JAVA & JAZZ: Joseph Henson Jazz Project

This Henson performance will feature Joseph Henson on saxophones, Isaac Williams on piano, Jay Ware on drums, and Jonah Horton on bass.

Joseph Henson, saxophone, grew up in South Carolina where he attended the University of South Carolina as a music major. While working on his Master’s of Music at the University of North Texas he played in the One O’Clock Lab Band for three consecutive years and studied with Neil Slater, Jim Riggs, and Dan Haerle.

From 1997-2018 Joseph served as tenor saxophonist in The U.S. Army Blues Jazz Ensemble, based in Washington, DC, and was the Enlisted Musical Director from 2015-2018. During his tenure with the Blues, he shared the stage with many jazz legends including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Dr. Billie Taylor, Freddie Cole, and Chris Potter. Joseph’s compositions and arrangements for the band, including Things Ain’t What they Used To B and Live at Blues Alley can be heard on several Army Blues recordings.
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Joseph is the director of Saxophone and Jazz Studies at Liberty University. He also leads his own small group, under the name of Joseph Henson Jazz Project
 

Issac Williams, piano, is from Lynchburg, and has a music degree from Shenandoah 
University in Winchester, Va. He has his own piano trio that gigs regularly around Virginia and in the DC area.

Jay Ware, drummer, is an award-winning performing artist, educator, arranger, and music advocate.  He has performed or recorded with over 200 artists, including: Grammy Award winner Delfeayo Marsalis, Grammy nominee Donny McCaslin, Wycliffe Gordon, Jason Marsalis, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame member Mary Wilson and The Supremes, Pulitzer-Prize winner Gunther Schuller, the Broyhill Chamber Orchestra, Charleston Symphony Orchestra and many others.