"...A brilliant virtuoso whose complete control over the clarinet and originality as both an improviser and a composer are very impressive..."

 - Scott Yanow, world-famous jazz writer

Dr. Joseph D. Howell has gone from being a mostly self-taught musician from a poor small-town family to earning a Doctor of Musical Arts from a prestigious conservatory. Today he professionally performs, composes, and teaches music of many styles and instruments while maintaining an artistic focus on jazz clarinet and sax.

Joseph Howell grew up in the rural town of Porterville, California. Though he played the clarinet in the school band programs from fourth grade on, it was not until he began college that he received formal private instruction on his instruments. Music was largely forced upon Joseph until he first heard a jazz group in New Orleans Square in Disneyland in the summer before his eighth grade year. Jazz was something he had not heard much before and the sounds instantly attracted him. It was not long until he began to consider learning to play this new kind of music. During this time, he added the tenor saxophone to his arsenal of instruments in order to become a member of the school big bands. The intense enjoyment of jazz gave Joseph the dedication to music that soon made him thrive in the school bands and jazz bands. His obsessive practicing got him into County and State Honor Bands and Wind Ensembles, as well as Honor Jazz Bands. At every performance during high school, Joseph was featured as a soloist in both the classical and jazz genres. At home, he listened to a large variety of jazz music in particular, including John Coltrane, Sidney Bechet, Eric Dolphy, Buddy DeFranco, Eddie Daniels, Gene Ammons, Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Parker, Ellington’s small groups, Johnny Griffin, Don Byron, Tony Scott, and others. Outside of school, Joseph gained performance experience gigging locally and sitting in with the youth-friendly Dixieland clubs in the Tulare and Fresno counties. He received occasional advice from local band directors and accessible “early jazz” practitioners such as: George Probert, Abe Most, Evan Christopher, Frank “Buck” Shaffer, and Dale Anderson.

Largely due to many scholarships awarded to him, Joseph was able to begin his formal musical training at CSU Northridge. At CSUN, his unusual combinations of strengths and weaknesses from being mostly self-taught were ironed out as he began his first private lessons and classes in classical and jazz music. In particular, Julia Heinen, Matt Harris, Gary Pratt, and Rob Lockart were a huge help to Joseph’s progress. After graduating from CSUN with his BM degree, Joseph met Rick Helzer at a jazz camp in Fresno. Helzer’s non-conservative approach to music really appealed to Joseph and this resulted in his attending San DiegoStateUniversity toward his MM degree. During this time, Joseph officially added the flute to his instruments and continued to study classical music alongside jazz.

During the latter part of Joseph’s MM studies, he auditioned for the DMA program at the New England Conservatory of Music. He was one of a handful of applicants, out of hundreds, to pass the six-hour entrance exams, in classical music history and theory, and the performance audition. After recording with Rick Helzer in Summer 2005, Joseph moved to Boston to pursue the DMA. At NEC, Joseph continued studying jazz alongside classical music. He took seminars on everything from Beethoven, to Schoenberg and Ives, to Jazz Vocal Traditions, audited classes on intervallic improvisation and microtonal music, and studied privately with jazz teachers, a classical clarinet professor, and a jazz drumset teacher. He wrote papers, studied spectragraphs, and transcribed music from many different recordings. Joseph’s main musical/pedagogical influences from these years would be his many talented classmates at NEC and teachers Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Allan Chase, Matthias Truniger, and John Heiss.

After NEC, Joseph recorded his debut CD, “JAZZ CLARINET NOW!” with some NEC classmates and temporarily moved back to San Diego. During these years, he worked full-time as a band director at eight private schools, refocused his musical goals on those organic to his non-student self, and began appreciating things outside of music. His contemporary classical composition for viola and clarinet was premiered at Karen Hopkins’ MM recital at SDSU. A special highlight of this San Diego period was his performance, with friend and fellow improvising clarinetist Brian Walsh, at ClarinetFest 2011, hosted by the International Clarinet Association. In addition to the many incredible classical clarinetists Howell heard at the festival (Kari Kriikku and RobertSpring in particular), seeing AKC Natarajan perform live encouraged Howell’s curiosities about world music clarinet traditions.

Musicians and writers unanimously use the words “virtuosic” and/or “virtuoso” when describing Howell’s clarinet and saxophone performances. His beginnings as a self-taught musician, mixed with his various school-years influences (from both teachers and peers alike), has resulted in an interesting mix of influences and colors…even if they are mostly within the confines of the jazz idiom or of the clarinet’s various traditions. He has performed with Don Byron, Uri Caine, Rick Helzer, Marilyn Crispell, Alex Brown, Cory Pesaturo, Abe Most, Jason Palmer, Chuck Hedges, Vivek Patel, George Probert’s Monrovia Old Style Jazz Band, Brian Walsh, Vinny Golia, the Beantown Swing Orchestra, Donvonte McCoy, Alex Norris, Craig Alston, Grant Langford, Tedd Baker, Marty Nau, Todd Marcus, Glenn Moomau’s Juke Drivers, and many others. He has performed in many venues in California, Canada, Maryland, Massachussets, Mexico, WashingtonDC, and Montana. As a classical clarinet soloist, he has performed his own original works, in addition to works by Piazzolla, Ben Hackbarth, Pozzi Escot, Jake Svendsen, Matthew McConnell, Albert Oppenheimer, Anthony Converse, Brahms, Cavallinni, Donald Martino, William O. Smith, Stravinsky, Weber, and many others.

Joseph Howell has taught private music lessons for over fifteen years! He has taught clarinet, flute, saxophone, trumpet, trombone, snare drum, piano, recorder (flute), jazz improvisation, musical composition, jazz trumpet, jazz violin/viola, jazz accordion, jazz clarinet, jazz saxophone, jazz piano, jazz vocals, and jazz drumset to students of various ages and levels. He has taught classes of various sizes, ages, levels, and demographics: from elementary school band to college level music theory, jazz improvisation, and ensembles. As a teacher, Howell tries to cater lesson plans to the goals and learning styles of his students and believes that it is very important to practice and learn with the students, showing them how to practice on their own.

Since re-relocating to the east coast less than a year ago, Joseph has found success as a performing artist and teacher. Many of the area’s top musicians have hired him or invited him onstage. His recent performance showcases at Twins Jazz in Washington DC and The Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center in Baltimore featured hours of almost exclusively Howell’s own complex compositions. Joseph plans to book more performances of this nature while also performing as a sideman and teaching music wherever and whenever he can.