The Jazz Voyager
The Jazz Voyager has taken a couple of days to drive thirteen hundred miles from Detroit to Denver having never seen Iowa and Nebraska first hand with a stop in Chi-town for a little jazz on the way. The destination is Dazzle, an intimate 140 seat that can be expanded to another hundred. Located in the Denver Arts Complex, the venue has hopefully reached its final location.
This week I get to see one of my favorite vocalists who has taken the torch and soared to prominence on the jazz scene, Jazzmeia Horn. She won the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition before being signed to Concord Records and releasing her Grammy nominated debut album, A Social Call.
Dazzle’s address is 1080 14th Street, Denver, CO 80202. For more information visit https://www.rudysjazzroom.com.
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WYCLIFFE GORDON & ERIC REED WORKSHOP
The duo will present a workshop for musicians and jazz lovers at the Hammonds House Museum. Registration is required. To reserve your spot, click HERE.
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BOBBY BROOM: TRIBUTE TO RUSSELL MALONE
Born in Harlem and raised on the Upper West Side of NYC, Bobby Broom took up guitar at 12 and five years later, in 1977, made his first appearance with Sonny Rollins at Carnegie Hall. Even prior to that auspicious start, he had dedicated himself to the art, culture, and life of jazz, with the goals of learning to express himself within the idiom, while honoring its historical traditions and spirit.
Nearly 50 years later, Bobby has amassed a formidable jazz pedigree, working closely with historic figures such as Rollins, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Stanley Turrentine and Kenny Burrell, as well as many of his contemporaries. To date he has made fifteen leader recordings and has traveled to perform, as an accompanying musician and with his own ensembles, in countries on five continents.
Broom is a tenured Associate Professor at Northern Illinois University and has devoted much of his career to jazz education. He began teaching at the tertiary level under the direction of NEA Jazz Fellow and saxophone great Jackie McLean at University of Hartford. Bobby has also worked with high school students through the Herbie Hancock (formerly Thelonious Monk) Institute and currently, with the Ravinia Jazz Mentor Program.
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WYCLIFFE GORDON & ERIC REED
Wycliffe Gordon and Eric Reed are veteran members of the Wynton Marsalis Septet and original members of Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. Wycliffe Gordon has had an impressive career touring the world performing hard-swinging straight-ahead jazz, receiving great acclaim from audiences and critics alike. His unmatched modern mastery of the plunger mute and his exceptional technique and signature sound, has solidified Gordon a place in musical history known as one of the top trombonists of his generation.
When you think of hard-driving swing, daring expression, sophistication and elegance in artistry, formidable technique and a thunderous sound, there are only a very small handful of contemporary pianists you think of and one of them is most assuredly Eric Reed. But don’t think of him as just a pianist; Eric is one of his generation’s most advanced thinkers in music.
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BRANDEE YOUNGER
The sonically innovative harpist, Brandee Younger, is revolutionizing harp for the digital era. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked relentlessly to stretch boundaries and limitations for harpists. In 2022, she made history by becoming the first black woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Ever-expanding as an artist, she has worked with cultural icons including Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, and Moses Sumney. Her current album, Brand New Life, builds on her already rich oeuvre, and cements the harp’s place in pop culture. As the title of the album suggests, Brand New Life is about forging new paths–artistic, personal, political, and spiritual. On this album, Younger salutes her musical foremother, the trailblazing harpist Dorothy Ashby, while also speaking to the sentiments of more recent generations. “We’re bringing new life to Dorothy Ashby’s popular and previously unreleased compositions. We’re creating new life…for the instrument,” Younger said. Brand New Life is an album about living fully, in neon bright color.
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