DIEGO RIVERA QUARTET
A world-class musician, composer, arranger and educator, Diego Rivera has entertained audiences for over 20 years. He currently serves as the Director of Jazz Studies at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas at Austin.
The Ann Arbor, Michigan native was born into a Mexican-American family and his heritage has shaped his musical voice and creative endeavors. He attended Michigan State University where he studied with Andrew Speight, Branford Marsalis, Ron Blake and Rodney Whitaker.
He has toured with the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra, performed concerts with Grammy winning vocalist Kurt Elling, Juno winning vocalist, Sophie Milman and The Rodney Whitaker Quintet. He is a member of several big bands and has performed with Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Christian McBride, Wycliffe Gordon, PRISM Saxophone Quartet, the Gerald Wilson Big Band and the Lincoln Center Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra.
The Band:
Diego Rivera: Saxophone
Xavier Davis: Piano
Rodney Whitaker: Bass
Michael Reed: Drums
Cover: $25.00
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,club,genius,instrumental,jazz,music,preserving,saxophone,travel
RONNIE SCOTT’S ALL STARS
It has been named jazz’s greatest year. There was definitely something in the air in 1959, and it wasn’t just NASA: Castro took over Cuba, Buddy Holly died in a plane crash, Pan Am started regular flights around the world, and NASA sent 7 astronauts into space.
Ronnie Scott’s, of course, was founded in 1959. The idea of opening a jazz club along the lines of the intimate and bustling venues of New York’s 52nd Street was hatched by two ardent jazz fans who happened to be very much part of a burgeoning modern jazz movement of the late fifties: tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott who had since the late forties, wowed the bebop brigade in a series of bands commencing with the nine-piece which featured his business partner to be and fellow saxophonist Pete King.
Three greats of jazz died – Lester Young, Billie Holiday and Sidney Bechet but born out of so much world turmoil were a spate of jazz masterpieces.
In March, Miles Davis created the definitive jazz album in A Kind of Blue. In May, Charles Mingus released an album called Mingus Ah Um – possibly his definitive album. Also in May, Ornette Coleman’s album The Shape of Jazz To Come became ‘the genesis of avant-garde jazz’, and John Coltrane recorded Giant Steps from May to December.
What Miles did for harmonic shifts, The Dave Brubeck Quartet did for rhythmic innovations with Time Out, challenging the acceptable 4/4 and 3/4 time signatures and even creating the hit Take Five with their 5/4 time signature.
Having spent eight months in the Miles Davis Quintet, Bill Evans released Portrait in Jazz in December with Paul Motian and Scott LaFaro, often regarded as one of the greatest jazz trios.
In the show, you can expect to hear a sample of music from all of these genre-defining jazz classics performed by the unmatched Ronnie Scott’s All Stars.
Line-up
Freddie Gavita ~ trumpet
Alex Garnett ~ saxophone
James Pearson ~ piano
Sam Burgess ~ bass
Sebastian de Krom ~ drums
Tickets: £35 ~ £55 | $40.96 ~ $64.36
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,bass,club,drums,genius,instrumental,jazz,music,piano,preserving,saxophone,travel,trumpet
ETHAN IVERSON SEXTET
Ethan Iverson avoids technical excess as his improvisations unfold sparely in his right hand, usually with very little or no emphasis on his left hand. He plays deliberately, nurturing his ideas sometimes in unhurried quarter notes or eighth notes…Iverson stretches tonality through single lines, which grow more adventurous the longer they unfold.
The Band: Sam Newsome – Saxophone | Johnathan Finlayson – Trumpet | Jacob Garchik – Trombone | Ethan Iverson – Piano | Peter Washington – Bass | Kush Abadey – Drums
Cover: $40.00 + fee
More Posts: adventure,bandleader,club,genius,instrumental,jazz,music,preserving,saxophone,travel
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Bill Pierce, known to many as Billy Pierce, was born September 25, 1948 in Hampton, Virginia. He studied with Joe Viola and Andy McGhee at Berklee College of Music, and with Joe Allard.
In the early 1980s he was recruited by Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Through the late Eighties and into the late 1990s he recorded simultaneously as a leader while also in Tony Williams’s quintet in the mid-1980s to early 1990s.
As a leader he has recorded seven albums and another 18 as a sideman with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Geoff Keezer, Kevin Eubanks, Makoto Ozone, Superblue, Tony Williams, and Lazlo Gardony.
As an educator Billy says he likes seeing music being carried on by young people developing, achieving their dreams, and being a part of history. Many of his students have made a name for themselves: Antonio Hart, Mark Gross, Javon Jackson, Walter Smith, Mark Turner, Miguel Zenon.
Saxophonist Billy Pierce, who is the former chair of the Berklee woodwind department, continues to perform, tour and educate.
More Posts: bandleader,educator,history,instrumental,jazz,music,saxophone
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Jerome Don Pasquall was born on September 20, 1902 in Fulton, Kentucky, and grew up in St. Louis, Missouri. As a child, he played the mellophone in brass bands. He served in the United States Army in 1918 in the 10th Cavalry Band, and picked up clarinet during this time.
Following his discharge, Pasquall played with Ed Allen in 1919 and then found work on riverboats playing with Charlie Creath and Fate Marable. He moved to Chicago, Illinois to study at the American Conservatory, and played with Doc Cook’s Dreamland Orchestra as a tenor saxophonist.
Departing for Boston, Massachusetts he attended the New England Conservatory of Music. In 1927 and 1928, he played with Fletcher Henderson. Following this he returned to Chicago and led his own ensemble, in addition to playing with Freddie Keppard, Dave Peyton, Jabbo Smith, Tiny Parham, and Fess Williams.
He toured Europe with the 1934 Blackbirds, Eddie South, Henderson again in 1936, and Noble Sissle from 1937 throught World War II in 1944. After the mid-1940s, he did freelance work in New York City with Tony Ambrose among others, and gradually receded from active performance.
Clarinetist, alto saxophonist, mellophonist Jerome Don Pasquall, who never led his own recording session, dies on October 18, 1971 in New York City, New York.
More Posts: bandleader,clarinet,history,instrumental,jazz,mellophone,music,saxophone