
SAMARA JOY, CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE, MEI SEMONES & FRIENDS
Samara Joy and Christian McBride Celebrate Verve’s 70th Anniversary & Mei Semones & Friends play the music of Getz/Gilberto | Sparklmami delivers a DJ set. Presented by the Mayor’s Office of Media & Entertainment.
Performers for this celebration of the label’s 70th anniversary include Samara Joy, a six-time GRAMMY winner and Bronx native, and Christian McBride, a world-class bassist and bandleader, a Juilliard graduate and 11-time GRAMMY winner who has recorded with legends of both the jazz (McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Palmieri, and more) and pop (Sting, Paul McCartney, Celine Dion) spheres. Also, Mei Semones, an American indie rock musician who writes jazz-influenced songs in both English and Japanese, has invited her own crew of friends including aron!, Liana Flores, and John Roseboro to perform music from Getz/Gilberto, the classic collaborative album by João Gilberto and Stan Getz released on Verve in 1964. Sparklmami will begin the show with a DJ set.
Tickets: Free
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BRANFORD MARSALIS & DIANNE REEVES
Saxophone great and NEA Jazz Master Branford Marsalis and his superlative quartet are joined by fellow NEA Jazz Master and jazz’s greatest vocalist, Dianne Reeves, for a week devoted to the immortal music of John Coltrane, in honor of the centennial of his birth.
Saxophonist Branford Marsalis is one of the most influential and revered figures in contemporary music. The NEA Jazz master, three-time Grammy Award winner, and Tony and EMMY Award nominee is equally at home performing concertos with symphony orchestras and sitting in with members of the Grateful Dead, but the core of his musical universe remains the Branford Marsalis Quartet. After more than three decades of existence with minimal personnel changes, this celebrated ensemble is revered for its uncompromising interpretation of a kaleidoscopic range of both original compositions and jazz and popular classics.
The Branford Marsalis Quartet and Dianne Reeves will release a tribute album which revisits Coltrane’s seminal 1963 collaboration with Johnny Hartman. Originally recorded at Rudy Van Gelder’s studio in March of 1963, John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman was a sublime showcase for Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison, and Elvin Jones, who gave remarkable depth and sensitivity to a selection of standards including Irving Berlin’s “They Say It’s Wonderful,” Guy Wood’s “My One and Only Love,” and the definitive version of Billy Strayhorn’s “Lush Life.” Bringing the songs to life was the distinctive, evocative baritone of crooner Johnny Hartman, who was the only vocalist Coltrane ever collaborated with.
Interpreting the songs with her own singular gifts, Reeves is a five-time GRAMMY winner who is accurately called “The most admired jazz diva since the heyday of Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday” (NY Times). She is an artist who embodies the music’s enduring values of elegance, class, and improvisational poise, with an innate feel for swing.
Personnel:
Branford Marsalis ~ tenor saxophone
Dianne Reeves ~ vocals
Joey Calderazzo ~ piano
Eric Revis ~ bass
Justin Faulkner ~ drums
Tickets: $50.00 ~ $165.00
Thursday: Sold Out | Friday: Tickets Available | Saturday: Almost Sold Out | Sunday: Tickets Available
Showtimes: Thursday ~ Saturday @ 7:30pm | Sunday: 3:00pm
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CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE’S URSA MAJOR
Bassist and composer Christian McBride’s most recent project is a quintet showcasing several of the most exciting young players on the scene. Returning to the Miner Auditorium stage for two nights, the cast features tenor saxophonist Nicole Glover, who has toured with Wynton Marsalis and Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, performed with veteran masters such as drummer Al Foster, vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater, and bassist Reggie Workman, and recorded with pianist Aaron Diehl’s Grammy-nominated 2023 Mary Lou Williams project Zodiac Suite.
Ely Perlman is an exciting young guitarist who has collaborated with Terreon Gully and Braxton Cook, and Chicago pianist Mike King has been touring with Dee Dee Bridgewater, and trumpeters Marquis Hill, Theo Croker, and Marcus Printup. Powering the band is Oakland native Savannah Harris, a remarkably poised young drummer who has made a major impact with the likes of vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant, Kenny Barron, and Immanuel Wilkins.
Tickets: $40.00 ~ $125.00
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LEESA RICHARDS
Miami vocalist, songwriter, vocal teacher, arranger and producer Leesa Richards celebrates the 40th Anniversary of The Sunshine Jazz Organization. Bringing her voice to the Historic Lyric Theater stage for one night only, she’ll give tribute to the legendary women of jazz featuring the new canon chamber collective.
Not only is this talented women the above, her journey began as a dancer with Whitney Houston , then captured the role of Mary Magdalene in the national touring company of the Broadway musical, Jesus Christ Superstar, earning critical acclaim which led to featured performances throughout the US and Europe. She is the founder and director of an outstanding youth theater company.
Conductor: Waldrion Dunkley
Tickets: $ TBD
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CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE TRIO
Bass genius Christian McBride honors his mentor and greatest inspiration, the legendary Ray Brown, with an all-star trio of Ray Brown Trio alumni — pianist Benny Green and drummer Gregory Hutchinson.
A major figure in the development of bebop and hard bop in the 40s and 50s, Brown was among the most prolific and versatile bassists in jazz history who gained fame through his notable associations with Oscar Peterson, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dizzy Gillespie.
He led a series of remarkable trios in the 1990s and 2000s featuring Green and Hutchinson, whose recordings for the Telarc label stand as benchmarks for the time-honored format.
In addition to his own lengthy histories with both Green and Hutchinson, McBride appeared on Brown’s live 1997 bass summit release SuperBass and 2001 follow-up SuperBass 2 (along with fellow legend John Clayton). He pays tribute to the master with this special performance.
Cover: $45.00 ~ $135.00
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