Sean Jones Quartet

Playing on June 9, 2013
Penn Ave Stage II
1:15-2:15pm

Sean Jones is a trumpeter, composer and educator. He was formerly the lead trumpet player with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra directed by Wynton Marsalis. Jones is currently a professor of Jazz Studies at Duquesne University and has eight critically acclaimed jazz albums to his credit.

The multi Grammy Award nominee is particularly adept at plumbing complex emotional plateaus through his trumpet playing and composing. Most recently, he’s toured with Herbie Hancock, Marcus Miller and Wayne Shorter in Europe with a project that celebrated the Miles Davis legacy.

Jones’ heart stopping quartet consists of Philadelphia-based pianist Orrin Evans, bassist Luques Curtis,  and Miami-born drummer Obed Calvaire. No matter what angle they take on the subject, Jones and company’s blazing interactions reveals what any jazz fan knows is the greatest love of all: that between an artist and his music. As Jones says, “I like to play from the heart and not the head.”

Gregory Porter

Playing on June 9, 2013
Penn Ave Stage II
3:00-4:00pm

Raised in California, Porter’s mother was a minister, and he cites the Bakersfield Southern Gospel sound, as well as his mother’s Nat King Cole record collection, as fundamental influences on his own sound. Porter began singing in small jazz clubs in San Diego while attending San Diego State University on a football scholarship, where he played outside linebacker. Eventually it was music that Porter chose to pursue full-time at the encouragement of local musicians including his mentor Kamau Kenyatta.

Kenyatta invited Porter to visit him in the studio in Los Angeles, where he was producing the flutist Hubert Laws’ album Remembers the Unforgettable Nat King Cole. When Laws overheard Porter singing along while he was tracking the Charlie Chaplin song “Smile,” the flutist was so impressed with the young singer that he decided to include Porter on the album.
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Roger Humphries

Playing on June 9, 2013
9th Street Stage
4:45-6:15pm

Born into a family of ten children in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Humphries began playing drums at age four, and went professional at age 14. He led an ensemble at Carnegie Hall at age 16. Early in the 1960s, he began touring with jazz musicians; one of his more prominent gigs was in a trio with Stanley Turrentine and Shirley Scott in 1962. In 1964, he played with Horace Silver, including on the album Song for My Father. Following this Humphries drummed with Ray Charles and toured all over the world.
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Pat Martino

Playing on June 8, 2013
Penn Ave Stage II
5:30-7:00pm

Philadelphia native, Pat Martino, began playing professionally at age 15 after moving to New York City. Martino has been recognized as one of the most exciting and virtuosic guitarists in jazz. With a distinctive, fat sound and gut-wrenching performances, he represents the best not just in jazz, but also in music.

He embodies thoughtful energy and soul and has performed with a wide variety of artists including Sonny Stitt, Gene Ammons, Jimmy Smith, Chick Corea, Jack McDuff, and Stanley Clark. The Grammy nominated virtuoso has been selected as the Guitar Player of the Year, Downbeat Magazine’s 2004 Reader’s Poll and has taught at several prestigious universities including Duquesne, New York University, Pennsylvania University, Stanford University. He’s also been a recording artist for Blue Note, Prestige, Vanguard and Warner Brothers Records.

Allison Miller

Playing on June 9, 2013
9th Street Stage
2:15-3:30pm

NYC-based drummer Allison Miller defies all boundaries bringing her individual sound to diverse types of music while preserving their stylistic authenticity. Allison goes from leading her band, BOOM TIC BOOM, to playing with legendary songwriting vocalists Ani DiFranco, Brandi Carlile and Natalie Merchant, to touring with avant-garde saxophonist Marty Ehrlich and legendary organist Doctor Lonnie Smith. She approaches each of these musical situations with her own stylistic identity and a creative, fresh and energetic approach. Allison was chosen as “Rising Star Drummer” in Downbeat’s 53rd and 58th Annual Critics Poll.
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Cecil Brooks III

Playing on June 8, 2013
9th Street Stage
5:00-6:30pm

Pittsburgh native Cecil Brooks, III is a contemporary drummer and aggressive, polyrhythmic stylist. Cecil has worked in the New York area for over 20 years with such musicians as Greg Osby, Geri Allen and Lonnie Plaxico.

Influenced by his father Cecil Brooks II, Art Blakey and Tony Williams, he recorded his debut album as a leader for Muse in 1989. He later released efforts including 1990′s Hangin’ with Smooth, 1993′s Neck Peckin’ Jammie and 2000′s Our Mister Brooks in addition to session work in both a hard bop and bebop settings.

Brooks also made his mark on the music as a producer with Westside Records where he produced vocalists Gail Allen and Jackie Woods and saxophonist Reggie Wood. Brooks is also an impresario of note by formerly owning and operating the West Orange, New Jersey jazz club “Cecil’s” for over 8 years.

