JULIE DEXTER
Join the Jazz Brunch audience for Julie Dexter is a world renowned, award winning, British singer, songwriter and producer considered by many to be one of the most influential female vocalists of her generation. Having shared the spotlight with a host of cutting-edge artists, including Mint Condition, Caron Wheeler, Jill Scott, Lalah Hathaway, Omar, Ledisi, Doug Carn, Third World and Maxi Priest to name a few, Julie not only holds up her own with them but has been praised and respected by them too.
Influenced by legends such as Nancy Wilson, Abbey Lincoln, and Bob Marley, as well as popular icons Omar and Sade, Julie takes classic soul to the heart of Artistry. Fans and critics across the globe have followed her journey through the circles of Jazz, Broken-Beat, Bossa-Nova, Reggae, Afro-Beat and Soul and she was recently honored at the Black Women in Jazz Awards with the Afro Caribbean Soul of Jazz Award.
It was in 1999 that Julie took a leap of faith and moved to Atlanta, Georgia where she now resides. She launched her own label, Ketch A Vibe Records and in 2000 released the critically acclaimed EP Peace of Mind, followed by Dexterity (2002) ,Conscious (2005) and New Again (2011). Moon Bossa, a collaboration with Khari Simmons was released in 2007 and her single “Ketch A Vibe” was featured in national radio ads for Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama.
Julie’s latest album “Deja Vu” takes us on a journey from Bossa to reggae. From Jazz to World Music, Soul and beyond, Julie Dexter is one of an elite few whose talent can transcend genres. She makes it all work on her own terms, as an audaciously independent artist with an undeniable connection to her audience.
Cover: $25.00 ~ $35.00
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KEVIN BALES
By some measures, Kevin Bales was a latecomer to jazz, already 17 when he encountered the sounds and structures and became captivated by the freedom and corresponding challenges of the music. But if late to the party, he wasted no time in immersing himself in the celebration, declaring total commitment to what would be his life’s work and backing his announcement by resigning his job and designated career in computer programming. Kevin could commit to jazz with a reasonable degree of expectation. He was already an accomplished pianist, with classical chops refined since the age of 10. So accomplished he was invited to audition for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, then under the direction of its most storied conductor Robert Shaw, at age 16.
He has performed and/or recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Louie Bellson, Eddie Daniels, James Moody, Ben Tucker, Ira Sullivan, Marcus Printup, Sam Rivers, Nat Adderley, Bunky Green, Nathen Page and Jack Petersen. He counts among his mentors bassist Ben Tucker, multi-instrumentalist Ira Sullivan. He has recordings on Blue Note/Capital records. Ten years touring and recording with vocal iconoclast Rene Marie culminated in a Grammy Nominated album.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Douglas Surman was born August 30, 1944 in Tavistock, Devon, England. He initially gained recognition playing baritone saxophone in the Mike Westbrook Band in the mid-1960s, and was soon heard regularly playing soprano saxophone and bass clarinet as well.
His first playing issued on a record was with the Peter Lemer Quintet in 1966. After further recordings and performances with jazz bandleaders Westbrook and Graham Collier and blues-rock musician Alexis Korner, he made the first record under his own name in 1968.
In 1969, he founded The Trio along with two expatriate American musicians, bassist Barre Phillips and drummer Stu Martin. In the mid-1970s, he founded one of the earliest all-saxophone jazz groups, S.O.S., along with alto saxophonist Mike Osborne and tenor saxophonist Alan Skidmore.
During this early period, he also recorded with (among others) saxophonist Ronnie Scott, guitarist John McLaughlin, bandleader Michael Gibbs, trombonist Albert Mangelsdorff, and pianist Chris McGregor’s Brotherhood of Breath.
In 1972 he had begun experimenting with synthesizers. The musical relationships he established during the Seventies with pianist John Taylor, bassist Chris Laurence, and drummer John Marshall; singer Karin Krog and drummer/pianist Jack DeJohnette continued for decades.
Since the 1990s, he has composed several suites of music that feature his playing in unusual contexts, and has worked with bassist Miroslav Vitouš, bandleader Gil Evans, pianist Paul Bley and Vigleik Storaas, saxophonist and composer John Warren, guitarists Terje Rypdal and John Abercrombie and trumpeter Tomasz Stańko.
Baritone and soprano saxophonist, clarinetist, synthesizer player, and composer of free jazz and modal jazz, who continues to often use themes from folk music has also composed and performed music for dance performances and film soundtracks.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Carcasses was born on August 29, 1938 in Kingston, Jamaica into a Cuban family. He moved with his family back to Cuba when he was four and was surrounded by the various forms of local music. Starting out as an opera singer, he switched to Cuban music and worked as a vocalist at the famous Tropicana nightclub. It was here that he first began to experiment with incorporating scat and bebop influences into his vocal style.
By 1960 he was known as a dancer and athlete, being Cuba’s Long Jump Champion for that year. Bobby was a multi-instrumentalist having mastered the trumpet, bass, congas and drums. Later in the decade he travelled, including a year in Paris playing with resident jazz greats Bud Powell and Kenny ‘Klook’ Clarke.
Returning to Cuba, Carcassés formed his own jazz group, as well as acting in films and television. The 1980s saw him organize the first Jazz Plaza Festival, bringing to Cuba a host of international artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Haden and Airto Moreira. The festival became an annual event, with Carcasses and his band performing each year.
He toured extensively throughout Europe and the USA, performing alongside Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri and many other big names of Latin jazz. Jazz Timbero was recorded in Havana in 1997 with an all-star Cuban big band (including members of Irakere and Los Van Van), playing a funky mix of Latin and jazz.
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Stanley Marshall was born August 28, 1941 in Isleworth, Middlesex , England and worked with various jazz and rock bands and musicians, among them J. J. Jackson, Allan Holdsworth, Barney Kessel, Alexis Korner, Graham Collier, Michael Gibbs, Arthur Brown, Keith Tippett, Centipede, Jack Bruce, John McLaughlin, Dick Morrissey, Hugh Hopper, Elton Dean, John Surman, Charlie Mariano, John Abercrombie, Arild Andersen, and Eberhard Weber’s Colours.
From 1999, he worked with former Soft Machine co-musicians in several Soft Machine-related projects like SoftWare, SoftWorks and Soft Machine Legacy. He toured as a member of the band, which operated under the name Soft Machine again, from 2015 to 2023.
Drummer John Marshall, was a founding member of Ian Carr’s jazz rock band Nucleus, and Eberhard Weber’s Colours, died on September 16, 2023, at the age of 82.
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