Jemeel Moondoc takes each opportunity he is afforded and repays the invested faith with musical monuments of deep merit and lasting resonance possessing a level of quality in line with the best creative improvised music of today. What's more, the composer/ improvisor/ architect still has much to say. We as listeners should consider ourselves lucky to be privy to the sounds he has yet to unleash. -- Derek Taylor, "One Final Note"

JEMEEL MOONDOC (composer, saxophonist, bandleader, teacher) was born in Chicago, began studying piano and clarinet at age ten, and played in the concert band while studying architecture at Chicago Vocational High School. After hearing the music of Cecil Taylor and the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Jemeel began to play the alto saxophone with Cecil Taylor's Black Music Ensemble at the U. of Wisconsin / Madison and later at Antioch College, where he became a featured soloist. His tenure with Cecil Taylor lasted two years, endowing Jemeel with the necessary experience to play in the New York City jazz world. After arriving in New York City in 1972, he started Ensemble Muntu, a quintet whose first date was at Sam Rivers' Studio Rivbea. One of the great bands of the loft era, Muntu recorded five albums, and wide touring sowed seeds for the revitalization of American jazz.

Moondoc led solo sessions for labels such as Soul Note and Cadence through the early '8O's, also making a series of recordings for Soul Note Records and leading his big band, The Jus Grew Orchestra, for a number of memorable seasons on the Lower East Side. But financial difficulties forced him to break up his large ensemble and essentially retire from music for over a decade when he found himself a single father working to finish his studies in architecture. Yet this did nothing to dampen his musical fires, and his musical career was revived in the mid-'9O's when the Eremite label coaxed him into signing a deal that allowed him great creative freedom. In '96, Jemeel recorded his first albums in 11 years, followed by a string of brilliant recordings. He revived his Jus Grew Orchestra as a 1O-piece group and performed a set of Massachusetts concerts documented on 'O1's "Spirit House"; also released that year was "Revolt of the Negro Lawn Jockeys," a quintet performance from the 'OO Vision Festival that was acclaimed as perhaps his finest album to date. Since then he has led several groups and has toured Europe with the Henry Grimes Quintet. For further information: www.moondoc.com.

A powerful two-handed style, percussive and explorative; her sudden descent to a crystal-toned delicacy permits the lyrical aspects to blossom with awe-inspiring beauty; a study in mood shifts, ranging from deep foreboding to a spirited explosion of joy. -- John Sutherland, "Coda" Magazine

CONNIE CROTHERS (pianist, composer) was born in Palo Alto, California and at the age of nine began composing music and taking piano lessons, performing frequently in concerts and recitals as she grew up. After studying music at UCLA / Berkeley, she moved to New York City in β€˜62 to study with Lennie Tristano, who presented her in private concerts in his home and in solos at Carnegie Recital Hall in β€˜73 and β€˜77- β€˜79. Connie and Lenny Popkin co-produced the Lennie Tristano memorial concert held in Town Hall in New York City in 1979. In 1980 she co-led an engagement with Warne Marsh at the Village Vanguard and that year also played solo at the Berlin Jazztage and with composer and percussionist Max Roach. In 1983 she co-led an engagement with Max Roach, Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Connie played solo in 1984 at Cooper Union in New York City, as part of the New Music America festival in Washington D.C. in 1983, and in 1986 at the DuMaurier International Jazz Festival in Toronto. In 1987, working with her associates, she reorganized the New Artists label as a cooperative record company dedicated to improvised original music. In 1989 she played solo in the Jazz Middleheim festival in Belgium. Connie formed a quartet with co-leader Lenny Popkin featuring Cameron Brown and Carol Tristano and Cameron Brown, and this quartet performed at the Blue Note, Sweet Basil and Birdland in New York City, toured Europe and Canada, and in the early '9O's were presented at the duMaurier Festival in Toronto, de Werf in Bruges, and de Singel in Antwerp, also appearing in the Spoleto Festival in 1995 and 1996. That year Marion McPartland featured Connie on her radio series "Piano Jazz" on National Public Radio. Connie performed solo at The Jazz School in Berkeley, California in 1998 and played duets with Max Roach in Bologna, Italy in 2000. She appeared at Birdland in New York City when the club featured the record label in April through June of 2OOO, and she co-led a quintet with Jemeel Moondoc in the Vision Festival of 'O3. These days, when home, Connie Crothers teaches improvisation at her Manhattan studio. For further information: jazzwomen.org.

Tonally resplendent bass-playing ... perpetual-motion lines too fast, fleet and harmonically free-ranging to be easily notated. Grimes emerges a poet of his instrument. -- Howard Reich, "Chicago Tribune " ('O5)

Master bassist HENRY GRIMES, missing from the music world since the late '6O's, has made an unprecedented comeback after receiving the gift of a bass (a green one called Olive Oil!) from William Parker in December, 'O2 to replace the instrument Henry had been forced to give up some 3O years earlier. Between the mid-'5O's and the mid-'6O's, the Philadelphia-born, Juilliard-educated Henry Grimes played brilliantly on some 5O albums with an enormous range of musicians, including Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Bill Dixon, Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Roy Haynes, Lee Konitz, Steve Lacy, Charles Mingus (yes, Charles Mingus), Jemeel Moondoc, Gerry Mulligan, Sunny Murray, Sonny Rollins, Roswell Rudd, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, Cecil Taylor, Charles Tyler, McCoy Tyner, Rev. Frank Wright, and many more ... and then one day, for reasons largely related to troubles in the music world at the time, he disappeared. Many years passed with nothing heard from him, yet after a short while with his new bass, he emerged to begin playing music again. These days, he lives, works, and teaches in New York City and has been working almost exclusively as a leader with Marshall Allen, Fred Anderson, Rob Brown, Roy Campbell, Jr., Daniel Carter, Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Cyrille, Bill Dixon, Hamid Drake, Charles Gayle, Edward "Kidd" Jordan, Joe Lovano, Sabir Mateen, Bennie Maupin, Jemeel Moondoc, David Murray, William Parker, Marc Ribot, and many more. Since 2OO3, Henry Grimes has played and toured extensively in Europe (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey) as well as Canada and the U.S. To the astonishment and joy of all, he's playing at the very height of his artistic powers (or indeed anyone's), just as though he'd never stopped at all! The recipient of a prestigious "Meet the Composer" award in 'O3 and two more in 'O5, Henry was designated "Musician of the Year" by "All About Jazz/ New York" in 'O4. He's still healthy and strong, and his gentle, humble bearing and courageous life story have inspired all those privileged to know him, hear him, play music with him. For further information: www.HenryGrimes.com.

On Saturday, Jan. 14th
• Jemeel Moondoc w/ Connie Crothers & Henry Grimes
• The Stone, northwest corner of Ave. C & 2nd St., NYC, 212-841-O899 www.thestonenyc.com
• F or V train to 2nd Ave. or 14th St. buses to Houston St.
• 8 & 1O p.m., tickets $15 per set ($1O for students & elders).