The Jazz Voyager

The Jazz Voyager is heading off to the Big Apple once again to take another seat in the small uptown Manhattan West Side jazz club Smoke Jazz and Supper Club. This intimate space is located at the junction of 106th and Broadway, also known as Duke Ellington Boulevard, offering legends, modern masters and rising stars.

A new player for me to hear is trumpeter Marquis Hill, one of the leading trumpeters of our time. He will be leading an adventurous group featuring vibraphonist Joel Ross, pianist Michael King, bassist Junius Paul, and drummer Kendrick Scott. He won the International Trumpet Guild Jazz Competition and the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition. Both wins helped launch his career.

Smoke is located at 2751 Broadway, New York City 10025. You can get more information at https://notoriousjazz.com/event/marquis-hill.

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HAILEY NISWANGER

Saxophonist and composer Hailey Niswanger graduated in 2011 with a B.A. in Jazz Performance from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. Hailing from Houston, Texas she grew up in Portland, Oregon, and now currently lives in Los Angeles, California.  She has shared the stage with Esperanza Spalding, Terri Lyne Carrington, Harvey Mason, Mike Clark, Michael Wolff, Ralph Peterson Jr., and other jazz greats. She leads her own bands and has performed at festivals across the country.

She is a member of the Wolff & Clark Expedition, a band formed by pianist, Michael Wolff, and drummer, Mike Clark, and was featured on their latest album, Wolff & Clark Expedition 2.  Hailey has been a reoccurring guest soloist with The Soul Rebels Brass Band, and has performed with Demi Lovato on Saturday Night Live, and noise pop duo Sleigh Bells on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and the Late Show with David Letterman. Hailey has released 3 album under her own name.

In 2016 Hailey formed MAE.SUN, which features entirely original compositions. MAE.SUN is a mindful and eclectic band that defies genres and pushes boundaries. Inspired by swirling sounds from around the world, this project taps into the collective consciousness, and serves as an engaging mediation. MAE.SUN takes listeners on an emotional journey from beginning to end, inviting them to feel connected to the present moment, and all that is.

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HERLIN RILEY QUARTET

New Orleans is a drummer’s town. But in this town full of first class drummers, Herlin Riley is “the” drummer. The Baron of the Boom Boom. The Pulse that keeps the life flowing through any body of work.

Born into a musical family steeped in gospel, blues, and jazz, Herlin was asked by Wynton Marsalis to join him in New York City in 1988 where Herlin stayed for almost two decades, all the while maintaining a home in New Orleans. He is still a regularly featured musician with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, but has been based back in his hometown for several years now — that is, when he wasn’t on tour with Ahmad Jamal, Dr. John, or Harry Connick Jr. He lights up any stage with just his presence alone, and always fires up the first class musicians who love to play with him.

Quartet
Herlin Riley – drums, percussion, vocals
Roland Guerin – bass
Kyle Roussel – piano
Derek Douget – saxophones

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JASON MARSALIS VIBES QUARTET

Jason Marsalis is the youngest son of piano patriarch and jazz luminary Ellis Marsalis Jr. and their famous New Orleans music family, declared “America’s First Family of Jazz” upon the presentation of their NEA Jazz Masters Award in 2011, the nation’s highest jazz honor. In addition to his renown as a drummer, Jason is also a respected vibraphonist whose 2018 release “Melody Reimagined” with his 21st Century Trad Jazz Band rose swiftly to the top of the Billboard jazz chart. With a fire in his heart and a passion for the music, his will to swing has never been more resolute. The maturity and the command Jason possesses over his music is clearly evident to those who have heard or seen him.

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VICTOR GOINES

Tonight, New Orleans-bred and presently St. Louis x Chicago x NYC-based saxophonist, clarinetist, composer and educator Victor Goines is the guest bandleader of Snug’s “E-Day” Series, when musicians close to our late great Ellis Marsalis present their tribute concerts to his musical legacy on the night of the week that was Ellis’ Snug residency for over 30 years.

Notably, Victor performed in the Ellis Marsalis Quartet for a number of years beginning in the 1980s. Ellis later hired Victor as a faculty member when he created the University of New Orleans Jazz Studies Department in 1989.  Victor Goines is widely recognized as one of the most engaging and versatile performers and composers in music today. Drawing from his New Orleans roots, his extraordinary career includes performances throughout the world earning acclaim from audiences, critics and colleagues. Goines has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in NYC and the Wynton Marsalis Septet since 1993.

He has recorded and/or performed with many notable jazz and popular artists including Ahmad Jamal, Ruth Brown, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, Dizzy Gillespie, Lenny Kravitz, Ellis Marsalis Jr, Branford Marsalis, Dianne Reeves, Willie Nelson, Marcus Roberts, Diana Ross, Stevie Wonder, more.

His discography boasts over 20 albums as a bandleader, and recordings on over 70 other releases, including Wynton Marsalis’ Pulitzer Prize-winning recording, “Blood on the Fields” and Ted Nash’s Grammy Award-winning “Presidential Suite.”  A gifted composer, Goines has more than 100 original works to his credit, including his 1992 debut album “Genesis” on the late Harold Battiste Jr’s seminal AFO Records. In 2000, he was commissioned by Juilliard’s Dance Division to compose or their 50th Anniversary.

Victor is currently the Executive Artistic Director at Jazz St. Louis.

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