Jim McNeely and Miguel Zenón Named the 2024–2025 Ken Pullig Visiting Scholars in Jazz Studies

Grammy Award–winning musicians Jim McNeely and Miguel Zenón BM ’98 will join Berklee's Harmony and Jazz Composition Department as the Ken Pullig Visiting Scholars in Jazz Studies during the 2024–2025 academic year. The program was established in honor of Ken Pullig, a former chair of jazz composition, who retired in 2012 after leading the department for more than 30 years.

“I am thrilled to know that Miguel Zenón and Jim McNeely will be joining us for the 2024–2025 academic year as visiting scholars,” says George W. Russell Jr., chair of the Harmony and Jazz Composition Department. “I have the utmost confidence that they will impart loads of inspiration and information, along with integral building blocks for our jazz composition majors and the Berklee community at large.” 

Zenón, a distinguished saxophonist and composer, returns as a visiting scholar for the second straight year. “I’m so excited to continue my residency with the Harmony and Jazz Composition Department,” says the saxophonist and composer. “I had such an amazing time last year and look forward to connecting further with the students and the whole Berklee community.” 

McNeely, a pianist and composer, is the third musician to be invited to hold the Ken Pullig Visiting Scholar in Jazz Studies position. Over his 50 years in jazz, McNeely has spent a large portion of his illustrious career working with American big bands (notably the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra) and European radio bands (Frankfurt Radio Big Band). The New York Times has called his writing "exhilarating," and DownBeat has said that his music is "eloquent enough to be profound." 

"To have these two titans of jazz, Jim McNeely and Miguel Zenón, engage with us is a rare and beautiful opportunity for the Berklee community,” notes Ayn Inserto, assistant chair of the Harmony and Jazz Composition Department. “Having seen them in action as performers and educators, we are excited about their prospective engagement with us."

As visiting scholars, Zenón and McNeely will be in residence for several days each month throughout the academic year, teaching advanced jazz composition students and providing their perspective on their work, collaborating with faculty, and offering master classes open to the entire Berklee community. In addition, the Ken Pullig Visiting Artist Scholar Ensemble will perform works by McNeely in a modern jazz setting at David Friend Recital Hall on the Boston campus on November 13 at 7:30 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

"I’m really looking forward to working with the students at Berklee,” adds McNeely. “It gives me the opportunity to pass on what I’ve learned in the last 50 years. And in turn I’ll be inspired by their optimism, talent, and curiosity." 

About Jim McNeely

Born into a musical family in Chicago, Jim McNeely started piano lessons at the age of 6 and at 8 he began studying with Bruno Michelotti, who taught him basic music theory as well as the piano. This was the beginning of his lifelong love of theory and, subsequently, composition and arranging. The young McNeely became interested in jazz around the age of 12 after hearing Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, and at the age of 16 he wrote his first big band arrangement. He attended the University of Illinois, largely on the strength of its big band, and studied theory and composition. In 1975, he received his composition degree and moved to New York City, to pursue a career as a jazz pianist. During the late 1970s and early 1980s he joined several groups including the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra, the Stan Getz Quartet, and the Phil Woods Quintet. Those years also saw him perform with countless other musicians on the New York scene, in formations ranging from duo to sextet. 

As he began working with more and more artists and groups, McNeely found his career focus beginning to shift from pianist to composer. He led the Frankfurt Radio Big Band in Germany as its chief conductor from 2010–2022. That year, he released two albums: Rituals, with Frankfurt Radio Big Band featuring saxophonist, composer, and multi-instrumentalist Chris Potter; and Threnody, with the Jazz Orchestra of the Concertgebouw. His work has earned him 10 Grammy nominations and one Grammy win for his collaboration with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra on Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard in 2009. Teaching has also been an important element over the course of McNeely’s career. He is professor emeritus in jazz composition at Manhattan School of Music, and has held positions at New York University and at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. McNeely has also held clinics and major residencies at dozens of institutions around the world including in the US, Canada, Europe, Australia, and Egypt, to name a few.

About Miguel Zenón

Born and raised in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Miguel Zenón represents a select group of musicians who have balanced and blended the often contradictory poles of innovation and tradition. Widely considered one of the most groundbreaking and influential saxophonists and composers of his generation, he has also developed a unique voice as a conceptualist, concentrating his efforts on perfecting a fine mix between jazz and his many musical influences. As a composer, he has been commissioned by SFJAZZ, the New York State Council for the Arts, Chamber Music America, the Hyde Park Jazz Festival, the Hewlett Foundation, and many of his peers. He has given hundreds of lectures and master classes at institutions all over the world and is currently a faculty member in MIT's Music and Theater Arts Department.

A Guggenheim and MacArthur fellow, Zenón has topped both the Jazz Artist of the Year and Alto Saxophonist categories on the 2014 JazzTimes Critics Poll, and was selected as the Alto Saxophonist of the Year by the Jazz Journalist Association in 2015, 2018, 2019, and 2020 (when he was also recognized as Arranger of the Year). In 2023, he was recognized by the same organization as Composer of the Year.