PROGRAM Selections to be announced from stage
JOHNAYE KENDRICK
Saturday, January 26 | 8PM
GENERATION NEXT: HEARING THE FUTURE OF JAZZ A Jazz @ The Jacobs Concert Gilbert Castellanos, Series Curator trumpet Josh Evans
drums Anthony Fung
vocals Johnaye Kendrick
Young Lions Jazz Conservatory Ensemble
bass Mike Gurrola piano Joshua White
PART OF:
The Jazz @ The Jacobs Series is sponsored by Doctor Bob and Mao Shillman. The approximate running time for this concert,
Performance at the Jacobs Music Center's Copley Symphony Hall
38
P ER FO RM A NCES MAG A Z I N E
including intermission, is two hours.
S AN DIEG O SYM P H O N Y O RC H ES T RA 2 0 1 8-1 9 S EA S O N J A N U A R Y 20 1 9
PROGRAM NOTES | GENERATION NEXT: HEARING THE FUTURE OF JAZZ – JANUARY 26
ABOUT THE ARTISTS JOSH EVANS, born and raised in Hartford, CT, was drawn to the trumpet after hearing a Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie recording at the age of ten. Josh began studying with Raymond “Dr. Rackle” Williams, and within a year he began performing regularly with Dr. Rackle’s Sound Griot Brass Band. By the age of 14 Evans’ musical career began to take shape when he started to study with and be mentored by the celebrated alto saxophonist/ composer and educator, Jackie McLean. Studying under McLean, who shared the bandstand with Miles Davis, Charlie Parker and Art Blakey, would be pivotal in Josh's career. The experience would blaze the path for performances at New York-based venues such as the Blue Note and Iridium, the Regattabar located in Boston and the Bushnell Center for Performing Arts in Hartford, CT. In April 2005 Josh began a three and 1/2 year stint with the Winard Harper Sextet, touring the United States performing and conducting master classes. The group’s personnel, at different points, consisted of Billy Taylor, Frank Wess and George Cables, as well as trumpet players Terrell Stafford, Claudio Roditi and Phillip Harper. The group would also record a wonderful album in 2006, entitled Make it Happen, for Piadrum Records. In April 2007 Evans was invited to perform a two week tour of Siberia with master saxophonist and composer Benny Golson. It was during this time period that Evans started performing with master Drummer Rashied Ali and would become the band’s trumpet player for the next two years. The Rashied Ali Quintet toured 18 different countries and recorded one CD Live in Europe. Josh Evans would play with Rashied Ali until the drummer’s untimely death in 2009. In January 2011 Josh Evans recorded and released his debut album, Portrait. This album grows from Evans’ influential relationships with Rashied Ali, Jackie McLean, Raymond Williams, Alan Palmer and Ralph Peterson.
Series Sponsor Spotlight
DOCTOR BOB AND MAO SHILLMAN
THE SHILLMANS generously support all San Diego Symphony Orchestra jazz programming through their sponsorships of Jazz @ the Jacobs and Thursday Night Jazz.
S AN D I EG O SYM PHONY ORCHES TRA 2018-19 SE ASON J A N U A R Y 2019
Evans has performed and recorded with such artists as Kenny Barron, Joe Chambers, Benny Golson, Charles Tolliver, Christian McBride, Ralph Peterson, Eric McPherson, Gregory Porter, Shelia Jordan, Tyler Mitchell and Willie Jones III. n
JOHNAYE KENDRICK was born and raised in San Diego. She received a Bachelor of Music from Western Michigan University in 2005. During her time at Western Michigan, she received a DownBeat Student Music Award for Outstanding Jazz Vocalist, and was featured in an honors recital with pianist Fred Hersch. In the fall of 2007 Kendrick was accepted to the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz. While attending the Thelonious Monk Institute, Kendrick worked with many outstanding jazz musicians, including Terence Blanchard, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, Danilo Perez, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Brian Blade. She received an Artist’s Diploma from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz and a Master’s Degree in Jazz Studies from Loyola University in 2009. After graduating from the Monk Institute, Kendrick was immediately hired by trumpeter Nicholas Payton, who raves, “Johnaye has the potential to be a vocalist of the highest order; the likes of which we have seen seldom since the grande dames of the golden era of jazz roamed about the earth. She’s got IT!” In addition to her many travels with the Nicholas Payton Sextet, Kendrick has also been a featured vocalist with the Ellis Marsalis Quartet and the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra. The Orchestra won a Grammy® Award in the 2009 for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album” category for their release Book 1 on which Kendrick is featured. Kendrick has performed at numerous festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs, including the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, Rio das Ostras Jazz Festival, Burghausen Jazz Festival, International Jazz Festival Bern, Playboy Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club, Jazz Gallery, Chicago Symphony Center, Snug Harbor and Birdland with Nicholas Payton, Ellis Marsalis, Sean Jones and John Ellis. She has also performed with her own band at the Earshot Jazz Festival, Lima Jazz Festival, Royal Room, Tula’s, Festival Sundiata, NW African American Museum, Chihuly Gardens and other venues. Kendrick performs her own original compositions as well as fresh interpretations of beloved jazz and blues compositions. She focuses on graceful renditions of jazz standards and composes music and lyrics where she often accompanies herself on harmonium, violin, viola and percussion. The legendary Jimmy Heath says that “Johnaye is not just a vocalist. She is a complete musician with a beautiful instrument and open ears.” P ERFO RM AN C ES M AG A Z I N E