Orrin Evans

Playing on June 8, 2013
Penn Ave Stage II
1:15-2:15pm

Philadelphia firebrand Orrin Evans, has been recognized as one of the most distinctive and inventive pianist of his generation. In a short span of time Orrin has earned the titles of pianist, composer, bandleader, teacher, producer and arranger. The New York Times described the pianist as “…a poised artist with an impressive template of ideas at his command,” a quality that has undoubtedly assisted in keeping Orrin at the forefront of the music scene.
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Gerald Clayton

Playing on June 8, 2013
Penn Ave Stage I
4:15-5:30pm

Born in the Netherlands in 1984, jazz pianist, Gerald Clayton grew up mainly in Los Angeles with a musical family that includes his father, bassist/composer John Clayton, and uncle, saxophonist Jeff Clayton.  His dynamic and award-winning sound has been praised in print by the Jazz Times and Los Angeles Times.

The New York Times has saluted his “Oscar-Peterson like style” and “huge, authoritative presence” and Down Beat Magazine’s 2008 Readers’ Poll named him one of the top up-and-coming pianists to watch.  As a composer, his work has been commissioned by the Jazz Gallery in New York City and performed overseas by the BBC Orchestra.
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Ralph Peterson

Playing on June 9, 2013
Penn Ave Stage II
5:30-7:00pm

Master drummer, respected educator, bandleader, and talent scout extraordinaire Ralph Peterson has carried on in the tradition of his mentor and idol Art Blakey, who was renowned for his hard-driving approach to the kit and his uncanny knack for discovering new talent.

The list of jazz greats who passed through the ranks of Blakey’s Jazz Messengers reads like a Who’s Who in Jazz, and Peterson is proud to be included on that list. Similarly, Peterson has helped launch the careers of several promising young players in his various bands over the years, including trumpeters Sean Jones and Jeremy Pelt, saxophonists Steve Wilson, Ralph Bowen, and Tia Fuller, vibist Bryan Carrot, and pianist Orrin Evans.
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Marcus Miller

Playing on June 9, 2013
Penn Ave Stage I
4:00-5:30pm

Marcus Miller is a two-time Grammy-winner and the composer/producer of ten critically acclaimed and genre-defying albums. As a multi-instrumentalist, Marcus is highly proficient as a keyboardist, clarinetist/bass clarinetist and, primarily, as a world-renowned electric bassist, topping critics’ and readers’ polls for three decades.

His résumé as an A-list player brims with over 500 recording credits as a sideman on albums across the spectrum of musical styles that include collaborations with Frank Sinatra, Miles Davis, Donald Fagen and Eric Clapton, David Sanborn, George Benson, Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Sample, Wayne Shorter, Grover Washington, Jr., Roberta Flack, Paul Simon, Mariah Carey, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Chaka Khan, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Z.Z. Hill, Billy Idol, Al Jarreau, Dave Koz and opera sensation Kathleen Battle.
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Sarah Elizabeth Charles

Playing on June 8, 2013
9th Street Stage
1:45-3:15pm

Sarah Elizabeth Charles is a vocalist and composer based out of New York City. Sarah’s musical stylings are unique and the intricacies to her art focus on modernizing classics and composing distinctive originals.  Sarah has performed at numerous venues throughout New York City including The Apollo Theatre with Geri Allen, Blue Note NYC, The Iridium, Smalls Jazz Club, Zinc Bar NYC, and New York Couture Fashion Week. Performances outside of the city have taken her to such venues as the International Bern Jazz Festival in Switzerland playing opposite Jack DeJohnette, The Kennedy Center in Washington DC as a selected member of the 2009 Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Composers Residency.

She attended and graduated with a BFA from The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music and a BA from Eugene Lang College. Since beginning her journey as a jazz musician, she has had the pleasure of studying and working with musicians such as Jimmy Owens, Geri Allen, Dr. Billy Taylor, Sheila Jordan, Cecil Bridgewater and Reggie Workman.

Rudresh Mahanthappa

Playing on June 8, 2013
Penn Ave Stage II
3:00-4:15pm

Few musicians share the ability of saxophonist/composer Rudresh Mahanthappa to embody the expansive possibilities of his music with his culture. Time and again, Mahanthappa has eloquently displayed the capacity to absorb numerous styles and genres of music, combine them with the language of modern jazz, and emerge with a new form still recognizably jazz.

What has materialized is a sound that hybridizes progressive jazz and South Indian classical music in a fluid and forward-looking form that reflects Mahanthappa’s own experience growing up a second-generation Indian-American. He has been awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation MAP Fund, Chamber Music America and the American Composers Forum. He has been named alto saxophonist of the year in Downbeat’s 2011 & 2012 International Critics Polls and for four years running by the Jazz Journalists’ Association (2009-2012). Rudresh has studied at Berklee College of Music and DePaul University.

Chaka Khan

Playing on June 9, 2013
Penn Ave Stage I
7:00-8:30pm

“Queen of Funk-Soul,” Chaka Khan  is a 10-time Grammy Award winning American singer-songwriter who gained fame in the 1970s as the front woman and focal point of the funk band Rufus. Her career has spanned over 4 decades. Over the years, she has collaborated with many legendary performers in the industry that include but are not limited to Quincy Jones, Stevie Wonder and Prince.
Some of her most popular hits include “Tell Me Something Good,” “Sweet Thing,” “Ain’t Nobody,” “I’m Every Woman,” “I Feel for You” and “Through the Fire.”

In 1982, Khan recorded Echoes of an Era, a collection of jazz standards featuring performances from Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Stanley Clarke, Chick Corea, and Lenny White. This project provided Chaka Khan with her first Grammy Nomination for Best Female Jazz Vocalist.
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