Biography

Playing trumpet since the age of nine and studying jazz since age 11, Berkeley, California native Billy Buss has received numerous awards, including the Monterey Jazz Festival's Jimmy Lyons Scholarship to Berklee College of Music, two Outstanding Performance/Soloist awards from the Down Beat Magazine Music Awards, as well as the Gold Award in Jazz from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts. Especially proud to have been selected as a 2006 Presidential Scholar in the Arts (for Jazz Trumpet), Billy was honored by the President in a ceremony at the White House. His talents have allowed him the opportunity to perform at the Monterey, Umbria, Montreux and JVC Jazz festivals; the Dubrovnik Summer Music Festival in Croatia; numerous festivals in Japan; the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.; a variety of clubs in Boston and New York, the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai, China and the Forbidden City Concert Hall in Beijing.

Inspired and coached by former Tower of Power trumpeter Mic Gillette, Billy considers himself fortunate to have played and studied with a number of prominent musicians, including Jay McShann, Herbie Hancock, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Turre, Charlie Hunter, Roy Hargrove, Brian Blade, Tiger Okoshi, Nicholas Payton, Phil Wilson, Dave Santoro, Hal Crook, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Oscar Peterson, Allen Toussaint, Hank Jones, Barry Harris, Irma Thomas, Ivan Neville, and Coolio.

Prior to commencing his collegiate studies, Billy was a member of the prestigious San Francisco All-Star High School Jazz Ensemble for four years, and performed with several other honor groups, including two years with the CMEA/IAJE California All-State Honor Jazz Ensemble, two years with the Monterey Jazz Festival High School All-Star Band, the 2006 Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Fellows, and the 2006 Gibson/Baldwin GRAMMY Band Jazz Ensemble. Billy graduated with honors from Berkeley High School, in Berkeley, California, where he was lead trumpet and solo chair for its nationally award-winning jazz ensemble and jazz combo under the direction of Charles Hamilton (the 2006 recipient of the Coca-Cola Company/National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts Distinguished Teacher Award). Billy’s Berkeley High School jazz combo placed first in the nationally celebrated Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Competition two years in a row.

While at Berklee College, Billy played in a variety of ensembles, including the Berklee Rainbow Band under the direction of Phil Wilson, the Joe Lovano Octet, the Dave Santoro Berklee Scholarship Jazz Ensemble, the Berklee Latin ensemble Díle, the 2007 Berklee JVC Jazz Festival Ensemble, the Berklee Wayne Shorter Ensemble under Dave Santoro and Hal Crook's Advanced Small Band Ensemble.

As a recent graduate of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance, Class of 2011, Billy looks forward to his continuing evolution as a musician, performer, and composer after studying for the last two years with many of the greatest living Jazz masters.