39
PROGRAM NOTES | GENERATION NEXT: HEARING THE FUTURE OF JAZZ – JANUARY 26 A dedicated educator, Kendrick resides in Seattle where she serves as an Associate Professor of Jazz Voice at Cornish College of the Arts. In 2013 she was nominated for an Earshot Jazz Golden Ear Award as “Northwest Vocalist of the Year.” In 2014 she recorded, produced and released her debut CD, Here, for the johnygirl label. Featuring 12 of Kendrick’s original compositions, Here finds her supported by pianist Dawn Clement, bassist Chris Symer and drummers Byron Vannoy and D’Vonne Lewis. n
MIKE GURROLA is the inheritor of a great jazz bass legacy. The music of Ray Brown inspired him to focus on the bass as a high school student, and he soon found himself under the mentorship of renowned bassist, composer, arranger, Grammy® winner and Brown protégé John Clayton. Since 2013, Mike has toured and recorded with pianist Eric Reed and also stays busy with other jazz A-listers including Jeff Hamilton, Benny Green, Ralph Moore, Willie Jones III and Roy McCurdy. In 2018 he played the Heineken Jazzaldia Festival San Sebastian Spain, Cotton Club Tokyo, Seogwipo Arts Center Jeju Korea, Yonsei University Seoul and The Ubud Village Jazz Festival Bali Indonesia, all with theBenny Green Trio. He also played on the Newport Beach Jazz Party “Sunset Jazz Series” with Shelly Berg and Jeff Hamilton, and he performed at The Village Vanguard in NYC with the Eric Reed Quartet. The Los Angeles native never fails to impress with maturity, musicianship and experience that are beyond his years, a walking example of Clayton's mantra: "If you're good to the music, the music will be good to you." n
Pianist JOSHUA WHITE had parallel musical training in both classical and gospel music traditions before encountering the music most commonly referred to as "jazz" at the University of California, San Diego summer camp in 2003. He began formal piano training at the age of seven with a private instructor, and was subsequently immersed into the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and others. After competing in several classical piano music competitions and also becoming the organist/pianist at his local church, Mr. White (at the age of 18) chose to focus his musical studies on "jazz" and improvised music traditions, drawing inspiration from
40
P ER FORM A NCES MAG A Z I N E
its many innovators. He dove into the music head first with the help of world-renowned musicians like composer Anthony Davis, saxophonist David Borgo, flutist Holly Hofmann and piano master Mike Wofford. "Joshua was the most devoted student I've ever worked with by far," says Wofford. "Absolutely focused and with a great intuitive grasp of the music, even at that early stage." In the years following, White made incredible strides through the Southern California jazz community, playing with virtuoso trumpeter Gilbert Castellanos, alto saxophone legend Charles McPherson, bassist Marshall Hawkins, tenor saxophonist Daniel Jackson and former Anthony Braxton sideman, Mark Dresser. In 2011 White entered the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Piano Competition in Washington D.C., ultimately placing second out of 160 competitors from around the world. Herbie Hancock was one the judges. "Joshua has immense talent," Hancock told music critic George Varga of the San Diego UnionTribune. "I was impressed by his daring and courageous approach to improvisation on the cutting edge of innovation. He is his own man. I believe that Thelonious Monk would have been proud of the performance of this great young artist..." New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff was at the competition. "He pressed hard against the rhythm section and improvised with form, telling the bassist Rodney Whitaker and the drummer Carl Allen what to do and when, accelerating and decelerating, suddenly going free. (Nobody else did that.)…Mr. White used a lot of dissonance and clutter, but it was provocative, chord-related clutter, not the brilliant-soloist kind made mostly with the right hand. It was a sound worth returning to…” For the last several years, White has been in demand as one of Southern California’s most creative and technically accomplished pianists. He performs regularly at Dizzy’s (San Diego), Blue Whale (Los Angeles), The Loft (La Jolla), the Athenaeum Music and Arts Library (La Jolla), and numerous other venues on the West Coast. Formed in January 2014, his Joshua White Quartet is a bi-coastal group focused on interpreting original compositions, as well as exploring the boundaries of collective improvisation. n
Drummer, composer, producer and bandleader ANTHONY FUNG was born in Richmond Hill, Canada, and has been playing the drums since the age of ten. Currently based in Los Angeles, Anthony has established himself as one of the foremost up-and-coming drummers of his generation.
