The Performers
The Delandria Mills Quintet
Delandria Mills, a flutist, educator, and author, is a native of Houston, Texas. Mills is a graduate of Prairie View A&M University, and earned both her MM in Classical Flute and GPD in Jazz Studies from the Peabody Conservatory, where she now teaches. Mills is the founder of Kingdom Flute Works (KFW), her annual inten-
Festival. He has worked with artists including Jon Faddis, Paul Carr, Jazz- meia Horn, and The Julius Rodriguez Trio. He teaches jazz at The Cal- houn School (NYC), Jazz Academy of Music (MD), and Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival master classes. He earned his BFA from SUNY Purchase. Chris Latona , after starting with Paul Carr’s Jazz Academy of Music at 13, attended Oberlin College and Conservatory, earning two degrees in
history and jazz percussion, under instruction from NEA Jazz Master Billy Hart. As an Oberlin Sonny Rollins Scholar, he performed at SF Jazz in 2020 and in school and community venues in the Bay Area. He has per- formed in venues including Blues Alley and the Kennedy Center. He has performed with artists including Gary Bartz, Eddie Henderson, Wayne Escoffery, Jon Faddis, Billy Childs, and Ed Cherry.
sive summer program. In addition to KFW and Peabody, she teaches for Baltimore City Schools and is the flute professor at Morgan State Univer- sity. Mills is a core member of the Maryland Winds and Robert Glasper’s Black Radio Orchestra. Mills has performed, recorded, and toured with artists including: Mary Mary, Tye Tribbett, Angelique Kidjo, Roy Har- grove, Billy Harper, and Hubert Laws. Mills has won national and interna- tional competitions and has seven recordings of her own. She is the author of a series of picture books for young children and a juvenile fiction novel series: Demi’s Flute: Discovering Notes and Sounds (picture books), and a young adult novel series entitled Demi’s Flute: Entering the Realm of Sound . Mills is a board member of the National Flute Association.
Music has taken the Latona brothers to the U.S. Embassy to the Vatican, where they organized concerts in celebration of the 35th anniversary of diplomacy between the U.S. and Vatican City. They are natives of Silver Spring and live in Brooklyn, NY.
Janelle Gill is a native Washingtonian and Howard University alum. Gill has worked with musicians such as Delfeyo Marsalis, Oliver Lake, David Murray, The Blackbyrds, Maurice Hines in his Tappin’ Through Life, Marshall Keys, Nasar Abadey, and Kris Funn. She has performed at the Kennedy Center, The Library of Congress, DC Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, and Baku Jazz Festival. She
Ameen Saleem incorporated jazz, blues, rock, R&B, punk, hip-hop and go-go into his studies at the Duke Ellington School of Arts and North Carolina Central University, where he molded his sound. He earned a Master of Jazz studies at Queens College but also learned on the streets of NY. Saleem has held the bass seat for the Winard Harper Sextet and has toured
served as musical director for the production of Toni Morrison’s Desdemona , which debuted at the Source Theater. Andrew Latona has played venues including Birdland, The Blue Note, and Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, where his trio recently held a three-week residency; Blues Alley and Bohemian Cavern in Washington, DC; and the Mid Atlantic Jazz
the world with the Roy Hargrove Quintet and Big Band. His first album, Groove Lab Volume 1 , was released in 2015. In 2016, Ameen moved to Rome, Italy. He teaches bass and gives workshops around Europe. He has worked with artists including Jimmy Heath, Jimmy Cobb, Kenny Garrett, Andy Bey, Brian Horton, Eve Cornelius, Sullivan Fortner, Jon Baptiste, Keyon Harold, Victor Lewis, and Gerald Clayton. Recently he has collaborated with the Nicola Conte Spiritual Galaxy, Robin McKelle, Domenico Sanna, Jeff Ballard, and Joe Locke.
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