2024.02.24 | The Cookers Program

Presented in partnership with BluePort Jazz

The Cookers

Featuring Billy Hart, Cecil McBee, David Weiss, Donald Harrison, Craig Handy, Eddie Henderson & George Cables

Saturday, Feb. 24 | 8 PM Soka Performing Arts Center at Soka University of America

The Cookers Experience counts, especially in jazz. The more time musicians spend interpreting tunes and interacting with others, the more articulation an audience can expect. You can hear the fruits of such work in the expressive language The Cookers bring to the bandstand and to their three critically acclaimed recordings, Warriors, Cast the First Stone and Believe. This exciting new all-star septet summons up an aggressive mid ‘60s spirit with a potent collection of expansive post-bop originals marked by all the requisite killer instincts and pyrotechnic playing expected of some of the heaviest hitters on the scene today.

Billy Harper, Cecil McBee, George Cables, Eddie Henderson, and Billy Hart all came up in the heady era of the mid ‘60s. It was a period that found the dimensions of hard bop morphing from their original designs, and each of these guys helped facilitate the process as members of some of the most important bands of the era. Hart and Henderson were members of Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking

Mwandishi group; Cecil McBee anchored Charles Lloyd’s great ’60s quartet alongside Keith Jarrett and Jack DeJohnette; Billy Harper was part of Lee Morgan’s last group, as well as being a member of Max Roach’s Quartet and Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers; while George Cables held down the piano chair in numerous bands including groups led by Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper.

David Weiss and Craig Handy, from a more recent generation and the youngest members of the band, are experts in this forthright lingo, having gained experience performing with Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, Roy Haynes and Herbie Hancock.

Each member of the Cookers has spent time leading his own series of groups as well, and each has a keenly individual sound. But it’s the unmistakable power of teamwork that makes this music so commanding and resonates with a kind of depth and beauty

ABOUT THE ARTISTS that speaks of the seasoned track record of its principals (combined, the group has over 250 years of experience in the jazz world and has been a part of over 1,000 recordings). You can feel the collective weight of that experience in their CDs and especially in their live performances. Since this version of the band was solidified in 2007 the group has performed at venues around the world,

including headlining the New Orleans Jazz Fest, Playboy Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Festival, Northsea Jazz Festival, Chicago Jazz Festival, The Jerusalem Jazz Festival, The Guinness Cork Jazz Festival, The Charlie Parker Jazz Festival, The Burghausen Jazz Festival, Jazz Terrassa,The Healdsburg Jazz Festival, Jazz Viersen, Ronnie Scott’s and Yoshi’s.

Billy Hart, drums Billy Hart was born and raised in Washington, D.C. Jazz was in his blood. His family lived five blocks from the Spotlite Club, where the underage drummer pressed his ear to the window to listen to the Coltrane-Adderley-Evans edition of the Miles Davis Sextet, and the Lee Morgan-Benny Golson edition of Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. His father, a mathematician and “an intellectual cat who demanded respect and knew a lot about a lot,” was a staunch Ellington fan; his paternal grandmother had played piano for Marian Anderson and knew William Grant Still. His mother was devoted to Jimmie Lunceford; his maternal grandmother—who bought him his first “good drum set for a gig with a good bebop band”— was a friend of D.C. tenor hero Buck Hill, who turned Hart on to Charlie Parker, and hired him at 17 for nine months of weekend gigs at a spot called Abart’s, where fellow McKinley High School students Reuben Brown and Butch Warren

joined him six nights a week as the house rhythm section.

Hart matriculated at Howard University as a mechanical engineering major, but left when Shirley Horn, who had hired him out of Abart’s, took him on the road.

Hart credits her with teaching him to play bebop at a simmer, not a roar. He also learned Brazilian rhythms from the source on early ’60s sub jobs at Charlie Byrd’s Showboat Lounge with Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilberto and Bola Sete.

Hart apprenticed with Washington, D.C. native sons like Jimmy Cobb, Osie Johnson, Ben Dixon, Harry “Stump” Saunders and George “Dude” Brown. Through local connections, he had backstage access to the Howard Theatre, where he analyzed such master New Orleanian drummers as Idris Muhammad (the Impressions), Clayton Filliard (James Brown), Ed Blackwell and Earl Palmer (Ray

The Cookers Charles). In 1967, he occupied the drum chair in the theater’s house band performing with The Isley Brothers, Sam and Dave, Patti Labelle, Otis Redding and Smokey Robinson and the Miracles among others.

He was also a sideman with Jimmy Smith (1964–1966), and Wes Montgomery (1966–1968).

Following Montgomery’s death in 1968, Hart moved to New York, where he recorded with McCoy Tyner, Wayne Shorter, and Joe Zawinul, and played with Eddie Harris, Pharoah Sanders, and Marian McPartland.

In 1969, Hart joined Herbie Hancock’s groundbreaking Mwandishi band and remained there for four years recording three trend-setting albums. From there he joined McCoy Tyner’s band (1973–1974) and also performed with Stan Getz (1974–1977), and Quest (1980s) in addition to extensive freelance playing and recording (including recording with Miles Davis on 1972’s On the Corner).