S AN DIEG O SYM P H O N Y O RC H ES T RA 2 0 1 8-1 9 S EA S O N J A N U A R Y 20 1 9
PROGRAM NOTES | GENERATION NEXT: HEARING THE FUTURE OF JAZZ – JANUARY 26 Anthony is an alumnus of the prestigious Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (2018), where he earned a master of music (M.M.) degree while studying and performing with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Chris Potter, Billy Childs and many others. Previously, Anthony also earned both his bachelor of music (B.M.) and master of music (M.M.) degrees from the Berklee College of Music and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute under the tutelage of Danilo Pérez. Having performed at festivals and other venues worldwide, Anthony has appeared at International Jazz Day (St. Petersburg, Russia and Havana, Cuba), Panama Jazz Festival, Panama Percussion Festival, Sitka Jazz Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, Toronto Jazz Festival and the Montreal Jazz Festival. He has performed alongside Danilo Pérez, Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, John Patitucci, Joe Lovano, Miguel Zenón, Esperanza Spalding, George Garzone, Luciana Souza, David Binney, Dave Douglas, Jerry Bergonzi, Danny Rivera, Ruben Blades and Ingrid Jensen, among others. As a bandleader, Anthony released his debut album, Chronicles (2014) with the Anthony Fung Quintet and most recently released his sophomore album Flashpoint (2018).
Anthony Fung currently tours regularly with the David Binney Quartet. He proudly endorses Canopus Drums, Vic Firth Sticks and Zildjian Cymbals. n
The YOUNG LIONS JAZZ CONSERVATORY ENSEMBLE is drawn from the Young Lions Jazz Conservatory, which offers one of the most prestigious jazz education programs in Southern California. This top-quality conservatory is open to middle and high school instrumentalists and vocalists who complete and meet audition requirements. Students are placed in small ensembles where they receive professional instruction from San Diego’s top jazz musicians and educators including Gilbert Castellanos (Founder and Artistic Director), Rob Thorsen and Marshall Hawkins. Music students delve into jazz theory, history and performance, and they receive many opportunities to perform in concerts and attend jazz festivals throughout California. n
JOIN US FOR THE
FINAL 2 JAZZ CONCERTS OF THE SEASON!
SAT FEB 23 | 8PM
SAT APR 20 | 8PM
With its bewitching tunes (“Take Five,” “Blue Rondo à la Turk”) and exotic multi-meter grooves, Dave Brubeck’s Time Out album has become an indispensable favorite in many music collections around the world. The classic 1959 Columbia recording has been inspiring musicians for decades, and now it will get the Jazz @ The Jacobs treatment as Series Curator Gilbert Castellanos brings together several of today’s most exciting jazz artists for an unforgettable performance of the album in its entirety!
In a career that spanned the decades between the Big Band sounds of Billy Eckstine and the modern generation of neo-traditional jazz practitioners such as Wynton Marsalis, percussion master and band leader Art Blakey boldly blazed a trail of his own. For 35 years he led several incarnations of the Jazz Messengers through the glory years of bebop and beyond, incubating a dazzling lineup of young jazz talent along the way. Series Curator Gilbert Castellanos has assembled a stellar group of musicians, including some former Jazz Messengers, for this centennial tribute.
BRUBECK'S TIME OUT IN CONCERT
FREEDOM RIDER: AN ART BLAKEY CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION
TICKETS & INFORMATION | SANDIEGOSYMPHONY.ORG S AN D I EG O SYM PHONY ORCHES TRA 2018-19 SE ASON J A N U A R Y 2019
P ERFO RM AN C ES MAG A Z I N E
41