THE BLUE NOTE QUINTET

Blue Note Records is celebrating its 85th Anniversary with a tour starring The Blue Note Quintet – a group brought together to honor the label’s rich history and pave the way for the eclectic artists of today’s roster. Gerald Clayton leads the band as Musical Director and pianist. Rounding out the group are vibraphonist Joel Ross, saxophonist Immanuel Wilkins, drummer Kendrick Scott, and bassist Matt Brewer.

Six-time Grammy-nominated pianist, composer and bandleader Gerald Clayton earned recent recognition for 2023’s Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard. Collaborating with such distinctive artists as Diana Krall, Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, Terence Blanchard, John Scofield, Terri Lyne Carrington, Gretchen Parlato and the legendary Charles Lloyd, Clayton currently serves as Director of Next Generation Jazz Orchestra.

Joel Ross continues refining an expression true to his sound and his generation. In 2019, the vibraphonist-composer issued his anticipated debut, Edison Award-winning KingMaker to eruptive critical acclaim. His 2020 release Who Are You? features his band Good Vibes at their most synchronous. New York Times praised the album for the ways it “speaks to a new level of group cohesion… more tangle, more sharing, more possibility.”

The music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction. Listeners were introduced to this riveting sound with his acclaimed debut album Omega, named the #1 Jazz Album of 2020 by The New York Times. His second album, The 7th Hand, explores relationships between presence and nothingness across an hour-long suite.

Kendrick Scott was born in Houston. By age 8 he had taken up the drums and he later attended Houston’s renowned High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. While still attending HSPVA, Scott won several student awards. He was later awarded a scholarship to attend Berklee College of Music. Scott has toured with Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd, The Crusaders, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kurt Elling, and Terence Blanchard.

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JOSHUA REDMAN GROUP

Joshua Redman is one of the most acclaimed and charismatic jazz artists to have emerged in the decade of the 1990s. Born in Berkeley, California, he is the son of legendary saxophonist Dewey Redman and dancer Renee Shedroff. He was exposed at an early age to a variety of music (jazz, classical, rock, soul, Indian, Indonesian, Middle-Eastern, African) and instruments (recorder, piano, guitar, gatham, gamelan), and began playing clarinet at age nine before switching to what became his primary instrument, the tenor saxophone, one year later.

The early influences of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Cannonball Adderley and his father, Dewey Redman, as well as The Beatles, Aretha Franklin, the Temptations, Earth, Wind and Fire, Prince, The Police and Led Zeppelin drew Joshua more deeply into music. But although Joshua loved playing the saxophone and was a dedicated member of the award-winning Berkeley High School Jazz Ensemble and Combo from 1983-86, academics were always his first priority, and he never seriously considered becoming a professional musician.

In 1991 Redman graduated from Harvard College summa cum laude, with a B.A. in Social Studies. He had already been accepted by Yale Law School, but deferred entrance for what he believed was only going to be one year. In November of that year, five months after moving to New York, Redman was named the winner of the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition.

Over the past three decades, the saxophonist, composer, and bandleader has consistently demonstrated how to honor music’s verities while expanding its reach in contemporary settings. On 2023’s where are we, Redman delivers one of his most challenging and compelling albums to date, in a program featuring typically brilliant supporting partners and (in a first for Redman) built around a dynamic vocalist.

Gabrielle Cavassa – voice
Joshua Redman – tenor saxophone
Paul Cornish – piano
Philip Norris – bass
Nazir Ebo – drums

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THE BAD PLUS

The Bad Plus are the ultimate originals—a democratic unit with a clear vision and a refusal to conform to convention. For the past two decades, they have played with spirit and adventure, made their own rules and done so with a bold sense of creativity and intent. Avoiding easy categorization, The Bad Plus has won critical acclaim and a legion of fans worldwide with their unique sound and flair for live performance.

