Jazz Standard celebrates our 10th Anniversary
with Houston Person, Fred Hersch, and other longtime favorites
Best Jazz Club 2008 (New York Magazine)

Artists and schedules are subject to change

MARCH 2012 SCHEDULE

3/1 – 3/2 PEDRITO MARTINEZ TRIO with Special Guests STEVE TURRE &MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Pedrito Martinez – bata, congas, cajon, vocals
Axel Tosca Laugart – piano
John Benitez – acoustic bass
Special Guests:
Steve Turre – trombone
Michael Rodriguez – trumpet
This week, the multi–talented Pedrito Martinez takes the stage at Jazz Standard with two different and distinctive groups. His trio, with bassist John Benitez and pianist Axel Tosca Laugart, is mainly an instrumental outfit with Pedrito playing bata, congas, and cajon. Their repertoire of Cuban classics and a few jazz standards allows for some dynamic solos from the trio and allows Pedrito to explore completely uncharted territory with a setup that can include four conga drums, a snare drum, a hi hat and a cowbell, as well as contributions from very special guests Steve Turre (trombone) and Mike Rodriguez (trumpet) – two world–class musicians, both of whom have played with Pedrito for years in different settings.
Music Charge: $25 Thursday / $30 Friday

3/3 – 3/4 PEDRITO MARTINEZ GROUP with Special Guests RAVI COLTRANE &MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ
Pedrito Martinez – bata, congas, cajon, vocals
Jhair Sala – bongos, bell
Alvaro Benavides – electric bass
Araicne Trujillo – keyboards, vocals
Special Guests:
Ravi Coltrane – tenor saxophone
Michael Rodriguez – trumpet
This pan–Latin group, with members from Cuba, Peru, and Venezuela, is Pedrito's primary vehicle. It features the leader on congas, cajon, and bata; Jhair Sala on bongos and cowbell, Ariacne Trujillo on electric piano, and Alvaro Benavides on electric bass. The group dives into high–energy arrangements with grooves, gear changes, and instrumental breaks that have rendered some of today's most celebrated musicians – "We've been back to see Pedrito a bunch of times…Our drummers were floored as Pedro and his band played intense traditional Cuban rhythms with a progressive edge. It's a beautiful thing to witness." (Derek Trucks, Magnet Magazine) Mike Rodriguez will be back on the stand along with Pedrito's very special guest, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane. "[Pedrito is] An incomparable performer!" (Ben Ratliff, The New York Times)
Music Charge: $30 Saturday / $25 Sunday

3/5MINGUS ORCHESTRA
tba – tenor saxophone, flute
tba – alto & soprano saxophone, flute
Ku-umba Frank Lacy – trombone
Alex Sipiagin – trumpet
Michael Rabinowitz – bassoon
John Clark – French horn
Doug Yates – bass clarinet
Lage Lund – guitar
Boris Kozlov – bass
Donald Edwards – drums3
Our acclaimed "Mingus Monday" residency continues to revive and reinvent the music of the legendary Charles Mingus (1922 – 1979). Tonight, the Mingus Orchestra brings its unique blend of jazz and classi-cal instruments to bear on some of the maestro's most inventive compositions. "The lean, sharp ten-piece band features such uncommon instrumentation as a bassoon and a French horn, but this isn't staid cham-ber jazz. When the spirit of the late great one hits them, they steam." (The New Yorker)
Music Charge: $25

3/6 – 3/7 JEREMY PELT QUINTET
Jeremy Pelt – trumpet
Stacy Dillard – tenor saxophone
Danny Grissett – piano
Dwayne Burno – bass
Jonathan Barber – drums
Since his move to NYC in 1998 following graduation from Berklee College of Music, Jeremy Pelt has worked with major artists ranging from Frank Foster and Cedar Walton to Nancy Wilson and Bobby Short. He's been an invaluable contributor to the Roy Hargrove Big Band, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, and Louis Hayes' Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band. Recent years have seen this gifted trum-peter take his music to the next level as a player, composer, and bandleader – and Pelt's new HighNote album Soul! (released 1/31/12) confirms his continuing creative development. This Jazz Standard run will spotlight the music of Soul! with the exciting young saxophonist Stacy Dillard and pianist Danny Grissett. "Pelt is a technical marvel. He executes intricate solos with ease, plays gorgeous ballads in a tasteful manner, and never lacks flair or sensitivity." (Ron Wynn, JazzTimes)
Music Charge: $20

