The Jazz Gallery will be CLOSED for summer break!
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 to Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

See you in two weeks.

Andy Milne's DAPP THEORY
Friday, July 17th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Andy Milne – piano/keyboards, John Moon – percussive poetry, John Beaty – saxophones, Chris Tordini – basses, Kenny Grohowski – drums

George Colligan Trio
Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
George Colligan - piano, Johaness Wiedenmuller - bass, Ari Hoenig - drums

Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra
Friday, July 24th, 2009 to Saturday, July 25th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Pedro Giraudo - bass, Alejandro Aviles/Patrick Cornelious/Luke Batson/Carl Maraghi - reeds, Jonathan Powell (24th)/Miki Hirose (25th)/Tatum Greenblatt/Ryan Keberle/Mike Fahie - brass, Jess Jurkovic - piano, Jeff Davis - drums, Tony De Vivo - cajon, Sofia Tosello - vocals

SIM Faculty Concert
Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members and Students with Valid ID
Ralph Alessi - trumpet, Tim Berne - saxophones, Matt Mitchell - piano, John Hebert - bass, Tom Rainey - drums

Michael Rodriguez Quartet
Friday, July 31st, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Michael Rodriguez - trumpet, Mike Moreno - guitar, Joe Sanders - bass, Johnathan Blake - drums

Malaby - Sanchez - Rainey Trio
Saturday, August 1st, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Tony Malaby - saxophones, Angelica Sanchez - piano, Tom Rainey - drums

SIM Faculty Concert
Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members and Students with Valid ID
Ralph Alessi - trumpet, Ravi Coltrane - saxophone, Andy Milne - piano, Drew Gress - bass, Gerald Cleaver - drums

Lage Lund 4
Friday, August 7th, 2009 to Saturday, August 8th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Lage - guitar, Aaron Goldberg - piano, Orlando Le Fleming - bass, Bill Stewart - drums

Avishai Cohen TRIVENI
Friday, August 14th, 2009 to Saturday, August 15th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Avishai Cohen - trumpet, Omer Avital - bass, Johnathan Blake - drums

Gilad Hekselman Quartet
Friday, August 21st, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Gilad Hekselman - guitar, Chris Cheek - saxophone, Joe Martin - bass, Marcus Gilmore - drums

Loren Stillman Quartet
Saturday, August 22nd, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Loren Stillman - alto saxophone, Russ Lossing - piano, John Hebert - bass, Eric McPherson - drums

Eric Revis Quartet
Friday, August 28th, 2009 to Saturday, August 29th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Eric Revis - bass, saxophones - tba, Nasheet Waits - drums

Oscar Perez Nuevo Comienzo
Thursday, September 3rd, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Oscar Perez – piano and Rhodes, Stacy Dillard – saxophone, Greg Glassman – trumpet, Anthony Perez – bass, Jerome Jennings – drums, Emiliano Valerio – percussion, Charenee Wade – voice

The New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, now in its ninth year, supports composer / performer-led ensembles in the creation and presentation of original composition within the jazz idiom. New Works: Creation and Presentation is part of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, made possible with the generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Jason Lindner Trio
Friday, September 4th, 2009 to Saturday, September 5th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Jason Lindner - piano, Omer Avital - bass, drums - tba

James Carney Group
Thursday, September 10th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Jame celebrates the release of His CD Ways and Means.


James Carney - piano, analog synthesizer, Ralph Alessi - trumpet, Tony Malaby - tenor saxophone, Josh Roseman - trombone, tbd - soprano saxophone, Chris Lightcap - bass, tbd - drums

Ambrose Akinmusire
Friday, September 11th, 2009 to Saturday, September 12th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members

Rez Abassi
Thursday, September 17th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members

Dan Tepfer
Thursday, September 24th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members

Ben Wendel Group
Thursday, October 1st, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Ben Wendel - saxophones/bassoon, Adam Benjamin - Fender Rhodes, Tigran Hamasyan - piano, Nir Felder - guitar, Ben Street - bass, Nate Wood - drums

Alexis Cuadrado CMA New Works Premiere
Friday, October 2nd, 2009 to Saturday, October 3rd, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members

Linda Oh Trio
Thursday, October 8th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members

Gregoire Maret Quartet
Friday, October 9th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members

John Escreet Project
Saturday, October 10th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
John Escreet - piano, David Binney - alto saxophone, Ambrose Akinmusire - trumpet, Matt Brewer - bass, Marcus Gilmore - drums

Rudy Royston Group
Thursday, October 15th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Rudy Royston - drums, Shane Endsley - trumpet, Noah Primenger - tenor saxophone, Sean Conly - bass

Matt Brewer
Friday, October 16th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members

Adam Birnbaum - Dream Songs: Music inspired by the poetry of John Berryman
Wednesday, October 21st, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Adam Birnbaum - piano, Matt Brewer - bass, Rodney Green - drums

The New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, now in its ninth year, supports composer / performer-led ensembles in the creation and presentation of original composition within the jazz idiom. New Works: Creation and Presentation is part of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, made possible with the generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Fernando Otero Quartet
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Fernando Otero - piano, Nick Danielson - violin, Victor Prieto - accordion, bass - tba

Ben Williams
Thursday, October 29th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members

Noah Baerman
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
New York premiere of Know Thyself commissioned by the CMA New Works: Creation and Presentation.

Justin Flynn and The Discoverer's Octet
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Justin Flynn - saxophones, Dave Smith - trumpet, Dave Gibson - trombone, Alex Harding - baritone saxophone, Tom Guarna - guitar, Jeremy Bacon - piano, Ugonna Okegwo - bass, Mark Ferber - drums

The New Works: Creation and Presentation Program, now in its ninth year, supports composer / performer-led ensembles in the creation and presentation of original composition within the jazz idiom. New Works: Creation and Presentation is part of the Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project, made possible with the generous funding from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation.

Tony Malaby's TAMARINDO
Friday, December 4th, 2009 to Saturday, December 5th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Tony Malaby - saxophone, William Parker - bass, Nasheet Waits - drums

Dafnis Priet "Si o Si Quartet"
Friday, January 8th, 2010 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members

The Jazz Gallery will be CLOSED for summer break!
Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 to Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

See you in two weeks.

