Author: Kelley Dawkins

Musical Style: Solo Piano Jazz

At the age of 19, Benny Green moved to New York City to join legendary vocalist Betty Carters band and never looked back. He would then assume the piano chair with some of jazz music’s most important instrumental groups, including Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Freddie Hubbard, and the Ray Brown Trio. With these artists he would receive an invaluable artistic education, learn to embody the artform and master the music.

​In 1988 he released his debut album as a leader Prelude on Criss Cross Records, which featured Terrence Blanchard, Javon Jackson, Peter Washington, and Tony Reedus. In 1990, he signed with Blue Note Records, for which he made seven recordings. These records featured some of the best musicians working in the idiom including Stlanley Turrentine, Ron Carter, Ray Drummond, Christian McBride, Victor Lewis, Lewis Nash and Carl Allen. In 2000 he would begin recording with Telarc Records. These albums featured his collaboration with guitarist Russell Malone.

Since 2013 he has released 5 albums on Sunnyside Records, and plans are in the works for a solo piano recording, which will be scheduled for release in the coming year.

Taking inventory of the music industry and societal perception of jazz today, Benny Green states that he is committed to the truth of what has been given by people who lived and died for this music, playing honest jazz is precious to my human existence. I’ve never felt a need or a calling to become one who’s thought of or labeled as an innovator. Rather, I’ve strived since childhood to become an authentic jazz musician, and I seek to stand as a torchbearer for the continuum of straight-ahead jazz piano.

Benny Green, piano

🎉Come celebrate as Dazzle at the Arts Complex turns 1 🎉

Even though it’s our birthday, we’re giving YOU presents. A drawing will be held before the show starts. Everyone who is present gets an entry to win one of these presents:

🎁 A pair of tickets to any touring show at Dazzle (available seats only)

🎁 A pair of tickets to any local show at Dazzle

🎁 A signed print of Dazzle by photographer Mark Payler

🎁 Official Dazzle water bottle

🎁 A cocktail created for and named after YOU by master mixologist Westin Elliot and it will be on the Dazzle menu for a month

🎂The best gift of all is Derrick Hodge. Derrick performed at the soft opening for Sponsors, Friends, and Family before Dazzle opened to the public last year. This year, he puts together ‘The Dazzle Sessions’, four shows on July 31st & August 1st.

Derrick Hodge is one of contemporary music’s most complete and complex artists. Also lauded as a composer, he is revered as one of the great bassists and musicians of his generation and his solo projects—Live Today (2013), The Second (2016), and Color of Noize (2020)—have been met with praise from critics and audiences alike. His albums are rich, raw and revelatory, reflecting his roots in the church, a passion for hip hop, and an eternal reverence for melody and classical composition. Like the artist, Hodge’s music contains multitudes.

Growing up just outside Philadelphia, Hodge cut his teeth in the city’s neo-soul movement. At college, he became the bass player and musical director of choice for pioneers like Jill Scott, Maxwell, Floetry, Nas, Common, James Poyser and Musiq Soulchild. At the same time, he played in his university’s orchestra and in jazz circles with legendary musicians including Terence Blanchard, Donald Byrd, Mulgrew Miller and Bootsie Barnes.

Hodge has played a role in countless groundbreaking projects and historic firsts. In 2022, he directed the music for the Academy Awards and arranged for Nas’s performance at the Grammys. As part of CNN’S Juneteenth celebration, he conducted the first all Black orchestra to perform at the Hollywood Bowl. In 2014 Hodge became the first Black composer to compose Hip Hop for the National Symphony when he acted as orchestral arranger and music director for the 20th anniversary celebration of Illmatic. Named one of the top moments in hip hop history by Fender Magazine, it was the first time hip hop was ever performed by the National Symphony Orchestra. He was also the first Black composer to write strings for hip hop at Carnegie Hall and the first Black composer to write symphonic music for hip hop with the Houston Symphony.

Hodge has devoted himself to projects that elevate and animate the African American legacy: the struggle but also—and always—the poetry and the triumph too. It is this ability to honor and advance both culture and people that is the principle thread which weaves together Hodge’s work. He was commissioned to write music for permanent exhibitions at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. He has scored, composed, and consulted for a plethora of small and big screen works, including The Black Candle, a groundbreaking documentary about Kwanzaa narrated by Maya Angelou, and Faubourg Tremé: The Untold Story of Black New Orleans, and the 2020 blockbuster The Photograph. While Hodge often lends his talents to the specific set of cinema and storytelling which chronicles Blackness in the U.S., he is also awake to the universal nuances of the human experience. His music tells stories that are simultaneously of a people, and of the people.