Howard classmate Marion Brown introduced Hart to Sunny Murray and Rashied Ali. Hart increasingly self-identified as an experimental musician, drawing on their example in a trio with Joe Chambers on piano and Walter Booker on bass.

Later, during mid and late ’60s stopovers in Chicago with Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery and Eddie Harris, he attended to the “textural, timbral approaches” of AACM drummers Thurman Barker,

Steve McCall and Alvin Fielder.

He applied those lessons during two years with Pharoah Sanders, a period when, via percussionist Mtume, he received the sobriquet “Jabali” (Swahili for “wisdom”).

Hart’s mature tonal personality— advanced grooves drawing on “some knowledge of African and Indian music, and all the American traditions”—emerged during his years with Hancock’s Mwandishi band and subsequent tenure with McCoy Tyner.

Hart drew on all these experiences in conceptualizing Enchance, his debut album as a leader and subsequently, Oshumare (1985), Rah (1987), Amethyst (1993) and Oceans of Time (1997). On each record, he assembled idiosyncratic virtuosos from different circles, each signifying a stream of cuttingedge jazz thought. Functioning more as a facilitator than a stylist, he meshed their distinctive personalities, generating fresh ideas through intense drum dialogue. Each date has a singular quality, as though Hart had conjured a unitary vision out of various strains of the zeitgeist.

Hart currently leads the Billy Hart Quartet featuring Mark Turner, Ethan Iverson and Ben Street. They have recorded three CDs, the most recent, One is the Other, is on ECM Records.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Cecil McBee, bass World-acclaimed Bassist Cecil McBee was born and raised in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a community of rich and varied musical roots. His musical career started in high school, where he first played the clarinet. He and his sister Shirley soon gained local notoriety performing clarinet duets at concerts around the state. By the age of 17, he began to experiment with the string bass and played steadily at local nightclubs with top Jazz and Rhythm and Blues groups.

Because of the great promise he showed on the clarinet, Cecil was offered a full scholarship to attend Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio and upon his arrival to college, he was immediately embraced as both a fine clarinetist and a promising young bassist. Cecil found the academic atmosphere extremely inspiring, both towards his educational needs as a potential instructor as well as bass performer.

Unfortunately, his college education was interrupted by his induction into the U.S. Army where he spent two years as the conductor of the “158th Band” at Fort Knox, Kentucky. There he developed a personal study of the possibilities of bass composition and improvisation.

After his discharge from the army, Cecil returned to college to resume his studies and eventually received Bachelor of Science degree in music education. By the time he graduated from college, Cecil realized that, although he had prepared for a career in education, he was more

inspired by performing jazz on the world stage. To realize this goal, Cecil decided to move to Detroit, then home to one of the most thriving jazz communities in the world. Within a year, he joined the Paul Winter Sextet, which turned out to be an open passage for his eventual arrival in New York City.

Since his arrival in New York, Cecil has been embraced for his talents and has recorded and traveled worldwide with such powerful Jazz personalities as Charles Lloyd, Pharoah Sanders, Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, Keith Jarrett, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Michael White, Jackie McLean, Yusef Lateef, Alice Coltrane, Ravi Coltrane, Abdullah Ibrahim, Lonnie Liston Smith, Buddy Tate, Joanne Brackeen, Dinah Washington, Benny Goodman, George Benson, Nancy Wilson, Betty Carter, Art Pepper, Charles Lloyd, Pharoah Sanders, Dave Liebman, Joe Lovano, Billy Hart, Eddie Henderson, Yosuke Yamashita, Billy Harper and Geri Allen.

The recipient of two NEA composition grants, McBee has written works that are performed worldwide and have been recorded

by Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Pharoah Sanders and many others.

His music covers all territories of creative improvisation and is unique to his own individuality and incredible abilities on the instrument.

The Cookers In 1989 he won a Grammy for his performance of Blues for John Coltrane featuring Roy Haynes, David Murray, McCoy Tyner and Pharoah Sanders. In 1991, he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.

As one of post bop’s most advanced and versatile bassists, Cecil McBee creates rich, singing phrases in a wide range of contemporary jazz contexts.

David Weiss, trumpet In a jazz climate that rewards neoconservative tributes and far-flung exercises in deconstruction, David Weiss has distinguished himself another way: through finding flexibility and innovation in music that has its roots in the mainstream.

The trumpeter, composer, and arranger has had the opportunity to learn from some of the music’s quintessential figures by touring and/or recording with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Charles Tolliver, Billy Harper, Bobby Hutcherson, Slide Hampton, James Moody, Tom Harrell, Louis Hayes, Muhal Richard Abrams, Odean Pope, Geri Allen and Billy Hart among many others.

