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 Tuesday, 18 June 2013 |
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SFJazz Collective: the music of Stevie Wonder at Yoshi’s Oakland |
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Written by Ronaldo Oregano
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Saturday, 24 March 2012 |
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 SFJazz Collective The SFJazz Collective returns for six shows at Yoshi’s Oakland on Friday, March 20th through Sunday, April 1st on a tour supporting the release of their new 3-CD set, Live in New York 2011, Season 8, was recorded in the intimate setting of the Jazz Standard in NYC. This three-night stand gives local audiences another opportunity to hear the band’s mind-blowing arrangements of Stevie Wonder classics, as well as stunning new original compositions. The award-winning all-star SFJAZZ Collective includes alto saxophonist Antonio Hart, tenor saxophonist Mark Turner, vibraphonist Stefon Harris, trumpeter Avishai Cohen, trombonist Robin Eubanks, pianist Edward Simon, bassist Matt Penman and drummer Eric Harland.
One of the so-called “young lions” to emerge in the late 1980s and first recognized for his influential work with trumpeter Roy Hargrove, Grammy-nominated altoist Antonio Hart has established himself as one of the finest instrumentalists in jazz. He is a graduate of the Berklee School and has recorded and performed with a plethora of jazz greats including Art Blakey, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner and Nat Adderley. Antonio has maintained a long-term relationship with bass master Dave Holland and balances his performing schedule as a full-time professor of jazz studies at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College. He has released seven acclaimed albums, including his latest Chiaroscuro release, All We Need, which features tenor sax legend Jimmy Heath. Antonio Hart replaces Miguel Zenón for the Spring 2012 tour only.
Described by JazzTimes as “an extremely thoughtful and cerebral player,” Mark Turner has been quietly building a reputation as a musician’s musician. He attended Berklee College Of Music in the late ‘80s where he met musicians that would figure prominently in his later work, including Kurt Rosenwinkel and Joshua Redman. Turner has recorded five critically acclaimed albums as a leader and has also performed or recorded with artists such as Dave Holland, Brad Mehldau, Lee Konitz, Dave Douglas and Lee Konitz. His current project is the trio FLY with bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Jeff Ballard. Their latest album, Sky And Country, appeared on ECM in 2009.
Trumpeter Avishai Cohen is a leading figure on the international jazz scene and one of the most sought-after players of his generation, “an assertive and accomplished trumpeter with a taste for modernism” according to The New York Times. Originally from Tel Aviv, Israel, Cohen began performing at age 10. Relocating to the U.S. to attend the Berklee College Of Music, he placed third in the prestigious Thelonious Monk Trumpet Competition in 1997. After developing his craft alongside contemporaries such as pianist Jason Lindner, Cohen has expanded his sonic palette to include African music (with Lionel Loueke), funk (Me’shell Ndegeocello), folk/pop (Keren Ann) and effects-laden avant-garde explorations. He has recorded five heralded albums as a leader, most recently the phenomenal trio CD Introducing Triveni with bassist Omer Avital and drummer Nasheet Waits.
A five-time “Trombonist of the Year” in the DownBeat Magazine Critics Poll, Robin Eubanks is the premier jazz trombonist of his generation. In addition to leading his own groups, EB3 and Mental Images, Eubanks has performed and composed on Grammy-winning recordings with Dave Holland and Michael Brecker. In addition, he has worked with music legends Art Blakey, McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and the Rolling Stones, to name a few. The native Philadelphian is the recipient of composition grants from Chamber Music America and ASCAP. He is a sought-after educator and is now a tenured professor of trombone at the renowned Oberlin Conservatory and Adjunct Professor at Philadelphia's University of the Arts.
Stefon Harris is committed to exploring the rich potential of jazz composition and blazing new trails on the vibraphone. A graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, Harris has received numerous accolades including the Jazz Journalists Association’s “Best Mallet Player” for four years running (2000-2003) and “#1 Rising Star Vibraphonist” in the 2006 DownBeat Critics Poll. His string of acclaimed albums includes the Blue Note sessions Kindred, Black Action Figure, The Grand Unification Theory, African Tarantella: Dances With Duke and the Grammy-nominated Concord release, Urbanus. His latest project is Ninety Miles, a CD and DVD made in Havana with saxophonist David Sánchez, trumpeter Christian Scott and a host of master Cuban musicians.
Edward Simon was born in the coastal town of Punta Cardón, Venezuela, where he grew up in a family of musicians surrounded by the sounds and rhythms of Latin and Caribbean music. Settling in New York City in 1989, he played with numerous jazz masters, including Herbie Mann, Paquito D'Rivera, Bobby Hutcherson, Bobby Watson, Terence Blanchard and Don Byron. He has produced elevn critically acclaimed albums as a leader, including two New York Times top ten jazz records of the year: Edward Simon (Kokopelli, 1994) and Simplicitas (Criss Cross, 2005). In 2010 Simon was named a Guggenheim Fellow, and his latest trio CD, Danny Boy, has recently been released.
Originally from New Zealand, Matt Penman studied at Boston’s Berklee College of Music before relocating to New York in 1995. In addition to releasing his own critically acclaimed CDs as a leader, Catch of the Day (2007) and The Unquiet (2002), he has recorded as a sideman on some 70 other discs and has performed with the likes of Nicholas Payton, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Gary Bartz, Kenny Werner, Nnenna Freelon, Madeleine Peyroux, Brian Blade, John Scofield and Guillermo Klein. His latest project is the supergroup James Farm, which includes founding SFJAZZ Collective tenor saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Aaron Parks and current Collective drummer Eric Harland. Their self-titled Nonesuch debut was released this year.
A leading drummer on the national scene, Texas-born Eric Harland has performed with jazz legends like Betty Carter, Joe Henderson and McCoy Tyner, and has played on more than 70 recordings with such artists as Terence Blanchard, Greg Osby, Charles Lloyd and Zakir Hussain. In DownBeat’s 65th Annual Readers Poll, he was included in the short list of top drummers, in the company of masters like Roy Haynes and the late Elvin Jones. In 2010, Harland claimed DownBeat's top spot in the Rising Star Drummer category of the Annual Critics Poll for the third straight year. His debut recording as a leader, Voyager, Live by Night, was released in 2011 and features saxophonist Walter Smith III, guitarist Julian Lage, pianist Taylor Eigsti and bassist Harish Raghavan.
Yoshi's is located at 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square, in Oakland fpr tickets call (510) 238-9200 or visit www.yoshis.com.
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