BERTHA HOPE QUARTET

Pianist Bertha Hope pays tribute to her late first husband with a Salute to Elmo Hope’s Centennial.

Hope-Booker started playing professionally in Johnny Otis’s band as well as local trios. In 1958, Hope-Booker met Elmo Hope who was touring with Sonny Rollins. Hope-Booker married Elmo in 1960 and the following year they moved to New York City.

Together they recorded an album, Hope-Full, for Riverside which featured Hope-Booker on three songs. After Elmo’s death in 1967, Hope-Booker gave up her music career despite being offered a place in Art Blakey’s band.

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BILL CHARLAP, AARON DIEHL, ISAIAH J. THOMPSON, CAELAN CARDELLO

With Noriko Ueda and Carl Allen

The present – and future – of jazz piano convenes on the stage that has hosted legends of the art form from Thelonious Monk to Hank Jones to Chick Corea.

Jazz in July artistic director Bill Charlap is joined by a dynamic virtuoso of modern jazz piano, the sublimely talented Aaron Diehl, and two fast-rising piano stars of the next generation. Isaiah J. Thompson, winner of the 2023 American Pianists Awards, has been hailed by NPR as, “a young musician and composer with a mature touch and rare combination of talent, creativity, humility, and honesty.” Caelan Cardello is the recipient of the 2021 BMI Foundation’s Future Jazz Master Award, and has played with such major artists as Jimmy Cobb, Rufus Reid, and Christian McBride. Hear them all in solo, trio, and two-piano performances, with the masterful rhythm team of bassist Noriko Ueda and drummer Carl Allen.

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BILL CHARLAP TRIO

Special Guests: Dee Dee Bridgewater & Nicholas Payton

“There are certain gigs that remind you why you fell in love with jazz in the first place. Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater and pianomeister Bill Charlap did just that Friday night at Catalina’s,” wrote Jazz Weekly following a 2022 performance at the famed LA jazz club.

The NEA Jazz Master and triple Grammy Award winner teams with Grammy-winning trumpeter Nicholas Payton and the Grammy-winning Bill Charlap Trio – Peter Washington on bass, Kenny Washington on drums – to open the 2023 Jazz in July season. They bring the artistic alchemy that has made their collaborations a joyride of spontaneous storytelling and improvisation, making this opening concert one not to miss.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Kenneth John Moule was born on June 26, 1925 in Barking, Essex, England and was the only child of Frederick and Ethal Moule. Surviving an early childhood illness, left him with a cadaverous look which went well with his ridiculous sense of humor.

In the Forties Moule played piano with the Johnny Dankworth Quartet before leaving to join Oscar Rabin in 1945. He would go on to perform with Remo Cavalotti for a summer season and Joe Daniels before working on the Queen Mary in Bobby Kevin’s Band, with Ronnie Scott and Johnny Dankworth. He closed out the decade working with several bands including Jiver Hutchinson, Bert Ambrose, Frank Weir and Ken Mackintosh.

During the early 1950s Ken worked with Raymonde’s Orchestra, again with Ambrose and then with Frank Weir on several occasions. 1954 saw him form under his own name a septet, which was comprised of two-tenor, baritone, trumpet and three rhythm group. He resigned from the septet in 1955 and from 1956–1959 he arranged for Ted Heath’s orchestra. During this time he composed the suite Jazz at Toad Hall, and was released on Decca Records in 1958. He worked in Sweden and toured Europe with Kurt Weill’s Band until 1960.

The 1960s saw his return to England and worked freelance as an arranger, especially with Lionel Bart. He was the musical director for the shows Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be and Twang!!. From 1962 he broadcast regularly with his 15 piece orchestra, and later broadcasted and recorded with a larger band called The Full Score. His Adam’s Rib Suite was recorded by the London Jazz Chamber Group in 1970 with Kenny Wheeler on the recording issued on Ember Records.

He scored Cole Porter songs for the musical Cole! performed at the Mermaid Theatre in 1974, and worked with Dankworth again around that time with his London Symphony Orchestra collaborations. He worked out of Germany for part of the 1970s before ill health caused him to move to the warmer climate of Spain.

Pianist, composer and arranger Ken Moule transitioned in Marbella in January 27, 1986, aged 60.

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THE WILLAMETTE JAZZ TRIO

Obscure standards: Tunes from the 20th century that you never knew you needed to hear.
Robert Bohall piano
Robert Lassila bass
Nik Barber drums
Robert Bohall is a recent graduate of the Masters of Music in Jazz Studies program at University of Oregon, while Nik Barber and Robert Lassila have one year left in the same program. Young and hungry, these musicians combine energies to create bombastic climaxes and quiet soundscapes over familiar tunes. Come see them express their passion on stage, combined to form The Willamette Jazz Trio.

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