Anne Mette Iversen Quartet
Saturday, June 27th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
BJURecords Festival - Week 2
Given the current state of the music business, it's never been more important for jazz artists to seize control of their own destinies. A number of them are pooling their resources and forming collectives; the Brooklyn Jazz Underground is but one example. These likeminded musicians have found strength in numbers, releasing three CD samplers from their various albums, billing their bands together on mini-festivals and also launching their own sister company and record label, BJURecords, an artist-run indie committed to creative and adventurous contemporary improvised music. In May 2008 we hailed the label launch with a mini-festival of our own, adding to the success of the BJU's recent festivals at Smalls. We are doing so again to mark the second wave of BJURecords releases. Where better than the Jazz Gallery, one of New York's prime incubators of young and forward-looking jazz talent?


Anne Mette Iversen - bass, John Ellis - saxophones, Dan Tepfer - piano, Quincy Davis - drums
Anne Mette Iversen, a native of Denmark and a New York resident for the last eight years, is a gifted bassist and an enormously expressive, individual composer, drawing on jazz and European concert music as well as Danish folk, cabaret and spiritual traditions. In addition to her two previous releases, On the Other Side and This Is My House, she has composed for a wide variety of ensembles in jazz and beyond, so it is natural that her debut for BJURecords is a double CD, representing a wide swath of her talents and interests. The first disc, Best of the West, recorded in Denmark, is a boundlessly colorful suite featuring her own jazz group alongside the brilliant players of the 4Corners string quartet. The second disc, Many Places, recorded a year or so later in New Jersey, features her jazz quartet alone, stretching powerfully and beautifully.

At the Gallery, Anne Mette has traveled freely between these different worlds - during our first BJURecords festival last summer, and then in a triumphant return engagement in late October. "By turns rhapsodic and pulsing … a most impressive package," declares Paul Blair of Hot House. We agree!

Daniel Kelly Trio
Friday, June 26th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
BJURecords Festival - Week 2
Given the current state of the music business, it's never been more important for jazz artists to seize control of their own destinies. A number of them are pooling their resources and forming collectives; the Brooklyn Jazz Underground is but one example. These likeminded musicians have found strength in numbers, releasing three CD samplers from their various albums, billing their bands together on mini-festivals and also launching their own sister company and record label, BJURecords, an artist-run indie committed to creative and adventurous contemporary improvised music. In May 2008 we hailed the label launch with a mini-festival of our own, adding to the success of the BJU's recent festivals at Smalls. We are doing so again to mark the second wave of BJURecords releases. Where better than the Jazz Gallery, one of New York's prime incubators of young and forward-looking jazz talent?


Daniel Kelly – piano, Chris Tarry – bass, Jordan Perlson – drums
Daniel Kelly is a marvelous pianist and composer with several fine CDs to his credit, including World, Duets with Ghosts (highlighting Daniel's unique approach to electronic sound manipulation and sampler) and Portal, an improvised solo piano suite. His BJURecords debut is Emerge, a forceful and compelling trio outing that veers substantially into electric jazz. In addition to his work as a leader, Daniel performs regularly with bassist Harvie S and the genre-busting modern chamber ensemble the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Named by the State Department as a Jazz Ambassador, he has toured throughout the U.S., Europe, Southeast Asia, Africa and Central America. A committed music educator, Daniel is also artistic director of the nonprofit educational and music-presenting organization Connection Works, which has done a great deal to strengthen and popularize Brooklyn's jazz scene. Along with founder Rob Garcia and co-artistic director Michel Gentile, Daniel has organized and presented workshops for young people as well as an ongoing series of concerts featuring a variety of today's cutting-edge jazz ensembles.

Arthur Kell Quartet
Thursday, June 25th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
BJURecords Festival - Week 2
Given the current state of the music business, it's never been more important for jazz artists to seize control of their own destinies. A number of them are pooling their resources and forming collectives; the Brooklyn Jazz Underground is but one example. These likeminded musicians have found strength in numbers, releasing three CD samplers from their various albums, billing their bands together on mini-festivals and also launching their own sister company and record label, BJURecords, an artist-run indie committed to creative and adventurous contemporary improvised music. In May 2008 we hailed the label launch with a mini-festival of our own, adding to the success of the BJU's recent festivals at Smalls. We are doing so again to mark the second wave of BJURecords releases. Where better than the Jazz Gallery, one of New York's prime incubators of young and forward-looking jazz talent?


Arthur Kell - bass, Loren Stillman - alto saxophone, Brad Shepik - guitar, Mark Ferber - drums
Bassist and composer Arthur Kell is a New York jazz treasure, having worked with the likes of Thomas Chapin, Bobby Previte, Billy Bang, John McNeil, Eri Yamamoto and many others. His first two releases as a leader, See You in Zanzibar and Traveller, are now followed by his BJURecords debut, Victoria: Live in Germany, featuring the superb quartet you'll hear this week at the Gallery (with drummer Gerald Cleaver in the place of Joe Smith). A native of Massachusetts, Arthur studied music at the Oberlin Conservatory and has pursued many other life activities, including a stint as a prominent environmental activist and a traveler throughout Africa and Kyrgyzstan. In a four-month period in 1994-5, he traveled alone by local transportation from Senegal to the Indian Ocean, including 900 miles by camel through the Sahara desert in Niger and Chad. These experiences directly informed the music on Traveller and continue to spark and enliven his artistry. With Victoria, Arthur takes the next step in a remarkable journey.

MAKE MUSIC NEW YORK "Kofi Ghanaba: Memorial to the Divine Drummer" featuring Randy Weston
Sunday, June 21st, 2009 | 2:00 - 7:00 p.m.
FREE
Today's FREE concert will be held inside The Jazz Gallery due to the forecast.

The Jazz Gallery, in collaboration with Jazzmobile, joins in the third annual "Make Music New York" festivities on June 21 with a very special event: a tribute to the late Ghanaian percussionist Kofi Ghanaba, featuring Randy Weston with guests Obo Addy, Kwaku Martin Obeng and more.

The event is a very fitting follow-up to our 2008 tribute to the late Miguel "Angá" Díaz. Like Angá, Ghanaba embodied the philosophy the Jazz Gallery has championed from the moment we opened our doors as a performance venue: that jazz is an international language, youthful in spirit, progressive in outlook, conversant not only with the American jazz heritage but an array of folkloric traditions from around the globe, especially those originating in West Africa.

For his efforts, Kofi Ghanaba also became known by the honorary title Odomankoma Kyrema, meaning "the divine drummer." First known to music audiences as Guy Warren, he was born in Accra, Ghana in 1923 and left us, sadly enough, on December 22, 2008. He is widely considered the first African musician to find work on the American jazz scene. Before Olatunji, before Hugh Masekela, Ghanaba worked with jazz groups in Chicago and especially New York in the mid 1950s. He worked with greats on the order of Thelonious Monk, Lester Young and Charlie Parker before being signed to Decca Records. After returning to live in Ghana in the 1960s, he remained largely there, doing occasional concerts in London.

