In May 2022, Rio Americano High School in Sacramento, CA, was a finalist in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition, and sophomore Paloma Ximena won two solo awards: Outstanding Clarinetist and Outstanding Alto Saxophonist. “That was really the start of my career,” she said. “That was the moment when I really decided to pursue music.”
During the fall of 2021, Ximena was playing competitive soccer as a goalie and “trying to go to college for soccer. But that year I suffered six concussions. I was forced to stop playing soccer. I had only been playing music for five or six years, but it had never been my priority. When I wasn’t playing soccer, I had so much more time to play music. I had a lot of headaches and brain fog from the concussions, and I found that playing the clarinet was the only thing that could help me get rid of those symptoms, so I found myself playing clarinet all the time.”
Her inspiration? “Sidney Bechet. He was my first hero — ‘Moulin A Cafe’, ‘Blues in Thirds’, ‘Blue Horizon.’ I would play those tracks over and over again and try to sound like him. I fell in love with the music. It was a year where I really found a voice, and then, when I found out we got selected to go to Essentially Ellington, it was so exciting.”
As a follow-up to her Essentially Ellington performances, Ximena was invited to attend JALC’s Summer Jazz Academy in July 2022. “I started studying with Victor Goines there, and he taught me how to play the clarinet properly. He got me on some classical stuff, taught me a lot of technique things; and then I started studying with (multireedist) Ted Nash as well. He taught me many things about composition and saxophone. I also consider (trumpeter) Marcus Printup to be another mentor of mine. He was my combo director. Essentially Ellington was kind of the start of everything for me. Being exposed to Jazz at Lincoln Center, getting introduced to that world was life changing.”
The 20-year-old Ximena is currently a sophomore Jazz Studies major at the Michigan State University College of Music. Goines was introduced to her, when she was in high school, by Todd Stoll, JALC Director of Education. “He mentioned that she was very talented and would be an excellent candidate for lessons, or at the very least, someone worth listening to,” Goines recalled, in an email to me. “Although I’m not sure how long she had been playing the clarinet or who her teacher was, I was impressed by her skills and exceptional commitment to the instrument. It wasn’t until we spent more time together that I learned she had been teaching herself to play the clarinet.
“What sets Paloma apart,” he continued, “is not just her interest in the clarinet but also the fact that she is self-taught. She has shown a keen interest in studying earlier clarinet styles, particularly those from the New Orleans tradition, as well as the works of Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman. Paloma is especially captivated by the music of Sydney Bechet, along with clarinetists such as Barney Bigard and Jimmy Hamilton from Duke Ellington’s band. While Benny Goodman’s music is also part of her repertoire, her true passion lies with Bechet, whose influence on her sound is evident in her playing. Additionally, she has expressed interest in the work of Doreen Joseph, a former college colleague of mine and one of the current torchbearers of the New Orleans style of clarinet playing. Paloma even traveled to New Orleans to meet Doreen, where she had the opportunity to perform with her.
“Paloma is growing into one of the most promising jazz stars on the clarinet, an instrument that is rarely played yet critically needed. Her talent has inspired me to create an original big band arrangement of my composition, titled ‘Morning,’ which will feature her with the MSU Jazz Orchestra. I am confident that she will excel in this performance.”
Growing up in Sacramento, Ximena was aware that the Rio Americano High School would often be a finalist at Essentially Ellington. “I think they have gone 12 times out of 30 years. They’re also a frequent participant in the Mingus Festival (at the New School).” Ximena attended Mary Detering Elementary School, and, “They required every student to play an instrument. In fourth grade, we started with the little plastic recorder. I mastered it by October. You don’t switch to a real instrument until fifth grade, but by my teacher said, ‘We need to get you on a real instrument because you’re learning very fast.’ So, I chose the clarinet because it looked like the recorder. I got a $75 clarinet off of Craig’s List, and I played that all the way up until high school. I taught myself on YouTube.”
When she reached sixth grade and middle school, Ximena wanted to join the jazz band, but she was told there were no clarinets in the band so “I picked up the saxophone.” In eighth grade, “Covid happened, so then I started transcribing a lot. I would just play my horns all day.” One of her teachers recommended she check out tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana. “I followed her on Instagram, and she was giving out lessons. I took a Zoom lesson with her when I was 15, playing tenor.” Then, came the concussions and Essentially Ellington.
