Harvard Square Events RSS Feed www.gocrimson.com ]]> www.revels.org]]> Show: $20
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For more than three decades, Spyro Gyra has maintained a position at the forefront of modern jazz by successfully managing not just one, but several feats of creative dexterity. “That's what has kept this band going,” says founder Jay Beckenstein. “There are always balances to be found" between the individual player and the group, between the songwriter and the player. It's about both satisfying yourself and satisfying your audience. And when you're improvising in front of a crowd, you're really walking down that wire. There are always surprises that way, but our openness to those surprises is what makes this band what it is. We just happen to be walking on a slightly more forgiving tightrope.
Their latest album, 'Down the Wire' was released worldwide this past Fall on Heads Up International, a division of Concord Music Group. 'Down the Wire' is a snapshot of Spyro Gyra's enduring dedication to that walk down the wire.
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Featuring three of Brazil's most in-demand musicians, Trio da Paz updates the infectious spirit of jazz-oriented Brazilian music. Formed in 1990 by Romero Lubambo, Nilson Matta and Duduka da Fonseca, the "samba jazz" band represents the cream of expatriate Brazilian
musicians in the U.S., as well as a vital link to the bossa nova years. The seminal composer Antonio Carlos Jobim loved da Fonseca's drums, and in the 1980s, "The Girl from Ipanema" vocalist Astrud Gilberto had Lubambo in her band. More recently, cellist Yo-Yo Ma used Matta on a Grammy-winning Brazilian album. All three are seasoned masters of both jazz and Brazilian music with impressive resumes.

The list of legendary musicians the members of Trio da Paz have recorded and performed with is extensive. A sampling would include guitarist Romero Lubambo's work with Dianne Reeves, Michael Brecker, Grover Washington, Jr. and Kathleen Battle; bassist Nilson Matta's work with Joe Henderson, Don Pullen, Yo-Yo Ma and Paul Winter; and Grammy nominee drummer Duduka da Fonseca's work with Astrud Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim, John Scofield and Tom Harrell. Trio da Paz as a group has recorded and performed with Charlie Byrd, Herbie Mann, Lee Konitz, Kenny Barron and Nana Vasconcelos, among others.

The Trio's critically acclaimed, multi-faceted debut recording 'Brazil from the Inside,' with special guests Herbie Mann, Claudio Roditi, Joanne Brackeen and Maucha Adnet, received the "Indie" award for best album of the year.
Trio da Paz followed that success with a daring and ambitious concept album, an exploration of the well-known themes from Black Orpheus, the soundtrack that set Brazilian music on a new course.

Their third release, Partido Out, is a riveting mix of spirited original compositions embracing the full spectrum of rhythms, fusing jazz and Brazilian music in a most fresh and exciting way. This CD won the Jazz Jornalists Association award of "The best brasilian jazz album of the year" in 2002.
Trio da Paz received this accolade from critic Howard Mandel "If North Americans hadn't invented jazz, then surely Brazilians such as the three talented young men (in Trio da Paz) would have invented something like it."
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SOPHIA BILIDES
'A CHANGE OF SKY'

This award-winning vocalist celebrates her 10th year at Scullers with a new show about moving forward. Her always eclectic song choices range from the timeless witticisms of Johnny Mercer, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and Yip Harburg to the contemporary outlooks of Stephen Sondheim, Chris Brubeck, Stephen Schwartz and Annie Lennox. Pianist Doug Hammer accompanies her for this intimate cabaret evening of humorous takes and reflective musings on the subject of change.

Sophia Bilides is the 2005 IRNE Award Winner for Best Female Cabaret Performer (Independent Reviewers Of New England), and a 2007 MAC Award Nominee (Manhattan Association Of Cabarets And Clubs). She appears regularly at Scullers Jazz Club in Boston, where her name is frequently listed in annual Best Of Boston reviews, and has also performed at Danny's Skylight Room in New York, The Regattabar in Cambridge, Le Dome in New Jersey, and New York's Lincoln Center For The Performing Arts.
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The music of pianist, singer, and composer Mose Allison has had an influence well beyond his record sales. Known as "The William Faulkner of Jazz," Allison has been recording for more than 35 years and few musicians have had greater impact as a stylist or songwriter.

