Jeff NewEll
Wind Instruments Chair - Saxophone, Flute, Clarinet
he/him/his
“I work to demystify music for my students, helping them perceive it as another language of human communication. Learning to make music teaches us to work together and opens up channels through which we share emotional and spiritual joy.”
Having grown up near the small town in Nebraska, Jeff Newell graduated from the University of Nebraska with a Bachelor’s Degree in Music Education. Jeff has studied privately with famed jazz musicians Bunky Green, Joe Daley, and (through and NEA fellowship) David Liebman. Jeff Newell has worked as a performing musician for the last 50+ years and is currently the Dean of Faculty and Chair of the Jazz and Wind Departments at Brooklyn Music School. Jeff is also the Director of Music at Resurrection Brooklyn, a local church in Clinton Hill.
Jeff has been awarded multiple performance and residency grants from the Brooklyn Arts Council and the Doris Duke Foundation through Chamber Music America. Jeff has worked and recorded with such jazz notables as: Charles Earland, Houston Person, Sheila Jordan, Kevin Mahogany, and Terrance Blanchard. He has had extensive experience in popular music fields - both in the studio, touring internationally, and playing in musical pit orchestras. Newell also leads his own group, the New Orleans style, New-Trad Octet, which has released “Brownstone” on Blujazz records has a release of his Jeff Newell Quartet out on IGMOD records.