CYRUS CHESTNUT

Ellington 125 | Duke Ellington Sacred Concert

Cyrus Chestnut is a jazz pianist, composer and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for Time, wrote: “What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes and play space.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Chestnut worked with Wynton Marsalis, Terence Blanchard, Donald Harrison, and other bandleaders. He joined the band of jazz vocalist Betty Carter in the early 1990s and appeared on her 1992 album It’s Not About the Melody. That same year, he recorded his first albums as a bandleader, The Nutman Speaks and Nut. Chesnut has continued to work and record as a bandleader into the 21st century.

In 2006, Telarc released Genuine Chestnut, his first album for the label. On it he is accompanied by his regular trio of Michael Hawkins, bass and Neal Smith, drums. Additional artists on this session include Russell Malone, guitar and Steven Kroon, percussion. It includes jazz interpretations of some well-known pop numbers of the past half-century, including “If”, the early 1970s soft-rock ballad by Bread. “This song has been with me ever since the sixth grade,” Chestnut recalled, “I had to play it for my English teacher’s wedding. I’ve played it in many and various contexts. I actually played it in a Top 40 band when I was just out of school. A lot of time has passed, but then recently I just started thinking about it again.” Chestnut’s own “Mason–Dixon Line” is one of the album’s high points, a joyful bebop number.

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TYRONE JACKSON

The name Tyrone Jackson is the quintessential jazz piano player. His boundless creativity coupled with harmonic mastery, utilizes the piano as a blank canvas.  Jackson is nationally recognized and has traveled the world as a solo artist and sideman.

As a composer, Jackson has composed original music for Pulitizer Prize winning author Natasha Tretheway’s book of poems “Native Guard” turned theatrical play, Pearl Clege’s play, “Tell Me My Dream”, “Ethel” and this year’s Alliance Theater production of “Nick’s Flamingo Grill.” Jackson has recorded 4 Albums—“Dedicated”, “Another Voyage”, “Melody In Nede”, and new release “From The Mind Of.”

Lavahi is a scholar-artist on a mission to better society from the inside out. Through her music, scholarship, and performance, LAVAHI is building a platform to nourish the heart and mind, empathize our human experiences, and vibe together. As a daughter of jazz, the culture heavily informs her ideology and influences her sound. Acrobatic scatting, compelling chords, and the art of improvisation evoke that classic traditional aesthetic and set her contemporary sound apart from the norm of mainstream neo-soul, hip hop, and R&B. And with her satisfying blend of analog and digital sounds, LAVAHI shows that the lineage of Black sound is not linear but ever folding and stretching.

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DOUBLE N TRIO & NEGRONI’S TRIO

The Double N Trio is headed up by Noah Nipp, hence the double “n” in the groups name.

Negroni’s Trio is a jazz band that plays piano jazz, Latin jazz, hard bop, jazz instrument, and soul jazz. The band is made up of Jose Negroni on piano, Nomar Negroni on drums, and Josh Allen on bass. They have been active since 2002 and have released nine albums, including New Era, Esperanzas/Hopes, and Piano – Drums – Bass. Their songs include “Esperanzas”, “El Incomprendido”, and “Sunny”.

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MALA WALDRON QUARTET

Year of ALICE, a Jazz Appreciation Month Special features the quartet performing the music of Alice Coltrane.

Mala Waldron is a native of NYC whose first paid gig was playing keys and singing back-up vocals with a local R&B band, “Liquid Pleasure” at the Elk’s club at age 15.  Shortly after joining, the band was signed to RCA Records(Midland International.)  She later enrolled at SUNY, Old Westbury study African-American Music with Makanda Ken McIntyre, Richard Harper, Andrei Strobert, Warren Smith and Amina Claudine Myers, earning a Bachelors Degree.

Mala’s music career has taken her all over the world doing performances in such countries as Japan, France, Italy, Belgium, Russia, Belarus & China.  She has performed on some of NYC’s most prestigious stages, including the Iridium Jazz Club, the Blue Note, the Jazz Standard, the 55 Bar, Brooklyn’s BAM Cafe, and at the Kennedy Center (Millennium Stage in Washington D.C.

She has done numerous international tours and festivals, including, Hennessy-Moet Asian XOXO Jazz Tour (with shows in China, Taiwan & Malaysia), the Catania Jazz Fest, Corinaldo Jazz Fest and Farfa Voice Fest (Sabina) as well as festivals in the U.S., a highlight of which was the Annual Diet Coke Women in Jazz Festival (JALC) opening for Patrice Rushen.

As an educator, Mala has done vocal and composing workshops in Italy, and participated in the WBGO Kids Jazz Concert Series lat the Newark Museum and Jitterbugs – Jazz for Kids (Jazz Forum Arts.) She was a featured performer on the Chapman Stage at the first annual Coltrane Day Festival.  She was featured in the recently published book, Giving Birth to Sound: Women in Creative Music (Renate da Rin and & William Parker editors) and can be seen in the documentary film, ‘The Girls in the Band,” directed by Judy Chaikin.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Mika Mimura was born in Osaka, Japan on April 18, 1978. She began to play marimba when she was 6 years old. She studied classical music at Osaka College of Music and finished her Master’s degree at the college. Inspired by pianist Makoto Ozone, she began her study of jazz vibraphone after graduation. She entered Berklee College of Music in 2004 and studied with Dave Samuels, Ed Saindon, Tiger Okoshi, and Ed Tomassi , among others.

Mika became a regular member of Phil Wilson’s Rainbow Big Band and Rainbow All Stars. In 2007 she performed with Greg Osby in 2007. She joined The BandA ecLectics, whose leader, Petros Sakelliou, had won the first prize at Thelonious Monk Institute Composition Competition. Together they played the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles, California. She has performed many times in concert throughout the Boston, Massachusetts and New York City areas.

Vibraphonist Mika Mimura, who is currently a part of the New York City jazz scene, continues to energetically perform, compose and arrange in jazz or classical.

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