Among the titles in Ghanaba's remarkable discography: Africa Speaks, America Answers! (1956); Themes for African Drums: The Guy Warren Sounds (1958); and Emergent Drums - The Voice of Africa Speaks Through the Soundz of Guy Warren of Ghana (1963). Ghanaba also authored a strikingly unique autobiography, I Have a Story to Tell (Accra: Guinea Press, 1962) and appeared--largely as himself--in the 1993 film Sankofa.

In addition, Ghanaba had a very special connection to The Jazz Gallery. As part of a project in 1998 titled "Cross-Atlantic Rhythms," the Gallery received sponsorship from Ghana Airways to fly Ghanaba and his massive fontonfrom drums from Accra to New York. Ghanaba performed in Washingon Square Park with the great Randy Weston as part of the Greenwich Village Jazz Festival that year. Weston, a legendary and innovative pianist whose work in jazz has long investigated ties between Africa (particularly Morocco) and the U.S., goes back with Ghanaba to the mid-1960s, when he visited Ghana.

During his time in New York in 1998, Ghanaba visited regularly with a number of old friends, including Nellie Monk and Max Roach. He made a point of meeting Cecil Taylor and the two entertained each other with endless rounds of conversation, each equipped with massively detailed memory of events in New York in the 1950s.

Randy Weston will evoke fond memories of his association with Ghanaba during the Jazz Gallery's "Make Music New York" event on June 21. Born in Brooklyn in 1926, Weston has made his mark as an aesthetic descendant of Duke Ellington and Thelonious Monk and a unique stylist in his own right - a tale chronicled in African Rhythms, Weston's forthcoming as-told-to autobiography, written in collaboration with jazz journalist Willard Jenkins. With such albums as Uhuru Afrika and African Cookbook, Weston delved deep into African music through a jazz prism and made this his life's work. Inspired by a tour of Africa he undertook in 1967, Weston settled in Morocco for a time, ran a club called African Rhythms and began a long artistic love affair with Morocco's Gnawa culture and traditions. His collaborations with Langston Hughes, Melba Liston and others have proved timeless, and today Weston stands as a towering influence for a new generation of internationally minded jazz musicians and innovators.

Among Weston's guests will be Obo Addy, descended from the same Ga ethnic group as Ghanaba. He is part of a major musical family that includes brothers Mustapha Tettey Addy and Yacub Addy. Born in 1936, Obo Addy is considered one of the first African musicians to create the fusion of traditional music and Western pop known as worldbeat. The award-winning Addy teaches music at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Also joining Weston will be Kwaku Martin Obeng, a native of Ghana, who has taught the ceremonial songs, dances and traditional drumming of his country at Brown University since 1988. He's played a valuable role in the Jazz Gallery's mission as an international jazz cultural center, bringing the brilliance of his heritage to our stage in the company of such jazz instrumentalists as Taylor Ho Bynum, Bill Lowe and more. His vision of jazz as a diasporic language stretching from Africa to the New World is perfectly in keeping with Kofi Ghanaba's legacy.

Make Music New York is a live, free musical celebration across the city that is now marking its third year in existence. On June 21 each year, public space throughout the five boroughs - sidewalks, parks, community gardens, and more - become impromptu musical stages and dance floors and social meeting points, highlighting everything from hip-hop to opera to Latin jazz to punk rock. The event is based on France's Fete de la Musique, which has been a great success for 25 years. Since it was inaugurated, the festival has become an international phenomenon, celebrated on the same day in more than 300 cities in 108 countries, including Germany, Italy, Egypt, Syria, Morocco, Australia, Vietnam, Congo, Cameroon, Togo, Colombia, Chile, Mongolia and Japan.

The Jazz Gallery is proud to take part in this fun but also meaningful celebration, which highlights the arts' centrality to human societies around the globe.

The Jazz Gallery is a New York State-accredited cultural center that has long sought to highlight the significance and varied dimensions of Afro-Cuban musical traditions, and their ongoing relationship to jazz.

Guilherme Monteiro Quartet
Saturday, June 20th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
BJURecords Festival - Week 1
Given the current state of the music business, it's never been more important for jazz artists to seize control of their own destinies. A number of them are pooling their resources and forming collectives; the Brooklyn Jazz Underground is but one example. These likeminded musicians have found strength in numbers, releasing three CD samplers from their various albums, billing their bands together on mini-festivals and also launching their own sister company and record label, BJURecords, an artist-run indie committed to creative and adventurous contemporary improvised music. In May 2008 we hailed the label launch with a mini-festival of our own, adding to the success of the BJU's recent festivals at Smalls. For the next two weeks, we are doing so again to mark the second wave of BJURecords releases. Where better to do it than the Jazz Gallery, one of New York's prime incubators of young and forward-looking jazz talent?


Guilherme Monteiro - guitar, Jorge Continentino - tenor saxophone, Alexis Cuadrado - bass, Anthony Pinciotti - drums
Born in Rio de Janeiro in 1971, guitarist Guilherme Monteiro is celebrating the release of Air, his debut recording, which overflows with emotionally charged melodies, poetic solo statements, layered acoustic and electric guitar textures and beautiful ensemble interplay. In 1999 Guilherme was accepted to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute, and in 2000 he relocated to New York, where he has worked with figures on the order of Kenny Werner, Ron Carter, Harry Allen, Slide Hampton and many more. Recent recordings to feature Guilherme include Kurt Elling's Night Moves, Eliane Elias's Dreamer and Luciana Souza's Grammy-nominated Duos II. In addition, Guilherme is a member of Forro in the Dark and Duduka Da Fonseca Quintet, bands that are redefining Brazilian music in the new millennium. Guilhereme's Air features an inspired cast of musicians, including guest vocalists Lila Downs and Chiara Civello. This week at the Gallery he'll pare down to a quartet featuring BJURecords labelmate Alexis Cuadrado.

