National Touring Artists

Larry Coryell Trio (February 1-2). Considered the pioneer of jazz/rock guitar, Larry Coryell's career spans four decades. In his hands, the electric guitar became a tool for artistic expression ranging from blues to rock to country; yet he also sings eloquently and delicately with acoustic guitar. Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, and was first attracted to jazz as a four-year old. A few years later, after moving to Washington state, he began to study guitar and the music of Barney Kessell and Tal Farlow. In 1965, he gave up journalism studies at the University of Washington to move to New York City where he earned the guitar chair in Chico Hamilton's quintet. At about the same time, Coryell founded the jazz-rock band, the Free Spirits. He then joined Gary Burton's band, with whom he made three recordings. In 1969, he recorded Memphis Underground with flautist Herbie Mann, Roy Ayers, and free-jazz guitarist, Sonny Sharrock. Throughout the 1970s, Coryell increasingly concentrated on acoustic guitar, and played with a long list of jazz stars, including guitarists John McLaughlin, Eric Clapton, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Metheny, Al Di Meola, John Abercrombie, Larry Carlton, John Scofield, Ralph Towner, and Steve Kahn, as well as such legends as Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Pharoah Sanders, Michael Brecker, Sonny Rollins, Steve Lacy, Maynard Ferguson, Stephane Grappelli, Chick Corea, Charles Mingus, Ron Carter, and Charlie Haden. His eclectic nature is reflected in his work in fusion, Brazilian, and classical music as well as mainstream jazz.

Most recently, Coryell released Tricycles (2004, Favored Nations) with bassist Mark Egan and drummer Paul Wertico. Noted the Toronto Star, Coryell displays "dazzling technique, crafty use of space and complex chord structures ... almost orchestral in weight ... Coryell generates a great deal of heat in his playing, an intensity matched by his obvious physical involvement with his music ." Joining Coryell at the Dakota will be Chicago's first call bassist Larry Gray and long-time cohort, drummer Paul Wertico.

Jazz Mandolin Project (February 7-8). During his college days, Jamie Masefield played the four-string tenor banjo in Dixieland bands. Looking for a new sound, he turned to the mandolin and was inspired by guitarists like Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, and Mike Stern. But Masefield, who was busy with five bands throughout New England, had no outlets for his interest in jazz. Determined, he got himself his own gig one night per month at the Last Elm Café in Burlington, VT. It didn't take long before other musicians joined Masefield for nights of eclectic music that became the Jazz Mandolin Project, featuring Gabe Jarrett (Keith's son) on drums and Stacy Starkweather on electric bass. In the summer of 1996, the group debuted in Europe, playing at the North Sea Jazz Festival in Den Haag, Holland. Shortly thereafter, the Jazz Mandolin Project released their self-titled debut CD to critical acclaim. The band went through a few reorganizations, releasing its first recording for a major label in 2000. Xenoblast (Blue Note) received a 4-star rating in Down Beat, with critic Philip Booth noting that "Masefield and company may constitute the world's most creative and most unusual power trio."

With varying combinations of musicians anchored by Masefield, the JMP has now released five recordings in formats ranging from trio to quintet, including the latest Jungle Tango (Lenapee Records, 2003). On their current Midwest tour, the band features Mark Guiliana on drums and cajon, Mad Dog on trumpet and keyboards, Scott Ritchie on upright bass, and Masefield on the mandolins. The Jazz Mandolin Project defies classification, blending post bop, modern jazz, and fusion with rock and world music. Noted Bill Milkowski in Jazz Times, "Like mandolinists Mike Marshall and David Grisman before him, Jamie Masefield is challenging notions of what that stringed instrument - forever associated with folk and bluegrass music - can do."

Belinda Underwood (February 9). Portland-based vocalist Belinda Underwood is a young star on the rise. Celebrating her debut recording, Underwood Uncurling, the multi-talented Underwood not only sings but also plays bass and ukulele. Daughter of a jazz pianist, she studied violin and harp as a child, and fell in love with the upright bass at age sixteen. In high school she traveled to Australia with the Monterey Jazz Festival Honor Band as a bassist, and in college played and traveled with the UC Berkeley Wednesday Band. She came rather late to vocal jazz: "It was hard for me sometimes, to translate my musical thoughts onto the bass during improvisation. There were lines in my head but my fingers couldn't find them fast enough, and rather than get frustrated during practice, I would just sing the bass solo." While at Berkeley, she met David Friesen and moved to Portland for bass lessons; Friesen appears on her recording which primarily features Underwood's vocals. Around Portland, she gigs with several different ensembles, playing jazz and middle eastern music. Wrote George W. Carroll (The Musicians' Ombudsman), "She can burn hard on her acoustic bass, while she delivers her rendition of The American Songbook. Belinda possesses a voice that renders song with a mastery of inflection.......All backed up by her bold, innovative, non-compromising, and tight jazz group."
 