3/8 – 3/11 CARMEN LUNDY (7:30 & 9:30 Only)
Carmen Lundy – vocals
Anthony Wonsey – piano
Kenny Davis – bass
Jamison Ross – drums
Often compared to the likes of Sarah Vaughan, Betty Carter and Billie Holiday, Carmen Lundy writes and performs songs with an emotional vulnerability and guileless authenticity rarely seen in modern jazz. Her life forays far beyond the boundaries of music – she's an acclaimed actress, teacher and visual artist –informs Carmen's work with a sophistication and worldliness that consistently defies the expected. For her legion of fans, the release of a new Carmen Lundy CD represents more than an opportunity to hear new music – it's an appointment to catch up with a dear friend. On February 7, Carmen Lundy releases her 12th album, Changes, on the Afrasia label. This week, Jazz Standard celebrates the music of Carmen Lundy and Changes, performed with the exceptional trio featured on the new album.
Music Charge: $25/$30 Friday & Saturday

3/12MINGUS DYNASTY
Seamus Blake – tenor saxophone
tba – alto saxophone
Alex Sipiagin – trumpet
Ku-umba Frank Lacy – trombone
tba – piano
Boris Kozlov – bass
Adam Cruz – drums4
The original Mingus legacy band, in continuous action for over 30 years, returns to our stage for two thrilling sets. "Mingus packed his music so full of life, so full of the noise of the city, that thirty years in the future someone listening to ‘Pithecanthropus Erectus' or ‘Hog Calling Blues' or any of those other wild steamrolling things wouldn't be sure whether that wail and scream was a horn on the record or the red-and-white siren of a prowl car shrieking past the window. Just listening to the music would be a way of joining in with it, adding to it." (From But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer)
Music Charge: $25

3/13 – 3/16 HOUSTON PERSON QUARTET *JS:10 ANNIVERSARY CONCERT*
Houston Person – tenor saxophone
John Di Martino – piano
Ray Drummond – bass
Lewis Nash – drums
Houston Person and Jazz Standard go way back – to May 2002 (to be precise), when the veteran tenor saxophonist made his first appearance on our stage. In January 2012, Houston Person played a rare London engagement at Ronnie Scott's that had audiences on their feet and critics singing his praises. In The Guardian, John Fordham wrote: "His sound has become uniquely characterful: an idiosyncratic edit of all he has learned, expressed in shrugging hoots, briefly cantering bop sprints, spacious and softly blown ballads." And in his Observer review of Houston's latest HighNote CD So Nice, Dave Gelly attested: "Houston Person's tenor saxophone has all the hallmarks – poise, simple elegance and that mix-ture of gravitas and slight swagger that comes from having nothing left to prove…Person is now 77 and his playing just goes on getting better." Don't miss this gentle giant of the tenor saxophone, this week at Jazz Standard!
Music Charge: $25/$30 Friday

3/17 DAFNIS PRIETO SI Ó SI QUARTET *JS:10 ANNIVERSARY CONCERT*
Peter Apfelbaum – tenor & soprano saxophone
Manuel Valera – piano
Yunior Terry – bass
Dafnis Prieto – drums
Our tenth anniversary series gala continues tonight with Dafnis Prieto, who first performed at Jazz Standard in August 2002 with Dave Samuel's Caribbean Jazz Project. Since then, Dafnis has returned to our stage on numerous occasions at the helm of his own groups, and recorded the Si o Si quartet live at Jazz Standard for his 2009 release on his own label Dafnison Music. Perhaps the best description of the art of Dafnis Prieto comes from the MacArthur Foundation, which awarded him a coveted "genius grant" in 2011: "A percussionist whose dazzling technical abilities electrify audiences and whose rhythmically adventurous compositions combine a range of musical vocabularies…As a composer, Prieto melds modern jazz harmonies, Cuban clave rhythms, other Latin and African influences, and funk–inspired arrangements to create works of great stylistic diversity that evoke a broad spectrum of moods."
Music Charge: $30

3/18 FRED HERSCH SOLO *JS:10 ANNIVERSARY CONCERT*
Fred Hersch – piano
It's always an honor to welcome Fred Hersch back to Jazz Standard, but especially as part of our tenth anniversary celebration. Fred first appeared on our stage in September 2002 as part of a Verizon Music Festival solo piano convocation and returned many times in the ensuing decade. We congratulate Fred on earning two 2012 Grammy Award nominations for the solo CD Alone at the Vanguard – remarkably, his eighth solo piano recording – for Best Jazz Album; and the track "Work" (composed by Thelonious 5
Monk), for Best Jazz Solo. Fred Hersch, wrote Steve Futterman in The New Yorker, "has developed an intensity of intelligence and emotional directness unparalleled among his peers."
Music Charge: $30

3/19 MINGUS BIG BAND *JS:10 ANNIVERSARY CONCERT*
Craig Handy, Seamus Blake – tenor saxophone
Alex Foster, tba – alto saxophone, flute
tba – baritone saxophone
Ku-umba Frank Lacy, tba, Earl McIntyre – trombones
Alex Sipiagin, Philip Harper, Greg Gisbert – trumpets
David Kikoski – piano
Boris Kozlov – bass
Adam Cruz – drums
Who better to help us mark the tenth anniversary of Jazz Standard tonight than the Mingus Big Band – right back on the stage where the MBB recorded its 2011 Grammy Award–winning album, Live at Jazz Standard. "The Mingus Big Band – musician for musician – is one of the most spirited and technically gifted bands in the country." (Seattle Examiner) "The hippest big band in the universe – robust, earthy, sanctified." (Time Out New York)
Music Charge: $25

