History of the Neo Jazz Collective

     The Neo Jazz Collective is a group of young, gifted, professional musicians ranging in age from 11 years old to young adults. Despite band members’ ages, The Collective blends a well-seasoned mixture of jazz, R&B, funk, and neo-soul. The Collective started in Fairfield, Alabama by its founder and director, Dr. Lud Yisrael in 2004. The band itself spawned out of Dr. Yisrael’s frustration with professional adult musicians. Most would not show up to rehearsal consistently, but appear for gigs to get paid. His high standards for musicianship prompted Dr. Yisrael’s refusal to book anymore gigs until his adults cleaned up their acts. Needless to say, that was the beginning of the end.

     After going through a number of adult musicians, Dr. Yisrael knew something had to change. He took dedicated musician, guitarist David Curtis and bassist Jabari Brown, his then 13 year old son, Yirmeyahu Yisrael on tenor sax and a keyboard with a drum machine and formed The Neo Jazz Collective.

     The band quickly expanded to include trumpeter Whitney Mitchell who soon became the voice of The Collective, alto sax Jeronne Ansari, and drummer Stephon Hundley. All were 13 upon joining the group. Dr. Yisrael’s eight year old son, Yah’ el Yisrael eagerly learned one song on piano which he performed at a benefit concert with the band. He wasn’t officially a member until he could learn all 12 songs on the show list. He did and became the piano player for The Collective just before his ninth birthday.

     Additional gifted musicians to join were then bassist Sam Albright and his younger brother Noah Albright joined recently and 13 year old drummer extraordinaire Isaiah Fogle. Dr. Yisrael's children have all followed the family tradition of music with the recent addition of 15 year old daughter Yehosheba "BassGirl" Yirael, who promptly took his place as the bass player for the Collective. More recent members of the group include; 13 year old Kayla Wheeler who started as background and has worked her way up to lead vocalist, 16 year old guitarist Adam Guthrie, 19 year old drummer Josh Stringer, and 19 year old background vocalist Jasmine Reese.

     The Collective is equipped with youth and diversity. Their presence in music industry will significant for years to come.