Weiss was born in New York City, but began his musical studies in earnest by attending North Texas State University. He graduated in 1986 and returned to New York. He soon found work with Jaki Byard, Frank Foster and Jimmy Heath and began to study with fellow trumpeters Tommy Turrentine and Bill Hardman. He also attended Barry Harris’ weekly workshops, a valuable learning experience for Weiss and an opportunity for him to play with Mr. Harris and Walter Davis Jr. In 1996, recognizing a lack of

serious new jazz writing, Weiss recruited some young, firstcall New York musicians and composers to form the New Jazz Composers Octet. With their passionate rendering of thoughtful arrangements and firm rooting in tradition, the collective quickly established itself as the “sound of the new jazz mainstream” (Ben Ratliff, New York Times) and was praised for their ability to “stretch hard bops kind-of-unstretchable formula (Jim Macnie, Village Voice). Of Weiss’ contribution to the Octet’s 1999 recording debut, First Steps Into Reality (Fresh Sound Records), Willard Jenkins commented, “a skilled arranger, transcriber and all-round coordinator, Weiss also brings righteous trumpet chops to this potent mix.” (Jazz Times). The CD was also lauded as a “gem” and received a Critic’s Pick as one of the Top 5 Albums of the Year in Jazz Times.

Weiss first developed an interest in writing for octet while arranging a couple of Freddie Hubbard compositions for the Hubbard album M.M.T.C. Both Weiss and Hubbard liked the miniature big band sound and decided

ABOUT THE ARTISTS to collaborate on another album of arrangements of several of Hubbard’s more distinctive pieces from throughout his great career.

In 2001, Hubbard recorded these selections with the New Jazz Composers Octet on New Colors (Hip Bop). The London Observer praised the Octet’s “fine, surging ensemble sound” on the recording, as well as the group’s “canny mixture of youth and experience,” and finally observed, “Trumpeter-arranger David Weiss is definitely a name to watch.”

The octet released their second CD, Walkin’ the Line (Fresh Sound Records), in 2003 to great critical acclaim which included being voted one of the critic’s top ten picks of the year in JazzWise magazine. Weiss used his compositions from this CD to win the prestigious Chamber Music America Doris Duke Jazz Ensembles Project: New Works Creation and Presentation grant in 2001, which provides funds to a composer to create a new work for his ensemble. The octet recently released their third CD, The Turning Gate on Motema Music, and Weiss has already used his compositions from this album to win a grant from the American Composers Forum’s Jerome Composers Commissioning Program in 2005.

In 2000, Weiss formed a second group, the David Weiss Sextet to explore new compositional concepts and styles he was developing that did not fit the sound of the octet.

The group also introduced to the jazz world two extraordinary new young talents, twin brothers Marcus

and E.J. Strickland who were still in college when the group was formed. The group released their first album (and Weiss’ first as a leader), Breathing Room (Fresh Sound Records), in 2002. The CD also featured Craig Handy, Xavier Davis, and Dwayne Burno. The CD received great critical acclaim from JazzWise (4 stars, recommended, their highest rating), DownBeat (4 stars) and 52nd Street (4 1/2 stars) among many others. He followed his debut with The Mirror (Fresh Sound Records) which was hailed as a masterpiece by AllAboutJazz and was voted the #2 CD of the year (2004) by JazzWise Magazine.

The group recently reconvened to record their third CD and their first in ten years entitled When Words Fail.

In the past few years, Weiss has formed three new ensembles, all quite different and with their own unique sound. He formed David Weiss and the Point of Departure Quintet in 2006. As with his earlier bands, he formed this new group around some of the finest up and coming musicians in jazz. This group draws its inspiration and approach to music from a period in jazz that seems to have not yet been clearly defined, the late 1960’s, a turbulent but exciting time for jazz when music seemed to simultaneously get more complex and simpler at the same time as a variety of influences infused the music. Some were experimenting with soul, rock and exotic rhythms from India and the Far East and others were carrying on the innovations of the second

The Cookers great Miles Davis quintet, using the group’s ever- shifting rhythms and harmonic complexities as a springboard to new compositional ideas. Some somehow combined both to create some new, exciting music. The Point of Departure Quintet is re-examining some of the most innovative music of the period, some of it neglected, some, perhaps, never quite as developed as it could have been as things seemed to move at a pace during that period that left some music from being fully realized as they quickly moved on to the next new thing. The band has released two critically acclaimed CDs (Snuck In and Snuck Out) recorded live at the Jazz Standard for Sunnyside Records and recently released the much lauded follow-up Wake Up Call on Ropeadope Records. Weiss also took one his occasional special projects The Cookers and decided to solidify the personnel and turn it into a real working unit that would feature some of the most important musicians in jazz that are still living but in his opinion somehow a bit unsung or neglected and

give them another showcase for their amazing compositional skills and outstanding improvisational prowess. The group features Billy Harper, Eddie Henderson, Donald Harrison, George Cables, Cecil McBee and Billy Hart and features compositions by Harper, Cables and McBee rearranged for the group by Weiss. The band has now released five CDs over the past six years and has been touring around the world in support of these CDs . The third ensemble is Endangered Species: The Music of Wayne Shorter, a 12 piece mini big band devoted to reimagining the music of jazz’ greatest living composer and approach his work as he would, as an ever changing, always evolving body of work. The group performs music from all eras of Mr. Shorter’s great career from the Blakey era (“Mr. Jin”), through music from “The All Seeing Eye”, up to his latest compositions from “Alegria” and “High Life”. Their debut CD, recorded live at Jazz at Lincoln Center, was released in 2013 to celebrate Mr. Shorter’s 80th Birthday.