3/20 OSMANY PAREDES QUARTET: NEW DIMENSIONS IN LATIN JAZZ
Osmany Paredes – piano
Yunior Terry – bass
Ludwig Afonso – drums
Mauricio Herrera – percussion
Osmany Paredes' stunning debut at our "New Dimensions in Latin Jazz" series in 2007 established the young pianist/composer as one of the leading participants in New York's new wave of Afro–Cuban jazz. Osmany's lyrical compositions and virtuoso technique draw on the training in Afro–Cuban rhythms that began in childhood with his percussionist father, followed by rigorous classical studies at Havana's National School of Music and the practical experience as the pianist with the quintessentially Cuban charanga group of Enrique Jorrin. (Ruben Gonzales, later the pianist of Buena Vista Social Club, played for years with the Jorrin group.) "Steeped in the European classical tradition, enamored of jazz, and fully conversant with Cuban popular music dating back to the 1920s, Osmany Paredes is a thrilling player who combines percussive attack with a vivid harmonic imagination." (Andrew Gilbert, The Boston Globe)
Music Charge: $20

3/21 – 3/22 TBA
3/23 – 3/25 GERALD CLAYTON TRIO
Gerald Clayton – piano
Joe Sanders – bass
Tba – drums
We congratulate Gerald Clayton on his Grammy Award nomination in the category of Best Instrumental Jazz Album for his 2011 Decca/Emarcy album bond: the paris sessions – and welcome him back for three nights of piano trio explorations. Born 1984 in the Netherlands and raised in Southern California, Gerald is the son of bassist John Clayton and the nephew of saxophonist Jeff Clayton. "Though his language is necessarily broader," wrote Ben Ratliff in The New York Times (2/10/2010), "he might have gone down beautifully at the Roundtable or the Hickory House in late–1950s New York, amid the fantastic supper–6
club swing of Joe Bushkin and Teddy Wilson: musicians who entertained audiences with sophistication, humor and reassurance. But he's presenting that disposition in the context of a new jazz trio that plays in current hip frequencies, disguising meter and tempo."
Music Charge: $30/$25 Sunday

3/26MINGUS ORCHESTRA
"His head was a drawer crammed with the remains of intentions and fragments of what was still to come. Long compositions were full of the debris of previous ones and more and more he was moving toward a single piece which would include everything he had ever written before…He believed you could say everything in music but there was still more he wanted to say." (Portrait of Charles Mingus from But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz by Geoff Dyer)
Music Charge: $25

3/27 – 3/28 CINDY BLACKMAN: EXPLORATIONS
Antoine Roney – tenor saxophone
Marc Cary – keyboards
Zaccai Curtis – Fender Rhodes
Rashaan Carter – bass
Cindy Blackman – drums
One of the most powerful and versatile drummers of our time, Cindy Blackman has released ten albums as a leader beginning with Arcane in 1988; played clubs and festivals around the world; and worked with leading jazz artists like Wallace Roney and Sam Rivers and with major pop performers like Lenny Kravitz and Joss Stone. In 2010, Cindy turned heads twice: she was married to guitar great Carlos Santana, and released the album Another Lifetime, her loving homage to her idol Tony Williams (1945–1997). "I loved everything about Tony's playing. He changed the sound of music several times with different tunings and configurations, and innovated with every limb," says Cindy. The unique and lyrical Explorations project brings together two multi-talented pianists, Marc Cary and Zaccai Curtis, playing keyboards and Fender Rhodes respectively, along with the fiery Antoine Roney on tenor saxophone.
Music Charge: $20

3/29 – 4/1 PATRICIA BARBER (7:30 & 9:30 Only)
Patricia Barber – piano, vocals
John Kregor – guitar
Sam Anning – bass
Ross Pederson – drums
Although she plays a regular residency at the Green Mill in Chicago, Patricia Barber isn't often seen in New York these days. So we're delighted to welcome back this sui generis artist whom one critic recently described as "stretching the boundaries of both jazz composition and small group performance…Soloing wasn't really the point, however. The set was more of an extended musical conversation between the per-formers, between equal partners." In this much–anticipated engagement, Patricia will preview some of the new compositions to be featured on her forthcoming label debut for Concord Music.
Music Charge: $25/$30 Friday & Saturday

Related Press News:

Jazz Standard November Calendar Features: Jazz Composers Collective Reunion, Maria Schneider Orchestra, Geri Allen & Timeline (07/2012)

Related Events:

18/01/12 Dave Stryker CD Release - New York