Jeff Fuller & Friends – Darren Litzie on piano and Ben Bilello on drums – celebrate the release of their new CD, “Round & Round,” at the Side Door Café, Old Lyme, CT, on Saturday, January 11th, from 8:30 – 11 pm. Tickets $35.
Jeff Fuller Trio
On Saturday, January 11th from 8:30 – 11 pm, jazz bassist Jeff Fuller will be leading his fantastic trio at The Side Door Café at the Old Lyme (CT) Inn, playing selections from all four of their CDs, including the new one, “Round & Round.” Darren Litzie on piano and Ben Bilello on drums ‘round out’ the trio. Tickets are $35, and seriously, this is CT’s premier jazz club! Check it out.
TICKETS: The Side Door Jazz Club
Jeff Fuller – bass, Ben Bilello – drums, Darren Litzie – piano
Whether performing on stage and in clubs, teaching jazz and coaching ensembles, or composing and arranging in his home studio, Jeff Fuller brings great joy and a wealth of knowledge and experience to all his musical endeavors.
An integral part of the Connecticut, New York and international jazz scenes, Fuller has toured worldwide and recorded with saxophonists Lou Donaldson and Paquito D’Rivera. He has played with jazz masters from all styles and eras including such diverse artists as Dizzy Gillespie, Mose Allison, “Papa” Jo Jones, Gerry Mulligan, and Clark Terry. Fuller is one of the most sought after jazz bassists in Connecticut, and currently leads his own ensembles in many venues. In 2014, he was presented with the annual Jazz Haven Award, “For all you have done in presenting and preserving the culture and music of jazz.” Fuller plays a custom-made Upton Concord double bass, and a Ken Smith 6-string bass guitar.
Fuller has wide experience in both Afro-Cuban and Brazilian music. He has toured with Paquito D’Rivera’s New York/Havana Quintet, the Hilton Ruiz Quintet, Daniel Ponce’s Jazzbatá and Orlando “Puntilla” Rios’ Nueva Generación. He composes and arranges for the top salsa group, Irazú, whose CDs have featured soloists Arturo Sandoval and Tata Güines. Fuller’s Latin jazz big band and combo arrangements are frequently performed worldwide and are published by 3-2 Music, the predominant distributor of written Latin jazz. He is co-leader of the popular group, Sambeleza, which features singer/pianist Isabella Mendes and guitarist Joe Carter. His earlier Brazilian jazz group, Samba Brasil, was seven-time winner of the “Best Latin” category in the Hartford Advocate Reader’s Poll.
Fuller’s trio, featuring Darren Litzie on piano and Ben Bilello on drums, has released three CDs featuring their original music: The Call From Within (2014), Shoreline Blues (2016), and Happenstance (2018). Always expanding his compositional repertoire and vocabulary, Fuller has received commissions from both the New Haven and the Hartford Symphony Orchestras and has twice received project grants from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. He has been the recipient of multiple commissions from 3-2 Music, Florida International University, Yale University and UConn. His String Quartet was recorded by the Haven String Quartet in 2012. Fuller graduated cum laude from Yale College and received his master’s degree in composition from the Yale School of Music. He has been Ensemble Coach for the Yale School of Music Jazz Initiative since 2016. From 1995 to 2016, Fuller taught composition, jazz theory, and arranged and conducted for the jazz and classical ensembles at ACES-Educational Center for the Arts, New Haven’s arts magnet high school. He also teaches private lessons and conducts and arranges for the Premier Jazz Ensemble of the Neighborhood Music School.
CONTACT: Jeff Fuller ~ jefffuller@snet.net
Website: www.jefffuller.net
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jefffullermusic/
Nicki Parrott Trio
Nicki Parrott Trio performs on Saturday, October 26 from 8:30 to 11:00 pm at the Side Door Jazz Club.
Nicki Parrott – vocals and bass
Larry Fuller – piano
Jason Tiemann – drums
Nicki Parrott is a world-renowned double bassist and jazz vocalist. She was a resident Trio-member with the legendary Les Paul for over 10 years. In addition to performing at most of the world’s top jazz venues and festivals, she has recorded over two dozen vocal records for Venus Records (Japan) and Arbors Records (USA). Nicki’s recent vocal/bass CD, New York to Paris, (Arbors), charted in the top ten of Jazzweek upon its release.