Donald Harrison, alto saxophone Donald was born in New Orleans in 1960 and grew up in a home environment saturated with the city’s traditional music of brass bands, parades, modern Jazz, R&B, Funk, Classical, World and Dance music. His connection to New Orleans roots were deepened by his father, a Big Chief, in a new style of African culture developed in New Orleans. The culture is an offshoot culture of Congo Square,

one of the only known places in North America where Africans openly participated in their culture in the 18th and 19th centuries and has incorporated some aspects of Native American culture as well.

Donald himself became the Big Chief of The Congo Square Nation Afro-New Orleans cultural group in 1999 and coined the term Afro-New Orleans. He built the first costume that merges East, West and Central

ABOUT THE ARTISTS African designs with Afro-New Orleans style cultural designs.

Donald also created “Nouveau Swing,” a style of jazz that merges it with modern dance music like R&B, Hip-Hop, Soul and Rock. He also combined jazz with Afro-New Orleans traditional music on his critically acclaimed albums Indian Blues (1991) and Spirits of Congo Square (2000). The recordings deepened Harrison’s commitment to maintaining the offshoot rituals, call and response chants and drumming as well as traditional jazz music alive for the next generation.

Donald has performed and recorded with an illustrious list of distinguished musicians in Jazz, R & B, Funk, Classical and more including Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, The Cookers, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Lena Horne, Ron Carter, Billy Cobham, Eddie Palmieri, Jennifer Holiday, Dr. John, Guru’s Jazzmatazz, McCoy Tyner, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Digable Planets, Notorious BIG, The Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra to name just a few.

As an actual evacuee/survivor of Hurricane Katrina, he had a prominent role in Spike Lee’s HBO documentary When the Levees Broke. He also appeared as himself and co-wrote the sound track for Academy Award-winning director Jonathan Demme’s feature film Rachel’s Getting Married, starring Anne Hathaway and Debra Winger.

Aspects of Donald’s life and music are chronicled with two characters in David Simon’s groundbreaking

HBO series, Treme. He was also a character consultant and appeared as himself in eleven episodes.

Donald recorded Quantum Leap in 2012, which musicians and critics agree is a next step for jazz and is an amalgamation of his years of playing with jazz masters and his life’s experiences. With quantum jazz, Donald has opened up new areas for time, harmony, and melody. The recording also melds cutting edge jazz with New Orleans funk, connecting the past AND the present with jazz music that transcends boundaries.

Donald is also co-founder and artistic director for the Tipitina’s Intern Program and founder of The New Jazz School where he, along with a staff of his handpick of seasoned veterans, teach Jazz, Soul, Funk, theory, harmony, composition, and history to students aged 13 to 18. The Tipitina’s Intern Program is a college preparatory and professional music training program for junior and senior high school students. The program at Tip’s has garnered close to $10,000,000.00 in scholarships for it’s graduates and placed many prominent young musicians amongst the professional ranks. Harrison taught and mentored the following musicians: trumpeter Christian Scott, hip-hop icon The Notorius B.I.G., trombonist/singer Trombone Shorty, guitarist Josh Connelly and saxophonists Louis Fouche, Chris Royal and Aaron Fletcher. His working groups have proven to be an incubator for jazz bandleaders

The Cookers such as trumpeter Christian Scott, guitarist Mark Whitfield, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and bassists Christian McBride and Esperanza Spaulding.

His awards include two of France’s “Grand Prix du Disque”, Switzerland’s “The Ascona Award”, Japan’s Swing Journal “Alto Saxophonist of the Year,” The Jazz Journalist Association’s

“A List Award,” 2012 New Orleans Civic Award, 2007 Jazziz Magazine’s “Person of the Year,” the Big Easy Music Awards “Ambassador of Music” and is a DownBeat Magazine Alto Saxophone Poll Winner. He was also a 2006 Resident at William and Mary College, a 1995 “Meet The Composer” recipient and has also earned a 2012 Grammy nomination.

Craig Handy, tenor saxophone From the time he arrived in New York at age 23 in 1986, saxophonist Craig Handy was acknowledged as a musician with big, burly tenor sound, sharp wit, and above all, individuality. Over the next few years he would breath life into those accolades through a number of important associations: holding his own on the front line of legendary bebop drummer Roy Haynes’ band, working with South African pianist Abdullah Ibrahim, and weaving sensuous obbligati behind Betty Carter on the kind of tunes most young artist are presumed not to understand.

