JEFF JENKINS

Jeff Jenkins – Piano | Darryl White – Trumpet, Flugelhorn | Dale Black – Acoustic Bass | Jeffrey Johnson – Drums

Omaha-based jazz pianist, composer, and educator Jeff Jenkins was recently a professor of music in the Thompson Jazz Studies Program at the University of Colorado at Boulder.Grounded in a wide range of jazz styles, he has released seven original CDs in the last 15 years, while appearing as a featured player on dozens more. Throughout his career Jenkins has appeared locally, nationally and internationally in festivals and clubs with his eponymous ensembles, or as a guest artist with jazz greats including Freddie Hubbard, Eddie Harris, Clark Terry, The New York Voices, Bobby Hutcherson, and John Abercrombie, among others. A product of the acclaimed jazz program at the University of North Texas, Jenkins continued his piano studies in the New York City studios of Fred Hirsch, Richie Beirach, and Kenny Barron. Based in Manhattan in the 1980s, Jenkins performed in noted jazz venues throughout the city, and appeared as principal pianist forseveral Broadway musicals. A gifted bandleader and in-demand sideman across Colorado, Omaha, and the western region, Jenkins also mixes and produces music professionally in his Mixdown Sound recording studio.

Darryl White’s performance experiences include a wide range of idioms. He has appeared as guest soloist with the Omaha Symphony, Lincoln Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Mesa Chamber Orchestra, Grand Junction Symphony, Lake Forest Chamber Orchestra and many other solo appearances across the nation. He has also appeared as guest soloist for several international festivals including the International Brass Conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Montreux Jazz Festival, the International Women’s Brass Conference, the International Trumpet Guild Conference, the Brandon Jazz Festival, the New Mexico Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival and Roaring Fork Jazz Festival in Aspen, Colorado as well as with college jazz bands and high schools across the continent. He can be heard on several recordings including performances with the Denver Brass, “Rhapsody in Red, White & Blue” on Centaur Records, 1997; and “America, The Golden Dream” on Delos International, 1996. He can also be heard on the Capri Record Label with jazz tenor saxophonist Keith Oxman on a 1997 release entitled “Out on a Whim and a 1999 release entitled “Hard Times”. White currently has three solo recordings released. The first is a 1999 release entitled, “Ancient Memories,” and a 2002 release entitled “In the Fullness of Time”. The 2002 release features several original compositions including “Lil I” featured on the PBS special “New Beginnings”. Lastly, White released his first classical recording, “Resonance” (2007) which features ECM recording artist/pianist Art Lande.

Born in Wichita Kansas Dale began playing the clarinet at 8 years old and later became interested in string instruments taking on the upright bass and later the electric bass in church.  In 2008 Dale moved to Los Angeles California where he was embraced for his contributions to the west coast scene and beyond. Working with a myriad of artist including Terence Blanchard, Kamasi Washington, Marcus Belgrave, Terrace Martin, Kenny Burrell and the Late Solomon Burke to name a few.  Dale continues to record as well as tour and has currently been working on releasing his much-antisipated debut album this fall.

A native of Fayetteville, North Carolina and a recent transplant to the Omaha area, Jeffery Johnson is a soulful, swinging presence on the scene. Steeped in the tradition of gospel music as a child, Johnson eventually attended the University of North Carolina at Pembroke to pursue a B.A. in Music with a concentration in Jazz Studies. During his undergraduate program, Jeffery played R&B, Gospel, and Jazz throughout North Carolina, and embarked on another musical journey to obtain his M.M. in Jazz Studies at North Carolina Central University under the direction of Dr. Ira Wiggins, where he was fortunate to learn from Branford Marsalis and Joey Calderazzo.