Hodge has founded and played in bands and groups as diverse and as influential as R+R=Now, the Robert Glasper Experiment, and The Blue Note All Stars. As a producer he has collaborated with icons including Quincy Jones, Don Was, and Common. As a musical director he has worked with luminaries including Yasiin Bey and, from 2009 to 2019, Maxwell.

The Color of Noize project is Hodge’s signature concept-series, bringing together contrasting sounds, styles to create an immersive audio-visual experience. Color of Noize premiered in 2019 as part of Hodge’s artist residency at Monterey Jazz Festival, where he brought together a collection of musicians, some as young as four, to explore his compositions in a remarkably moving and beautiful concert. As he puts it “it was never just my potential that made things happen; it was my community advocating for me—now I want to advocate for others, to pass that on”.

Whether collaborating with giants, writing for the big screen, forging new paths for orchestral composition, or providing access to his symphonic scores and original arrangements to HBCUs and inner city music programs, his work always contains social commentary, awareness, or insight. Here we find the fundamental character of Hodge; an incurably hopeful man, who, through his work and his art, has made the world a definitively more beautiful place.

Musical Style: Jazz
Grammy Award-winning pianist Bill Charlap has performed with many of the leading artists of our time, from Phil Woods and Benny Carter to Gerry Mulligan and Wynton Marsalis. He is acclaimed for his interpretations of the American popular songbook, and has recorded albums featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers and Duke Ellington.
The Bill Charlap Trio, with bassist Peter Washington and drummer Kenny Washington, marks its 23rd year together this season, and is recognized as one of the leading ensembles in jazz. The Trio earned Grammy nominations for 2017’s Uptown Downtown (Impulse!/Verve) and Somewhere: The Songs of Leonard Bernstein and The Bill Charlap Trio: Live at the Village Vanguard (both on the Blue Note label). Their 2016 album Notes from New York (Impulse!/Verve) earned a five-star review in Downbeat, which hailed it as “a master class in class.” The trio’s most recent recording features them supporting Tony Benne] & Diana Krall on the chart-topping, Grammy nominated Love is Here to Stay. The Bill Charlap Trio tours all over the world, and their New York engagements include regular appearances at Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Village Vanguard.
Last summer, Mr. Charlap celebrated his 15th year as artistic director of the 92nd Street Y’s Jazz in July festival. He has also produced concerts for Jazz at Lincoln Center, New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the Chicago Symphony Center and the Hollywood Bowl. He is Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University in Wayne, New Jersey. Founded in 1973, the program is one of the longest-running and most respected jazz programs in the world.
Born in New York City, Mr. Charlap began playing the piano at age three. His father was Broadway composer Moose Charlap, whose credits include Peter Pan, and his mother is singer Sandy Stewart, who toured with Benny Goodman, appeared on the Ed Sullivan and Perry Como shows, and earned a Grammy Award nomination for her recording of “My Coloring Book.”
Mr. Charlap’s collaboration with Tony Benne], The Silver Lining: The Songs of Jerome Kern, on the RPM/ Columbia label, won the 2016 Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album. It features Mr. Charlap and Mr. Benne] together and in collaboration with The Bill Charlap Trio and in duo piano performances with his wife, renowned jazz pianist and composer Renee Rosnes.
Mr. Charlap and Ms. Rosnes frequently collaborate in duo piano concerts. Their highly acclaimed album Double Portrait is on the Blue Note label. Mr. Charlap’s website is billcharlap.com.
Peter Washington is one of the most in demand and recorded bassists in modern jazz, with a discography of over 400 recordings. Born in Los Angeles, Washington played classical bass as a teen and majored in English Literature at U.C. Berkeley, where he became interested in jazz. He was invited by Art Blakey to join the Jazz Messengers in New York. From there Washington became part of two of jazz’s most celebrated trios: the Tommy Flanagan Trio, and for the past thirteen years, 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 and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. In 2008, Washington became part of The Blue Note 7, a septet formed in honor of the 70th anniversary of Blue Note Records. The group recorded the album Mosaic and toured the U.S. in 2009.

