Lionel Loueke Trio and Renee Rosnes Quartet Come to the Miller in November

New York's jazz heart wasn't always located downtown. Once it was found on 52nd Street and before that on 125th, and for many decades its most powerful radio voice has been WKCR-FM on the campus of Columbia University. Just a few yards away, jazz finds an uptown home at Columbia's Miller Theatre. This season, Melissa Smey has programmed groups from the top of her wish list in a Jazz series that begins with the inventive Lionel Loueke Trio and the Renee Rosnes Quartet. On the horizon for the spring, the Miller debut of the Israeli woodwind virtuoso Anat Cohen Quartet and Don Byron with his new projects, the astounding Don Byron New Gospel Quintet.

Saturday, November 5, 8:00 p.m.
LIONEL LOUEKE TRIO

The Lionel Loueke Trio makes its Miller debut, with original and inventive compositions that seamlessly blend modern jazz with samba, the instrumental traditions of Mali and Nigeria, and the folklore of the guitarist's native Benin. Loueke's evocative sound palette combines intricate guitar plucking techniques, undulating pedal effects, and unique vocals inspired by the sounds of African languages, earning accolades from jazz greats including Herbie Hancock, who calls him "a musical painter."

ARTISTS: Lionel Loueke, voice and guitar
Ferenc Nemeth, drums
Massimo Biolcati, bass

Lionel Loueke, originally from the small West African nation of Benin, has enjoyed a meteoric rise over the past several years. In 2008 and 2009, he was picked as top Rising Star guitarist in Down Beat magazine's annual Critics Poll. His sophomore release for Blue Note, Mwaliko, follows up 2007's acclaimed Karibu with a series of searching, innovative, intimate duets with Angelique Kidjo, Esperanza Spalding, Richard Bona and Marcus Gilmore. Loueke also includes three new tracks featuring his longtime trio with Massimo Biolcati on bass and Ferenc Nemeth on drums. Praised by his mentor Herbie Hancock as "a musical painter," Loueke combines harmonic sophistication, soaring melody, a deep knowledge of African music, and conventional and extended guitar techniques to create a warm and evocative sound of his own. JazzTimes wrote "Loueke's lines are smartly formed and deftly executed. His ear-friendly melodicism draws both from traditional African sources and a lifetime of closely studying the likes of Jim Hall and George Benson, and his rhythmic shifts come quickly and packed with surprises." After his initial to exposure to jazz in Benin, Loueke left to attend the National Institute of Art in nearby Ivory Coast. In 1994 he left Africa to pursue jazz studies at the American School of Modern Music in Paris, then came to the U.S. on a scholarship to Berklee College of Music. It was at Berklee that he first met Biolcati and Nemeth. Through jam sessions, the trio developed an immediate rapport, in part fueled by internationalism. Biolcati is of Italian decent, but grew up in Sweden, while Nemeth was born and raised in Hungary. Both had extensively studied African music and were drawn to Loueke who was just beginning to fuse a Jazz technique with his African roots.

Ferenc Nemeth was born in Keszthely, Hungary. He started to play the drums when he was three years old. His father gave him his first drum lessons. At age fourteen he moved out of the family house and went to the Richter János Conservatory in Gyõr, to study classical percussion. When he was eighteen he moved to Budapest where he started to play different styles of music. He attended the Franz Liszt Academy of Music. Soon Ferenc became one of the busiest jazz drummers in Hungary. After the Academy, he won a scholarship to Berklee College of Music and moved to Boston where he lived for three years. He also attended the New England Conservatory for graduate studies. In 2001 he entered the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz where he studied until 2003. He currently lives in New York and has performed and recorded with a variety of artists, including Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Christian McBride, John Patitucci, Terence Blanchard, John Abercrombie, Dave Samuels, Mark Turner, Hal Crook, David Benoit, Bud Shunk, Darren Barret, Bruno Raberg, Greg Hopkins, Phil Wilson, Billy Childs, Reggie Hamilton, John Clayton, Jimmy Heath, Dave Grusin, Bob Sheppard, Steve Turre, Eddie Daniels, Eddie Henderson, Ron McClure, Chris Cheek, Aaron Goldberg, Kenny Wheeler, Eli Degibri, The Mason Brothers, and The Henry Mancini Orchestra. He has studied with Laszlo Farsang, Balazs Papp, Laszlo Varay, Imre Koszegi, Ivan Nesztor, John Ramsay, Bob Kaufman, Gary Chaffee, Bob Moses, Jerry Bergonzi, George Russell, Peter Erskine, Dave Holland, Carl Allen, Kenny Barron, Wayne Shorter, and Ralph Peterson.

Massimo Biolcati, born in 1972 in Stockholm, Sweden, began his musical career at age 16, performing jazz on acoustic bass in Torino, Italy. When he was 21, he returned to Sweden to study at the Royal Music Academy of Stockholm, and soon became a presence both on the local jazz scene and as part of several Scandinavian folk music groups. His early influences range from symphonic rock to Pat Metheny and Dave Holland, all of which have contributed to his strikingly original blend of extended compositions, unusual time signatures, and a lyrical, melodic style. While still in his early 20s, Biolcati received a scholarship to study at Boston's Berklee College of Music, and was subsequently selected for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz at the University of Southern California, where he studied and performed with jazz greats such as Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Wayne Shorter, Kenny Barron, John Scofield, Christian McBride, and many others. He has toured with trumpeter Terence Blanchard, Verve recording artist Lizz Wright, saxophonist Ravi Coltrane, and with the legendary Cuban musician and composer Paquito D'Rivera. He has also recorded with Michael Buble and Gretchen Parlato, as well as with the trio Gilfema, which he formed with Lionel Loueke and drummer Ferenc Nemeth and which released their self-titled debut on ObliqSound in 2005. Biolcati has been collaborating with Loueke since the two attended the Berklee School of Music and the Thelonious Monk Institute. Biolcati is featured on "Kponnon Kpete," the Virgin Forest track which won a 2008 Independent Music Award for Best Song (World Traditional). In 2008, Biolcati released his debut recording as bandleader, Persona on ObliqSound. "I don't try to be different or original for its own sake," he says. "I just try to be honest and true to my own musical persona."

