N INET Y-THI R D SEASON Friday, February 16, 2024, at 8:00
Jazz Series RON CARTER’S GOLDEN STRIKER TRIO Ron Carter Bass Russell Malone Guitar Donald Vega Piano INTERMISSION
THE BLUE NOTE QUINTET Gerald Clayton Piano Immanuel Wilkins Alto Saxophone Joel Ross Vibraphone Kendrick Scott Drums Matt Brewer Bass The program will be announced from the stage.
Funding for educational programs during the 2023–24 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation. The CSOA thanks the Epstein Family Foundation for ten consecutive years of generous, innovative support for the SCP Jazz Education program. DownBeat magazine, WDCB, and WBEZ Chicago are media partners for this program.
Ron Carter Bass Grammy Award– winner Ron Carter has over 2,500 albums to his credit, earning a Guinness World Record as the most recorded jazz bassist. He has collaborated with Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Bill Evans, B.B. King, and Wes Montgomery, among many others. Carter was named Outstanding Bassist of the Decade by the Detroit News, Jazz Bassist of the Year by DownBeat magazine, and Most Valuable Player by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. In 2010 he was awarded Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters by the French Ministry of Culture, and in 2021, the Japanese government awarded him the Order of the Rising Sun for his contribution to the friendship between Japan and the United States. In 2022 PBS premiered the documentary film on Carter’s life titled Finding the Right Notes.
Russell Malone Guitar Russell Malone is one of the signature guitar players of his generation. The leader of ten albums since 1992, Malone is as well-known on the international circuit for helming a world-class quartet and trio as he is for his long-standing participation in Ron Carter’s Golden P H OTO S C O U R T E SY O F T H E A R T I ST S , A D A M C A N TO R
Striker Trio and his recent contribution to the musical production of Sonny Rollins and Dianne Reeves. Malone has worked with Hammond B-3 icon Jimmy Smith, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Little Anthony, O.C. Smith, and Diana Krall, among many others. In 2004 he launched a still-ongoing relationship with MaxJazz, releasing Playground, two volumes of Live at the Jazz Standard, and the trio recital, Triple Play, with bassist David Wong and drummer Montez Coleman.
Donald Vega Piano Donald Vega received classical piano training in his native Nicaragua. He immigrated to the United States at fourteen, finding a musical home with the Colburn School of Performing Arts. Later, he graduated from the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School. Vega performs internationally with world-renowned bassist Ron Carter’s Golden Striker Trio, together recording several albums. He is also a professor at the Juilliard School and Hofstra University and is on the board of BackCountry Jazz, a non-profit organization that provides music education programs to underprivileged youth. Vega’s discography includes the albums Tomorrows (2008), Spiritual Nature (2012), With Respect to Monty (2015), and his most recent, As I Travel (2023).
Gerald Clayton Piano Six-time Grammynominated pianist, composer, and bandleader Gerald Clayton earned recent Recording Academy recognition for Happening: Live at the Village Vanguard, his debut release on Blue Note Records. Collaborating over the years with artists such as Diana Krall, Roy Hargrove, Dianne Reeves, Terence Blanchard, John Scofield, Peter Bernstein, the Clayton Brothers Quintet, and legendary bandleader Charles Lloyd, Clayton currently serves as director of Next Generation Jazz Orchestra following service as musical director for Monterey Jazz Festival on Tour. As a composer, Clayton wrote the score for Sam Pollard’s award-winning documentary MLK/FBI, capturing the complex arc of an enduring subject through subtle, lingering moments of struggle and humanity.
Immanuel Wilkins Saxophone The music of saxophonist and composer Immanuel Wilkins is filled with empathy and conviction, bonding arcs of melody and lamentation to pluming gestures of space and breath. Listeners were introduced to this riveting sound with his acclaimed debut album Omega, named Best Jazz Album of 2020 by the P H OTO S BY O G ATA , R O G W A L K E R , L A U R E N D E S B E R G
New York Times. The record introduced his quartet with Micah Thomas, Daryl Johns, and Kweku Sumbry, a tight-knit unit that Wilkins features once again on his sophomore album, The 7th Hand. The album explores relationships between presence and nothingness across an hour-long suite of seven movements. “I wanted to write a preparatory piece for my quartet to become vessels by the end of the piece, fully,” says Wilkins.
Joel Ross Vibraphone Joel Ross continues refining an expression that’s true to his sound and generation. In 2019 the vibraphonist-composer released his Blue Note debut, Edison Award–winning record KingMaker, followed by Who Are You? in 2020. His 2022 The Parable of the Poet explores feelings of self-awareness—confidence, doubt, regret, and forgiveness—through storytelling and retelling. Using collaborative improvisation, collective melody, and instrumental features, it spotlights unique attributes of fellow artists Immanuel Wilkins, Maria Grand, Marquis Hill, Kalia Vandever, Sean Mason, Rick Rosato, Craig Weinrib, and returning special guest Gabrielle Garo.
Kendrick Scott Drums
Matt Brewer Bass
Kendrick Scott was born in Houston, Texas, in a family of musicians. He attended Houston’s renowned High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, which has produced an impressive array of musical talent, including Scott’s label mates Jason Moran and Robert Glasper as well as pop star Beyoncé. While in high school, he won several DownBeat magazine student awards and the Clifford Brown/Stan Getz Award from the International Association of Jazz Educators. Scott has toured with Herbie Hancock, Charles Lloyd, the Crusaders, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Kurt Elling, and Terence Blanchard. His 2023 album Corridors finds him paring down to a trio with saxophonist Walter Smith III and bassist Reuben Rogers.
Matt Brewer grew up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, surrounded by a family of musicians and artists. He fell in love with the bass at the age of ten and went on to study at the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Juilliard School. Brewer has traveled the world with the bands of Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Greg Osby, Steve Coleman, Gerald Clayton, Ben Wendel, Aaron Parks, Vijay Iyer, Dhafer Youssef, Antonio Sanchez, Mark Turner, Steve Lehman, and Lage Lund, among many others. He has been a frequent guest lecturer at the Banff Centre and is an adjunct faculty member at the New School University.
P H OTO S BY K AT Z , J U ST I N B E T T M A N
Funding for educational programs during the 2023–24 Season of SCP Jazz has been generously provided by Dan J. Epstein, Judith Guitelman, and the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation. The CSOA thanks the Epstein Family Foundation for ten consecutive years of generous, innovative support for the SCP Jazz Education program.