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"Valves meet Slide" The Brad Bellows Quintet Featuring Dave Graf with Special Guest Lucia Newell

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Stan Getz “There are four qualities essential to a great jazzman. They are taste, courage, individuality, and irreverence. These are the qualities I want to retain in my music.” - Stan Getz

Friday, 09 January 2009

"Valves meet Slide" The Brad Bellows Quintet Featuring Dave Graf with Special Guest Lucia Newell

Written by Don Berryman

Sunday, 03 June 2007

"When people want music performed the way it should sound, they go to Dave [Graf]." Trumpeter David Jensen on MPR

On June 6th, Twin Cities top slide trombonist Dave Graf and top valve trombonist Brad Bellows will combine forces at the Artist Quarter in Saint Paul for a evening of solid jazz. Both Dave and Brad will be providing charts, and will be joined by an exciting rhythm section including the adventurous Peter Schimke on piano, the solid Gordy Johnson on bass and the swinging Mac Santiago on drums. They will be performing some J.J. Johnson and Curtis Fuller tunes and jazz standards including Tad Dammeron's "Hot House", Sam Rivers' "Beatrice", Bill Evens' "Five", Coltrane's "Miles Mode" and others. They will be joined by special guest, the luscious Lucia Newell, who will be singing some tunes in the second set, including a beautiful number by Alec Wilder called "Moon and Sand".

The valve and slide trombones are closely related, but different animals. The slide provides the trombone's signature pitch-bending ability, while the valve version gives the trombone more agility, providing for more rapid transition between notes. While the slide trombone is by far the most prevalent, the valve trombone has been featured in jazz performance and recordings by such notable musicians as West-coast bebopper extraordinaire, Bob Brookmeyer, and Juan Tizol of the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Valve trombonist and band leader, Brad Bellows was trained at the Berklee School of Music in Boston and has been a professional musician for over 30 years. He is probably best best known as the founder and leader of Locally Damaging Winds, the Midwest's preeminent jazz trombone ensemble which brings together the finest trombone talent to perform original arrangements. Brad has had a friendship and musical association with bebop legend Eddie Berger spanning decades. Brad also plays euphonium and released a CD playing it in a duo with guitarist Dean Granros called Bear's Delight.

Dave Graf is one of the most versatile and talented trombonists in the Twin Cities. Dave has worked in a wide range of musical settings: Dixieland, straight ahead jazz, salsa and Brazilian music, big bands, pit orchestras and recordings. He has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Slide Hampton, Jack McDuff, the Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabackin Big Band, and the Woody Herman Orchestra. He has appeared on Prairie Home Companion and with the St. Paul Ragtime Orchestra, Mandala, and the Steve Wright Big Band. Dave had an eleven-year association with the late trumpeter Red Wolfe in his Port of Dixie Jazz Band and Ellington Echoes (now led by Percy Hughes). Dave also performs with the Latin ensemble Salsa Del Soul. In 2005 he released his debut recording as a leader, Just Like That on Artegra records (Click here for a Jazz Police review). In an MPR interview, fellow musician Dave Jensen had this to say about Dave Graf's CD: "Dave has had this music pent up inside him for a long, long time, He has played on many, many, many albums by others. When people want music performed the way it should sound, they go to Dave."

Lucia Newell was with Osmar Milito at the Club 21 in Rio de Janeiro for over two years. She also worked with Luis Eça for six months and with the Rio Jazz Orchestra, a big band in Rio which fronted Billy Eckstine. Now Lucia is busy performing locally at clubs and area festivals. She performs in a duo with guitarist Joan Griffith. She is also a frequent guest with Soul Café, a jazz trio (Laura Caviani, Steve Blons, and Brad Holden) that combine poetry and music. Her first recording (with Joan Griffith), Enter You, Enter Love, features Brazilian music. Her latest release is backed bt Pete Whiman's Departure Point. Steeped in Strayhorn is, as the title states, a Billy Strayhorn tribute, of which Alan Bargebuhrin in Cadence Magazine writes, “Lucia Newell turns out to be one of those gifted vocalists whose conception and intelligence is transcendent. Add to that some well crafted and conceived arrangements played with snap, crackle, and the requisite pop, and you have over an hour of music that is alive with authentic Jazz affirmation. Strayhorn would be very happy and proud.”

Catch these world-class local musicians in "Valves meet Slide" as they burn-up the stage at the Artists' Quarter on Wednesday, June 6th, starting at 9:00 PM. The Artists' Quarter is located in downtown Saint Paul in the basement of the Hamm building at 408 St Peter Street. Call 651 292-1359 or visit www.artistsquarter.com for more information.

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