Album Notes

Saxophonist, vocalist, composer and arranger, Lance Bryant comes out of Markham, Illinois, a small town near Chicago. He received his formal music education at Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA, where he studied saxophone and, composition and arranging. During his tenure at Berklee, Lance fostered musical relationships with fellow classmates, saxophonists Branford Marsalis and Greg Osby, drummer Marvin "Smitty" Smith, trumpeter Wallace Roney, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and other renowned musicians. After graduation in 1983, Lance returned to IL to further his real world experience while exploring the Chicago music scene. He ultimately made the move to New York City in 1985.

In that same year, Lance received a National Endowment for the Arts Study Fellowship, which enabled him to study saxophone and arranging privately with Frank Foster, the former director of the Count Basie Orchestra. As a freelance artist in the late 1980s, Lance performed, toured and recorded with Steve Coleman, Monte Croft, Graham Haynes, and Lonnie Plaxico, the emerging artists of that time.

The 1990s ushered in a new chapter in a blossoming career. Lance's work as an artist was recognized by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts and led to a prestigious artist-in-residency grant. Lance rounded out his professional experience by teaching saxophone and jazz improvisation at New York City's famed JazzMobile and began his decade-long relationship with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra. In 1993, Lance became the Orchestra's Musical Director and Principal Arranger