Bill Charlap, piano
Peter Washington, bass
Kenny Washington, drums

Musical Style: Jazz
Still thriving and evolving 27 years after its founding, the visionary quartet Sexmob continues to explode all preconceived notions of what an instrumental jazz band can be. Emerging from the Knitting Factory scene of the mid-’90s, slide trumpeter Steven Bernstein, alto/baritone saxophonist Briggan Krauss, upright/electric bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny Wollesen have changed the game with their raw, improvisatory groove and swing, endlessly inventive arrangements and uproarious sense of fun, exhibiting high musical standards while blithely blowing past all rigid boundaries of genre and taste. From their 1998 debut “Din of Inequity” onward, they’ve formed one of the truly enduring and substantive artistic bonds of their time, a quartet chemistry (often plus guests) that retains every bit of its freshness and capacity for surprise. “At this point,” declared NPR First Listen, “Sexmob is a collective ideal.”
A Sexmob gig does not have a setlist. A song doesn’t simply start and then end, followed by applause. “That’s never happened once in 25 years,” Bernstein declares. Instead, loyal fans come out to hear a band embracing perpetual risk, following the tradition of the late Don Cherry, whose idea of musical collage and “endless beginnings” remains the highest principle.
Similarly, Sexmob does not “cover” songs: as Bernstein has said, they “Sexmob” them. On “Din of Inequity” it was Prince, Leadbelly, Ellington, Hoagy Carmichael, The Cardigans, “Macarena” and more. On “Solid Sender” (1999) it was Nirvana, the Stones, the Dead, ABBA, more Ellington — but as on the first album, Bernstein originals in the mix as well. With “Theatre & Dance” (2000, also featuring Jim Black on drums) came a sustained look at Ellington’s dance commissions, and with “Sex Mob Does Bond” (2001) came the film music of John Barry (and Bernstein’s original riposte “Dr. Yes”).
In essence, Bernstein and friends do what jazz musicians have done from the start, playing popular songs in their own transformative way. And in the process they’ve broken ground regarding form and structure, arrangement and re-composition (areas in which Bernstein has achieved distinction apart from Sexmob). “Jazz was louder than any music of its time; it was played on a more psychedelic plane than the average vaudeville or minstrel song,” Bernstein once told journalist Ted Panken. “That’s what I’m trying to do with Sex Mob.”
Even the band’s album cover design and imagery were a cut above: true no doubt in the case of “Dime Grind Palace”, Sexmob’s 2003 Ropeadope outing featuring the late, great trombonist Roswell Rudd, along with Peter Apfelbaum and Doug Wieselman, Bernstein’s colleagues from the Millennial Territory Orchestra (which Bernstein launched in 1999). Scott Harding, a.k.a. Scotty Hard, put his indelible production stamp on “Dime Grind Palace”, as he’d done on “Din of Inequity”, “Solid Sender” and “Sex Mob Does Bond”.
Years later Harding and the band reunited, in a new collaborative framework resulting in “The Hard Way”, an album that skews decisively electronic, released in May 2023. Wollesen plays both acoustic and electric drums as the band delves deep into Harding’s electronic beats and soundscapes, reinventing them in the process. Pianist/composer and MacArthur Fellow Vijay Iyer guests on “You Can Take a Myth,” sprinkling stark sustained treble tones and abstract harmonies on top of fat processed bass from Scherr as the composition unfolds. John Medeski (of Medeski Martin & Wood) underlays organ chords and blues phraseology to perfection on “Banacek” and works atmospheric magic with mellotron, counterposing Harding’s evocative balafon samples, on “Planeta.”
In every methodological context, the Sexmob aesthetic remains uninhibited and true. For Thirsty Ear’s innovative Blue Series in 2006, the band recorded “Sexotica”, a reimagining of Martin Denny’s Exotica genre with extensive post-production work by Danny Blume and Chris Castagno (the studio team known as GoodandEvil). Also on Thirsty Ear is “Sex Mob Meets Medeski: Live in Willisau 2006”, featuring the organ master in an expansive romp through beloved Sexmob repertoire. In 2013 the core Sexmob quartet returned once again to the movies with “Cinema, Circus & Spaghetti (Sexmob Plays Fellini: The Music of Nino Rota)”, and in 2017 they issued “Cultural Capital”, the first Sexmob release consisting entirely of Bernstein originals. “Like the best movies,” said KNKX’s Abe Beeson of Cultural Capital, “there’s humor, intrigue, confusion, sorrow, passion, and the always present loose groove.”
With each offering, and certainly with “The Hard Way” and its rich electro-acoustic groove canvas, Bernstein and crew evince a modernizing impulse but also an equally strong foundation in the roots of jazz and American song. Their immersion in a wide range of contemporary music is consistent with Bernstein’s own chameleonic experience alongside Lou Reed, Levon Helm, Hal Willner, Sam Rivers, Bernie Worrell, Henry Butler, U2, Little Feat and a host of other legends. Funky, bluesy, with a tattered dissonance conjured up by Krauss’ throaty saxophone tone and marked by the distinctive wail of Bernstein’s rare horn, Sexmob continues to chart new paths in 21st-century creative music.