Along with Art Blakey and Horace Silver, Allison helped reintroduce the down-home feel of Southern blues to jazz at a time when the genre was becoming more cerebral. Van Morrison rates Mose as one of the greatest songwriters of our century, and musicians everywhere swap Mose's lyrics like punch lines to an inside joke.

Mose was born on Nov. 11, 1927 in Tippo, Mississippi, a one-horse town in the Delta and grew up playing piano in the back of a local gasoline station. Mose attended the University of Mississippi and later Louisiana State University, studying philosophy and literature, before joing the U.S. Army.

After serving in the army, Mose moved to New York City and befriended a group of musicians sharing a loft on 34th Street. Pianist and singer Bob Dorough (left) was among the roommates and through Dorough, Mose picked up sidemen gigs with such luminaries as Stan Getz and Zoot Sims.

In New York, Mose was known for his skills as a pianist, but soon his singing began to turn even more heads, establishing him as "the William Faulkner of jazz." In 1956, he released his debut album on Prestige Records. Prestige tried to market Mose as a pop star, while Columbia Records and later Atlantic Records, who signed Mose in 1959 and 1962, retrospectively, tried to market him as a blues artist. Listen to Mose recall the time Jet magazine wanted to interview him and thought that he was black, because he sang the blues.

Mose's piano style is rooted in Delta blues, but he embellishes his rustic sensibility with bebop-oriented improvisations. His playing also betrays his love of European classical composers such as Arnold Schoenberg and Charles Ives. But the early influence of Louis Jordan (left) is never far from his mind.

Today, Mose is becoming something of an icon to a whole new generation of blues/pop musicians. He continues to tour 40 weeks a year, playing his original songs with pick-up rhythm sections and enjoying his one-man crusade to perfect his artistic voice.

Mose new album 'The Way of the World' arrives March 23rd, 2010, marking his return to the recording studio after a 12 year absence. Working with maverick producer Joe Henry, Allison has found his most sympathetic setting in years, surrounded by young, vibrant players, who add surprising slide guitar and some sinewy saxophone to the classic Mose sound; The Way of the World also features Mose' first-ever duet with his daughter, singer Amy Allison. Yet this album is all Mose.
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Six-time GRAMMY® Award-nominee Nnenna Freelon has earned a well-deserved reputation as a compelling and captivating live performer. In 2001, she inspired an enthusiastic standing ovation from 20,000 music-industry insiders and celebrities when she took the stage at the 43rd annual GRAMMY Awards.]]> Show: $25
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Jazziz magazine writes that Nelson Rangell is "an artist of depth, a master of song, and an improviser non pareil." The Times of London notes "his extraordinary facility on a range of instruments and his undoubted virtuosity," adding that Nelson is "one of fusion's most accomplished exponents." Saxophone Journal writes "He commands the alto saxophone with such authority there can be no denying that Rangell is a true artist," and Flute Talk Magazine states "Nelson Rangell creates the impression that anything is possible when he improvises." Such praise is a confirmation of what contemporary jazz fans have known since the Denver based saxophonist emerged in the late 80s: that Rangell is one of the most exciting and diverse performers in the genre, equally adept at soprano, alto, and tenor saxophone, as well as being a genuine virtuoso on flute and piccolo.
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Step back in time and enjoy the music of Billie Holiday performed by one of Boston's treasured vocal talents. Pat Braxton has opened for many legendary R&B groups such as Herb Reed and The Platters, The Whispers, Temptations and many others.
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“Exciting, captivating and completely distinctive” is how most jazz cognoscenti describe Shawnn's pulsating lyric style. Whether in the intimacy of a club date or the glitter of a Las Vegas showroom, Shawnn has delighted audiences from USA to Europe with her highly popular jazz repertoire laced with blues-oriented improvisations.
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