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REBECCA KILGORE TRIO

Rebecca Kilgore, Vocals | Randy Porter, Piano | Tom Wakeling, Bass

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ITAMAR BOROCHOV QUARTET

Itamar Borochov, Trumpet/Effects/Vocals
Rob Clearfield, Piano/Effects
Sam Weber, Bass
Jay Sawyer, Drums
Raised in the cosmopolitan port city of Jaffa, now a significant presence on the international jazz scene, Borochov is creating a new musical hybrid – bringing the sacred sounds of his upbringing to a jazz quartet setting. His third release Blue Nights (Laborie Jazz 2019) is a nine-track multi-cultural joyride of enchanting lyricism, exotic motifs, anthemic builds and virtuosic expression. Borochov first heard Sephardic music in his local synagogue and absorbed these ‘maqams’ (modes) of the greater Middle East and North Africa alongside a range of other musical influences, including the Mizrahi and Ashkenazi musical flavors that are his birthright. He began playing trumpet at the age of eleven and immersed himself in the discovery of jazz, inspired by the jazz trumpet lineage of Louis Armstrong, Clark Terry, Miles Davis, Kenny Dorham, Lee Morgan, and Booker Little through to Wynton Marsalis, and citing the influence of Ben Webster for his assured yet wistful warm airy tone.
In 2007 Borochov relocated to New York to study at the New School and attend Barry Harris’s weekly workshops. His deep knowledge of these various musical disciplines is incorporated organically into his original jazz writing, building a bridge between the near-East and the modal styles of Miles Davis, John Coltrane and others. ​ “This synergetic quest is accomplished with great integrity, demonstrating in-depth knowledge only possible from one who has experienced these traditions firsthand.” – Jazz Magazine In addition to recording three albums as a leader, Borochov also appears on three albums with Yemen Blues, of which he was a founding member, arranger and co-producer. He has toured across four continents and performed at prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, SummerStage at Central Park, Blue Note NY, Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club, Bimhuis, Flagey and international festivals including Roskilde, Vitoria, Lviv, Montreal & Ottawa Jazz Festivals, London Jazz Festival, Moscow Jazz Festival, Tel Aviv & Red Sea Jazz Festivals, Jazz à Liège & Shanghai World Music Festival.
The Itamar Borochov Quartet was chosen to showcase at WOMEX 2019 in Tampere, Finland. In 2021 Borochov was commissioned by Brazos Valley Symphony, Texas to compose a suite for jazz quartet and string orchestra – ‘Emergence’, which he first performed with the orchestra in June 2021. He also recorded a new work composed especially for him by Shanan Estreicher – ‘All You Shining Stars’ for improvised trumpet and string septet, which premiered online in February. ​ Borochov won the prestigious 2020 LetterOne ‘Rising Stars’ Jazz Award European edition, which was presented to him in February 2021 by vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater. He returned to the studio in New York in 2022 with his quartet and producer Matt Pierson​ to record his fourth album, due for release in 2023. “His melodies are direct and often plangent, his harmonies and rhythms sturdy and repetitious.
Showtimes ~ 7:00pm | 9:00pm

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IMMANUEL WILKINS

The music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath. Listeners were introduced to this riveting sound with his acclaimed debut album Omega, which was named the #1 Jazz Album of 2020 by The New York Times. The album also introduced his remarkable quartet with Micah Thomas on piano, Daryl Johns on bass, and Kweku Sumbry on drums, a tight-knit unit that Wilkins features once again on his stunning sophomore album The 7th Hand.

The 7th Hand explores relationships between presence and nothingness across an hour-long suite comprised of seven movements. “I wanted to write a preparatory piece for my quartet to become vessels by the end of the piece, fully,” says the Brooklyn-based, Philadelphia-raised artist who Pitchfork said “composes ocean-deep jazz epics.”

Conceptually, the record evolves what Wilkins begins exploring on Omega, which included a four-part suite within the album. On The 7th Hand, all his compositions represent movements, played in succession. “They deal with cells and source material like a suite would,” says Wilkins, “but they function as songs, as well.”

While writing, Wilkins began viewing each movement as a gesture bringing his quartet closer to complete vesselhood, where the music would be entirely improvised, channeled collectively. “It’s the idea of being a conduit for the music as a higher power that actually influences what we’re playing,” he says. The 7th Hand derives its title from a question steeped in Biblical symbolism: If the number 6 represents the extent of human possibility, Wilkins wondered what it would mean — how it would sound — to invoke divine intervention and allow that seventh element to possess his quartet.

Wilkins often draws inspiration from critical thought. Even the striking album artwork challenges convention: “I wanted to remix the Southern Black baptism, and also provide critique on what is considered sanctified and who can be baptized.”

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MACHADO MIJIGA

Multi-instrumentalist and Portland native Machado Mijiga wears many hats, both literally and metaphorically. Classically-trained, jazz-weathered, and eclectically inclined, Mijiga left the proverbial creative “box” at a very early age, with access to many instruments and a diverse musical background brought about by an intercultural heritage.
Mijiga is a musical polymath; composer, producer, bandleader, educator, gear fanatic, and audio engineer, to name a few. Authenticity and uniquity assume the locus of Mijiga’s artistic identity. Self-expression is the prime directive, and the medium of choice changes like the weather.

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