Greetings Milwaukee Jazzers!
Here it is, our preview of the Second Bi-Annual Eastside Jazzfest.
WHAT: Milwaukee’s newest music festival and the first to showcase the unique sound and talent of Milwaukee’s jazz scene, the EASTSIDE JAZZFEST returns Saturday, February 26 to the Todd Wehr Conference Center located at 1047 N. Broadway. Grammy© Award Winning jazz artist and Milwaukee Native, Brian Lynch is headlining the February festival. Five other jazz ensembles, representing the most exciting, versatile musicians with ties to Milwaukee will round out the bill. The evening begins promptly at 6:00 p.m. with performances from student jazz combos from the Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra and the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.
WHEN: SATURDAY, February 26, 2011 DOORS OPEN @ 5:30 P.M. MUSIC BEGINS @ 6:00 p.m. *THIS IS AN ALL AGES SHOW
LINE UP/Performance Order:
* MILWAUKEE YOUTH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA JAZZ STUDIES COMBO
* WISCONSIN CONSERVATORY of MUSIC JAZZ INSTITUTE STUDENT COMBO
* NEIL DAVIS QUARTET
* SNAARJ
* BRIAN LYNCH QUARTET
* KEVIN HAYDEN BAND
* SONS of DAUGHTERS TRIO
* STEVE PEPLIN SEXTET TICKETS: $15 in advance, $20 at the door, available @ http://esjf.eventbrite.com/
WHERE: TODD WEHR CONFERENCE CENTER 1047 N. BROADWAY, Milwaukee
PRESS OPPS: Press is invited/encouraged to cover the festival. Pre-event coverage is encouraged. Interviews/in-studio appearances available
CONTACT: For press inquiries please contact Erica Passey @ 414.208.1717 email: eastsidejazzfest@gmail.com
ABOUT MILWAUKEE JAZZ VISION MILWAUKEE JAZZ VISION is an organization of business and music industry professionals, musicians, teachers, students and listeners working together with the goal of advancing jazz music in the Greater Metro-Milwaukee area. Milwaukee Jazz Vision is dedicated to advancing the development and growth of the Jazz Community in Milwaukee, WI. MJV is responsible for the biannual Eastside Jazzfest. The festival is a one day concert featuring Milwaukee-based jazz acts and national/international acts with ties to Milwaukee. The festival was also established to raise money for the Milwaukee Jazz Vision Scholarship Program. Starting in 2012 the MJV will distribute funding for 4 scholarships, one each at the following institutions: University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee Area Technical College, Wisconsin Conservatory of Music, and Milwaukee Youth Symphony Orchestra – Jazz Studies Program. The MJV will also provide an outlet for Milwaukee based musicians to promote their performances and/or the sales of their recordings, ultimately facilitating the growth and development of the Milwaukee Jazz Community at large. More about the festival and the organization Milwaukee Jazz Vision @ www.milwaukeejazzvision.org
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS 91.7 WMSE The Jazz Estate Brass Bell Music
ABOUT THE BANDS BRIAN LYNCH QUARTET A highly esteemed and influential musician within both the hardcore straight ahead and Latin Jazz communities, Grammy Award Winner Brian Lynch is as comfortable negotiating the complexities of clave with Afro-Caribbean pioneer Eddie Palmieri as he is swinging through advanced harmony with bebop maestro Phil Woods. An honored graduate of two of the jazz world’s most distinguished academies, Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and the Horace Silver Quintet, he has been a valued collaborator with jazz artists such as Benny Golson, Toshiko Akiyoshi, and Charles McPherson; Latin music icons as diverse as Hector LaVoe and Lila Downs; and pop luminaries such as Prince. As a bandleader and recording artist he has released a series of critically acclaimed CDs featuring his distinctive composing and arranging, and toured the world with various ensembles. He is currently on the faculty at New York University and conducts clinics and workshops at prestigious institutions of learning the world over. His talents have been recognized by top placings in the Downbeat Critics and Readers Polls; highly rated reviews for his work in Downbeat, Jazziz and Jazz Times; three Grammy award nominations as well as a 2006 Grammy Award, and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America, and Meet The Composer. More @ www.brianlynchjazz.com.
