BILLY HARPER QUINTET

Billy Harper – tenor saxophone | Freddie Hendrix – trumpet | Francesca Tanksley – piano | Ben Young – bass | Aaron Scott – drums

“His improvisations are torrential, dance-like and swinging, spiraling upward to mountaintop pronouncements that can leave listeners in a sweat.” – The New York Times Tenor saxophonist Billy Harper leads his celebrated quintet with trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, pianist Francesca Tanksley, bassist Ben Young, and drummer Aaron Scott. One of the indispensable saxophonists of the past 50 years stylistically indebted to Trane, Harper has a distinctive sound and approach that is purely his own. Over the years, he’s worked with Art Blakey, Max Roach, Gil Evans, Elvin Jones, Lee Morgan, and, most recently, the Cookers. The San Francisco Chronicle says, “He is a soul of sensitivity and intelligence, as well as of explosive, majestic passion.” “His viscous, chocolaty tone and depth-charge bursts from the bottom of his range [are] a stark contrast to the current trend for a post-bop homogeneity of tone in the newer generation of saxophone sounds,” reports JazzWise.