Grammy, Golden Globe, ASCAP and Academy award-winning artist Christopher Cross performed before an almost equally multi-hyphenated audience at an October 10, 2024, fundraiser for the nonprofit Pacific Jazz Orchestra at the intimate Beverly Hills venue, Herb Albert’s Vibrato Grill. A reported $64,000 was raised to help bring awareness of jazz as a uniquely American art form. The funds also establish seminars and workshops for young musicians and music directors and support the group’s 2024-2025 concert season, featuring a diverse range of styles, genres, and backgrounds.
Less you’ve been imbibing too much on that yacht rock cruise to remember, Cross has sold over 10 million albums and won five Grammy Awards, including—for the first time in Grammy history—the “Big Four” most prestigious awards: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist. Cross’ first-ever statistics held for 39 years until musically gifted talent Billie Eilish won all four awards at the 62nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2020. Cross started his own label and, since 2007, has released eight albums of original material.
His intimate set with the PJO ensemble did not disappoint, displaying his still elegant guitar technique and voicing the richly crafted melodies of his award-winning albums, performing a crowd-pleasing set that included “Sailing,” “Swept Away,” “When You Come Home,” “Dreamers,” and “Arthur’s Theme (The Best That You Can Do).” His rendition of “Ride Like The Wind” brought the crowd to its feet, dancing and singing, with guests rubbing gyrating elbows with the partying wait staff, with no HR complaints from venue management and PJO supporter, Eden Alpert.
Adam “Aejaye” Jackson, a PJO featured singer doing double duty as the event auctioneer, performed an audience-shouted spontaneous acapella version of Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way.” Impressive enough in his own right, Jackson’s impromptu performance rose to another level as David Foster quietly slipped from his seat in the audience to accompany Jackson on the piano.
Chris Walden, the orchestra’s impressive artistic director and conductor, founded the nonprofit in 2022 and is a seven-time Grammy-nominated composer/arranger with credentials in musical performance, arranging, writing, conducting and producing. His many connections to artists bring depth to his new title as music director of PJO, whose advisory board includes notables such as the aforementioned David Foster, Quincy Jones, Monica Mancini, Alan Bergman, Rickey Minor, Harvey Mason Jr., and Ledisi.
Rising star saxophonist Jacob Scesney opened for Cross, accompanied by an eight-piece ensemble of PJO musicians, including drummer Jamie Tate, who lives in Pasadena-adjacent Monrovia.
“We’re all thankful to have somebody like Chris Walden to propel things forward,” said Tate. “It’s good for the music; it’s good for the community.”
“What do you call a guy who likes to hang out with musicians? A drummer. The drummer jokes can go on forever.” ~ Jamie Tate
Tate also works as an arranger and musician for Muse/Ique, a Pasadena nonprofit, performing at local venues. Originally from Florida, he went to grad school at USC, touring with David Benoit, Mindi Abair, and Al Jarreau. But as his life changed (a wife and three children), it became more important “to stay home, near family, and not on the road all the time.”
“Now I’d say my career is about 70 percent as a drummer, 25 percent as an arranger, a writer of music and a composer, and then the rest of the time, I’m a teacher at Occidental College in the drum set department. I’ve managed to create something sustainable.”
“I tell young people to diversify,” he says. “If you set out just to play jazz from the 50s, then you’re probably not going to work very much. The more things that you can do to create income, the better. It also keeps you fresh musically.”
Remarking on the fundraising event, “It’s fun when you meet your heroes,” he says. “David Foster was there with his multi-talented wife Katharine McPhee Foster, singer Monica Mancini with her husband, Gregg Field, an Emmy and Grammy-award winning producer and former drummer to Frank Sinatra.”
“I had all my teachers in the audience,” Tate continues. “Shelly Berg, the former head of the jazz department at USC and now the dean of Frost School of Music at the University of Miami, Coral Gables, and Gregg Field of the USC Thornton School of Music. It’s nerve-wracking to play in front of your teachers, hoping they are not grading me!”
At the end of the evening, Walden performed an original composition, “A Gentle Soul,” a hauntingly soulful flugelhorn piece dedicated to his late father.
“Why is it important to make music?” he queried the audience. “Because music can teach us to listen, and in times like this, everybody has a message to broadcast. Everybody wants to be heard. But there has to be someone on the other side to listen to that message. And music can teach us to listen.”
