JOE STRASSER
Acclaimed drummer Joe Strasser to New York City in 1990 to attend the famed jazz program at the New School. He’s since played with a “who’s who” of jazz, including: George Coleman, Harold Mabern, Etta Jones, Cecil Payne, Jane Monheit, Hillary Kole, Peter Bernstein and countless others. Joe also co-led the Hotpants, a funk band he founded with Roots/Jimmy Fallon saxophonist Ian Hendrickson-Smith.
Cover Charge: $35.00 +2 Drink Minimum
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RON JACKSON
World-renowned, seven string jazz guitarist, composer and arranger, Ron Jackson has performed, recorded, and taught music in over 30 countries. Jackson has had a strong career as a music artist, putting out 10 albums as a leader. His most recent CD, “Standards And My Songs,” was Top 10 on the USA JazzWeek radio charts, featuring his second recording as a leader on the seven-string. He has performed as a leader at jazz events all over the world, such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Edinburgh Jazz Festival, and most recently, the inaugural AAPI Jazz Festival in Newark, and Super Jazz Ashdod in Israel.
Cover Charge: $35.00 +2 Drink Minimum
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HENDRIK MEURKENS
Jazz harmonica virtuoso and composer Hendrik Meurkens began his career in Germany playing vibraphone. At age 19, he heard Toots Thielemans play harmonica, which totally changed his musical life. His career has taken him from Germany to Brazil, then throughout the European continent and eventually to the US. In 1992, a trip to California led to his signing with the prestigious Concord label and established him as the first major new voice on the harmonica since Toots Thielemans. His 30 albums have received rave reviews and strong airplay, and established his immediately recognizable style of Brazilian Jazz. In 2014 he won the Brazilian International Press Award and he has been listed repeatedly in the Downbeat and JazzTimes Polls. Meurkens has recorded and performed with Ray Brown, Paquito D’Rivera, Astrud Gilberto and many others.
Cover Charge: $35.00 +2 Drink Minimum
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ERIC PERSON QUARTET
Acclaimed saxophonist Eric Person makes a strong impression live and on recordings. Person has worked with leaders within the vanguard of the jazz world namely McCoy Tyner, Dave Holland, Chico Hamilton, John Hicks, Will Calhoun, Wallace Roney, and many others. Eric’s work as a leader is stylistically diverse and intrepid. His 2022 release “Blue Vision” features his collaboration with tenor saxophone titan Houston Person. And critics have taken note of Eric’s signature sound on alto and soprano saxophone.
Cover Charge: $35.00 +2 Drink Minimum
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Juhani Aaltonen was born December 12, 1935 in Kouvola, Finland. He began playing professionally at the end of the Fifties. He played in a sextet led by Heikki Rosendahl during that time, and then studied flute performance at the Sibelius Academy and in the U.S. at the Berklee College of Music.
Moving back to Finland, he settled in Helsinki and began working both as a session musician and with fusion groups. Late in the 1960s he formed a duo with Edward Vesala, played in the group Eero Koivistoinen and with Tasavallan Presidentti. He recorded with Thad Jones and Mel Lewis and with Heikki Sarmanto late in the decade and early 1970s. His debut album as a soloist, Etiquette, was released in 1974.
The following year Juhani became a member of the New Music Orchestra, and worked with the Nordic All Stars, Arild Andersen, and Peter Brötzmann before the end of the decade. The Eighties saw him working with the UFO Big Band, Jan Garbarek, Charlie Mariano, and others. He led a touring quartet from 1990 to 1992.
In 2001 he released a duo recording, Rise, and his trio album Mother Tongue won a Jazz-Emma in Finland. Saxophonist and flautist Juhani Aaltonen continues to perform as well as teach at the annual Nilsiä Music Camp.
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