SNAARJ Snaarj produces music of particular polarity, existing in the dichotomy of expected and unexpected; eager and patient; familiar and unfamiliar. Snaarj forms a cohesive musical identity by incorporating the diverse musical backgrounds of its members. Snaarj’s fresh approach to composition uses elements of indie rock, jazz, and electronic music (among others) to captivate and stimulate open minds. Their collective fascination with sound, texture, and rhythm places the listener into a musical realm that is at once complex and accessible. Snaarj was formed in March 2009 when the four musicians met in this configuration for the first time. What began as an informal session revealed a collective curiosity and common musical goals. Snaarj composed new material and refined their sound, leading to their first performance in October 2009. Snaarj has recently finished a Midwest tour in support of their debut album, “Road Snacks,” released in June 2010. More @ http://www.snaarj.com/
Josh Johnson – alto saxophone, Dustin Laurenzi – tenor saxophone, Bobby Wooten – bass, Ben Lumsdaine – drums/cymbals Ben Lumsdaine : drums and cymbals
SONS Of DAUGHTERS TRIO Sons Of Daughters features Berklee College of Music alums Devin Drobka and Aaron Darrell as well as New School for Jazz alum and John Coltrane Foundation scholarship winner Patrick Breiner. The members of this trio have performed with Greg Osby, Jerry Bergonzi, Joe Lovano, Billy Hart, Dave Stryker, Ches Smith, George Garzone and Tony Malaby among others. They tour the east coast and midwest regularly and collectively have graced the stages of Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, Skuller’s Jazz Club, Yoshi’s, the Kitano, Smalls Jazz Club, the JVC Jazz Festival, the Isthmus Jazz Festival, Milwaukee’s Eastside Jazz Fest, and many other stages across the US and in Europe. This trio of brilliant young improvisers plays incendiary originals and reaches deep into the pantheon of jazz classics in order to deliver telepathy-laced shang-a-lang that transcends its geographical limitations.
NEIL DAVIS QUARTET The Neil Davis Quartet is newly formed but has already demonstrated its prowess. Its debut was on Nov. 27th 2010 at the fabled Jazz Estate. The group came out with a fresh sound featuring the compositions of its leader Neil Davis. Eric Schoor is featured on tenor saxophone. Eric is a student in the UWM music department and has already shown the ability to hang with his seasoned peers. The rhythm section is Brian Ritter on drums and Jim Paolo on bass. Both of these men are household names in the Milwaukee jazz scene. The group is powerful, sensitive, and exciting.
STEVE PEPLIN SEXTET The Steve Peplin Sextet will be performing material from their new album, In League with Witches, a record that is both modern and ancient. The roots are as deep as the tree is tall. The band includes veteran players (trumpeter Jamie Breiwick, Aaron Gardner, Tenor sax, flute, Steve on electric, acoustic and resonator guitars) and younger cats (Isaiah Joshua, alto saxophonist and keyboardist, Devin Drobka on drums and Aaron Darrell, bass). All the players in the band are Berklee alum save Breiwick and Joshua. Peplin attended Berklee from 94’-96’ and graduated with a Bachelor’s in composition. He currently serves as Professor of Jazz Guitar at Lawrence University and is an instructor at Milwaukee Technical College in the Music Occupations Department. This band swings hard and isn’t afraid to take it ‘out’. There is an equal measure of form and freedom here, consonance and dissonance. Peplin’s themes are dark, but with a certain quality of light that only ‘wrong chords’ can create. Displace the tonic by a half step and what was once familiar is no longer safe. Old Bebop melodic formulas no longer work here where the music is deeper and more dangerous.
KEVIN HAYDEN BAND Kevin Hayden is a drummer who is known to articulately translate speech through musical notes on the drums. Kevin has worked with well known Milwaukee acts since 2002 such as Christopher’s Project, De La Buena, Street Life, Growing Nation, the Terry Sims Band, the Evan Christian Quartet, the Jesse Sheehan Quartet, the Jamie Breiwick Quartet, the Adventures of the Static Chicken and others. In 2007 Kevin enrolled in the music program of Milwaukee Area Technical College where he studied music under one of Milwaukee’s premier jazz drummers Ben Hans. Kevin is also known as the “bare-foot” drummer because he takes off his shoes and socks when he plays the drums. It’s always a treat to the crowd to see this charismatic drummer kill a solo, then come from behind the drum set bare foot. When individuals ask why, he just smiles and replies “I get a better feel for the pedal that I’m using.”