Josh Murray, the Rio Americano Band Director, remembers that Ximena “was already a musical force at 14 and developed into an exceptional all-around musician through hard work and a desire to be great. I look forward to seeing how her creativity, talent, and drive develop as her career unfolds.”
Last month, Ximena won first place in the College Jazz Saxophone category at the National Saxophone Alliance (NASA) competition at Ohio State University.
Her decision to attend Michigan State resulted from meeting bassist Rodney Whitaker, MSU Director of Jazz Studies, four years ago at the JALC Jazz Academy. “He was always open to answer questions,” she recalled, “and he quickly took me under his wing and started mentoring me. I also got to spend time with him when I attended the Brevard (NC) Music Institute Jazz Camp. He recruited me to come to Michigan State. He’s been supporting me ever since. He’s hired me for his gigs, and the first semester I was here I would be in his office two or three times a week. A lot of the times we would be playing duo. I’m still learning from the musical lessons I was getting from him.”
Whitaker described Ximena to me as “such a soulful person. She loves jazz of all kinds. She’s very intuitive and wants to know everything. And, she listens! She’s gifted on all levels and can go a long way.”
Other important influences at Michigan State have been two saxophonists: Walter Blanding and his successor on the faculty, Erena Terakubo. Blanding, she said, “dramatically changed my life because, coming to college, I was more of a clarinetist; and he really taught me how to play the saxophone. He studied with Sonny Rollins and Benny Golson. Every single lesson I had with him I took as sacred. He taught me how to improve effectively and to master my instrument.”
Terakubo, she said, “pushes me to expand my knowledge and technical mastery of the saxophone. She has pushed me to technical, musical, and scholarly levels I never thought I could reach on my own.”
In addition to her awards at Essentially Ellington and NASA, Ximena was a six-time YoungArts winner, a member of the Carnegie Hall National Youth Orchestra Jazz Ensemble in 2024, an Honorable Mention clarinet soloist at JALC’s 2026 National Collegiate Jazz Competition, and a member of the 2023 Monterey Jazz Festival’s Next Generation Women in Jazz Combo in 2023.
The 2024 NYO Jazz Ensemble toured South Africa, and “that trip changed my life,” she said, “because I was 18 and fresh out of high school. We got to spend a lot of time learning about the history of South Africa. It was my first time hearing about apartheid; they didn’t teach that to me in school. It really opened my eyes. We went to the Morris Isaacson School in Johannesburg, a school for kids who play music. There was this seven-year-old who was a drummer — the best musician I’ve ever heard in my life. He had the ‘it’ factor, and he immediately fit in with us when we were playing. It was so inspiring.”
The friendships Ximena has made with bandmates at NYO, Essentially Ellington, and the band camps she attended are lasting. “I’m still best friends with them to this day even though I live out in Michigan. I visit New York frequently and play with them.” She and some of those friends are in the process of assembling a working band. They include: Juilliard students, alto saxophonist Miriam Goroff-Behel, drummer Ethan Oliver, and trombonist Grace Rock; fellow MSU student, bassist Laura Simone-Martin; and pianist William Hill III, a Manhattan School of Music student. (Simone-Martin was a Jersey Jazz Rising Star in July/August 2022 when she was first selected for the NYO Jazz Orchestra).
Ximena’s “biggest hero of all time” continues to be Sidney Bechet. “His autobiography, Treat It Gentle, is one of my favorite books.” (Orginally published in 1960 by Hill and Wang, it was later released as a paperback by DeCapo Press). Other major influences from the past have been Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, Stanley Turrentine, and Joe Henderson. Among current saxophonists, it’s Joe Lovano, Mark Turner, Melissa Aldana, and Walter Smith III.
After school ends this spring, Ximena will spend the summer in Sacramento. That, however, will be interrupted by an August trip to Scotland to play with the JALC Orchestra at the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, “which I’m extremely excited about.”-SANFORD JOSEPHSON
PHOTO BY ANNA YATSKEVICH