Handy cites each experience as having a profound impact on his development. “Working with Ibrahim taught me a lot about thematic development,” states the saxophonist. “He lays down simple melodies that build on each other, and listening to his compositions remind me of great architecture.”

Recalling the time he spent with Betty Carter, he describes her as

“a wonderful songstress, great mentor, and nurturer who instills confidence.” And in Haynes he found a master timekeeper who can teach you when to jump and when not to. “He’s like a cat in the jungle,” Handy notes. “He judges very carefully, that moment when he can capture an audience, then at just the right time he pounces!”

It wasn’t long after the lesson of his New York apprenticeship that Handy made his recording debut as a leader. In 1992 the Arabesque label released Split Second Timing, an album named after something Handy heard onstage nightly during his tenure in Art Blakey’s band in 1989. “Blakey used to say the music came ‘from the creator to the artist, direct to you the audience with split-second timing,” recalled Handy.

Two years later in 1994, also for Arabesque, Handy recorded Introducing Three For All + One. Featuring the saxophonist primarily in trio with bassist

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Charles Fambrough and drummmer Ralph Peterson, Three For All was acclaimed by CD Review as “one of the leanest, meanest groups playing jazz.”

“What’s most dazzling about his second disc is his individuality,” wrote Norman Weinstein for the Boston Phoenix. “Handy soars. He transforms ‘Spinning Wheel’ by Blood, Sweat & Tears into cubist calliope music. He empties the sappy sentimentality out of standards by Gordon Jenkins and Marvin Hamlisch, replacing them with taut passion.

Already a technical master in his 20s, he has, unlike many of his generation, decided that what comes after technique is haunting communication.”

Another significant phase in Handy’s career was the work he began in the mid-80’s with Haitian and salsa bands. “Those bands were killing it rhythmically,” exclaimed Handy. “The rhythms would loop over each other, creating a texture and soundscape that’s very sophisticated and funky.

The artists in these bands also paid special attention to phrasing and playing together, and these are elements that are common to good musicianship in any idiom.”

Born in Oakland, California, on September 25, 1962, Handy played guitar, trombone, and piano before he fell in love with the saxophone after hearing Dexter Gordon on the radio. “I was captivated by the deepness and the richness, the robustness of Gordon’s tone,” says Handy. “The directness of his ideas

also impressed me.”

After participating in the renowned Berkeley High School jazz program – which also produced David Murray, Peter Apfelbaum, Benny Green, and Joshua Redman – Handy earned the highly competitive Charlie Parker Scholarship award which allowed him to study at North Texas State University. He attended North Texas for two and a half years, majoring in psychology and playing in the school’s prestigious One O’Clock Lab Band.

More recently, Handy appeared on two recordings for the Chartbusters, a band comprised of Handy, alto saxophonist Donald Harrison, organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and drummer Idris Muhammad.

Released in 1995 on the NYC label, the group’s first disc, the critically acclaimed Chartbusters! Volume 1, paid homage to the Blue Note records of the late ‘50s and ‘60s.

Mating Cal, the groups second album which was co-produced by Handy, was released by Prestige. In the fall of 1996, Handy can be seen on the big screen in the Robert Altman film titled Kansan City, portraying a character based on the late Coleman Hawkins. Also in 1996, Handy can be seen touring with one of the most prominent voices in modern jazz – pianist Herbie Hancock.

“Herbie is perfection personified,” Handy observes. “He is one of the most modern cats around and has all the weaponry. One of my favorite solos by him is featured

The Cookers on ‘Seven Steps To Heaven.’ On that tune, he plays two of the most perfect choruses in jazz history – stacking right up there with Charlie Parker. When I hear his compositions, I’m reminded that despite all the negativity in the world, all of humanitiy does share emotions like joy and hope.

Herbie’s music unites people. He’s definitely one of my heroes and to tour with him is like a dream come true.”

Handy will undoubtedly fulfill many more dreams, as he strives to contribute his own perfect choruses to jazz history.

Eddie Henderson, trumpet Jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Eddie Henderson received his first informal lesson on the trumpet at the age of 9 from Louis Armstrong.

As a teenager he studied trumpet at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and performed with the San Francisco Conservatory Symphony Orchestra. In 1957, Eddie met Miles Davis for the first time.

Miles, a family friend, admired the strikingly beautiful tone and musicality of Henderson’s trumpet playing and encouraged him to pursue a career in music. As a family friend, Miles has been a major musical influence on Eddie throughout his life. That culminated in May of 2002 with the recording of So What, a tribute to Miles that features songs associated with the legend. As Henderson puts it, “Miles is so very special to me because when I was in high school he stayed in my parent’s house when he came through San Francisco. I was going to the conservatory then studying classical music. I saw him do all these songs live that I recorded on the tribute album.”