Alexis Cuadrado Cuarteto Ibérico
Friday, June 19th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
BJURecords Festival - Week 1
Given the current state of the music business, it's never been more important for jazz artists to seize control of their own destinies. A number of them are pooling their resources and forming collectives; the Brooklyn Jazz Underground is but one example. These likeminded musicians have found strength in numbers, releasing three CD samplers from their various albums, billing their bands together on mini-festivals and also launching their own sister company and record label, BJURecords, an artist-run indie committed to creative and adventurous contemporary improvised music. In May 2008 we hailed the label launch with a mini-festival of our own, adding to the success of the BJU's recent festivals at Smalls. For the next two weeks, we are doing so again to mark the second wave of BJURecords releases. Where better to do it than the Jazz Gallery, one of New York's prime incubators of young and forward-looking jazz talent?



Alexis Cuadrado - bass, George Colligan - piano, Brad Shepik - guitar, Jordan Perlson - drums/percussion
Barcelona-born Alexis Cuadrado arrived in New York in 1999 and has since established himself as one of the most engaging bassists and composers on the New York scene. He debuted as a leader in 2001 with Metro and followed up in 2004 with Visual, both on the Fresh Sound New Talent label. His latest, Puzzles, is his BJURecords debut: a swinging, deeply melodic outing that references everything from freebop to boogie, showcasing the brilliance of everyone involved. "I feel it is my most private record," Alexis stated in a recent interview. "It tells my personal story of the last three years. It was initially conceived in the home where I moved in 2004. My wife Ave and I bought a fixer-upper house in Brooklyn and I wrote all the songs as we were renovating the space. So both projects grew together." Deepening the Brooklyn connection even further, Alexis decided to record Puzzles in his living room, giving it an exceptionally intimate, organic feel - something the Gallery is uniquely suited to preserve. This week, Alexis hits the stage in a different but related context, fronting his engaging Cuarteto Ibérico.

Bernard - Emer - Beckham - Cole
Thursday, June 18th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
BJURecords Festival - Week 1
Given the current state of the music business, it's never been more important for jazz artists to seize control of their own destinies. A number of them are pooling their resources and forming collectives; the Brooklyn Jazz Underground is but one example. These likeminded musicians have found strength in numbers, releasing three CD samplers from their various albums, billing their bands together on mini-festivals and also launching their own sister company and record label, BJURecords, an artist-run indie committed to creative and adventurous contemporary improvised music. In May 2008 we hailed the label launch with a mini-festival of our own, adding to the success of the BJU's recent festivals at Smalls. For the next two weeks, we are doing so again to mark the second wave of BJURecords releases. Where better to do it than the Jazz Gallery, one of New York's prime incubators of young and forward-looking jazz talent?


Will Bernard - guitar, Andrew Emer - bass, Tom Beckham - vibes, Henry Cole - drums
Guitarist Will Bernard and bassist Andrew Emer, in a collaborative quartet with pianist Benny Lackner and drummer Mark Ferber, issued their first release, Night For Day, on BJURecords in 2008. Together they created a unique blend of sounds comprised of Bernard's blues and New Orleans-style groove influences blended with Emer and Lackner's free-form compositions. Will has been nominated for a Grammy in the contemporary jazz category, and Andrew has toured and performed with jazz legends including Billy Higgins, Lee Konitz and Donald Byrd. This week the two join forces with vibraphonist Tom Beckham and drummer Henry Cole in another collaborative venture with a different blend of textures and personalities. Tom has a number of invigorating releases to his credit, most recently Center Songs and Rebound.

Miles Okazaki CD Release Party for Generations
Friday, June 12th, 2009 to Saturday, June 13th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Miles Okazaki - guitar, David Binney/Miguel Zenon/Christof Knoche - alto saxophones, Hans Glawischnig - bass, Dan Weiss - drums, Jen Shyu - voice

Praised by Hot House for his "encyclopedic command of guitar styles," and by the New York Times as "an exceedingly skilled guitarist with a head for rhythmic convolution," Miles Okazaki played the Jazz Gallery to mark the release of his 2007 debut CD, Mirror - which the great Rodney Jones described as "a landmark in recorded guitar literature." In September 2008, with the support of a New Works commission from Chamber Music America, Miles premiered a new extended piece for septet called "Generations." The studio recording of that project is now available from Sunnyside, and Miles arrives back on our bandstand this week to celebrate its release.

Miles is a musician who paints in bold strokes, imbuing every passage with a sense of grandeur and mystery, not to mention rhythmic complexity. Born in 1974, he grew up in Port Townsend, WA and studied mathematics at Harvard but ultimately embarked on a career in music, settling in New York in 1997 and going on to finish second in the 2005 Monk guitar competition. He has distinguished himself as a sideman with Steve Coleman and Five Elements, Jen Shyu's Jade Tongue and many other ensembles, and can also be heard accompanying Dan Weiss on the drummer's remarkable Tintal Drumset Solo.

Miles's Mirror grew out of a student-run workshop in the late '90s at the Manhattan School of Music, involving him and his classmates Weiss, Christof Knoche and Miguel Zenon. Generations - involving the same extraordinary players - expands on the themes from Mirror, exploring ideas of organic generation, growth and metamorphosis in musical form and improvisation.

Angelica Sanchez Quintet
Thursday, June 11th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Angelica Sanchez - piano, Marc Ducret - guitar, Tony Malaby - saxophones, Drew Gress - bass, Tom Rainey - drums

Pianist Angelica Sanchez has developed a hugely impressive body of work as a composer and improviser, leading her own groups as well as a collaborative trio with acclaimed saxophonist Tony Malaby (her husband) and drummer Tom Rainey. According to critic Jim Macnie, Angelica, a native of Arizona, has "brought a big imagination with her from the Southwest, and the open-ended approach of her pianistics accounts for the sprawling terrain around which she grew up." The Village Voice hails her work as "an attempt to throw a lasso around a massive piece of keyboard history." Her 2003 debut Mirror Me was widely hailed for its craft and intensity. Her quintet follow-up, Life Between, is a remarkable summit with Malaby, Rainey, French guitar maverick Marc Ducret and in-demand bassist Drew Gress, all of whom join her this week at the Gallery. "What sets [Sanchez's music] apart," according to Nate Chinen of the New York Times, "is [her] instinct as a composer, which favors a more harmonious brand of abstraction."