Born in Newcastle, Australia, Nicki started her musical training with the piano at the age of four, and soon after took up the flute as well. She continued to play flute and piano throughout her school years, but switched to double bass at the age of 15 because her sister Lisa, who plays alto sax, wanted a bassist for her group. After completing high school, Nicki moved to Sydney to study jazz at the New South Wales Conservatorium of Music and shortly after began to play with well-known Australian musicians such as Mike Nock, Dale Barlow, Paul Grabowsky, Bernie McGann, and Ten Part Invention. She also toured Australia with Russian musicians Daniel Kramer and Alexander Fischer and American trumpeters Bobby Shew and Chuck Findley.
Nicki studied with various bassists in Australia, and when visiting bassists such as Ray Brown and John Clayton were in town, Nicki would take a lesson with them. She is also the recipient of two awards, the first being a scholarship to Pan Pacific Music Camps at the age of 16, and first place in the 1992 Jazz Action Society’s Annual Song Competition for her composition Come and Get It, which is the opening track of Nicki and Lisa’s debut CD. She was also nominated for the annual Australian Young Achievers Award by the Arts Council of Australia who granted her the funds to come to New York to study with Rufus Reid.
Nicki Parrott came to New York in May 1994. Since June 2000, Nicki has played on Monday nights at the Iridium Jazz Club with the legendary guitarist and inventor, Les Paul. Nicki and her sister, Lisa Parrott headlined at the prestigious Tribute to Mary Lou Williams festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. in May 2002, which was broadcast on National Public Radio. She is also the resident bassist with the Kitchen House Blend which premieres and performs new music by New York composers. Since coming to New York she has performed with such notable musicians as Randy Brecker, Clark Terry, Jose Feliciano, Rebecca Paris, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Dick Hyman, Patti Labelle & the New York Pops Orchestra, Harry Allen, Michel Legrand, Marlena Shaw, Mike Stern, David Krakauer, Ken Peplowski, Ann Hampton Callaway, Scott Hamilton, Larry Carlton and Victor Wooten. Nicki has also performed in several Broadway shows such as Avenue Q, Imaginary Friends, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Summer of ’42 and Jekyll and Hyde.
Nicki has performed at many major festivals around the globe including the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, Newport Jazz Festival, Jazz in July at the 92nd Street Y, Litchfield Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, and the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. She has also performed at the Berlin Jazz Festival, the Cully Lavaux and the Ascona and Berne Jazz Festivals in Switzerland, the Edinburgh and Grimsby Jazz Festivals in the UK, the Krakow Music Festival in Poland, the Ottawa Jazz Festival in Canada, Fujitsu Jazz Festival in Japan and various festivals throughout Australia.
Bennie Wallace & His Disorder at the Border Jazz Orchestra
Bennie Wallace & His Disorder at the Border Jazz Orchestra performs at the Side Door Jazz Club on Friday, October 25th from 8:30 to 11:00 pm. $55.00 cover.
This is a special evening that will be recorded for a future live release.
We hope that you will join us and be a part of jazz history!
Herlin Riley – drums
Godwin Louis – alto sax
Donald Vega – piano
Joe Magnarelli – trumpet
Matt Dwonszyk – bass
Carl Maraghi – baritone sax
Corey Wilcox – trombone
Anthony Wilson – guitar
“This is a great band…beauty, humor, unstoppable grooves and swing.” — Chicago Jazz Festival, JazzTimes
“Bennie Wallace and His Orchestra…the most entertaining and powerful jazz ensemble on the scene.” — DownBeat Magazine
Bennie Wallace, tenor saxophonist, composer and recording artist for more than three decades “is one of the most exciting saxophonists on today’s jazz scene” DownBeat. With over 20 jazz recordings, five DownBeat awards, numerous recording awards, Wallace has performed and recorded with many jazz greats, among them: Elvin Jones, Tommy Flanagan, and Chick Corea. He has also shown his southern roots by playing and recording with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dr. John and other blues artists. Wallace is the composer for Oscar-nominated films, among them: Redux Riding Hood and Little Surprises. Composer credits include Paul Newman’s Blaze, Bull Durham, White Men Can’t Jump, Betty Boop, among others. Wallace is the BackCountry Jazz Artistic and Music Director.
