Joel Yennior is an American trombonist, composer, and educator currently residing in the greater Boston area. As a trombonist, Joel has performed and/or recorded with an array of notables including Bennie Maupin, George Garzone, Jerry Bergonzi, Miguel Zenon, Antonio Sanchez, Ran Blake, Mulatu Astatke, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Mahmoud Ahmed, John Tchicai, the Spinners, Robert Goulet, the Boston Brass All-Stars, and the Miami Symphony Orchestra. 

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As a member of the Grammy-nominated Either/Orchestra since 1998, Joel has recorded five albums and a DVD, and has toured extensively throughout the USA, Canada, Africa, and Europe. Yennior is also a founding member of the critically-acclaimed jazz quartet Gypsy Schaeffer, and has produced three CDs with the group.

“Big City Circus,” released in 2010, was Yennior’s recording debut as a leader, featuring several original compositions and arrangements (Monk, Bacharach, Blake) performed by an innovative “bass-less” trio with guitarist Eric Hofbauer, and drummer Gary Fieldman. The release was described as “soul music” and  “beyond categories” by renowned author and NEA Jazz Master, Nat Hentoff and prompted Joel to be recognized as a “Rising Star” on Trombone in the Downbeat Magazine Critics Poll in 2013 and 2014.

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While performing in Ethiopia with the Either/Orchestra, Joel had the opportunity to connect with Ethio-Jazz great Mulatu Astatke, and to serve as Astatke’s Musical Director from 2008-2010, performing as a soloist, conducting, and penning arrangements for concerts in the US, Canada, and the UK. This collaboration also produced the albums “Mulatu Steps Ahead,” “Inspiration Information 3,” and the DVD “Timeless – The Arranger/Composers Series“ featuring jazz luminaries Bennie Maupin, Azar Lawrence, Phil Ranelin, Munyungo Jackson and others. 

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Yennior has also been a long-term collaborator with Brazilian jazz saxophonist Felipe Salles, and has performed with Latin artists Tony Lujan, Jon Benitez, Edsel Gomez, Richie Flores, Eguie Castrillo, and Sony recording artist Miles Peña. Joel also recorded with Argentinian bassist/composer Alejandro Cimadoro (featuring saxophonist George Garzone, and drummer Antonio Sanchez), and toured the Northeastern US college circuit in the late-1990’s with the Boston hip-hop collective Down Low Connection, opening for a number of classic hip-hop acts including Run DMC, Salt-N-Pepa, The Roots and The Pharcyde.

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Joel Yennior is the author of Spotlight on Slide Hampton: 11 Solo Transcriptions with Analysis and Exercises for Additional Practice (Brass Wheel Music), and The Real Jazz Method, Building Blocks of the Jazz Vocabulary, an 81-page ebook written in conjunction with an online course he designed for Learn Jazz Faster.com. Joel has also contributed professional articles and/or blog posts to the Huffington Post, International Trombone Association Journal, Learn Jazz Faster.com, and the Massachusetts Music News, for which he also served as editor of the recurring Contemporary Music column from 2012-2016. 

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As an educator with more than twenty years of experience working with a wide range of students, Joel is most interested in exploring new ways to enlighten, engage, and encourage artistic exploration, and to challenge and inspire developing musicians to refine their personal musical voice. A faculty member at the New England Conservatory of Music since 1999, Joel teaches classes in Jazz Theory, Ear Training, Jazz Arranging, Jazz Composition, and Jazz History, and conducts private lessons in Jazz Trombone, Theory, and Arranging. He has also directed a variety of Jazz, Contemporary Improvisation and Brass Ensembles through NEC’s Conservatory, Preparatory and Continuing Education levels. 

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Joel is also an Affliliated Artist in Jazz Trombone at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, since 2023), a Visiting Instructor of Trombone at Brandeis University (since 2019) and previously taught Trombone and Music Education classes at Eastern Nazarene College. An experienced clinician and guest artist, Joel has presented workshops on Jazz, Trombone and Ethiopian Music at numerous schools and universities throughout the US, and internationally at the Yared Music School (Addis Ababa, Ethiopia), the National Theater (Kampala, Uganda), and the Yaroslavl City Jazz Center (Yaroslavl, Russia). Also a licensed public school educator (MA), Joel has served as an Instrumental Music Teacher for the Westwood and Pentucket Regional school systems, as well as in the Boston Public Schools. 

Over the years, Joel has been fortunate to mentor many talented developing artists, several of whom have continued their music studies at Julliard, NEC, Berklee, University of Miami, Columbia University and Oberlin Conservatory (among other institutions), and a number of whom have also established successful music careers of their own.

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BM (University of Miami); MM (New England Conservatory), Studies with George Russell, Ran Blake, John McNeil, Hal Crook, David Taylor, John Mosca, Tom McIntosh, and Scott Hartman.

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