Eddie had the good fortune of meeting many famous musicians

growing up (including getting those early tips from Satchmo) because his parents were both entertainers. His mother was a dancer at the original Cotton Club and his father a member of the popular singing group Billy Williams and the Charioteers. His stepfather was a doctor to people like Miles, Coltrane and Duke Ellington, so the association with musicians continued. In addition to excelling on his instrument, Eddie excelled academically enough to go to medical school and become a doctor.

From 1968 until the late ‘80s, Henderson mixed music and medicine. He received his first major musical exposure as a member of Herbie Hancock’s trailblazing Mwandishi sextet, an ensemble that also included young innovators such as Bennie Maupin, Julian Priester, Buster Williams and Billy Hart. From 1969 through 1973 they recorded Mwandishi and Crossings for Warner Bros. and Sextant for Columbia. His experiences with Hancock exerted a profound influence on Henderson as reflected in the music on his first two solo albums, Realization and

ABOUT THE ARTISTS Inside Out, recorded in 1972 and 1973 for Capricorn Records.

After leaving Hancock, the trumpeter worked extensively with Pharoah Sanders, Norman Connors and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.

Eddie returned to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1975 where he joined the Latin-jazz group Azteca and fronted his own bands. The expressive rhythmic thrust of Henderson’s jazz/ fusion experiences manifested

itself on his Blue Note recordings Sunburst and Heritage, and in 1977, he broke through with a single on the Billboard charts, “Prance On” (from the album Comin’ Through).

Eddie has also performed with such notables as Dexter Gordon, Roy Haynes, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson, Elvin Jones, Johnny Griffin, Slide Hampton, Benny Golson, Max Roach and McCoy Tyner.

George Cables, piano When George Cables was going to school in New York City he used to walk the streets at night, taking in the cosmopolitan sights and sounds, mentally recording his encounters with “so many different kinds of people.” In his musical career as well, Cables has prowled sidestreets and main thoroughfares in relative anonymity, absorbing countless influences into his personal style.

Born in New York City on November 14, 1944, Cables was classically trained as a youth and when he started at the “Fame” worthy High School of Performing Arts, he admittedly “didn’t know anything about jazz.” But he was soon smitten with the potential for freedom of expression he heard in jazz.

The young Cables was impressed by such keyboardists as Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea but, he points out, “I never really listened to pianists when I was coming up. I

would probably say I’ve been more influenced by Miles or ‘Trane and their whole bands rather than by any single pianist. The concept of the music is more important to me than listening to somebody’s chops or somebody’s technique; the way Miles’ band held together, it was just like magic. You were transported to another world.”

Cables attended Mannes College of Music for two years and by 1964 he was playing in a band called The Jazz Samaritans which included such rising stars as Billy Cobham, Lenny White and Clint Houston. Gigs around New York at the Top of the Gate, Slugs, and other clubs attracted attention to Cables’ versatility and before long he had recorded with Max Roach and Paul Jeffrey and earned a brief tenure with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in 1969.

A 1969 tour with tenor titan Sonny Rollins took Cables to the West Coast and by 1971 he became

The Cookers a significant figure in the jazz scenes of Los Angeles and San Francisco. Collaborations and recordings with tenor saxophonists Joe Henderson and Sonny Rollins, trumpeters Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson made Cables’ wide-ranging keyboard skills, often on electric piano, amply evident. Demand for his sensitive accompaniment increased and by the end of the 1970s, Cables was garnering a reputation as everyone’s favorite sideman.

Perhaps the most pivotal turn came when hard-bop legend Dexter Gordon invited Cables into his quartet in 1977. The two years he spent with the re-appreciated tenor giant ignited Cables’s passion for the acoustic piano and re-immersed him in the bebop vocabulary. “I don’t feel that one should be stuck in the mud playing the same old stuff all the time, trying to prove that this music is valid,” Cables says. “We don’t need to prove anything but I think you really have to be responsive to your heritage and then go on and find your own voice.”

The longest standing relationship Cables developed in the late seventies was with alto saxophonist Art Pepper. Cables, who Pepper called “Mr. Beautiful,” became Art’s favorite pianist, appearing on many quartet dates for Contemporary and Galaxy and joining Art for the extraordinary duet album, Goin’ Home, that would be Pepper’s final recording session. “I’ve been able to play with

some of the greatest musicians in the world,” Cables says, “but it’s funny, if you’re not seen as a bandleader, doing the same thing a lot of times, it’s easy to wonder, `Well, who are you really? What do you really feel?’ And sometimes I have to ask myself that, because every time I play with somebody different I have to put on a different hat.”

He has performed and recorded with some of the greatest jazz musicians of our time, including: Joe Henderson, Roy Haynes, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Sonny Rollins, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Sarah Vaughn, Tony Williams, Bobby Hutcherson and Dizzy Gillespie.

George Cables has emerged as a major voice in modern jazz. He is currently performing and recording as a soloist, with trio and larger ensembles, and as a clinician in college jazz programs. In addition to composing and arranging for his own albums, George Cables has contributed to recordings by Dexter Gordon, Art Pepper, Freddie Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Bobby Hutcherson and many others. He is noted for his fresh Interpretations of classic compositions and for his innovative style of writing.

