Nancy Kelly © Tom Olsen and Leo Reinfeld

Starting at age four, Kelly studied piano, clarinet, drama and dance, later concentrating on voice at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester. Over the years she has performed for audiences across the country and in Europe and Asia, including three tours of Japan. New York gigs have included appearances at the Blue Note, Birdland, Rainbow Room and Dizzy’s. Over her career, Kelly has released three recordings: Live Jazz, Singin’ and Swingin’, and Born to Swing.

A native of Wuerzburg, Germany, guitarist Sebastian Noelle has been based in New York for the past five years, quickly gaining a reputation as one of the most creative improvisers and composers of a new generation of jazz magicians. As bandleader he has released four recordings since 2001 and currently performs in New York and elsewhere with his latest band, Koan. Sebastian’s most recent release, Across the River (Fresh Sound/New Talent, 2006), “has a delicate, sensual quality, romantic and full of emotions which invite rather than shout, creating an atmosphere in which one wants to spend time” (Budd Koppman, All About Jazz).

Noelle initially played cello before taking up the guitar at age 12. By 15, he was playing club dates in Wuerzburg, and went on to earn a degree in jazz performance and composition at the Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim. Moving to Boston, he earned a Master’s degree with distinction in performance at the New England Conservatory of Music, moving then to New York City in 2002. Noelle lists his primary teachers as Gene Bertonicini (with whom he recorded his first CD, the duo Home is Where the Heart Wants to Go), John Abercrombie (whom he featured on his second recording, Freedom Trail), Bob Moses, Jerry Bergonzi, Bob Brookmeyer, George Russell, Joe Maneri and Ran Blake; key influences include “Hermeto Pascoal’a spirit, joy and incredible musicianship;” pop icons such as the Beatles and Bob Dylan; jazz legends Miles Davis, Jim Hall, John Scofield, Egberto Gismonti; John Cage (“mostly for his writing”) and James Joyce. Among the current generation of jazz guitarists, Noelle cites Kurt Rosenwinkel, Adam Rogers, Ben Monder and Steve Cardenas, although one has to think Pat Metheny is lurking somewhere close by!

Kenny Werner © Andrea Canter

A child prodigy, Kenny Werner was born in Brooklyn and joined a children’s song and dance group at age four. At age 11, he recorded a single with a fifteen-piece orchestra and played stride piano on television. Still in high school, he studied at the Manhattan School of Music, later becoming a classical piano major. His interest in improvisation led him to the jazz program at the Berklee School of Music; he began recording in the late 1970s, appearing on Charles Mingus’ “Something Like a Bird.” In the 1980s, Werner toured with Archie Shepp and the Mel Lewis Orchestra, worked in duo formats with Rufus Reid, Ray Drummond, and Jaki Byard, and performed solo concerns in Europe and New York. Three National Endowment of the Arts grants helped further his career as a composer and enabled him to present his compositions at Symphony Space in New York. He also wrote compositions for the Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, which became the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra. With Ratzo Harris and Tom Rainey, Werner spent 14 years experimenting with trio formats, and in the 1990s, this format became his main focus. Bob Blumenthal (Boston Globe) noted that Werner’s ensemble “has provided an ever-evolving definition of the spontaneity that remains at the heart of jazz... unsurpassed as a working trio.”

Jean-Michel Pilc, photo by Jimmy Katz

• 3/01 Avi Rothbard 3 Cleopatra’s Needle, 2485 Broadway (betw. 92^nd & 93^rd St.) 212-769-6969 www.cleopatrasneedleny.com
• 3/01 Dana Leong The Jazz Gallery, 290 Hudson St. (Below Spring St.) 212-242-1063 www.jazzgallery.org
• 3/01 Dena DeRose Jazz Standard, 116 E 27^th St. 212-576-2232 www.jazzstandard.net
• 3/01 Elvis Perkins; Acoustic Delights Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre, 425 Lafayette Street (betw. E. 4^th St. & Astor Pl) 212-539-8563 www.publictheater.org
• 3/01 Gerald Hayes Minton’s Playhouse Uptown, 208 W. 118^th St., Harlem, NY 212-864-8346 www.uptownatmintons.com
• 3/01 Gilad Hekselman 3 Louis 649, 649 E. 9^th St. (At Ave. C) 212-673-1190 www.louis649.com
• 3/01 Gypdy Jazz Caravan; BJ Jansen Garage, 99 Seventh Ave S (at Grove St.) 212-645-0600 www.garagerest.com
• 3/01 Jean-Michel Pilc Smoke, 2751 Broadway (at 105^th St.) 212-864-6662 www.smokejazz.com