Active in the recording studios of Los Angeles, Jerry has participated as both a performer and composer in scoring sessions for hundreds of film and television shows.
Jerry Kalaf, a Colburn Community School of Performing Arts faculty member, has been active in the jazz community for many years. His credits include performances and tours with Eddie Harris, Gary Burton, Gary Foster, Frank Strazzeri, Bill Mays, Bill Perkins, Jimmy Cleveland, The Pointer Sisters, Gregory Hines, and Major Holley.
Jerry has toured Europe, Asia, Russia, South America, Africa, and the United States as musical director of the Jazz Tap Ensemble with performances at the Playboy Jazz Festival in Los Angeles, Salzburg Jazz Festival in Salzburg, Austria and in New York, at Carnegie Hall, and the Apollo Theater.
A recipient of a Meet The Composer Grant funded by the National Endowment For The Arts and the California Arts Council, Jerry’s recording, Just Like Old Times, is a collaboration with arranger Doug Walter and features eight of Jerry’s compositions for string orchestra and piano trio. The arrangements challenge and inspire the soloists and show the two sides of jazz composition; the interpretation of the written note and the improvising musician’s response to it.
Jerry’s most recent recording, Welcome to Earth, features eight new compositions for trio and sextet.
Jerry was granted Bachelor of Arts in Applied Studies from the Berklee College of Music.