BluePort Jazz Dr. Jim Merod

Dr. Jim Merod is a professor of American Literature at Soka University and has a Ph.D. from Stanford University. Merod has been heavily involved in the jazz scene for more than 20 years as a recording and mastering engineer, working with legendary jazz and blues musicians such as Tito Puente, Joe Lovano, Tommy Flanagan, Sarah Vaughan, Eddie Palmieri, Wynton Marsalis, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Tolu, Los Lobos, Ozomatli, and Luciana Souza. Merod helps cultivate the culture of jazz at SUA through BluePort Jazz’s partnership with Soka Performing Arts Center.

Merod’s contribution to the jazz world is not limited to his engineering work. He is also the co-author of legendary composer-saxophonist Benny Golson’s autobiography. Through his founding of BluePort Sound recording studio and BluePort Jazz record label, Merod has established himself as an important figure in the jazz community. His dedication to jazz has helped make Elario’s Jazz Club, in La Jolla, California, one of the premier jazz venues on the west coast.

Aside from his work in the music industry, Merod has also been a teacher, critic, and writer. He attributes his intellectual growth to his influential teachers at

Princeton, Middlebury College, and Stanford, such as R. P. Blackmur, Walter Kaufman, William Arrowsmith, Harold Bloom, David Halliburton, Bliss Carnochan, and his friend and colleague at Cornell, A. R. Ammons.

With his vast experience in both academia and the music industry, Jim Merod has left a remarkable impact on the world of jazz and is highly respected for his contributions to the genre.

UPCOMING JAZZ

Mike Tomaro 10tet

featuring Mike Tomaro, Glenn Cashman, Keith Bishop, Chad Willis, Jeff Jarvis, Andy Martin, Will Brahm, Jeremy Siskind, Michael Parchaiski & Ryan Dong

Presented in partnership with BluePort Jazz

SATURDAY, APR. 13, 2024, 8 PM SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER TICKETS & INFORMATION HERE soka.edu/pac tickets@soka.edu 949-480-4278

Soka Performing Arts Center Mission Statement

Our mission is to Engage, Educate, and Elevate the Human Spirit Soka Performing Arts Center strives to elevate humanity through transcendent experiences. Come experience our exquisite acoustics. Come to expand your understanding and appreciation of music. Come to forge community and emotional connections through the shared experience of live music.

Listen.

Feel.

Transform.

ABOUT SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER

Soka Performing Arts Center is located on the beautiful hilltop campus of Soka University of America in Aliso Viejo. Our facility includes the 1,032seat Concert Hall featuring world-class acoustics designed by master acoustician Yasuhisa Toyota, designer of the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, among many others. We also have an intimate 350-seat Black Box Theatre that allows for multiple seating configurations including club seating with bistro tables.

More than 750 performances have taken place since the center’s dedication on May 27, 2011. The 2023-24 season marks our twelfth season presenting first-class programming in our world-class concert hall. We are continuing to expand our programming and outreach with the addition of a Children’s Concert Series, Blues Festival, and the only Great Pianists Series on the West Coast. From classical and jazz to world and contemporary music, the Soka Performing Arts Center has become a prized space for artists and audiences alike.

We are proud to be the home of the Pacific Symphony Chamber Orchestra.

Our Sundays @ Soka Series with Pacific Symphony continues to be one of our most popular series year after year. Our presentations with other Orange County arts organizations have enabled us to reach further into our community to offer arts education and programming. Our partnership with the Philharmonic Society of Orange County includes our PSOC Series, which brings superlative artists to our stage. We also partner with PSOC for our Outreach Program, bringing over 7,000 school children to Soka Performing Arts Center to experience live performances with outstanding musicians.

With its world-class acoustics and first-class performances, Soka Performing Arts Center is quickly becoming one of the cultural jewels of Orange County.

SOKA PERFORMING ARTS CENTER DONORS

OUR SUPPORTERS

DIRECTOR’S CIRCLE ($75,000+) Dr. Kenneth & Sandra Tokita Sam & Lyndie Ersan CONCERTMASTER ($10,000+) Ms. Emi Maeda STAGE CHAMPION ($5000+) Anonymous STAGE BENEFACTOR ($1000+) John and Sue Prange Terumi Saito Jochen Schumacher Scott A Shuping GOLD CLEF ($500+) Jeffrey Hendrix Jane A. Lynch Alex & Sandy Scott SILVER CLEF ($200+) Lorraine Leiser Anson and Marilyn Wong BRONZE CLEF ($25+) Raquel Bruno Sammy Chang Judy Kaufman Jeannette Pease Thomas Prigorac Jonia Suri Naomi Uchiyama Joseph Whitaker Joyce M Wrice Taro Yamanashi

List current as of 02/14/2024 The Soka Performing Arts Center deeply appreciates the support of its sponsors and donors, and makes every effort to ensure accurate and appropriate recognition. Contact Renee Bodie, General Manager at (949) 480-4821 to make us aware of any error or omission in the foregoing list.

