A Chicago Reader Recommended Pick!
Special guests include bassist Rodney Whitaker, trumpeter Derrick Gardner, pianist Dan Trudell, and saxophonist Geof Bradfield.
Also featuring CJE members drummer Dana Hall and trombonist Tim Coffman.
Kicking off its inaugural Small Ensemble Concert series, the CJE invites you to Buhaina's Delight: Art Blakey and the Message of Jazz, an intimate and engaging exploration of hard bop jazz and the genius of drummer Art Blakey. Featuring smaller quintet and sextet musician configurations, the concert presents the music most associated with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers in addition to a historic overview of hard bop, its significant figures, and its conceptual foundations, so central to Blakey's musical aesthetic.
Program to be selected from:
A La Mode Composed by Curtis Fuller
Along Came Betty Composed by Benny Golson
Cry Me Not Composed by Randy Weston, Arranged by Melba Liston
Free for All Composed by Wayne Shorter
On the Ginza Composed by Wayne Shorter, Arranged by Derrick Gardner
Pensativa Composed by Clare Fischer, Arranged by Freddie Hubbard
Room 608 Composed by Horace Silver
Second Thoughts Composed by Mulgrew Miller, Arranged by Dana Hall
United Composed by Wayne Shorter, Arranged by Geof Bradfield
GUEST MUSICIAN BIOS
GEOF BRADFIELD, SAXOPHONES
Saxophonist Geof Bradfield settled in Chicago in 2004 after several years in New York and Los Angeles. He has worked alongside many jazz luminaries throughout the US, Europe, Russia, Africa, and the Middle East and is featured on many recordings, including three critically acclaimed albums as a leader and two as a co-leader. His 2011 Origin Records release African Flowers was selected as a “Top 10 CD of 2010” by the Los Angeles Times. As a composer, Bradfield was awarded the prestigious New Jazz Works commission by Chamber Music America and Doris Duke in 2008 and 2011. He has received awards from CCAP, the Illinois Arts Council, and the Black Metropolis Research Consortium. Currently, he is working on an extended work inspired by trombonist Melba Liston. Bradfield has been on the faculty of Columbia College Chicago since 2004.
DERRICK GARDNER, TRUMPET
Inspired by the finest hard-blowing funky bop bands of the 1960s, trumpeter Derrick Gardner extends that great tradition as a composer, arranger, performer, leader, and educator. In New York he began a top-flight career that has taken him around the world performing internationally with the Count Basie Orchestra, Frank Foster’s Loud Minority Band, Harry Connick Jr.’s Big Band, and many more. Gardner formed his own sextet, The Jazz Prophets, in 1991; it continues to be the primary vehicle of his distinctive, hard-driving music that takes traditional straight ahead sound into new and invigorating territory. Derrick Gardner & the Jazz Prophets’ second release on Owl Studios, Echoes of Ethnicity, was heralded with rave reviews and received the honor of being awarded the “Best Jazz Album of the Year 2009” by the Independent Music Awards.
DAN TRUDELL, PIANO
Pianist Dan Trudell has been voted “a rising star” by Downbeat Magazine. His group The B3 Bombers was featured on the main stage of the 2007 Chicago Jazz Festival and he recently toured with Matt Wilson's “Arts and Crafts” quartet featuring Terrell Stafford and Dennis Irwin in Italy. Trudell is pianist for the Chicago Jazz Orchestra and has performed as a sideman with Aretha Franklin, Kenny Burrell, Ron Carter, Benny Golson, Buddy DeFranco, Roy Hargrove, Jeff Hamilton, Kurt Elling, Anne Hampton Calloway, Joe Williams, Jimmy Heath, Doug Lawrence, Jerry Weldon, Jim Rotondi, and Eric Alexander. His piano style has been compared to Ahmad Jamal, McCoy Tyner, and Red Garland. His organ style is heavily influenced by the greats who came before him, such as Lonnie Smith, Jimmy Smith, Don Patterson, and Brother Jack McDuff.
RODNEY WHITAKER, BASS
A member of Detroit's rich jazz tradition, bassist Rodney Whitaker has emerged as a member of the international jazz community, recording with an array of top talent and touring with such greats as Terence Blanchard and Bradford and Wynton Marsalis. As a solo recording artist and sideman, he has made a name within the new vanguard of young jazzmen dedicated to furthering the traditions of earlier acoustic stylists; he is devoted to creative personal statement rather than preservation. Whitaker currently holds the titles of Professor of Jazz Bass and Director of Jazz Studies at Michigan State University. He is also the Artistic Director of the Michigan State University Professors of Jazz ensemble, former Artistic Advisor of Jazz at Wharton Center, Director of Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s Civic Jazz Orchestra, and a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
