“…No pianist of Miller’s generation brings such a wide a stylistic palette to the table.” –Down Beat

Mulgrew Miller

There’s little in the world of jazz that compares to the view and ambience of Jazz at Lincoln Center’s small club space, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola. There’s also little in the world of jazz piano that compares with the dazzling elegance of Mulgrew Miller. Thus an incomparable week of music awaits the jazz cognoscenti in Manhattan when Mulgrew Miller brings his Wingspan ensemble to Dizzy’s, November 13-18.

Mulgrew Miller has enjoyed a thirty-year career atop the pool of pianists influenced by legendary Oscar Peterson and the great but under-rated Phineas Newborn. Growing up in Greenwood, Mississippi, young Miller was immersed in gospel and blues, playing gospel at church and blues and R&B for dance bands. He also studied classical piano and formed a trio while in high school, but did not really appreciate jazz until he saw Oscar Peterson perform on television. Said Miller in an interview with All About Jazz, “When I saw him, I realized there was a way to do something with music -- and do it with integrity and in a way that demanded virtuosity but wasn't classically oriented.” Pivotal to Miller’s transition to jazz was his studies at Memphis State University with Donald Brown and James Williams, pianists who would later work with Miller in the late 80s-early 90s as part of the Contemporary Piano Ensemble (along with a very young Geoff Keezer and Harold Mabern), dedicated to the music of Memphis’ native son Phineas Newborn. With Williams and Brown, Miller often caught Newborn’s sets at the Gemini in Memphis. “So that's where I really began to seriously learn jazz,” he notes.

Mose Allison © Andrea Canter

Known as "The William Faulkner of Jazz," multi-Grammy winner Mose Allison has enjoyed a long career as pianist, singer and songwriter. Beyond his reputation as an engaging and “hip” entertainer, there are few living musicians who have had such a strong influence on the development of other artists. When many other jazzers were taking the music down a more intellectual path, Allison, like Art Blakey and Horace Silver, put great emphasis on his Southern Blues and folk traditions. Still touring about 40 weeks per year, Allison has attained icon status among the blues and pop communities. This weekend he celebrates his 80th birthday at Jazz Standard in Manhattan (November 8-11).

"Javon adds a modern twist to the music we grew up with. Everybody get ready for a funky good time." - Branford Marsalis

Wallace Roney © Ancrea Canter

Javon Jackson was born in Carthage, Missouri and raised in Denver, Colorado. Sonny Stitt's music inspired Javon to pick up saxophone at a young age. Jackson began working professionally in local jazz clubs at age 16, playing with former Max Roach Quintet pianist Billy Wallace. During this time, Javon met and was befriended by Branford Marsalis, who encouraged Javon to attend the Berklee School of Music. Two of Javon's instructors at Berklee were saxophonist Billy Pierce and pianist Donald Brown, two former members of Art Blakey's legendary Jazz Messengers. One of the seminal groups of the hard bop movement of the 50's and 60's, the Messengers provided a training ground for the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Lee Morgan, and Javon's early mentor, Branford Marsalis.

Ahmad Jamal and James Cammack©Howard Gitelson

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark will host a jazz event of historical proportions on Sunday, November 4th (5 pm) when piano legends Ahmad Jamal and Ramsey Lewis share the stage for the first time. Hosted by NJPAC’s Alternative Routes series, the pairing of these trios brings together two musicians whose popularity has never trumped their artistic vision. 

Of the living legends of jazz piano, perhaps none has exerted such wide influence on the genre as Ahmad Jamal. Now in his 70s, Jamal has been cited as a key muse by pianists as diverse as McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Keith Jarrett, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, and Mulgrew Miller; echoes of Jamal can be found in the playing of a younger generation, including Eric Reed and Jacky Terrasson; and trumpet legend Miles Davis was so impressed with Jamal's approach that he repeatedly sought pianists who could incorporate that sound in his early bands. Wrote Stanley Crouch in the Village Voice, "No musician has had a more profound effect on the orchestral approach to small groups in the last 35 years than Ahmad Jamal...He showed people how to italicize and magnify elements of music that were taken for granted, how to organize the sound of a group around the drums, and how to interchange the riff with the ostinato or the vamp...He is a virtuoso, but his innovations are found in his arrangements...." Recently Jamal was awarded the prestigious Officier de L'Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres of France. While his full body of work has redefined the jazz trio, recently Jamal has been experimenting with electric keyboards, strings, steel drums and saxophone.