CREATE YOUR OWN SUBSCRIPTION PACKAGE

This season, we have made exciting updates to our subscription and renewal program, providing you with even more flexibility in our season packages*.

With our enhanced program, you now have the power to curate your very own unique experience.

• 15% Discount for a 3 performance package • 18% Discount for a 4 performance package • 20% Discount for a 5+ performance package *full details online at soka.edu/pac

OUR PARTNERS • Blueport Jazz • Philharmonic Society of Orange County • Pacific Symphony • San Diego Symphony • Parnassus Society

SOKA PAC MANAGEMENT TEAM Renée Bodie General Manager & Artistic Director John Morgan Box Office Manager Jarmil Maupin Technical Services Manager Jenski Nguyen Stage Manager Madeline Webb Lighting Technician Hiroyuki Connor Miki Internal Events Manager Jaime Spataro Marketing & Communications Manager Joe Nicholls Marketing & Communications Assistant Steve Baker Interim Production/House Manager

SokaPAC @SokaPAC SokaPerformingArtsCenter @SokaPAC Website soka.edu/pac

SOKA UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Soka Performing Arts Center resides on the beautiful campus of Soka University of America.

We thank the SUA Board of Trustees and the SUA Leadership Council for all of their support.

SUA BOARD OF TRUSTEES Steve Dunham, JD Chair Vice President and General Counsel Emeritus, Pennsylvania State University | Baltimore, Maryland Tariq Hasan, PhD Vice Chair Chief Executive Officer, SGIUSA | New York, New York Andrea Bartoli, PhD President, Sant’Egidio Foundation for Peace and Dialogue | New York, New York Matilda Buck Benefactor | Los Angeles, California Lawrence E. Carter, Sr, PhD, DD, DH, DRS Dean, Professor of Religion, College Archivist and Curator, Morehouse College | Atlanta, Georgia Andy Firoved CEO, HOTB Software | Irvine, California Jason Goulah, PhD Professor of Bilingual-Bicultural Education and Director, Institute for Daisaku Ikeda Studies in Education, Director of Programs in Bilingual-Bicultural Education, World Language Education, and Value-Creating Education for Global Citizenship, College of Education, DePaul University | Chicago, Illinois Clothilde V. Hewlett, JD Commissioner of Department of Financial Protection and Innovation, State of California | San Francisco, California Lawrence A. Hickman, PhD Director Emeritus, The Center for Dewey Studies and Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, Southern Illinois University Carbondale | Carbondale, Illinois

Kris Knudsen, JD Attorney | Wilsonville, Oregon Karen Lewis, PhD Sondheimer Professor of International Finance and Co-Director, Weiss Center for International Financial Research, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Luis Nieves Founder, Chairman Emeritus AUL Corp, Benefactor | Napa, California Gene Marie O’Connell, RN, MS Health Care Consultant, Associate Clinical Professor, University of California, San Francisco School of Nursing | Corte Madera, California Adin Strauss General Director, Soka Gakkai International-USA | Santa Monica, California Yoshiki Tanigawa Benefactor, Soka Gakkai | Tokyo, Japan Edward M. Feasel, PhD President, Soka University of America (ex-officio member) | Aliso Viejo, California

SUA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL

SUA LEADERSHIP COUNCIL Edward M. Feasel, PhD President Chief Academic Officer Professor of Economics

M. Robert Hamersley, PhD Dean of Faculty Professor of Environmental Biogeochemistry

Archibald E. Asawa Executive Vice President for Finance and Administration Chief Financial Officer Chief Investment Officer

Hyon J. Moon, EdD Dean of Students Title IX and Section 504 Deputy Coordinator for Students

Katherine M. King, PHR Executive Vice President of University Community Chief Human Resources Officer Title IX and Section 504 Coordinator for Faculty, Staff and Others Michael Weiner, PhD Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Professor of East Asian History & International Studies Kevin Moncrief, PhD Vice President for Mission Integration Bryan E. Penprase, PhD Vice President for Sponsored Research and External Academic Relations Professor of Physics and Astronomy Tomoko Takahashi, PhD, EdD, LHD Vice President for Institutional Research and Assessment Dean of the Graduate School Professor of Linguistics and Education David Welch, JD Vice President University Counsel

Michelle Hobby-Mears, MBA Associate Dean of Students Director of Student Activities Andrew Woolsey, EdD Dean of Enrollment Services Martin Beck, MA Executive Director of Strategic Marketing and Communications

CONCESSIONS

Concessions A wide variety of wine, beer, soft drinks and freshly prepared snacks will be available before the concert and during intermission in the lobby.

Artist Drink Pick Smokescreen “The Chemist” Red Blend We asked the artists for their favorite drink pick to feature at concessions!

“The Chemist” Red Blend was chosen

by The Cookers and will be available for purchase before the performance and during intermission

Click here for menu and to order Pre-order your concessions for intermission and skip the line ahead of time!

Concessions provided

by FPG Events