Bennie Wallace & His Disorder at the Border Jazz Orchestra
Bennie Wallace & His Disorder at the Border Jazz Orchestra – Thursday, October 24 from 8:30 to 11:00 pm at the Side Door Jazz Club. $55.00 cover.
This is a special evening that will be recorded for a future live release.
We hope that you will join us and be a part of jazz history!
Herlin Riley – drums
Godwin Louis – alto sax
Donald Vega – piano
Joe Magnarelli – trumpet
Matt Dwonszyk – bass
Carl Maraghi – baritone sax
Corey Wilcox – trombone
Anthony Wilson – guitar
“This is a great band…beauty, humor, unstoppable grooves and swing.” — Chicago Jazz Festival, JazzTimes
“Bennie Wallace and His Orchestra…the most entertaining and powerful jazz ensemble on the scene.” — DownBeat Magazine
Bennie Wallace, tenor saxophonist, composer and recording artist for more than three decades “is one of the most exciting saxophonists on today’s jazz scene” DownBeat. With over 20 jazz recordings, five DownBeat awards, numerous recording awards, Wallace has performed and recorded with many jazz greats, among them: Elvin Jones, Tommy Flanagan, and Chick Corea. He has also shown his southern roots by playing and recording with Stevie Ray Vaughan, Dr. John and other blues artists. Wallace is the composer for Oscar-nominated films, among them: Redux Riding Hood and Little Surprises. Composer credits include Paul Newman’s Blaze, Bull Durham, White Men Can’t Jump, Betty Boop, among others. Wallace is the BackCountry Jazz Artistic and Music Director.
Craig Brann Quintet
The Craig Brann Quintet will perform at the Side Door Jazz Club on Saturday, October 19 from 8:30 to 11:00 pm. $35.00 cover.
Craig Brann – guitar
Gregory Tardy – sax
Ethan Herr – piano
Nick Morrison – bass
Sanah Kadoura – drums
During the mid-nineties, guitarist and composer Craig Brann came to the NYC-area from rural Maine to attend William Paterson University’s jazz program under the artistic direction of Rufus Reid, James Williams and other masters. However, his education was not limited to formal environments.
At the same time, NYC was experiencing a nascent boom of a creative community and provided Brann a whole ‘nother world of learning. These scene-makers and mentors—Mark Turner, Greg Tardy, Joel Weiskopf, and Matt Wilson—would eventually join him on the bandstand and on various recordings.
Since his arrival in NYC, Brann has quietly and steadily established himself as one of the elite players of his generation. Now Brann has residencies and regular performances throughout NYC. The band may include the seasoned players above or other greats such as Seamus Blake, Donny McAslin, Rudy Royston, his fellow WPU alums Nick Morrison, Freddie Hendrix, Ethan Herr, Sam Barsh, and Johnathan Blake, or rising stars like John Raymond or Sanah “Hawk Eyes” Kadoura.
Brann lives in Brooklyn with his wife, Rebeccah Hope, and their four children: Tehilah, Irving, Verdinah, and Dorothy. He has recorded five albums for SteepleChase: Advent(ure) (2012), Mark My Words (2014), Conversation Between Brothers (2016), Lineage (2018), and The Twelve (2019).
“The cream always rises to the top. So it follows that guitarist Craig Brann would then be the crème de la crème and has firmly established his place at the table of NYC jazz cats.” – Mark Corroto (All About Jazz)
Eric Alexander Quartet
The Eric Alexander Quartet will perform at the Side Door Jazz Club on Friday, October 18 from 8:30 to 11:00 pm. $45.00.
Eric Alexander – saxophone
John Webber – bass
Joe Farnsworth – drums
Mike LeDonne – piano
Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. He started out on piano as a six-year-old, took up clarinet at nine, switched to alto sax when he was 12, and converted to tenor when jazz became his obsession during his one year at the University of Indiana, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson College in New Jersey he advanced his studies under the tutelage of Harold Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. “The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today,” says Alexander. “Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson–the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that’s the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I’m still listening all the time to Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic information and find ways to employ them in my own playing.”