Saturday, November 19, 8:00 p.m.
Renee Rosnes QUARTET

Pianist Renee Rosnes returns to Miller to headline a show that will include several original works for quartet. Stints with such jazz greats as Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, and Bobby Hutcherson helped propel Rosnes' career and develop her strong, unique voice. The winner of four Juno Awards (the Canadian Grammy), she has an extensive discography - including several collaborations with members of her quartet, all outstanding musicians in their own right. The group possesses an ability to create powerful music filled with melodic sensitivity and rhythmic energy.

ARTISTS: Renee Rosnes, piano
Steve Nelson, vibes
Peter Washington, bass
Lewis Nash, drums

Renee Rosnes has emerged as one of the premier jazz pianists and composers of her generation. Shortly after relocating from Vancouver, Canada to New York in 1986, Rosnes quickly established a reputation as a major talent. Her resumé reading like a who's who of jazz, Rosnes has toured and recorded with Joe Henderson, Wayne Shorter, JJ Johnson, Bobby Hutcherson, the SFJAZZ Collective, and James Moody among others. As a leader, Rosnes has released twelve critically acclaimed recordings, which reveal an eclectic and unique style, collaborating with a diverse range of artists, from established masters such as Zakir Hussain, Ron Carter, and Jack DeJohnette, to younger giants such as Christian McBride, Chris Potter, Lewis Nash, and Bill Stewart. She also frequently performs with her husband, acclaimed pianist Bill Charlap, and the couple released their first duo recording in 2010: Double Portrait (Blue Note). Rosnes' latest disc is titled Manhattan Rain.

Vibraphonist Steve Nelson began his career during the seventies, in his hometown of Pittsburgh, following the path blazed by his first major influence, Milt Jackson. After a year with guitarist Grant Green he began performing around Pittsburgh with local musicians and soon made the move to New Jersey, where Nelson earned a Master's degree in music from Rutgers University. He frequently played with his Rutgers professors James Spaulding and Kenny Barron, before landing a spot in David "Fathead" Newman's Quintet. In the mid-nineties, Nelson's effervescent artistry caught the ears of George Shearing, who had reassembled his quintet after many years, and invited Steve Nelson to join the new band. He was developing a harmonically open sound, influenced by the innovations of one of his heroes, Bobby Hutcherson. Nelson soon joined Dave Holland's Quintet, a band the New York Times referred to as, "one of the jewels of the jazz world." He has toured and recorded with a wide range of artists, including a longtime collaboration with Mulgrew Miller, Donald Brown, Bobby Watson, James Williams, and Jackie McLean to name a few. Steve Nelson's most recent recording as a leader is Sound-Effect, featuring Mulgrew Miller, Peter Washington and Lewis Nash.

Peter Washington is perhaps the most recorded bassist of his generation, with a discography of more than 450 recordings. Born in Los Angeles in 1964, Washington played classical bass as a teen and majored in English literature at University of California in Berkeley, where he played in both the UC Symphony and the San Francisco Youth Symphony. In 1986, while performing in San Francisco with saxophonist John Handy, he was invited by the legendary Art Blakey to join the Jazz Messengers in New York, and remained a member of the band until 1986. In 1990 Washington became part of the Tommy Flanagan Trio, and toured and recorded with the pianist for the next decade. Washington is also a longtime member of the Bill Charlap Trio. Washington's freelance work roster is a "who's who" of jazz, including Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Milt Jackson, Johnny Griffin, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, Charles McPherson, Mulgrew Miller, Tony Bennett, Joe Henderson, Gerald Wilson, Frank Wess, Jackie McLean, Cedar Walton, Tom Harrell and Lou Donaldson, among many others.

Lewis Nash, was born in Arizona. He developed an early interest in music and began playing drums at age 10. In 1981, Nash moved to New York City and joined the trio of Betty Carter. He is featured on three of her recordings, including the Grammy-winning Look What I Got. Bassist Ron Carter hired Nash in 1984. In 1986, saxophonist Branford Marsalis askEd Lewis to join his quartet. That association spanned two years and several continents, and is documented on Marsalis's Grammy-nominated recording Random Abstract. In 1988, Nash joined the Don Pullen/George Adams quartet, and in 1989 he toured with saxophonist Sonny Rollins. He also performed with Stan Getz, Art Farmer, Clark Terry, and Milt Jackson. From 1990 to 2000, Lewis was a member of the Tommy Flanagan Trio. During this period, Nash also toured and recorded with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. His impressive discography (over 300 recordings) includes projects with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Oscar Peterson, Benny Carter, Hank Jones, John Lewis, Diana Krall, Joe Lovano, and Roy Hargrove. Demonstrating his stylistic diversity, Nash is also featured on recordings by Natalie Cole, Bette Midler, Nancy Wilson, Kenny Rankin, Melissa Manchester, and George Michael. Currently, while he continues to collaborate with a wide variety of artists, Nash leads several of his own exciting groups.

Upcoming Jazz concerts at Miller Theatre:
Single Tickets: $25 • 4- Concert Subscription: $80

For more information, visit www.millertheatre.com.

Photo Credit: John Abbot

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