The Jazz Gallery Presents: Large Ensemble Commissions 2008 - 2009 featuring Sherisse Rogers' Project Uprising
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 to Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Erica vonKleist/Dave Riekenberg/Felipe Salles/Mike Webster/Dave Richards - saxophones, Nathan Warner/Ingrid Jensen (27th)/Colin Bridestock (28th)/Nadje Noordhuis/James de la Garza - trumpets, Nate Mayland/Mike Boscarino/John Yao/Max Seigel - trombones, Jesse Stacken - piano, Jesse Lewis - guitar, Ike Sturm - bass, Obed Calvaire - drums, Jon Wiken - percussion, Yoon Choi/Nathan Hetherington/Charenee Wade - vocals

Following phenomenal engagements by Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Josh Roseman's Extended Constellations, the Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, the Gregg August Large Ensemble, the David Binney String Project, Jason Lindner's Breeding Ground, Yosvany Terry's "Identities" project and John Ellis's "The Ice Siren" premiere, the Jazz Gallery is proud to announce the ninth and final event of our Large Ensemble Commissions Series: two evenings with the brilliant composer and bandleader Sherisse Rogers, who will premiere newly commissioned works for her big band Project Uprising.

The big band idiom is iconic and historically pivotal in jazz. It is also a living tradition, able to absorb and express the full range of modernist concerns of a new generation of jazz composers and arrangers. With this series, The Jazz Gallery seeks to underscore the continuing vitality of the big band idea, which has never ceased evolving but has faced considerable economic disadvantages for many decades. In facilitating the premiere of these new extended works, The Jazz Gallery deepens its commitment not only to the artists themselves, but also to America's indispensable art form, jazz.

Philadelphia-born composer and multi-instrumentalist Sherisse Rogers initially trained on piano, switched to saxophone and finally arrived at the bass. She has won a series of prestigious composition and arranging prizes in recent years, beginning in 2001 with an ASCAP award and culminating most recently in 2008 with top honors in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Composers Competition. She is the first-ever female winner of the Monk Composers Competition. By age 30, Rogers is also a two-time winner of the ASCAP Foundation's Young Jazz Composer Competition and recipient of BMI's Sixth Annual Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize, the ASCAP/IAJE Emerging Composer Award and the 2007 Meet The Composer Van Lier Fellowship. Having earned a Masters in jazz composition from the Manhattan School of Music, Rogers cites influences from Gil Evans to Maria Schneider, Kenny Wheeler and Jim McNeely. Of her debut recording with her Project Uprising ensemble, Sleight of Hand, the legendary Dave Holland said: "Great ideas, beautifully crafted and played."

Of her Jazz Gallery Large Ensemble Commissions project, Sherisse says: "These new pieces very much reflect the changes and transformation that I've gone though over this past year. 'Querencia,' in particular, is very special in this way. In bullfighting, the place where the bull is safe from the matador is called the Querencia. It is essentially the 'safe-place.' Over the past year I've learned to find my 'safe place.'"

The Jazz Gallery Large Ensemble Commissions Series is made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, with additional funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and Meet the Composer.

Marcus Strickland Trio
Friday, June 5th, 2009 to Saturday, June 6th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Marcus Strickland - saxophones, Ben Williams - bass, EJ Strickland - drums

On three previous occasions, we have had the pleasure of showcasing rising star tenor/soprano saxophonist Marcus Strickland in the saxophone-bass-drums format, and we're happy to announce that he's back to do it again this week - now in anticipation of his extraordinary trio album Idiosyncracies.

It's no accident that Ben Ratliff concludes his recently published book Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by quoting Marcus at length on the subject of Coltrane's enormously complex legacy. Along with his identical twin brother, drummer E. J. Strickland, who just released his own debut In This Day (and who joins us for this week's performance), Marcus has become known over the last decade as one of jazz's most authoritative figures. The Strickland twins celebrated their 30th birthday in February.

Jazz Times magazine has described Marcus's playing as "liquid and luminous, yet forceful and exact." Jim Macnie praises the saxophonist's "ability to fashion an artistic statement that blends uninhibited ideas with pride and self-awareness." Marcus has appeared on the Grammy-nominated recordings Fountain of Youth (Roy Haynes) and Keystone (Dave Douglas), and can also be heard on Douglas's follow-up Moonshine. Other credits include Mos Def, Christian McBride, David Gilmore, Jeff "Tain" Watts's Ebonix and the Charles Tolliver Big Band. Marcus has also logged many important performances here at the Gallery, not least of all with his quasi-electric band Twi-Life, which released the acclaimed Open Reel Deck in 2007. In the trio setting, Marcus offers a whole new angle on his improvisational gifts.

Brad Shepik "Human Activity Suite"
Thursday, June 4th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Brad Shepik - guitar/tambura/saz, Ralph Alessi - trumpet, Gary Versace - piano/accordion, Jorge Roeder - bass, Mark Giuliana - drums

Over the last two decades, guitarist Brad Shepik has built a reputation as one of New York's most eclectic and imaginative players and composers. The Seattle native comes at jazz guitar tradition from many oblique angles, incorporating the improvisational freedom of the downtown scene as well as ethnic influences from around the world - the Balkans and Eastern Europe, the Middle East and beyond. Working with a variety of his own groups as well as Pachora, Simon Shaheen, Joey Baron, the Paradox Trio, Dave Douglas's Tiny Bell Trio, Lingua Franca, George Schuller's Circle Wide and others, Brad has developed an unpredictable body of work and an impressive capacity as a multi-instrumentalist, playing saz and tambura as well as guitar.

With his latest Songlines release, Human Activity Suite: Sounding a Response to Climate Change, Brad extends a long tradition of composers, in jazz and beyond, who have brought social consciousness to bear on their art. Praising the result as "downright orchestral," critic Stuart Broomer says: "It's the meditative richness of the music - its compelling sense of endangered cultures and the quiet intensity of its feelings - that gives this work its character…. Shepik [is] able to find subtle nuance even within a concentrated electric sound…. A frequent use of modal underpinnings knits together Shepik's music, a sense of larger unities under the detailed and sometimes fractured surfaces. It's an effective combination of extended composition and developed group dialogue."

The Jazz Gallery Presents: Large Ensemble Commissions 2008 - 2009 featuring John Ellis "The Ice Siren"
Friday, May 29th, 2009 to Saturday, May 30th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
John Ellis - saxophones/woodwinds, Hiroko Taguchi - violin, Olivier Manchon - violin, Corrina Albright - viola, Christopher Hoffman - cello, Tim Collins - vibes, Mike Moreno - guitar, Marcus Rojas - tuba, Daniel Freedman - percussion, Miles Griffith - voice, Gretchen Parlato - voice

Every Sunday, the man leaves roses for his dead lover. One spring afternoon, an ethereal voice lures him downward, into the crypt...