During the 1990s, after placing second behind Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander threw himself into the whirlwind life of a professional jazz musician. He played with organ trios on the South Side of Chicago, made his recording debut in 1991 with Charles Earland on Muse Records, and cut his first album as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings followed for numerous labels, including Milestone and others, leading to 1997’s Man with a Horn; the 1998 collaborative quartet session with George Mraz, John Hicks, and Idris Muhammad, Solid!; and, that same year, the first recording by One For All, Alexander’s ongoing band with Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Dave Hazeltine.
Eric has appeared in many capacities on record, including leader, sideman, producer as well as composing a number of the tunes he records. By now, Alexander has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; he guesses 80 or 90. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition.
In 2004, Eric signed an exclusive contract with the New York-based independent jazz label, HighNote Records where he has amassed a considerable discography of critically-acclaimed recordings. Most recent among them is “Chicago Fire” HCD 7262, “The Real Thing” with Pat Martino HCD 7278 and “Second Impression” HCD 7296. Eric’s most recent HighNote release, “Song of No Regrets,”(HCD 7311) was featured in Downbeat’s “Hot Box”. He is currently working on a new recording project which will see commercial release in mid-2019.
Eric continues to tour the world over to capacity audiences. Using NYC as his home base he can regularly be seen in the city’s most prestigious jazz clubs.
Ralph Peterson’s Messenger Legacy
Ralph Peterson’s Messenger Legacy performs at the Side Door Jazz Club on Saturday, October 12 from 8:30 to 11:00 pm. $50.00 cover.
Ralph Peterson – drums
Craig Handy – saxophone
Essiet Essiet – bass
Brian Lynch – trumpet
Bill Pierce – saxophone
Zaccai Curtis – piano
When it comes to Art Blakey, there is no living drummer more suited to honoring his legacy than the incomparable Ralph Peterson. As the last drummer chosen by Blakey to play by his side in the Jazz Messengers Two Drummer Big Band, Peterson is tasked with the unique responsibility to carry forth Buhaina’s torch and tradition. In his role of carrying on the Blakey tradition Peterson has put together a fiery ensemble featuring fellow alumni of the Jazz Messengers who continue to advance the cause of contemporary mainstream jazz as leaders in their own right. Fresh off the May 20th release of the critically acclaimed Legacy: Alive Vol. 6 at the Side Door which marked Blakey’s 100th birthday, Peterson and the Messenger Legacy Band will be touring extensively throughout the summer and fall, highlighted by a performance at the Newport Jazz Festival this Saturday, August 3rd. The ensemble looks forward to recording a new studio album in January, which will Donald Brown, among others.
Peterson is proud to present a new iteration of his Messenger Legacy Band which will feature saxophonist Bill Pierce, trumpeter Brian Lynch, bassist Essiet Essiet, and pianist Zaccai Curtis locked in with Peterson’s firm downbeat, and will also feature an additional horn player on a rotating basis: Donald Harrison, Robin Eubanks, Craig Handy, Donald Brown. Pianist Anthony Wonsey will joins the ensemble for select dates as well. The decision to expand the ensemble in this way came from Peterson’s desire to celebrate the many eras and configurations of the ever-rotating Jazz Messengers, mirroring the same grounded capriciousness that was a hallmark of Art Blakey’s long standing ensemble— An expansion of Art Blakey’s Legacy. The addition of Zaccai as well as pianist Anthony Wonsey, the only two members not to have played with Blakey personally, marks the “passing of the torch” to the younger generation – something Blakey was known to do as he fostered young talent.
Tenor saxophonist Bill Pierce joined the Messenger front line in 1980, making his first appearances on Messenger Big Band Live at Montreux, Northsea and Album Of The Year records that introduced the world to Wynton Marsalis. Donald Harrison joined the messengers in 1982, and Robin Eubanks joined in 1987 alongside his brother Kevin. Trumpeter Brian Lynch and bassist Essiet Essiet were members of the final edition of the Jazz Messengers that played with Blakey until his death at the age of 71 on October 16th, 1990.
