So far, the year has been sounding good to Michael Dease.
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Augusta native Michael Dease, 21, plays at the 2004 Yamaha Young Performing Artists national awards concert at the Braden Auditorium at Illinois State University. Mr. Dease was a winner of the competition for his trombone performance.
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"I'm telling you, this is the year. This is my year," said the 21-year-old, a jazz trombone student at the Juilliard School in New York.
Performances by the south Augusta native and 2000 graduate of John S. Davidson Fine Arts High School have garnered him lots of recognition lately.
Since January, Mr. Dease has been named a best jazz instrumentalist by Down Beat magazine, received a Juilliard Instrumental Music Fellowship and won top awards - and sometimes cash - from the International Jazz Competition, the International Trombone Association, the Hilton Head Jazz Society and Yamaha Young Performing Artist competition.
Mr. Dease also played a festival at the Kennedy Center in April and was an artist-in-residence at the Ravinia Music Festival in Chicago in June.
"I'm working all the time, but I like it," he said Friday just before boarding Norwegian Cruise Line ship for a six-week gig.
A saxophone player since age 11, he switched to trombone the last semester of his senior year at Davidson, then taught himself to play, practicing daily by "emulating music by the masters," he said.
"I heard music from my jazz heroes (trombonists) J.J. Johnson and Curtis Fuller. It was a beautiful sound, something I hadn't heard before because the trombone's not popular," he said.
Mr. Dease gave up his Florida State University saxophone scholarship after one year when he received a trombone scholarship to Juilliard, where he plans to get a bachelor's degree in jazz trombone next May.
At Juilliard, he receives lessons from Augusta native Wycliffe Gordon, whom he first encountered during a chance meeting while playing with Air Apparent at the Partridge Inn at age 17.
"Juilliard's been great. They sent me to Italy, where I spent a month last summer, and I premiered two of my original works," said the singer and composer, who plays both jazz and classical music.
"The performance opportunities are incredible."
Because his mother, Rita Dease, taught him to make good decisions, things are working out, he said.
"I always felt like certain aspects of trombone came natural to me; other parts were hard work," he said. "I've always made hard work with jazz music, music in general, the highest priority."
When Mr. Dease is not playing with the Mike Dease Sextet, the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra or the Illinois Jacquet Big Band, he gives lessons at a private studio through his fellowship with Juilliard and teaches weekly trombone lessons to fifth-graders at P.S. 166 in Manhattan.
Mr. Dease conceded that he did many gigs for free and said he's trying to be an artist without the starving part.
"I used to mow lawns, work at IHOP, Gyro Wrap, J.C. Penney as a shoe salesman," he said. "It's part of a collective thing jazz musicians call paying dues. I still pay them as much as I can."
Reach C. Samantha McKevie at (706) 823-3552 or samantha.mckevie@augustachronicle.com.