Now in their 22nd year, The Bad Plus continues to push boundaries as founding members Reid Anderson (bass) and Dave King (drums) embark on a new piano-less incarnation of the band with Ben Monder (guitar) and Chris Speed (tenor saxophone) – instigating a new wave of excitement and anticipation within the band that is re-energizing their sound and inspiration. The Bad Plus have constantly searched to bridge genres and techniques while exploring the infinite possibilities of exceptional musicians working in perfect sync.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

David Louis Bartholomew was born Davis Bartholomew on December 24, 1918 in Edgard, Louisiana and initially learned to play the tuba, then took up the trumpet with lessons from Peter Davis, who also tutored Louis Armstrong. Around 1933 he moved with his parents to New Orleans, Louisiana where he played in local jazz and brass bands, including Papa Celestin’s. He played in Fats Pichon’s band on a Mississippi riverboat and took charge of his band in 1941. After a stint in Jimmie Lunceford’s band he joined the US Army during World War II and developed writing and arranging skills as a member of the 196th Army Ground Forces Band.

At the end of the war he returned to New Orleans and towards the end of 1945 he started leading his own dance band, Dave Bartholomew and the Dew Droppers, named after a now-defunct local hotel and nightclub, the Dew Drop Inn. Their popularity was a model for early rock ‘n’ roll bands the world over. In 1947, they were invited by club owner Don Robey to perform in Houston, Texas, where Bartholomew met Lew Chudd, the founder of Imperial Records.

His band made their first recordings for De Luxe Records in 1947 and their first hit was Country Boy, reached No. 14 in the national Billboard R&B chart in early 1950. Prominent members of the band, besides Bartholomew on trumpet and occasional vocals, were the saxophonists Alvin Tyler, Herb Hardesty, and Clarence Hall, the bass player Frank Fields, the guitarist Ernest McLean, the pianist Salvador Doucette, and the drummer Earl Palmer. They were later joined by the saxophonist Lee Allen.

Two years after their first meeting in Houston, Texas he was asked by Lew Chudd to become Imperial’s A&R man in New Orleans. Dave went on to produce singer Jewel King, and a young pianist Fats Domino, who went on to have great success with their collaboration. He went on to work at several labels including his own Broadmoor Records.

The 1970s and 1980s had Bartholomew leading a traditional Dixieland jazz band in New Orleans, releasing an album, Dave Bartholomew’s New Orleans Jazz Band in 1981. He produced numerous hit songs and was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and the Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.

Trumpeter, bandleader, composer, arranger and record producer Dave Bartholomew, who was prominent in the New Orleans music scene and active in rhythm and blues, big band, swing music, rock and roll, New Orleans jazz, and Dixieland, transitioned from a heart attack in Metarie, Louisiana on June 23, 2019.

GRIOTS GALLERY

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LESLIE UGGAMS

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW, SOMETHING BORROWED, SOMETHING BLUE

Stage and screen legendLeslie Uggams returns to 54 Below with her hit show drawing from Broadway and beyond. Featuring musical theater showstoppers, American Songbook classics, jazz standards and current pop hits, this timeless romp through an exciting song catalog will have audiences cheering, “Hallelujah, Baby!” Expect songs Ms. Uggams has performed to great acclaim on Broadway, from shows including Thoroughly Modern Millie, Jerry’s Girls, and Hallelujah, Baby!, as well as your favorites from shows like Gypsy, Funny Girl, and Carousel. See the show that BroadwayWorld called “one of the most entertaining and enjoyable shows to play a nightclub this year or any other!”

Ms. Uggams is a celebrated Tony® and Emmy Award-winning actress and singer whose seven-decade career has brought her from Harlem (The Apollo Theater) to Broadway (Hallelujah, Baby!), the big screen (Deadpool, Skyjacked) to television (“Empire,” “The Leslie Uggams Show”). Perhaps best known for her stirring portrayal of Kizzy in the landmark TV mini-series, Alex Haley’s “Roots” (Critics Choice Award, Emmy and Golden Globe nominations), Leslie has performed to critical and popular acclaim ever since her first professional appearances at the age of nine at the famed Apollo Theater in New York City.

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