KEYON HARROLD
Jazz St. Louis Creative Advisor and Ferguson native Keyon Harrold returns home to present his brand new commission to close our ’23/24 Season! This season grand finale will see the illustrious musician debut Jazz St. Louis’ much-anticipated, first-ever solo-commissioned work, written to reflect Keyon’s experiences during his momentous three-year appointment with Jazz St. Louis. Do not miss Harrold take the stage to share with the world a new work that promises to be unique and thoughtful.
Harrold grew up one of sixteen children in a family that prioritized music and community across generations. His grandfather was a police officer who retired to found a drum and bugle corps for local youth, both of his parents were pastors, and nearly all of his siblings sing and perform music to this day. At eighteen, the McCluer High School alum left Ferguson for New York City to enroll in The New School. In New York, he landed his first major gig with Common, an audition he secured on the recommendation of his New School classmate Robert Glasper, and an experience which he says broadened his musical horizons beyond jazz to include funk, Afrobeat, R&B, and hip hop. Harrold was soon performing with stars like Snoop Dogg, Jay Z, Beyonce, Mac Miller, Rihanna, Eminem, Maxwell, Anthony Hamilton, and Chaka Khan.
Harrold has been key in advancing community engagement and broadening our organization’s audience of ardent jazz appreciators. Whether Jazz St. Louis patrons are harmonizing to a soothing rendition of the Bee Gees tune “How Deep Is Your Love” live with PJ Morton, or soaring with inspiration from a Whitaker Jazz Speaks exploration of how hip hop radiated from an iconic disco sample, many indelible memories are being made during Harrold’s extraordinary tenure. This boundary-expanding partnership and commissioned work is all made possible with gracious support from the Mellon Foundation.
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JOE FARNSWORTH
A true mentor who leadsby example, drummer and composer Joe Farnsworth brings his intergenerational ensemble to Dizzy’s Club. Over four nights, the award-winning artist’s Time to Swing Quintet presents a high-octane program of blistering solos, dynamic ballads, and joyful spontaneity at its highest level. Don’tmiss this special performance that features three generations of master artists.
Joe Farnsworth, drums
Sean Jones, trumpet (6/20, 6/22, 6/23)
Sarah Hanahan, alto saxophone (6/21, 6/22, 6/23)
Caelen Cardello, piano (6/20 only)
Emmet Cohen, piano (6/21, 6/22, 6/23)
Yashushi Nakamura, bass (6/20, 6/22 & 6/23)
Peter Washington, bass (6/21 only)
Dizzy’s Club requires a minimum food and/or beverage purchase of $21 per person.
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LE TRIO JOUBRAN
Three brothers descending from a family of «Oud» makers and players for four generations: the great-grand-father, the grand-father, the father, and now, Samir, Wissam, and Adnan from Nazareth have transformed the instrument into a passion, a skill, a life story.
Gifted with extraordinary talents and a love for their music, the brothers profoundly understand how to blend the traditional maqams – the melodic, modal traditions of Arabic classical music – with contemporary jazz, blues, and rock.
The Oud progressions in their songs take their audiences on a captivating journey: the melodies are accompanied by additional percussion techniques we usually know from flamenco virtuosos, gradually increasing their audiences’ heartbeat, the result is as hypnotic as it is transformative.
This is an Echoes Of Peace Charity Event
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NICOLE HENRY & LEESA RICHARDS
Nicole Henry’s versatile and emotionally driven performances have wowed audiences in 20 countries, earning her numerous accolades including a Soul Train Award for “Best Traditional Jazz Performance” and “Best New Jazz Artist” by HMV Japan. Her latest album “Time to Love Again” reached #4 on the U.S. jazz radio chart, and she completed a 35-city U.S. national tour.
Leesa Richards, a Detroit native now based in Miami, began her career as a professional dancer and gained critical acclaim for her role as Mary Magdalene in the national tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. She has performed with artists like Faith Hill, Whitney Houston, and Gloria Estefan, and recorded with Barbra Streisand and Lenny Kravitz.
Limited number of free tickets for students.
After concert jam session, musicians bring your instrument
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Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Darius Brubeck was born David Darius Brubeck on June 14, 1947 in San Francisco, California into a musical family. His father Dave and mother Iola Brubeck named after his father’s teacher and mentor, French composer Darius Milhaud. Moving from Oakland, California they settled in Wilton, Connecticut in 1960 and ultimately graduated from Wilton High School in 1965.
Darius majored in ethnomusicology and the history of religion at Wesleyan University, graduating cum laude in 1969. While there he composed and performed the music for the film Christopher’s Movie Matinee. During the next decade and into the early 1980s he would go on to lead two groups, The Darius Brubeck Ensemble and Gathering Forces, cross America as a sideman with Don McLean and record two albums with guitarist Larry Coryell. He toured the world and recorded as a member of Two Generations of Brubeck and The New Brubeck Quartet, both led by his father.
In 1983, Brubeck and his South African wife, Catherine, moved to Durban, South Africa, joined the music Department at the University of Natal and initiated the first degree course in Jazz Studies offered by an African university. In 1989, he was appointed as Professor of Jazz Studies and Director of the Centre for Jazz and Popular Music, where he taught until 2005.
A move to London, England in 2005, Darius taught courses at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and Brunel University. Appointed as a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Jazz Studies in 2007, he taught at Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul, turkey and subsequently at the Gheorghe Dima Music Academy in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, in 2010.
His years in South Africa saw him forming five student/staff bands, record the album The Jazzanians: We Have Waited Too Long to be released in 2024, form the band Afro Cool Conceptwhich toured for nearly 15 years and recorded a live album in New Orleans.
As a composer Brubeck has written music for all types of ensemble, large and small. He has arranged and written an original composition for his father’s 80th birthday, and the Rockefeller Foundation awarded him a residency as a composer at the Bellagio Study and Conference Center in Italy.
Pianist, author, composer, arranger and educator Darius Brubeck, who has had a documentary film made by Michiel ten Kleij titled Playing the Changes: Tracking Darius Brubeck, currently leads The Darius Brubeck Quartet.
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