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ASCAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Awards 2004/2005
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26, Brooklyn, NY
Born in Philadelphia on April 17, 1978, Sherisse was surrounded by music at an early age. Her father, a talented singer and church organist, began to teach her to play the piano at age 7. This would be the first of many instruments that would come into her hands. By the time she was in the fourth grade she had taken up the alto saxophone and began to play in concert band. When she was exposed to the music of Charlie Parker in her eighth grade jazz band, she began a lifelong love of jazz music.
After 8 years as a saxophonist, Sherisse turned to a freelance career as an electric bassist. While in school, she maintained a steady freelance career playing everything from jazz and funk, to latin, and rock music. She has performed with Patrice Rushen and Headhunter's drummer Mike Clark. Sherisse was content with being a bassist until she started to write big band charts for the Cal State University big band. This was when she realized that she had found her true calling — composition. She began assembling a small but steadily growing repertoire of big band and orchestral music, influenced by the styles of Gil Evans, Maria Schneider and Kenny Wheeler as well as several classical pieces influenced by such composers as John Corigliano, Maurice Ravel and Bela Bartok.
Sherisse quickly became an accomplished composer. She received the 2001 "Best Arrangement" award from American Society of Musicians Composers and Arrangers for her orchestral arrangement of Jimmy Van Heusen's "Here's That Rainy Day". She was awarded the 2002 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award for her big band piece, "Waiting". In addition, she was selected to be a composer participant for the Henry Mancini Institute in 2003 and was featured in the Gala concert alongside Arturo Sandoval and film composer Jorge Calandrelli. In 2004 she was awarded the Emerging Composer Commission in honor of Count Basie by ASCAP/IAJE. And, earlier this year, she was awarded the 2005 ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award.
Rogers has written music for Dave Liebman as well as Peter Erskine. Sherisse has also received commissions from the New York City All-City Jazz Band and the Souderton (Pennsylvania) High School Jazz Band.
In May 2004 she received a Masters of Music in Jazz Composition from the Manhattan School of Music where she studied with great jazz composer/arranger Michael Abene. She recently finished orchestrating and arranging the thirteen-movement orchestral suite "Tierra Negra", composed by Meet the Composer grant recipient William Cepeda.
Most recently she has finished recording her new CD entitled Sleight of Hand. Sherisse hopes to successfully combine all of the worlds of music that she loves, creating sounds that can survive everywhere, from the jazz club to the movie screen to the concert hall.
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