MONTY ALEXANDER
Monty Alexander O.J.: “Honoring Harry Belafonte” with Luke Sellick & Jason Brown
From Kingston, Jamaica, his hometown, Grammy nominated pianist Monty Alexander is an American classic, touring the world relentlessly with various projects, delighting a global audience drawn to his vibrant personality and soulful message. A perennial favorite at Jazz festivals and venues worldwide and at the Montreux Jazz Festival where he has appeared 23 times since 1976, his spirited conception is one informed by the timeless verities: endless melody-making, effervescent grooves, sophisticated voicings, a romantic spirit, and a consistent predisposition, as Alexander accurately states, “to build up the heat and kick up a storm.” In the course of any given performance, Alexander applies those aesthetics to a repertoire spanning a broad range of jazz and Jamaican musical expressions—the American songbook and the blues, gospel and bebop, calypso and reggae. Documented on more than 75 recordings and cited as the fifth greatest jazz pianist ever in The Fifty Greatest Jazz Piano Players of All Time (Hal Leonard Publishing), the Jamaican government designated Alexander Commander in the Order of Distinction in 2000 and in 2018 The University of The West Indies bestowed him with an honorary doctorate degree (DLitt) in recognition of his accomplishments. For this engagement, Monty, along with bassist Luke Selick and drummer Jason Brown, commemorates his long friendship with Harry Belafonte, Jr. in stories and song.
Showtimes: 7:00pm | 8:30pm | 9:30pm | 10:30pm
More Posts: adventure,bass,club,drums,festival,genius,jazz,music,piano,preserving,travel
MIMI JONES & FRIENDS
The Lab Session: Jam and Jazz Party
For more than two decades she’s been on the scene, bassist/vocalist/producer/label owner and now filmmaker Mimi Jones has reigned supreme, as a side woman to an impressive coterie of musicians and as a leader with three original recording projects on her own Hot Tone Music label. Born Miriam Sullivan in New York City on March 25, 1972, and was raised in the Bronx. Jones studied Music at the Manhattan School of Music Conservatory, and has also studied with Linda McKnight, Lisle Atkinson, Barry Harris, Milt Hinton, Dr. Billy Taylor, Yusef Lateef. She has toured extensively for over 30 years throughout the seven continents, and has played with such people as Frank Ocean, Kenny Barron, DD Bridgewater, Dianne Reeves, Tia Fuller, Roy Hargrove, Terri Lyne Carrington, Beyonce, Jason Moran, Common, Black Thought and more. Mimi Jones co-directs a multimedia interdisciplinary production with pianist ArcoIris Sandoval entitled The D.O.M.E. Experience, creating choreography, musical and visual works inspired by social injustices and environmental changes in our world. Voted #1 & #2 rising star by the DownBeat polls for 3 consecutive years, she currently works on a new project called The Black Madonna. The Berklee School of Music professor recently began collaborating with a trio called Nite Bjuti featuring Vocalist Candice Hoyes, and Sound Chemist Val Jeanty. Mimi is a recipient of the Chamber Music America Performance Plus Award 2021.
More Posts: adventure,bass,club,festival,genius,jazz,music,preserving,travel
JAZZ DIALOGUE OPEN JAM
Earlybird Show | 6:30pm ~ 8:30pm
Lex Korten (p) | Dave Adewumi (tp) | Carmen Rothwell (b) | Connor Parks (d)
Jazz Dialogue Open Jam | 9:00pm ~ 12:00am
Asaf Yuria (ts) | Brian Charette (org)| Jimmy Macbride (d)
More Posts: adventure,bass,club,drums,genius,jazz,music,organ,piano,preserving,saxophone,travel,trumpet
BILL CHARLAP, AARON DIEHL, ISAIAH J. THOMPSON, CAELAN CARDELLO
The present – and future – of jazz piano convenes on the stage that has hosted legends of the art form from Thelonious Monk to Hank Jones to Chick Corea.
Jazz in July artistic director Bill Charlap is joined by a dynamic virtuoso of modern jazz piano, the sublimely talented Aaron Diehl, and two fast-rising piano stars of the next generation. Isaiah J. Thompson, winner of the 2023 American Pianists Awards, has been hailed by NPR as, “a young musician and composer with a mature touch and rare combination of talent, creativity, humility, and honesty.” Caelan Cardello is the recipient of the 2021 BMI Foundation’s Future Jazz Master Award, and has played with such major artists as Jimmy Cobb, Rufus Reid, and Christian McBride. Hear them all in solo, trio, and two-piano performances, with the masterful rhythm team of bassist Noriko Ueda and drummer Carl Allen.
More Posts: adventure,bass,drums,festival,genius,jazz,music,piano,preserving,travel
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
John Lee was born June 28, 1952, in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the son of a minister and a social worker. Growing up in Greenwich, Connecticut, Amityville, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania he began string bass lessons at 10 with Carolyn Lush. At Philadelphia’s Overbrook High School he met drummer Gerry Brown, who together studied at the Philadelphia Musical Academy for two years.
In 1971 Lee began performing with Carlos Garnett and Joe Henderson, and toured with Max Roach thru the spring of 1972 while still a student in Philadelphia. The same year he and Brown relocated to Europe with Den Haag, Holland as their base. Together they toured Europe and recorded in bands led by Chris Hinze, Charlie Mariano, Philip Catherine, Joachim Kühn, and Jasper Van’t Hof.
Moving to New York City in 1974, John played with Joe Henderson, Lonnie Liston Smith, and Norman Connors before joining The Eleventh House with Larry Coryell. The following year he and Gerry Brown signed a recording contract with Blue Note Records and formed a working band. In 1977 they moved over to Columbia Records and began producing records the same year.
From 1982 to 1984, Lee worked with McCoy Tyner, then became Dizzy Gillespie’s bassist, touring and recording with Dizzy’s Quintet, his Big Band, his Grammy winning United Nation Orchestra and the Back to the Future Band that Dizzy co-lead with Miriam Makeba until 1993 when Makeba died.
Lee has performed in over 100 countries around the world and has toured in the bands of Sonny Rollins, James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Pharoah Sanders, Jackie McLean, Gary Bartz, Hank Jones, Walter Davis Jr., Wolfgang Lackerschmid, Alphonse Mouzon, Claudio Roditi, Jon Faddis, Slide Hampton, Roy Hargrove, and Roberta Gambarini, as well as Aretha Franklin and Gregory Hines.
He is a founding member of The Fantasy Band with Chuck Loeb, Marion Meadows, and Dave Samuels. In 1996, at the bequest of Dizzy’s wife Lorraine Gillespie and the Dizzy Gillespie Estate, he became the director and bassist of the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars as well as the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band, and the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience. They have recorded five albums and toured extensively around the world.
In 2009 he co-founded the jazz recording label JLP (Jazz Legacy Productions), with partner Lisa Broderick. As a producer he has produced over 60 albums and CDs, and as a recording engineer he has recorded and mixed over 100 albums and CDs.
Bassist John Lee, who is a Grammy winning record producer and audio engineer, continues to explore the boundaries of music.
More Posts: audio engineer,bandleader,bass,history,instrumental,jazz,music,record producer