Following phenomenal two-night engagements by Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Josh Roseman's Extended Constellations, the Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, the Gregg August Large Ensemble, the David Binney String Project, Jason Lindner's Breeding Ground and Yosvany Terry's "Identities" project, the Jazz Gallery is proud to announce the eighth and penultimate event of our Large Ensemble Commissions Series: two evenings with the brilliant saxophonist, composer and bandleader John Ellis, who will premiere a newly commissioned suite co-written with playwright Andy Bragen and titled "The Ice Siren." This is a through-composed hour-long musical narrative piece, a "jazz opera" in development.

The big band idiom is iconic and historically pivotal in jazz. It is also a living tradition, able to absorb and express the full range of modernist concerns of a new generation of jazz composers and arrangers. With this series, The Jazz Gallery seeks to underscore the continuing vitality of the big band idea, which has never ceased evolving but has faced considerable economic disadvantages for many decades. In facilitating the premiere of these new extended works, The Jazz Gallery deepens its commitment not only to the artists themselves, but also to America's indispensable art form, jazz.

Born and raised in the rural "tobacco country" of North Carolina, now living in New York, saxophonist and composer John Ellis has brought a body of rich Southern folkloric material into his writing, leavening it with a finely wrought jazz sensibility. This is apparent on his recordings Roots, Branches and Leaves, One Foot In The Swamp, By a Thread and most recently, the sousaphone-driven Dance Like There's No Tomorrow. Ellis has spent significant periods of time in the musical cauldron of New Orleans. He has studied and performed with Ellis Marsalis, toured extensively in Singapore and other Far Eastern ports of call and worked as a member of bands lead by drummer Jason Marsalis, bassist Todd Sickafoose, guitarist Charlie Hunter and R&B sensation Bilal Oliver. He took second place in the 2002 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, but he also regularly displays his talents on melodica, bass clarinet, ocarina and Wurlitzer.

"The Ice Siren" is an hour-long composition with music by John Ellis and libretto by playwright Andy Bragen. The piece features an 11-piece ensemble including two singers. This is Ellis and Bragen's second collaboration - the first, "Dreamscapes," had its premiere at the Jazz Gallery during the venue's Composers Series II in December 2007. A single composition, largely sung through, "The Ice Siren" draws on traditions in jazz, opera and theatre. Taking inspiration from horror films, nightmares, puppetry and animated films, it is scary, romantic and sometimes quite funny.

In "The Ice Siren," a young man visits his dead lover's crypt and is lured down into it by an ethereal voice. Once in the crypt he discovers a moonlit frozen lake, and again he is drawn forward, as if in a dream, toward the mysterious voice, which may or may not belong to his dead lover. The siren claims her victim, seducing him and wrapping him up with ice, so that they may freeze together, for eternity.

Andy Bragen, a graduate of Brown University's MFA Program in Literary Arts, is the winner of the 2007 Clubbed Thumb Biennial Commission. Other honors include a Tennessee Williams Fellowship from the University of the South, a Jerome Fellowship, a New Voices Fellowship from Ensemble Studio Theatre, a Dramatists Guild Fellowship, and residencies at Millay Colony and Blue Mountain Center. The Hairy Dutchman, commissioned by the University of Rochester, will be produced there in April 2009. Spuyten Duyvil, which Andy developed at the 2004 Seven Devils Playwrights Conference, was produced by Brown/Trinity Playwrights Rep. in July 2008. Greater Messapia was produced at Queens Theatre in the Park in March 2004. Also a translator, Andy works directly from French and Spanish, and with a co-translator from the Japanese. Vengeance Can Wait, workshopped at the 2006 Playlabs Conferences in Minneapolis, was produced at PS122 in April 2008. Other plays and translations have been seen and heard at numerous theatres in New York and elsewhere, including The Guthrie Theatre, Ars Nova, Rattlestick, LAByrinth, EST, Repertorio Español, Soho Think Tank, Page 73 Productions, NYU's hotINK Festival, The Illusion Theatre, The Aurora Theatre and the Lark Theatre. More information is available at www.andybragen.com.

*

Don't miss the concluding event in the Jazz Gallery Large Ensemble Series Commissions Series:

Sherisse Rogers's Uprising: June 9 & 10, 2009

The Jazz Gallery Large Ensemble Commissions Series is made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, with additional funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and Meet the Composer.

Nir Felder Quartet
Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Nir Felder - guitar, Jon Cowherd - piano, John Hebert - bass, Mark Giuliana - drums

Raised in the New York suburbs, schooled at Berklee and now based in Brooklyn, guitarist Nir Felder has quickly become one of the most in-demand musicians in jazz, playing in Greg Osby's sextet, Adam Niewood's Rabble Rousers, David Weiss's Point of Departure, the Sunny Jain Collective, Francisco Mela's groups and most recently Chuck Mangione's band (replacing the tragically departed Coleman Mellett). Gallery regulars will also remember Nir from fiery appearances with Ben Wendel, the David Binney Big Band, Josh Roseman's Extended Constellations and Rudy Royston's 303 Sextet. Nir has a fluid soloistic approach, an advanced harmonic ear and an edgy sound thanks to his choice of a solidbody guitar. This week he'll front a streamlined quartet. Don't miss it!

The Jazz Gallery Presents: Large Ensemble Commissions 2008 - 2009 featuring Yosvany Terry "Identities"
Friday, May 22nd, 2009 to Saturday, May 23rd, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Yosvany Terry - saxophones, tba - tenor saxophone, Michael Rodriguez/Avishai Cohen - trumpets, tba - French horns, Jason Lindner - keyboard, Osmany Paredes - piano, Marcus Rojas - tuba, Joe Sanders - bass, Obed Calvaire - drums, Luisito Quintero - percussion

Following phenomenal two-night engagements by Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Josh Roseman's Extended Constellations, the Pedro Giraudo Jazz Orchestra, the Gregg August Large Ensemble, the David Binney String Project and Jason Lindner's Breeding Ground, the Jazz Gallery is proud to announce the seventh event of our Large Ensemble Commissions Series: two evenings with the brilliant saxophonist, composer and bandleader Yosvany Terry, who will premiere a newly commissioned suite titled "Identities."

The big band idiom is iconic and historically pivotal in jazz. It is also a living tradition, able to absorb and express the full range of modernist concerns of a new generation of jazz composers and arrangers. With this series, The Jazz Gallery seeks to underscore the continuing vitality of the big band idea, which has never ceased evolving but has faced considerable economic disadvantages for many decades. In facilitating the premiere of these new extended works, The Jazz Gallery deepens its commitment not only to the artists themselves, but also to America's indispensable art form, jazz.

