Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bobby Carcassés was born on August 29, 1938 in Kingston Jamaica where his Cuban grandfather worked as a diplomat. Upon moving to Villa Clara, Cuba at the age of four he grew up surrounded by Cuban rhythms, listening to Benny Moré, Conjunto Casino & Roberto Faz. He acquired a love for an eclectic spectrum of music from the opera star Enrico Carusso and Mexico’s Jorge Negrete to jazz royalty Sarah Vaughan, Buddy Rich and Stan Getz.
By the 1950’s he was involved with some of the best vocal quartets in Cuba and while playing for many years at The Tropicana the center of Cuban Jazz, he began to experiment with bebop and scat vocals. During the Sixties he traveled to Europe, spending a year in Paris where he played with Kenny Clarke and Bud Powell.
Returning to Cuba he worked in the Teatro Musical where he met three of the future founders of Irakere: Chucho Valdes, Carlos Emilio Morales and Paquito D’ Rivera. Over the next ten years he played in the best night clubs in Havana, Cuba as well as acting in Cuban cinema, Tv and essentially starting to form his own Jazz group.
In 1980 he organized the first Jazz Plaza Festival in Havana, inviting Dizzy Gillespie, Ronnie Scott, Charlie Haden, Airto Moreira, Tania Maria, Steve Coleman and many others. After his own group played these festivals. he traveled to Canada, England, France and the USA where he performed with Tito Puente, Eddie Palmieri, Patato Valdés and many others on the Latin Jazz scene.
Trumpeter Bobby Carcassés, who also plays piano, bass, percussion, and flugelhorn, as well as writing his own pieces, continues to perform, record and create art that has been exhibited globally.
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PAQUITO D’RIVERA & CHUCHO VALDÉS
D’Rivera and Valdés: Together Again!
These rare benefit concerts features Cuban jazz legends, clarinetist, saxophonist, author, composer and arranger Paquito D’Rivera and pianist, composer, and arranger Chucho Valdés first met in 1962. Both child prodigies and sons of musical families, the two worked together in Havana’s Musical Theatre Orchestra and in the Cuban Orchestra of Modern Music.
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THE HEADHUNTERS
The current band consists of a top notch quintet with Clark, Summers and Harrison joined by bassist Chris Severin (Dr. John, Diana Krall, The Neville Brothers) and pianist Kyle Roussel (Preservation Hall Jazz Band), both staples on the New Orleans music scene. Managed by Greg Lucas and Craig Walker at Devil Hills Entertainment, the band is poised for success in 2024, having recorded a new album and accompanying feature length documentary at the legendary Hyde Street Studios in August 2023 and completed a sold out European tour in November 2023 including two nights at the London Jazz Festival.
The Band:
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CYRUS CHESTNUT WITH EKEP NKWELLE
A masterful jazz pianist and Baltimore native, Cyrus Chestnut balances his lithe technical skill with a robust, soulful style that speaks to his deep gospel roots and love of swinging hard bop. Raised in the church, he learned how to infuse his swinging, classically trained style with a warm gospel sound, a style that first marked his work as a sideman, backing legendary vocalists Jon Hendricks and Betty Carter, as well as with instrumentalists like Donald Harrison and Wynton Marsalis. The future is bright with great possibilities for Cyrus.
Ekep Nkwelle is a 24-year-old, Cameroonian-American, jazz vocalist from Washington, DC, living in New York City. A part of the promising future of jazz, Ekep Nkwelle is one of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s latest rising stars, and with her artistry, she strives to display her passion for music all around the world. She has worked with jazz masters such as Russell Malone, Cyrus Chestnut, Wynton Marsalis, and Peter Washington, as well as young, well-respected musicians such as Emmet Cohen and Endea Owens.
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MALA WALDRON
One Breath Rising presents: Mala Waldron & Soulful Sound
The Mala Waldron & Soulful Sound (the Soulful Sound Quartet) is a group of internationally acclaimed jazz virtuosos headed by jazz vocalist/pianist/composer Waldron, the daughter of renowned pianist/composer, Mal Waldron and goddaughter of Billie Holiday. The group has been performing together for 20 years locally and abroad in such places as China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Italy, among others. Their repertoire is a sophisticated blend of soulful jazz originals and arrangements of Mala’s favorite composers. Their style is flavored with the influences of many genres including Latin/Jazz, Calypso, Gospel, R&B and Pop. The band features: Steve Salerno on guitar, Michael T.A. Thompson on drums, and Marcus Mclaurine on bass.
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