Jesse Hameen II
New Haven drummer, educator, and founder of Jazz Haven.
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Jesse "Cheese" Hameen II, born in New Haven, Connecticut, is a jazz drummer and percussionist with over 40 years of experience. He has worked as a jazz and rock studies instructor at the Neighborhood Music School for eighteen years and has toured across the United States, Europe, Africa, and the Caribbean. Hameen grew up in the Dixwell neighborhood of New Haven, a community with a thriving jazz scene, and came from a musical gospel family with roots in Afro-Cuban music, R&B, and jazz. Early in his career, he lived and performed on the West Coast before moving back to the East Coast in 1966 at age 25.
Career
Jesse Hameen II has performed and recorded with a wide range of artists, including Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Burrell, Lou Donaldson, Jimmy McGriff, Hank Crawford, Ruth Brown, Charles Earland, Curtis Mayfield, Irene Reid, Gloria Lynne, Bobby Watson, Stanley Turrentine, Jimmy Witherspoon, Grover Washington Jr., Lena Horne, Pharoah Sanders, Freddie Cole, George Benson, Christian Sands, Donald Smith, Arthur Prysock, Etta Jones, George Adams, Talib Kibwe, Paul Brown, Benny Powell, David "Fathead" Newman, Leon Thomas, Little Jimmy Scott, Blue Mitchell, Curtis Fuller, Reuben Wilson, Brook Benton, Rich Goldstein, Rodney Jones, Tony Williams, Seleno Clarke, Bonnie Raitt, Major Holley, Doug Carn, Kenny Barron, Bill Easley, Tina Fabrique, and others.
He serves as president of Inspire Music Recording Company. In 1996, he became a founding member of Jazz Haven, a not-for-profit organization that promotes jazz and the arts in New Haven, Connecticut. Hameen mentored Christian Sands when Sands was 12 years old. His discography includes recordings such as Rodney Jones / Tommy Flanagan Quartet's "My Funny Valentine" (1984), Jimmy McGriff's "State of the Art" (1985) featuring the track "Cheesesteak," and Irene Reid's "Movin' Out" (2003) and "Thanks to You" (2004).
He also contributed writing, arrangement, and production to Sun Meidia's "Midnight Sun" (1994) and production on "Sign Of The Times" (2008).
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Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Jesse Hameen II (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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