Barry Harris Birthday Celebration

I am so excited to produce and play for this celebration of my mentor, Barry Harris! December 15th, 2022 (Barry’s actual birthday!) at Alianza Dominicana Cultural Center in Washington Heights and December 18th, 2022 at National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Jazz Power Initiative celebrates Dr. Barry Harris (1929-2021), the Internationally renowned jazz pianist, composer, educator, […]

What a trip to learn the Charlie I taught years ago in NJ is now a mega-pop star!

I was floored to learn this week that the Charlie Puth I taught at the Count Basie Center for the Arts in Red Bank, NJ years ago is the same guy now writing and performing his songs for millions of fans streaming his tunes billions of times. He said “He [Eli] was one of the […]

Intergenerational Jazz Power Jam with Trineice Robinson, Executive Director of African American Jazz Caucus

It was an honor and joy to work with Trineice Robinson, “Dr. Trineice,” as she is known in the music education world where she is a leading voice teacher in African American singing, the author of So You Want to Sing Gospel: A Guide For Professionals (published by Rowman and Littlefield in collaboration with National […]

How Maxine Greene influenced my work these past 20 years…

  “I hope you think about the wonder of multiple perspectives in your own experience. I hope you think about what happens to you when it becomes possible to abandon one-dimensional viewing, to look from many vantage points and, in doing so, construct meanings scarcely suspected before… Our object…where young people are concerned, is to […]

Message From Saturn is HERE

I really believe the blues can save us, but we all have to take part. This CD is the culmination of a journey that began when I was in high school basking in the glow of artistic fire, resilience and beauty that was in the Crossroads Theatre in New Brunswick, New Jersey, near where I grew […]

Guatemala Jazz Tour 2016

Thanks to the United States Department of State and The Jazz Drama Program, this was our third tour to Guatemala. What a privilege it was to visit this beautiful country and play for the amazing Guatemalan People! Joined by longtime friends and associates, LaFrae Sci, drums/compositions, Lakecia Benjamin, alto saxophone and Elias Bailey, bass, the […]

2013 Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival

The newspapers wrote, “Jammin’ with Yamin,” and you know, it really was.  It’s my dream and mission for jazz education to feel like the real thing–as creative, adventurous and rapturous as performing it and that’s what’s happening at The Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival. I’m so grateful for this wonderful festival that provides the opportunity […]

Back in New York City

Back in New York City this week we performed at Intermediate School 291: Roland Hayes School in Brooklyn with the Eli Yamin Trio and The Magic and Mechanics of Jazz.  Drummer Dwayne “Cook” Broadnax and bassist Elias Bailey have been performing this show with me for ten years and this time it was different.  We […]

Abakan, Siberia

Dlya menya ehto ne prosto pesnya Sdelai vdoch ee ti poymesh Ya ee bleus vso vremya vmeste Dushevny blues Dushevy blues Russian translation by Ludmila Borisova A Healing Song by Eli Yamin and Clifford Carlson from the jazz musical “Message From Saturn”       We had the good fortune to visit the music school […]

Great week at Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival

                          What a magnificent week at the 45th Annual Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival.  It’s an amazing gathering of fans, musicians, students, volunteers and staff creating a soulful jazz village in the sparsely populated and somewhat remote region of northern Idaho.  Joy permeates […]