In 2014, Dominican artist Guillo Carias reached out to American (and Mormon) jazz pianist Stephen Anderson to perform with a group of elite musicians from the Dominican Republic at the Jazzomania Jazz Festival. They had such a great time that they decided to continue working together. Anderson, who is also a composer, traveled throughout the Caribbean to document and discover local jazz. But instead of covering their music or simply doing arrangements of the works, the group of seven musicians-- Sandy Gabriel, Guy Frómeta, Guillo Carias, Carlos Luis, Jeffry Eckels,Juan Álamo, and David Almengod--encouraged him to absorb their music and then create his own compositions that all of them could play together.

Their collaboration came to be known as The Dominican Jazz Project. Summit Records released a CD in March 2016, which represented the label at the 17th Annual Latin Grammy Awards ("Best New Artist" and "Best Jazz CD" and at the 59th Annual Grammy Awards ("Best Latin Jazz Recording" and the track "Salida" for "Best Instrumental Composition."

We are pleased to announce that the Mormon Arts Center is bringing all of the musician of The Dominican Jazz Project to the Festival in June where they'll perform and discuss their work.

Want more information about the musicians and the collaboration and/or listen to some of their music? See dominicanjazzproject.com