Johnson and John Bishop, “One More Mile,” was named one of the top jazz releases of the year by the Village Voice.
from http://www.origin-records.com/artists/artist.php?Artist_ID=13