ROBERT GLASPER

Robert Glasper is the leader of a new sonic paradigm with a career that bridges musical and artistic genres. To date, he boasts 5 Grammy wins and 11 nominations across 11 categories, an Emmy Award for his song for Ava Duvernay’s critically hailed documentary “13th” with Common and Karriem Riggins, and a Peabody Award for his Composition of “Mr. Soul!”. His work and accolades bridge all aspects of the music business, from live touring to film scoring, composing and producing. The ongoing Black Radio series has since become Glasper’s calling card, upholding a place at the heart of a trailblazing community: from long-time sonic brothers Mos Def and Bilal, to legends including Ledisi, Lupe Fiasco, Jill Scott, and Erykah Badu.

In the last two years alone Glasper has seen a staggering diversity of success. He dropped Fuck Yo Feelings; a star-studded mixtape; his first on Loma Vista Records; with features ranging from YBN Cordae to Herbie Hancock to Yebba. The album was nominated for the Grammy for Best Progressive R&B album in the recent 2021 awards. He created an original score for the Emmy Nominated doc The Apollo and the feature film The Photograph starring Issa Rae.

He led a legendary residency at the Blue Note NYC with 56 sold-out shows in 27 days which saw everyone from Dave Chappelle to Tiffany Haddish, Chadwick Boseman, Q-Tip, Anderson.Paak and Angela Davis join him on and off stage. And, alongside long-time collaborator, co-producer, and creative partner Terrace Martin, he formed another dream team supergroup featuring Kamasi Washington and 9th Wonder called Dinner Party, who together wrote and recorded a debut self titled album that was released to rave reviews.

Tickets: $70.10 ~ $84.10

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Terry Plumeri was born John Terryl Plumeri on November 28, 1944 in Greensboro, North Carolina, and grew up in Tampa, Florida. He began studying music when he was 10 and while attending Chamberlain High School, he was introduced to the double bass by band director Robert Price. He went on to attend the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, studying with Robert Brennand, then the principal bassist in the New York Philharmonic. Later, he studied composition and conducting with Antal Doráti.

During his military service, Terry was a member of the Air Force Band. After his discharge he played with among others John Abercrombie, Cannonball Adderley, Herbie Hancock, Woody Herman, Quincy Jones, Yusef Lateef, Les McCann, Wayne Shorter, Frank Sinatra, Ralph Towner, and Joe Williams.

He performed, toured, and recorded with Roberta Flack from 1969 to 1974, playing electric and acoustic bass. He appears on the albums Chapter Two, Quiet Fire, Killing Me Softly, and wrote the song Conversation Love on the latter album.

Moving to Los Angeles, California to work in the film industry, Terry wrote the music for over 50 feature films, and his score for the film  One False Move was nominated for Best Score by the IFC Independent Spirit Awards. In later years, he was guest conductor for the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra and was a frequent guest lecturer, teacher, music producer, and photographer.

Double bassist, classical and film score composer, orchestra conductor, lecturer, teacher, and producer, and composer Terry Plumeri was murdered by burglars during a home invasion on March 31, 2016 in Dunnellon, Florida. He was 71.

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Francesca Tanksley was born November 21, 1957 in Vincenza, Italy but grew up in Munich, Germany where she studied music from the age of seven. Moving to Boston, Massachusetts at 16, she studied piano and composition at Berklee College Of Music.

Two years later she returned to Munich. In 1980 she moved to New York City where she worked with Melba Liston until 1983, then she joined Billy Harper’s quintet with whom she toured extensively.

She has worked with Clifford Jordan, Cecil Payne, Bill Hardman and Erica Lindsay. She leads her own quintet and co-leads the Erica Lindsay/ Howard Johnson Quintet. As an educator she has been on the faculty of the New School, Berklee College. She has facilitated workshops and masterclasses at University of Southern California at Santa Cruz, Hampton University, Rensselaer Polytechnical Institute, Arizona State University, and Bard College.

Pianist Francesca Tanksley, who is a composer and educator, continues to perform and compose.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

John Grant Sangster was born November 17, 1928 in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham, Victoria, Australia. He was an only child that attended primary schools in Sandringham and Vermont, and then Box Hill High School. While at high school he taught himself to play trombone and with a friend, Sid Bridle, formed a band.

In 1946 he started a civil engineering course at Melbourne Technical School. Two years later Sangster performed at the third annual Australian Jazz Convention, held in Melbourne. By the following year he led his own ensemble, John Sangster’s Jazz Six, which included Ken Evans on trombone. He provided trombone for Graeme Bell and his Australian Jazz Band, later took up the cornet and then the drums. They toured several times from 1950 to 1955, and in the late Fifties he began playing the vibraphone.

He went on to play with Don Burrows in the early 1960s, form his own quartet and experimented with group improvisatory jazz, after becoming interested in the music of Sun Ra and Archie Shepp. By the end of the Sixties his attention turned to rock musicians and he joined the expanded lineup of the Australian progressive rock group Tully, who provided the musical backing for the original Australian production of the rock musical Hair. He performed and recorded with Tully and their successors, Luke’s Walnut, throughout the two years he played in Hair. In 1970 he re-joined the Burrows group for Expo 1970 in Osaka, Japan.

In the 1970s Sangster released a series of popular The Lord of the Rings inspired albums that started with The Hobbit Suite in 1973. He was also the composer of a large number of scores for television shows, documentaries, films, and radio. In 1988, Sangster published his autobiography, Seeing the Rafters.

Trombonist John Sangster, who also plays trumpet, drums, percussion, cornet, vibraphone and is best known as a composer, died in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia on October 26, 1995 at age 66.

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Mario Pavone was born on November 11, 1940 in Waterbury, Connecticut and attended B. W. Tinker grammar school, Leavenworth High School, and the University of Connecticut at Storrs, where he graduated with a B.S. in engineering. When his neighbor, guitarist Joe Diorio, recognized him as an unrealized musician Mario was inspired to take up the bass. Primarily self-taught, he was a natural on his instrument. Pavone began playing bass soon after witnessing John Coltrane at the Village Vanguard in 1961.

Pavone’s career took off during the Sixties when he toured Europe and was involved in the jazz loft era, playing in jam sessions nightly in New York City. From the late in the decade into the early Seventies he was a member of Paul Bley’s trio. The New Haven based Creative Musicians Improvising Forum (CMIF) was founded in 1975 by Pavone, Wadada Leo Smith, and Gerry Hemingway was influenced by Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians. His venture into composition began here.

In 1979 Mario recorded his debut album as a leader and was a member of Bill Dixon’s trio during the 1980s. He also performed with Barry Altschul, Smith, and Hemingway. In 1980 he began an 18-year musical relationship with saxophonist Thomas Chapin. With drummer Michael Sarin, the group recorded seven albums for Knitting Factory Records, which also released an eight-CD box set of these albums plus a live recording following Chapin’s death in 1998.

He co-led a group with Anthony Braxton in the early 1990s, with Braxton on piano rather than his usual saxophones. His groups have included Matt Wilson, Gerald Cleaver, Peter Madsen, Joshua Redman, Tony Malaby, Dave Douglas, Steven Bernstein, George Schuller, Craig Taborn, and Jimmy Greene.

Bassist Mario Pavone, who has over 40 recordings and several films documenting his compositions and performances, died from carcinoid cancer in Madeira Beach, Florida on May 15, 2021 at the age of 80.

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