Born in Camaguey, Cuba, saxophonist Yosvany Terry received his earliest musical training from his father, Eladio "Don Pancho" Terry, a noted violinist and Cuba's leading player of the chekeré (gourd percussion). Terry was a major force behind Columna B, a group of talented musicians dedicated to finding a new direction for modern Cuban music. In 1999 Terry made his way to New York and has since become an important contributor to the city's extremely lively international music scene. In addition to sideman appearances with artists such as Enrico Pieranunzi, Antonio Hart, Horacio "El Negro" Hernandez, Eddie Palmieri, Me'shell Ndegeocello, Avishai Cohen and Dafnis Prieto, he has released two powerful CDs under his own name, Twisted Noon (Bombo Music, 2001) and Metamorphosis (Kindred Rhythm, 2006). Terry has recently begun working with larger ensembles, bringing some of the writing and arranging talents he initially employed with the 14-piece band Cubanismo when he was still living in Cuba.

Project description, from the artist:

We live in a cosmopolitan world where information and knowledge travels along with the global diaspora of cultural migration. Today, more than ever, communities and artists play a crucial role in preserving the arts of our ancestors and advancing them to the next generation. There have been times of important cultural exchange as well as times of isolation among the musicians and artists of this diaspora. The exchanges have enriched the culture of the U.S., while the periods of isolation created gaps in the natural ways culture is passed from one generation to the next, allowing it to mix and morph.

Beginning in the 19th century there was a rich cultural exchange among the Caribbean Islands and the U.S., primarily through New Orleans, which was considered a part of the Caribbean with its important seaport. For almost 200 years the peoples of these islands, free and slave, mixed and exchanged culture even when it was forbidden by law.

Revolutions and economic expansion caused island residents from the African diaspora to migrate among the islands looking for work, carrying with them their cultural heritage. Travelers visiting New Orleans, the Caribbean and the Mississippi delta could breathe a common air and experience both the differences and similarities in their neighbors' cultures. This natural exchange began to diminish in the 20th century thanks to various political situations that arose in Haiti, Cuba, the Dominican Republic and the U.S.

The confluence of European and African influences has given birth to a rich variety of genres and styles of music forming the mosaic of the Caribbean and North American culture; these will be the focal point of my project. My own cultural heritage is Haitian, Jamaican and Cuban. This combined musical influence, as well as my classical training and immersion in the American jazz canon, provides the palate I use in my compositions.

I propose to delve into this enduring legacy of mixed and diverse cultural heritage through the composition of a new suite that will draw on the history of the cultural interactions of the peoples of the Caribbean and their representations in today's musical context. This suite will explore Afro-Caribbean culture as well as jazz and its presence and evolution within the 21st century in the U.S., as represented in the sounds and rhythms of jazz, Afro-Cuban jazz and much of what is called contemporary American music. - Yosvany Terry

Don't miss our two remaining events in the Jazz Gallery Large Ensemble Series Commissions Series:

John Ellis's Dreamscapes: May 29 & 30, 2009
Sherisse Rogers's Uprising: June 9 & 10, 2009

The Jazz Gallery Large Ensemble Commissions Series is made possible with support from the Jerome Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs and the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, with additional funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and Meet the Composer.

Jen Shyu & Jade Tongue
Thursday, May 21st, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Jen Shyu - vocals/piano/dance, David Binney - saxophone, Shane Endsley - trumpet, Thomas Morgan - bass, Miles Okazaki- guitar, Dan Weiss - drums

Jen Shyu has seized the attention of jazz audiences with her complex, adventurous singing in Steve Coleman's groundbreaking Five Elements. She appears with Coleman on the Label Bleu albums Lucidarium and Weaving Symbolics, as well as the recent efforts of pathbreaking artists such as Miles Okazaki (Generations). Earlier this month she played an important role in the two-night appearance of Positive Catastrophe, a unique collaboration of Taylor Ho Bynum and Abraham Gomez Delgado, celebrating the release of their Garabatos Volume One - a CD on which Jen shines brilliantly. Her performance here this week follows a May 1 collaboration at Kampo Cultural Center with dancer/choreographer Satoshi Haga.

Born and raised in Peoria, Illinois, by immigrant parents from East Timor and Taiwan, Jen studied dance, piano and violin from a young age, gaining a thorough education in classical music, ballet and opera. In recent years she traveled to Taiwan to research Taiwanese folk and aboriginal music, and to Cuba to study Afro-Cuban traditions and explore the history of the Chinese Cubans. Her latest release, Jade Tongue, documents a project that she began developing here on the Jazz Gallery bandstand back in 2007. It paints the throbbing landscape of Chinese labor narratives from 19th-century colonial Cuba and other stories, in the form of ritual invocation. Jen will present music from Jade Tongue as well as new material from a MacDowell residency.

Myron Walden Countryfied
Friday, May 15th, 2009 to Saturday, May 16th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
Myron Walden - tenor saxophone, Jared Gold - Hammond B3 organ, Kenneth Salters - drums

On saxophone, or on any instrument for that matter, there are few players in jazz as passionate and expressive as Myron Walden, a New York native since age 12. Handling all saxes as well as bass clarinet and flute, Myron is an indispensable voice in bands as powerful and influential as the Brian Blade Fellowship and David Weiss's New Jazz Composers Octet. He has worked with such greats as Ray Barretto, Tom Harrell, Freddie Hubbard and Dave Douglas, and also left a profound mark on the music of those paving the way for jazz in the new century, including Jeremy Pelt, Jason Lindner, Kendrick Scott and Omer Avital.

Not least of all, Myron has developed an impressive track record as a leader, composer and arranger, with six fine albums to his credit, the latest being Higher Ground and This Way on the Fresh Sound label. "Walden's sound, plaintive, shot through with a bluesy wail, is fully his own," writes Marc Meyers of All About Jazz. In November of last year, here at the Gallery, Myron premiered a new organ trio called Country-Fried, in which he summoned all the fire and fury for which he's so well known. "It's a cross-breed of various styles," says Myron of the project, "but its source is the blues."

The Le Boeuf Brothers
Thursday, May 14th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Remy Le Boeuf - alto saxophone, Mike Ruby - tenor saxophone, Pascal Le Boeuf - piano
Rick Roato - Bass, Greg Ritchie - drums

Brother teams have played a pronounced role in jazz, not least of all here at the Jazz Gallery, where we've presented Marcus and E.J. Strickland, Michael and Robert Rodriguez, Luques and Zaccai Curtis and more. This week we're proud to announce the Gallery debut of Remy and Pascal Le Boeuf (alto saxophone and piano, respectively). The identical twins and Santa Cruz, CA natives have been praised for their "rich brand of modern jazz" (San Francisco Chronicle); hailed as "excellent players … burning through modernist grooves with poise, emotional depth and creative fire" (All About Jazz).