The GRAMMY® nominated vocal supergroup, säje (rhymes with “beige”), is the brainchild of vocalist/composers Sara Gazarek, Amanda Taylor, Johnaye Kendrick, and Erin Bentlage. Born out of close friendship and deep admiration, these world-renowned artists, composers, and arrangers have come together to explore, create, and celebrate the music that moves them. As individuals, each artist has crafted their own notable solo career, and now are delighted to bring their collective voices to this union, traversing a vast array of compelling original material, beloved jazz standards, and contemporary re-imaginings (The Bad Plus, YEBBA, Björk, etc). After debuting an inspiring and energized set at the 2020 Jazz Education Network Conference in New Orleans, säje went on to tour multiple jazz festivals and clubs from January to March. During quarantine, säje received their first GRAMMY® nomination, for their composition “Desert Song” in the Best Arrangement Instruments and Vocals category. They were awarded the John Lennon Songwriting Contest Grand Prize Award for their second composition “Wisteria”, as well as their first Jazz Journalists Association Award Nomination for “Best Vocal Jazz Group”. The collective also recently received gracious support for their continued work through the Chamber Music of America New Jazz Works grant, the Super Patron Grant, the Jazz Road Creative Residencies grant, and the USC Visions + Voices grant. Their highly anticipated debut album was released in August of 2023, featuring new original work and compelling covers, highlighting collaborations with artists Jacob Collier, Terri Lyne Carrington, Ambrose Akinmusire, and more. The album was received to critical acclaim, and wide reception, landing a #2 spot on the Billboard Contemporary Jazz Chart in its first week, and peaking at #4 on the iTunes Jazz Chart. The union of säje is rooted in the tradition of joy, curiosity, lush harmony, heart-felt expression, and profound sisterhood.

Musical Style: Afro-Cuban, Jazz, Folk, World
Fusing Afro-Cuban roots with jazz, folk and global rhythms in songs about immigration, resistance and love, OKAN takes their name from the word for heart in their Afro-Cuban religion of Santeria. With vocals in Spanish, Yoruba and Spanglish, OKAN is led by the Cuban-born violinist and vocalist Elizabeth Rodriguez and percussionist and vocalist Magdelys Savigne, both Grammy and Latin-Grammy nominees.
Having performed and recorded with Bomba Estereo, Lido Pimienta, The Halifax Symphony Orchestra, Hilario Duran and Dayme Arocena, OKAN’s recent release Okantomi was awarded the 2024 Juno Award (the band’s second Juno recognition) and included in NPR Alt Latino, Le Monde, and CBC Music’s “Best of 2023” lists, garnering critical praise from Songlines UK, Billboard, Pop Matters and JAZZIZ.

Charged with the profound power of their Afro-Cuban ancestry, OKAN alchemizes Lacumi chants and rhythms from their Santeria religious practice with virtuosic jazz and classical performances and indie-pop hooks.

