Consisting of three musical generations, the members of The Madison Jazz Collective bring to their performances and teaching nearly a century and a half of broad and deep musical wisdom and experience.

Andy Connell (saxophones and clarinet) has performed with a wide range of artists including Hermeto Pascoal, David Liebman, Lou Rawls, Mike Marshall and Luciano Pavarottim, and has recorded for the Musical Heritage Society, Intrada, Adventure Music, Earthbeat! Traveler and Acoustic Levitation labels. Connell has appeared at the Monterey, Montreux–Detroit and San Francisco Jazz Festivals, the Spoleto Festival USA, and with the Santa Cruz, Monterey and Toledo symphonies.  Full bio

Chuck Dotas (trumpet) directs JMU’s Jazz Studies program and Jazz Ensemble, and is coordinator of JMU’s study abroad program The Arts and Culture of Montreal. He previously taught at McGill University (Montreal) where he led his own professional big band. Composer-in-residence for the Staunton Music Festival from 2005-2015, Dotas has had his music performed in Canada, Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand and South Africa. His compositions are published by UNC Jazz Press, Walrus Music and ejazzlines.  Full bio     

Marlon Foster (drums) is a former member of the United States Air Force Band at Langley Air Force Base and is well-known throughout the Commonwealth as a tasteful and swinging drummer. Foster served as a middle school instrumental music teacher for 26 years in Harrisonburg. He has presented and adjudicated at concert band, marching percussion and jazz band workshops throughout Virginia, and conducted many city, county, and All-District concert and jazz middle school bands.  Full bio

Bob Hallahan (piano) has appeared as a featured solo pianist at the Kennedy Center, and has performed with notable jazz saxophonists Joe Henderson, Clifford Jordan and James Moody, trumpeters Clark Terry and Freddie Hubbard, and singers Sheila Jordan, Anita O’Day and René Marie. He can be heard on over two dozen recordings as both a sideman and leader. He previously taught in the jazz programs at Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Virginia.  Full bio

Adam Larrabee (guitar) is a seasoned jazz guitarist who can be heard on Bruce Hornsby’s recording Spirit Trail. He taught at New England Conservatory and performed in the Boston area for nearly 10 years before moving to Virginia, but is perhaps best known in the Mid-Atlantic region and beyond for his banjo work with the nationally-recognized bluegrass band Love Canon. A prolific, multi-genre composer, he recently published Book One of his Twenty-Four Preludes for Banjo.  Full bio

David Pope is a celebrated concert and jazz saxophonist. Since winning DownBeat magazine’s “Outstanding Collegiate Jazz Instrumentalist” (1994), he has performed around the world, including Russia, Scotland, Switzerland, and Bangkok, Thailand. Pope is known for eclectic programming that shifts effortlessly from Bach and Coltrane to Bowie and Katy Perry. He is an accomplished composer, and performs on a variety of ethnic and homemade instruments. Pope endorses RS Berkeley “Virtuoso” saxophones.  www.popesax.com

Sam Suggs (bass) received an “Extraordinary Creativity” award at the 2017 Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Competition, and is the first solo bassist in 36 years to join the Concert Artists Guild touring roster. Named “New Artist of the Month" by Musical America after winning the 2015 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition, Suggs has performed collaboratively at Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, and in Africa and Europe with his trio Triplepoint. http://samuelssuggs.com