Biographies of the Board Members
Dan Knight, President:
Dan Knight is an internationally known jazz pianist and Steinway sponsored artist. Dan has performed an unprecedented three consecutive years as a solo pianist at the legendary Montreaux Jazz Festival. A protege of Dr. Billy Taylor, Dan is currently the Applied Music Associate Professor of Jazz Piano at Grinnell College, and an Adjunct Professor at Kirkwood Community College. Dan Knight's compositions now include over fifty songs, two entire suites for solo piano, and a newly-completed Mass. Dan has studied with both Dr. Billy Taylor and Max Roach, and has performed with Mercedes Ellington, Wynton Marsalis and other jazz giants.



Paul Williams, Vice President
Paul Williams is an avid jazz fan and has been a member of the Jazz Society of Eastern Iowa since its inception. He has lived in Cedar Rapids nearly all of his life and would like to see the JSEI become a catalyst for enriching the culture of Eastern Iowa through the establishment and sponsorship of area jazz events. Paul plays the guitar and sings and is an engineering manager at Rockwell Collins.

Mike Buckman, Secretary
Mike Buckman is a long-time jazz enthusiast, an amateur bass player, husband and father of two. He has worked for thirteen years at Rockwell Collins as a Business Computer Programmer/Analyst, a detail-oriented highly procedural occupation. He is a past president of the Collins Toastmasters 3254 organization and has served as chairman of the Pastor/Parish Relations Committee and on the Administrative Council of his church. "If elected," he says, "I will bring a wide range of organizational skills and diligence to the job."

Denny Redmond, Treasurer:
Denny Redmond is a CPA and Shareholder/Owner/Partner of Redmond and Associates, PC. His initial degree, from Coe College, is Bachelor of Music Degree, Cum Laude, May 1976 and subsequently , in May 1988 he received the Bachelor of Arts Degree with a major in accounting. From 1980 until 1986, Mr. Redmond served in the Internal Revenue Service as both a Revenue Agent and an Accounting Aid/Office Auditor. Mr . Redmond is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants as well as being a member of other professional organizations and having a number of Certificates of Educational Achievement. Denny is active in a number of nonprofit organizations and is an active jazz pianist.

Larry Bobe, Chairperson, Education Committee
I am a graduate of the University of Iowa and have spent the past 25 years teaching instrumental music at Amana, West Branch and Marion. I am a member of the Iowa Bandmasters Association, the North East Iowa Bandmasters Association, National Education Association, Iowa State Education Association and the International Association of Jazz Educators. I have held a number of leadership positions over the past 30+ years and am a member of Omicron Delta Kappa the national honorary leadership fraternity.

Gail Williams, Chairperson, Membership Committee
Gail Williams is a jazz and classical pianist who has performed with the Cedar Rapids Symphony Orchestra and numerous jazz and classical musicians since moving to Iowa in 1985. Prior to that she was a professional musician in Chicago, where she earned a Bachelor Of Music in Piano Performance at Northwestern University. After earning her Masters degree in Computer Science she began working as a software engineer, and since moving to Cedar Rapids has worked at Rockwell Collins.

Kathryn Gregor, Chairperson, Development Committee:
As a "professional Collaborator" I come to the Jazz Society ready to assist in developing a strong financial base through grant and award applications. The promotion of the Jazz music form, support of musicians and jazz education is needed in eastern Iowa.

Rob Koop, Chairperson Events Committee
I am a former concert hall technical director, sound technician, and professional freelance stagehand. I've worked in facilities from here to Maine over a thirteen year mini-career in the performing arts. I've been a jazz fan since I went to college at Iowa State back in 1976. Working at Iowa State's Hilton Coliseum as a student stagehand, I met a fellow named George "Jeep" Parker, a Maryland Sound Industries touring sound engineer who, while we were dismantling some rock show, put me onto Oscar Peterson. That's how it started. I've always been fascinated by piano. Over time, I would see Oscar perform four times in various places. His recordings navigated my education through horn players, reed players, bass players and drummers. I have expanded beyond that realm in the years since, but that's how I started.
While working at the concert hall in Maine, I had the opportunity to meet and work with Ramsey Lewis, Dr. Billy Taylor (separate events) The Modern Jazz Quartet, Dizzy Gillespie, Marian McPartland, McCoy Tyner, George Russell, Dave Brubeck, Buddy Morrow, Joe Pass and Ella Fitzgerald. It was a thrill. Personally, I am not a musician, but neither was Norman Granz, and I think we all know what he accomplished. Someday, I aspire to partially fill his footprints. I truly believe that jazz is America's greatest cultural contribution to the world. No other music, no other artform, in my estimate, has the capacity to so fully communicate the total spectrum of human emotion and experience as does jazz. I see the need for those familiar with jazz to help educate the heretofore uninformed.
What am I listening to these days? I'll namedrop a few quickly - Junior Mance, Didier Lockwood, Ahmad Jamal, Houston Person, Phineas Newborn, Jr., Frank Strozier, Duke Jordan, Byron Stripling, Miles, Plas Johnson, Bill Charlap, Dave Young, Gene Harris. And of course, part of everyday, it's Basie and frequently "Sweets" Edison. I just picked up a copy of Gary Giddins' book, Visions of Jazz. I'm also reading daily out of The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. Looking forward to my first experience with the International Association of Jazz Educators annual conference in January in New York. And although you didn't ask this question, if I could have only one jazz CD, it would, without doubt, be one of the five Basie/Peterson duet sessions - probably The Timekeepers.

Dennis Green, At-Large Director (one of two):
Dennis Green has been a well-known media personality and arts advocate in Eastern Iowa for nearly 20 years. He is currently the General Manager of KCCK, but worked to support jazz and local jazz players for many years before ever coming to the station. In addition to serving on the charter board for the Jazz Society, he is the 2001 president-elect for the Cedar Rapids Area Cultural Alliance, and serves on boards or committees for the March of Dimes, Variety Club, Cedar Rapids Convention Bureau, the Greater Cedar Rapids Community Foundation, Greater CR Area Radio Marketing Group and St. Mark's Lutheran Church. He hosts or serves as MC for numerous community concerts and events, including the Follies, the CR Symphony's Classic Innovations series, Kirkwood's jazz concerts and others.