Événement

Merrimans' Playhouse Jazz Performance Series presents The Sam Blakeslee Quintet

The Sam Blakeslee Quintet features musicians residing in several different cities including Cleveland, Akron, New York City, and Cincinnati. For this particular tour, the group was formed to create a larger regional network of creative musicians and composers to help spark further collaborations. They will be presenting original works influenced many genres by Blakeslee as well as other members of the group. The compositions and players are all steeped well within the jazz tradition but also contain innovative and contemporary harmony as well as compound time signatures. While the repertoire is adventurous, it's main goal is still to include the listener to make an organic and emotional connection between the performers and the audience.

www.samblakesleemusic.com

Sam Blakeslee - trombone (Cleveland)
Brandon Coleman - guitar (Cincinnati)
Jorn Swart - piano (Netherlands/NYC)
Cory Todd - bass (NYC)
Dan Pugach - drums (Israel/NYC)

Sam Blakeslee is a trombonist/composer originally from Columbus, OH but now resides in Cleveland. Sam holds a Youngstown Bachelors Degree in Jazz Studies from Youngstown State University and a Masters Degree in Brass Performance from the University of Akron. From 2013-2014 Sam served as Instructor for Jazz at Youngstown State University. He currently is the Director of the Jazz Prep Program at Cuyahoga Community College and is the Instructor of Improvisation at the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Sam has performed at multiple jazz festivals across the world such as the Fano Jazz Festival, Mosciano San Angelo Jazz Festival, and Parma Jazz Festival in Italy as well as the Deutsche Musikfest in Chemnitz, Germany. While at Youngstown State, Sam was selected one of fifteen people nationwide to attend The Steans Institute for the Young Artist at Ravinia where he studied with Curtis Fuller, Rufus Reid, Dr. Nathan Davis, and Dr. David Baker. He also attended Betty Carters Jazz Ahead at the Kennedy Center which is a two week residency where his original music was broadcasted to worldwide audience. During his time at the University of Akron, he was a member and composer for the Jazz Trombone Group, which won first place in the International Trombone Associations Kai Winding Jazz Trombone Ensemble Competition. In June of 2013, he traveled Columbus, GA to play his original music at the International Trombone Festival with the University of Akron Jazz Trombone Group. He is also well versed in classical music and was a 2013 recipient of a Tuesday Musical Scholarship in Brass.

Sam is also very busy freelancing in the Northeast Ohio area where he has played with artists Sean Jones, Jiggs Whigham, Aretha Franklin, Dominic Farinacci, Bernard Purdie, Wessell Warmdaddy Anderson, and Derrick Gardner. Sam appears regularly with local big bands The Jazz Heritage Orchestra and the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra. Sam also leads his own projects which includes his Sam Blakeslee Large Group, which is a 17-piece contemporary jazz ensemble which features all original composition of his and other members of the group. Sam has performed in many New York City venues including ShapeShifter Lab and the prestigious 55 Bar. In more recent news, in May 2014, Sam attended the International Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music at the Banff Centre where he studied with Vjiay Iyer, Ambrose Akinmusire, Steve Lehman, Tyshawn Sorey, Nir Felder, Warren Wolf, among others.
- See more at: http://samblakesleemusic.com/bio/#sthash.jaM5hSzD.dpuf

Cincinnati-based Brandon Coleman is one of the Midwest's most acclaimed and rising jazz guitarists, dedicating his vision to expansive texture and energetic performances.

CriticalJazz.com said of Coleman, "While New York City is widely considered the home for modern jazz guitar, Brandon Coleman is based out of Cincinnati and has the skills to jump into the jazz mecca of the universe with both feet. I have reviewed over three hundred guitarists in three years, Brandon Coleman leaps to the head of the class with his latest release Decisions, Coleman is special because he sounds like no one else. While his technical proficiency is beyond reproach, Coleman has an deceptively subtle artistic sense of harmonic movement that could be considered in the same style as that of a Bill Evans. One can pick out bits and pieces from a plethora of modern jazz giants but for sake of argument consider Danny Gatton meets John Abercrombie on the way to a Ralph Towner show if you feel the need to toss an arbitrary label on his craft. Coleman endorses Curt Mangan Strings, Timbertones Picks and Timberwolf Guitars".

Jorn Swart (1987, The Netherlands) is a spirited up-and-coming jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, currently living and performing in New York City. His refined playing and touching compositions already gained him much international and national recognition. In November 2013 he toured Europe with his critically acclaimed debut album A Day in the Life of Boriz. His new project, MALNOIA, is a bass- and drum-less trio that soon will record an album. In 2010 he received a Fulbright grant, Huygens Scholarship, and a fund from the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds in order to pursue his Master's Degree in New York City, where he studied with David Berkman, Johannes Weidenmueller, Sophia Rossof, and Jean-Michel Pilc. In 2011 he was one of the 20 musicians from around the world selected for the "Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency" in Washington, D.C. That same year he was the winner of the Sir Roland Hanna Award, a yearly award presented to an excelling jazz pianist. In the United States he has performed with greats such as Jimmy Heath, Sheila Jordan, and Antonio Hart, and in the Netherlands with Tineke Postma, Benjamin Herman, Jasper Blom, and Clemens van der Feen. Jorn has performed and toured all across Europe and the East Coast of the U.S.

Cory Todd is a bassist and composer from Maryland and currently based in Brooklyn, New York. A recent graduate of Oberlin Conservatory in Ohio, Cory has spent years touring internationally in various groups and sharing the stage with world renknown musicians such as Esperanza Spalding, Jamey Haddad, The Bad Plus, Donny McCaslin, Jaw Jam, and others. His band, "Drama Section" will be releasing their debut album "I'll Have What I'm Having" in 2016.

Dan Pugach is a Brooklyn-based drummer and composer. Originally from Israel, Dan served his mandatory three- year military duty as drummer for the Air-Force Orchestra. During that duty he studied Rimon School of Music and got his diploma in jazz performance. After the army Dan traveled to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for three months to study percussion and drums with the worlds leading samba musicians. Shortly after, he moved to the United States to expand his musical career. He got his B.M from Berklee College of Music and his M.A from the City College of New York, both degrees specializing in jazz performance and composition. Since then, Dan has been working as a full-time drummer, composer, arranger and orchestrator in New York City. His involvement in projects that vary from modern jazz to pop and folk music got him a reputation of one of the most versatile and sought-after drummer in town. Pugach is also known for his Nonet (nine-piece ensemble) that has won him two ASCAP Jazz Composer Award and many arranging/composing commissions for medium-size ensembles to full big band.

$10 Advanced, $13 Door, $8 Student
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