Miles Okazaki - guitar
Caroline Davis - alto saxophone
Jon Irabagon - tenor saxophone
Anna Webber - tenor saxophone
Jacob Garchik - trombone
Hannah Marks - bass
Chris Tordini - bass
Matt Mitchell - piano
Dan Weiss - drums
TWO NIGHT ALBUM RELEASE SHOW
Over two decades guitarist and composer Miles Okazaki has built a body of work marked by rigor and restless curiosity. With Boomtown, his ninth album of original compositions and his fourth as a leader for Pi Recordings, he presents a large-scale, finely wrought, sometimes unruly work that hurtles forward with narrative force. The album continues the themes of Miniature America from 2024, described by pianist Ethan Iverson as “meticulously assembled, absolutely a blast to listen to, and informed by a generous – even carefree – spirit.” As on that album, Okazaki has assembled ten musicians: saxophonists Caroline Davis, Jon Irabagon, and Anna Webber, trombonists Jacob Garchik and Kalia Vandever, bassists Chris Tordini and Hannah Marks, Matt Mitchell on piano, Dan Weiss on drums, and Okazaki on guitar. It’s a group designed for precision and spontaneity alike, and cast with intentionally different voices on the same instruments to further explore the album’s sense of opposing energies. When asked to describe the process for this album, Okazaki responds:
"I believe that all humans are creative by nature, and that all places can be locations of inspiration – if you look closely enough. The music for this album came to me on August 21, 2024 while driving across the state of Wyoming. The feeling was something about magic combined with terror. For me there's no explanation for how or why the music arrives, but I think it's possible to set ideas in motion and then try to be observant enough to catch them if they come back to you and ask for attention. I'd say that's basically how I compose. On that particular day, I had released Miniature America a month before and my thoughts were on the scale of things. Some melodies and forms came to mind, and I did my best to translate them into what you have here. The Romantic poets had a notion of the ‘sublime’ – it's not the same as beauty, which is a surface level thing. The sublime includes some element that you can't get your mind around, something simultaneously transcendental and terrifying. I'm drawn to portraits of America that deal with this polarity. This is a place of miraculous creativity and dreaming mixed with incredible greed, callousness, and suffering. I'm a person who works with the dual nature of things, and this my attempt at making a kind of ugly beauty.”
General Seating $33 ($22 for members; $16.50 for student members)
Cabaret Seating $44 ($27.50 for members)
Livestream $22 ($7.50 for members)
FREE WITH SUMMERPASS
*Pricing listed includes online purchasing fees. Fees not applicable for in-person sales.
LIVESTREAM TICKETS COMING SOON!
MILES OKAZAKI
Miles Okazaki is a NYC-based guitarist originally from Port Townsend, a small seaside town in Washington State. His approach to the guitar is described by the New York Times as “utterly contemporary, free from the expectations of what it means to play a guitar in a group setting — not just in jazz, but any kind.” His touring and recording experience over three decades includes work with Kenny Barron, John Zorn, Steve Coleman, Miguel Zenón, Stanley Turrentine, Henry Threadgill, Patricia Brennan, Dan Weiss, Anthony Tidd, Adam Rudolph, Anna Webber, Matt Mitchell, Mary Halvorson, Jonathan Finlayson, Jen Shyu, Jacob Garchik, Jon Irabagon, Jane Monheit, Amir ElSaffar, Darcy James Argue, and many others. He has released 12 albums of original compositions over the last 12 years on the Sunnyside, Pi, and Cygnus labels. In 2018 Okazaki received wide critical acclaim for his six-album recording of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar, an unprecedented project that Nate Chinen called “the six-string equivalent of a free solo climb up El Capitan.” In 2024 he recorded the entire songbook again from memory in a one night, five-hour concert filmed at The Jazz Gallery in NYC. In addition, Okazaki was voted the #1 rising star guitarist in the Downbeat Magazine critic’s poll, has published a book Fundamentals of Guitar on Mel Bay, teaches at Princeton University, and holds degrees from Harvard University, Manhattan School of Music, and the Juilliard School.
SPONSORSHIP
The Jazz Gallery is a not-for-profit arts organization presenting emerging artists who challenge convention, take creative risks, and lead their field as performers, composers and thinkers. We provide a platform for artists to discover their unique voice and a home for established musicians to continue to experiment and grow. At The Jazz Gallery, artists and audiences come together from around the world to explore new creative ideas, collaborate and celebrate jazz as a dynamic art form that reflects our ever-changing world.
We rely on the generosity of our members and community to keep the music playing, thank you for your continued and much appreciated support! If you would like to sponsor a Livestream Concert, please use the links above or be in touch with our Executive Director, Janet Luhrs, here.