NICOLE HEITGER QUARTET

The Nicole Heitger Quartet presents a blend of Dixieland, swing and bebop, featuring syncopated rhythms and sounds from the 1920’s through the 1940’s. Nicole has been a vocalist for over 30 years and was raised on traditional jazz. Her father, Raymond Heitger, has been the leader of the Cakewalkin’ Jass Band for over 50 years.

She began singing with the CJB when she was sixteen years old, performing at various concerts, jazz festivals, and jazz clubs. Drawing from such influences as Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday she performs the great classics of jazz history and delivers them with her powerful and precise blues-tinged vocals.

The Performers:
Nicole Heitger: Voice
Alex Belhaj: Guitar
Dave Kosmyna: Cornet, Piano

Cover Charge: $25.00 +fees

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ANAT COHEN QUARTETINHO

Following great success at some of the world’s great jazz festivals and venues with her Tentet, Grammy-nominated clarinetist and composer Anat Cohen shifts her focus to an intimate group sound with her newest band, the endlessly colorful Quartetinho (pronounced “quar-te-CHIN-yo,” i.e., little quartet).

The group of New York-based international multi-instrumentalist-virtuosos are all drawn from the ranks of her aforementioned Tentet. The idea of instrumental doubling to achieve a wide stylistic range comes from the larger group, and the spirit of this cross-cultural / stylistic ensemble ring true throughout their performances. They share a deep love for music in all its heterogeneity and it’s all amply represented in both recordings and the band’s own live show. The result is boundlessly melodic and lyrical, with a wide array of timbres and subtle details of orchestration.

The Group:
Clarinet: Anat Cohen
Bass: Tal Mashiach
Piano/Accordion: Vitor Gonçalves
Vibraphone/Percussion: James Shipp

Cover: $40.61 ~ $50.91

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CHRISTIAN SANDS

The Steinway Artist and Grammy Nominee is an emerging jazz force. His abundant piano technique perfectly matches his conception, accomplishing a much deeper musical goal: a fresh look at the entire language of jazz.  Christian says, “My music is about teaching the way of jazz and keeping it alive.”  Whether it’s stride, swing, bebop, progressive, fusion, Brazilian or Afro-Cuban, Sands develops the past while providing unusual and stimulating vehicles for the present… and for the future.  He expresses himself through an extensive vocabulary of patterns, textures and structures, all the while maintaining a strong sense of understatement, sensitivity, taste and swing — hallmarks for as long as he has been playing.

From a very early age, Christian possessed an insatiable appetite for music.  He was enrolled in music classes at age 4 and wrote his first composition at age 5.  He started playing professionally at the age of 10, and studied at the Neighborhood Music School and the Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, CT.  He received his Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Arts degrees from the Manhattan School of Music.  For his participation on the MSM “Kenya Revisited” album, Sands received a Grammy Nomination for Best Latin Piano Solo.

Since arriving on the scene, Sands has shared the stage with many jazz luminaries as Wynton Marsalis, Diane Reeves, Shelia E, Warren Wolf, Tia Fuller, Gary Burton, Stefan Harris, Teri Lynne Carrington, Jason Moran, Geri Allen, James Moody, Bill Evans (sax), Russell Malone, Terrance Blanchard, Louis Hayes, Patti Austin, Kurt Elling and Dee Dee Bridgewater.  He served as the Creative Ambassador for the Erroll Garner foundation, Artist in Residence for Jazz in July Education program at University of Massachusetts, Artist in Residence for Monterey Jazz Festival for 2020-2022 – he was the Creative Director for the ‘Monterey Festival Band on Tour’ 2022-2023.

Christian provides a soulful melodic touch on S. Epatha Merkerson’s documentary, “Contradictions of Fairhope,” a soundtrack recorded with McBride and a melodic piano introduction to Netflix’s Biopic documentary “Rustin” of which he recorded with Branford Marsalis.  He was named one of the future rising stars by Wynton Marsalis in Jet Magazine.  Vanity Fair’s “Jazz Youth-Quake” also named him as a future jazz star.  He was finalist for the 2015 Cole Porter Jazz Fellowship Award sponsored by the America Pianist Association.

Just embarking on his 30s, Sands has already enjoyed a remarkable career trajectory including a 2013 Grammy nomination with renowned Bassist Christian McBride and 2021 Grammy Nomination for Best Jazz Instrumental Composition and 52nd Annual NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Jazz Album Instrumental for his third album “Be Water” recording for Mack Avenue Records.

His music has taken him to many international stages.  In 2023 he received Chevalier de L’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, rank of Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters, from France Minister of Culture.

The Band:

Christian Sands – bandleader, pianist

Ryan Sands – Drummer

Gilad Hekelsman – Guitar

Scott Colley – Bass

Cover: $40.61 ~ $50.91 | Including Fees

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KALEB KIRBY

The band comes together for a vibrant tribute to the legendary John Scofield. From groove-heavy electric moments to intimate acoustic explorations, the ensemble reimagines Scofield’s career-spanning work with deep respect and fearless creativity.

Drawing from his collaborations with Miles Davis, Medeski Martin & Wood, and his own celebrated ensembles, the program showcases the expressive range and rhythmic ingenuity that define Scofield’s voice—bridging tradition and innovation through bold interplay and dynamic sound.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Fred Taylor was born in Boston, Massachusetts on June 29, 1929 and was raised in nearby Newton, Massachusetts. He studied piano as a youth and played drums but it was jazz where he found his calling. Captivated by bebop in the 1940s and ’50s, he got a degree from Boston University, with jazz as his major area of study, seeing live shows, collecting albums, listening to the radio, and simply hanging out. While gaining his jazz legs he worked at his parents’ mattress and upholstery business.

Taylor first started promoting a mix of jazz and folk acts around Boston in 1961. In 1965 he and his business partner Tony Mauriello bought two nightclubs, and renamed them Paul’s Mall and the Jazz Workshop, where the who’s-who of modern jazz, from legends of the bebop generation to young innovators of the fusion era.

When the two venues closed in 1978 the partners bought a movie theater and ran it for eight years. During that period Miles Davis came out of retirement with a new band and asked Taylor to promote his comeback gigs, and his coming-out party in Boston became international news, and the material recorded at Kix was later released on the album We Want Miles, named after the chants that greeted Davis and the group at those first shows.

In 1990 he took over the lounge at the Embassy Suites Hotel which eventually became a full-fledged jazz venue called Scullers. Under his leadership, the club became an essential part of the local music landscape.

Fred then took a young saxophonist named Grace Kelly under his wing, whom he met when she was just 13 years old. He became both Kelly’s mentor and advocate, recommending her to everyone and anyone in the jazz community. Their relationship reflects a lifelong pattern of seeking out new artists, presenting them as performers, and then working to raise both the industry and the public’s awareness of their importance.

In a move that was widely unpopular in Boston and even drew national criticism, Hilton Hotels, the owner of Scullers, terminated its relationship with Taylor in 2016. This ended his reign of more than a quarter-century at the club. At 87 years old, he continued to promote Kelly and other artists he believed in. During his last few years, he finished his autobiography and fought the cancer that would eventually end his life. Jazz impressario Fred Taylor died on October 26, 2023.

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