Kenny Garrett (February 21). Alto ace Kenny Garrett has been topping the jazz charts for the past decade plus. Considered one of the most influential jazz musicians of his generation, Garrett grew up in Detroit surrounded by the sounds of jazz, R&B and gospel. He picked up the saxophone around age nine or ten, inspired by his father who played tenor. After high school, he had planned to attend Berklee in Boston, but then the Duke Ellington Orchestra came to town, needing a sax player. Garrett became a regular member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra (directed by Mercer Ellington) in 1978, and soon moved to New York to play with the Mel Lewis Orchestra and Dannie Richmond Quintet. After releasing his first recording in 1984 and stints with Art Blakey, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw, Garrett joined Miles Davis (1986-91). Of his influences, Garrett cites John Coltrane in particular: "I love his voice, his control, his spirituality and his message."

Now celebrating ten years as a Warner Brothers artist, Garrett has released 8 recordings on the label and has had multiple Grammy nominations. In 1996, Rolling Stone named him "Hot Jazz Artist" and the Down Beat Readers' Poll named him "Alto Saxist of the Year," unseating Phil Woods. Although he has played some fusion and hip hop (collaborating with rapper Guru), Kenny Garrett is primarily a "straight ahead" artist recognized as being one of the last of a generation of artists to work his way up the ranks in the bands of other great musicians. Noted the Washington Post, "Someone should post a storm warning prior to a Kenny Garrett concert."

Bill Charlap (February 27-28). Bill Charlap comes by his music chops honestly. Son of Broadway composer Moose Charlap (Peter Pan) and vocalist Sandy Stewart (Benny Goodman), he was born and raised in New York City, surrounded by songwriters and musicians. "It was a unique experience," he remembers. "A lot of great songwriters were friends of my parents. My mother was doing demo records for composers like Jule Styne and Meredith Wilson and Richard Rodgers. Composers and lyricists such as Charles Strouse, Yip Harburg, and Marilyn and Alan Bergman were part of my formative years." Charlap attended the New York High School of Performing Arts (site of Fame) and studied piano with Jack Reilly, Eleanor Hancock, and distant cousin, jazz pianist Dick Hyman. He started college but soon joined Gerry Mulligan's band, remaining for a few years; he has since appeared with Benny Carter, Clark Terry, Jim Hall, Al Grey, Red Mltchell, Frank Wess, Warren Vaché, Milt Hinton, Louie Bellson, and Grady Tate. Charlap has been a member of the Phil Woods Quintet since 1995, and has been accompanist of choice for several noted vocalists, including Tony Bennett and Carol Sloane.

Charlap cites a number of influences-- jazz greats Charlie Parker, Stan Getz, John Coltrane, and Miles Davis, among others, but most importantly, his mother's singing. "Her phrasing influences the way I play melody. In many ways I approach the song from a singer's perspective, music and lyrics are of equal importance." He also notes the influence of a long line of pianists, Tommy Flanagan, Hank Jones, Lenny Tristano, Teddy Wilson, Earl Hines, Art Tatum, Jimmy Rowles, Errol Garner, Thelonious Monk, Ellis Larkins, Oscar Peterson, Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Kenny Barron, Roger Kellaway, Bobby Timmons, Wynton Kelly, Red Garland, and Bill Evans. "People usually think of Bill Evans as a harmonist and romantic, but I'm influenced by Bill the bebop player, the rhythm section player he was when he worked for Miles."

As well as recording under his own name, Charlap has appeared on at least fifty recordings as sideman. He has released three acclaimed CDs for Blue Note with his working trio, Peter Washington (bass) and Kenny Washington (drums). Of his most recent release, Somewhere, a tribute to the music of Leonard Bernstein, Whitney Balliett said in the New Yorker, "In almost every number, regardless of its speed, [Charlap] leaves us a phrase, a group of irregular notes, an ardent bridge that shakes us." Notes Charlap,"I'm not interested in bravura displays. Melody is the most sublime of all the utterances. Harmony is an emotional response. Rhythm is physical. Melody is an intuitive response that carries both the emotional and the physical."