Born in Oklahoma City in 1951, Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson studied at Indiana University with John Eaton and Iannis Xenakis, and with Gunther Schuller at the Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood. In 1974, he was awarded the first John W. Work III Composition Fellowship, and he moved to New York City. From 1974 to 1994, Nelson worked in the field of creative musical education. Among the organizations he has worked with are the Lincoln Center Institute, the Henry Street Settlement, the Guggenheim Museum's Learning Through The Arts Program, Adelphi University, Saint Ann's School in Brooklyn and the "Meet The Composer" Composer in the Schools Program. He has also presented music workshops in Holland, Belgium, Hungary, France and Switzerland.
Nelson has received Commissions from the Oklahoma Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Orchestra of Our Time, ASKO Orchestra Amsterdam, the American Dance Festival, Diversions Dance Company of Wales, the Leonardo Trio, the Dale Warland Singers, the Bern Neufeld Chamber Orchestra, the Rotterdamse Dans Groep, the Readers Digest/Meet The Composer Commissioning Program, the accordionist Teodoro Anzilotti, the Six Continents Ensemble, the Langnau Jazz Festival, the Kronos Quartet, the Zentrum Paul Klee, the Carolyn Carlson Company and the German Südwestrundfunk (radio and television broadcaster).
Nelson has also composed several works for dance. Some of the dancers he has worked with are Susanne Linke, Bill T. Jones, Jorma Uotinen, the Jose Limon Company, Robert Kovich, Marina Collard, Susanne Mueller, Nirs De Wolf and Carolyn Carlson.
In 1992, he toured Europe with a jazz ensemble, playing trumpet and percussion with the violinist Nigel Kennedy. In 1994, Jalalu-Kalvert Nelson moved to Switzerland. Since then, his works have been performed in South Korea, Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Hungary and Austria.
In 1998, he created a project called "The Music Chefs." This is a group of jazz musicians who play jazz and make food on the stage at the same time in a performance called a "cookcert." The project has been presented in Switzerland, Belgium, France, Germany and Austria.
In May 2000, Nelson's Killing the Word - a work for trumpet, percussion and video - was premiered at the ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. This was a commission from the German Südwestrundfunk. A movie version was shown on 3SAT in June 2002.
Nelson's recent premiers include Mountain Passage for solo trumpet and strings at the Zelt Music Festival in Freiburg, July 3, 2001; L/Sweet for large jazz ensemble and voices, at the Langnau Jazz Festival in July 2001; Just Beyond Memory for flute and piano, October 12, 2003 in Amsterdam; Sightseeing for bass clarinet, baritone saxophone and piano, premiered on May 23, 2004 in Ghent, Belgium; Night Songs for solo piano January 26, 2005, Ghent, Belgium (pianist: ward De Vleeschhouwer); The Clock of Ebony, live music for dance, Luzern Theater, May 24, 2005 (choreography: Linda Magnifico); Piscine Event, June 1, 2005 (choreography: Carolyn Carlson); Salam, music for a hip-hop/modern dance work (choreography: Farid (Joker) M. Baroug), premiere September 29, 2005, Tanzhaus, Dusseldorf, Germany; Sounds Beyond the Borders, a full evening concert for four adult performers and eleven children performers, December 10, 2005, Dancestreet, Amsterdam; Night Dances for solo piano, premiered on December 10, 2005 at Dancestreet in Amsterdam; Night Nacht Nuit, a full evening music-visual-theater work commissioned by the Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern for Museum Night, premiered on March 24, 2006. He had a further commission from the Centre Chorégraphique National Roubaix Nord - Pas de Calais, to compose music for a dance work by Carolyn Carlson, Les Rêves De Karabine Klaxon, which was premiered on February 28, 2006 in Roubaix, France. This work toured Europe from 2006 to 2008.
Nelson has received two commissions from the Charlotte North Carolina Symphony for its youth group, first in 2008 for a work for eleven performers, called Questions Answers and Echoes (Sometimes). This work was premiered in April 2008. The second work, For Langston, was premiered in May 2009.
Nelson was also commissioned by the baritone Thomas Buckner to compose a work for him in 2009. In December 2009, he was a guest composer-performer at a concert by the Musimari Children's Chorus at the Estonia Concert Hall in Tallinn, Estonia.