The young brothers have garnered an impressive tally of national and international awards, including the ASCAP/IAJE Commission honoring Quincy Jones (and featuring Chris Potter) in 2004. Both 2007 Manhattan School of Music graduates, they have pursued independent paths since earning their degrees: Remy has developed multiple projects incorporating 20th-century classical composition, while Pascal has traveled around the U.S. and Canada, writing and collaborating with various artists for a soon-to-be-released rock/electronica album under the alias "iPascal." They have now reunited to release House Without a Door, the vibrant follow-up to 2005's Deuces Wild and 2006's Migration. Please join them as they explore their well-wrought compositions with a tightly focused quintet.

Taylor Ho Bynum & Abraham Gomez-Delgado: Positive Catastrophe
Friday, May 8th, 2009 to Saturday, May 9th, 2009

9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members
CD release event for Garabatos Volume One on Cuneiform Records.

Taylor Ho Bynum – cornet/flugelhorn/co-leader, Abraham Gomez-Delgado – percussion/voice/co-leader, Jen Shyu – voice/erhu, Mark Taylor – french horn/mellophone, Reut Regev – trombone/flugelbone, Jim Hobbs - alto saxophone, Michael Attias – baritone saxophone, Pete Fitzpatrick – electric guitar, Alvaro Benavides – electric bass, Tomas Fujiwara – drums

In February 2008 we had the pleasure of presenting cornetist Taylor Ho Bynum and multi-instrumentalist Abraham Gomez-Delgado in a vibrant collaboration they called Positive Catastrophe, a "trans-idiomatic" 10-piece little big band. We are proud to welcome them back to celebrate the release of Positive Catastrophe's debut CD on Cuneiform, Garabatos Volume One. Says the New York Press: "[The group] maintains a playful, even giddy vibe as it blends its Latin, swing, and progressive vibes so that they're each recognizable but delightfully warped."

Bynum, "one of the savviest trumpeters to come along in recent years, a growling sound-and-space man in the tradition of Lester Bowie" (Francis Davis), has worked extensively with Anthony Braxton, Cecil Taylor and a host of others, establishing himself as one of the premier improvisers and interdisciplinary musical thinkers of his generation. He's committed to the legacies of 20th-century masters like Ellington, Ives and the AACM while adding a third millennial flavor and a trickster sensibility.

Here at the Gallery, Taylor has taken part in two recent celebrations of the New Haven-based Firehouse 12 label. In November 2008 he appeared here over two nights with no fewer than three different ensembles, including SpiderMonkey Strings and the sextet heard on Asphalt Flowers Forking Paths (hatOLOGY).

Gomez-Delgado has been described as "the new century's mad scientist, creating a musical hybrid so seemingly wrong it can be nothing but right" (Global Rhythm); Bynum is "as animated as a vintage Loony Tune...one of the most exciting figures in jazz's new power generation" (Steve Dollar, Time Out Chicago). Together they've formed a freewheeling ensemble that connects the dots between Sun Ra and Willie Colon, coming up with something both uniquely distinctive and marvelously fun.

Uptown Trio
Thursday, May 7th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Sam Reider - piano, Jeff Picker - bass, Jake Goldbas - drums

Making its Jazz Gallery debut this week, the Uptown Trio consists of three friends whose musical bonds date back to high school, and who share a love simple melodies and the folk music they grew up listening to. Based in New York, the Uptown Trio recently completed a mini-tour of New England, performing in the New Britain Museum of American Art's Sunday Jazz Series and headlining a benefit concert with tenor saxophonist Jimmy Greene. In May and June of 2008, the group made its first tour of the West Coast, performing in Yakima (Washington), Portland, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz. In San Francisco, they sold out the new 450-seat Yoshi's and then flew across country to perform at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. As part of larger ensembles, they've performed several times at Dizzy's at Jazz at Lincoln Center and appeared at the Monterey Jazz Festival and the IAJE convention. In May 2008, the Uptown Trio released its debut album Without Strings, presenting eight original compositions plus a cover of the folk song "City of New Orleans."

Gael Horellou Quartet
Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 | 9:00 & 10:30 p.m.
1st set: $15.00 / $10.00 for Members
2nd set: $10.00 / $5.00 for Members
Gaêl Horellou - alto saxophone, Jean-Sébastien Simonoviez - piano, François Gallix - bass, Ari Hoenig - drums

This concert has been made possible with support from Chamber Music America and French American Cultural Jazz Exchange's CMA/FACE French American Cultural Jazz Exchange Program, funded though the generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Cultural Services of French Embassy, Le Bureau Export de la Musique Française and Cultures-France.

Alto saxophonist Gaël Horellou makes a fiery showing on his double-disc outing Pour La Terre, playing mostly original music in a creative postbop vein. With support from Chamber Music America and the French American Cultural Jazz Exchange, we're proud to present Gaël in his U.S. debut, backed by a smoking quartet featuring superstar American drummer Ari Hoenig.

At 33, Gaël is an important figure in the European electro-jazz scene, working in drum-n-bass, electro-acoustic and ambient dub genres in such bands as NHX and Cosmik Connection. However, Gaël is fully capable of tearing it up in an acoustic jazz vein. Pour La Terre, recorded live in May 2008 at Le Sunside in Paris, reveals a mature approach to swing and composition and a deep love of the American tradition, as represented by such classics as Jackie McLean's "Melody for Melonae." With Ari Hoenig's supple groove and the rich improvisational approach of pianist Jean-Sebastien Simonoviez and bassist François Gallix, Gaël is sure to give Gallery audiences something to remember.

"Steve Coleman Presents"
Monday, May 4th, 2009 | 9:00 p.m. - Midnight
$15.00 / $10.00 for Members and Students with I.D.
Don't miss Steve Coleman's final workshop of the current season! The sessions will resume in the fall. For those who have not attended before: this is a class, not a concert. It offers a unique opportunity to explore Steve's musical and philosophical ideas. The format and focus may vary from week to week. In general, Steve discusses his system of composition in detail, sometimes in the context of a single tune, so that attendees can discover new approaches to rhythm, tension and balance. All are welcome.