The music on the group’s most recent release, Legacy: Alive Vol 6, was culled from the voluminous Jazz Messengers discography of more than one hundred albums. It was recorded live at The Side Door in Old Lyme, Connecticut on October 12th and 13th in 2018, following the band’s debut at Scullers in Boston the previous night, on what have been Blakey’s 99th birthday. The group’s performances of these classic compositions remain true to the Messenger style of no holds barred energized soloing on lyrical melodic lines with Peterson indefatigably stoking the flames employing the Blakey rhythmic lexicon of driving press rolls and rim shots, exciting tonally sophisticated tom-tom patterns, a relentless sock cymbal beat and ass kicking bass drum accents.
Benny Green Trio
The Benny Green Trio will perform at the Side Door Jazz Club on Saturday, October 5 from 8:30 to 11:00 pm. $50.00 cover.
Benny Green – piano
David Wong – bass
Aaron Kimmel – drums
Benny Green possesses the history of jazz at his fingertips. Combine mastery of keyboard technique with decades of real world experience playing with no one less than the most celebrated artists of the last half century, and it’s no wonder Green has been hailed as perhaps the most exciting hard-swinging, hard-bop pianist to ever emerge from Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers.
Benny Green, unconditionally, is the bearer of the torch and guardian of a legacy handed down to him, personally, by his musical mentors. His most recent recordings, Live in Santa Cruz (2015) and Magic Beans (2012) (Sunnyside) are shining examples of his brilliance. Since emerging under the tutelage of Betty Carter, Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard and Ray Brown in the early 1980s, Benny Green has become a highly regarded pianist and bandleader. His efforts to expand upon the language of the classical jazz canon have placed him not only among the best interpreters but also among the vanguard of musicians keeping jazz’s evolution going.
Born in New York in 1963, Benny Green grew up in Berkeley, California, and began classical piano studies at the age of seven. Influenced by his father, a tenor saxophonist, his attention soon turned to Jazz: “I began trying to improvise on the piano, imitating the records I’d been hearing from my father’s collection, which included a lot of Monk and Bird… it was a gradual process of teaching myself”. Benny never looked back and never stopped learning as his blossoming talents, supported by mentors such as Walter Bishop, Jr. and others, plus his love for the music propelled him to the upper strata of jazz luminaries.
Benny’s list of credits, accomplishments, and accolades could literally fill a book. His recordings with the masters form a foundation of jazz education. Some notable highlights include: Beginning his touring life with Betty Carter for four years and realizing a life long dream of becoming a Jazz Messenger; In 1993 Oscar Peterson chose Benny as the first recipient of the City of Toronto’s Glen Gould International Protégé Prize in Music culminating in Oscar & Benny (1998) recorded for Telarc. Appearing on well over one hundred recordings, with legacy artists such as: Betty Carter (including Grammy award winner Look What I Got), Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Watson, Milt Jackson, Diana Krall, and he is particularly featured in Ray Brown’s trio series of CD’s for Telarc: Bass Face (1993), Don’t get Sassy (1994), Some of my best friends … (1994), Seven Steps to Heaven (1995), Super Bass (1996) and Live at Sculler’s (1996), to fresh faces like Japan’s young drum virtuouso, Tiger Onitsuka.
As the leader of his own groups, Benny’s recording career began with two albums for the Dutch label Criss Cross: Prelude (1988) and In This Direction (1989). In 1990 Green started recording for Blue Note: Lineage (1990), Greens (1991), Testifiyin’ (1992), That’s Right! (1993), The Place To Be (1994), Kaleidoscope (1997) and These Are Soulful Days (1999). In 2000, his debut recording on Telarc Jazz entitled Naturally was released, which featured bassist Christian McBride and guitarist Russell Malone. In 2001, Green’s Blues, a solo piano date and in 2003 Jazz at the Bistro (Telarc), a duo recording Malone, followed by Bluebird (2004) again pairing Green with Malone. A hiatus from recording produced Benny’s 2011 trio date, Source (JLP).