Exploring themes of immigration, justice and love, OKAN takes its name from the word for ‘heart’ in Santeria. With vocals in Spanish, Yoruba and Spanglish, OKAN is led by the Cuban-born violinist and vocalist Elizabeth Rodriguez and percussionist and vocalist Magdelys Savigne, both Grammy and Latin-Grammy nominees.
Having performed and recorded with Bomba Estereo, Lido Pimienta, Symphony Nova Scotia, Hilario Duran and Dayme Arocena, OKAN’s recent release Okantomi was awarded the 2024 Juno for Best Global Music Album, earning mentions in NPR Alt Latino, Le Monde, and CBC Music’s “Best of 2023” lists and garnering critical praise from Songlines UK, Billboard, Pop Matters and JAZZIZ. (The album also charted on the transglobal music and WMEC charts, reaching number one on !Earshot international and NACC Latin charts as well top rank on at least 8 North American community stations.)
Building on their Juno-winning sophomore Espiral (2020) and the Juno-nominated debut Sombras (2019), Okantomi, passionately advocates for freedom of expression, queer rights and gender equality through what CBC Music calls “joy as a form of resistance.”
Magdelys and Elizabeth’s mesmerizing harmonies, virtuosic musicianship and potent lyrics, as well as an unfailing ability to connect with audiences on a deep emotional level, are earning the duo a dedicated audience worldwide.
Part of the next wave of Cuban women composers and multi-instrumentalists who embrace genres that have not historically fostered women artists outside of the role of singer, OKAN co-leaders have faced many challenges. Magdelys talks about the obstacles she faced in pursuing percussion in her native Cuba and how “coming out as a percussionist” to her family. was as significant as revealing her sexual orientation in a culture that was very homophobic.
Born in Havana, Cuba, Elizabeth Rodriguez is a classically trained violinist who served as concertmaster for Havana’s Youth Orchestra. Magdelys Savigne hails from Santiago de Cuba and graduated with honors in orchestral percussion from Havana’s University of the Arts.
Official showcases at SXSW, Folk Alliance International, Mundial Montreal, Contact East, Folk Music Ontario, Pacific Contact, Ontario Contact and Global Toronto have led to invitations to perform across Canada and the U.S. with stops at The Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Winter Jazzfest in NYC and Cal Performances in Berkeley, CA, as well a The Calgary, Canmore and Mission Folk Festivals. Recent highlights include opening for Snarky Puppy at the Toronto Jazz Festival, and featured performances at Montreal, Rochester and Atlanta Jazz Festivals.

Musical Style: Jazz-Funk
Legendary bandleader, trombonist and author Fred Wesley is one of the forefathers of funk, still setting the standard with his jazz-funk band The New JBs. Together at its core for more than 30 years, the band is a living celebration of roots funk and more, performing such hits as “Pass the Peas” made with James Brown and the JBs including Maceo Parker, as well as selections from the P-Funk years and Fred’s own and others’ soulful jazz, funk and blues compositions.
Born in Columbus, Georgia, and raised in Mobile, Ala., Fred began his career as a teenage trombonist with Ike and Tina Turner. He later was music director, arranger, trombonist and a primary composer for Brown from 1968-1975, then arranged for and played with Parliament-Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band.
With Brown, Fred became “the world’s most famous sideman, orchestrating the sinuous grooves and contributing the bold, surgically precise solos that defined the language of funk.” He helped take funk to the next level with George Clinton and Bootsy Collins.
Fred has recorded a dozen solo albums including the cult favorite “House Party,” and his latest, “From The Blues and Back,” scheduled for official release in early 2024. He is featured in the Oscar-winning documentary “When We Were Kings” and countless other documentaries and books about funk, and gives master classes around the world.
Fred’s critically acclaimed memoir “Hit Me, Fred: Recollections of a Side Man” (Duke University Press, 2002) chronicles in hilarious stories a half century of music history through the eyes of one of the world’s most-sampled musicians.
Also a veteran of the Count Basie Orchestra, Fred has worked with scores of other artists, from Ray Charles to Trombone Shorty. His current other projects include the organ trio Generations and the klezmer-funk-hip hop unit Abraham Incorporated.

Musical Style: Vocal Jazz
Ann Hampton Callaway – Finding Beauty: Inspired Classics and Originals
Don’t miss Tony nominee, Ann Hampton Callaway, in her new show “Finding Beauty: Inspired Classics and Originals”. Ann’s show is comprised of classics from her songwriting inspirations – Carole King, Joni Mitchell, James Taylor, Paul Simon, and many more. Also, the recent inductee into The Women Songwriters Hall of Fame shares songs from her new CD “Finding Beauty: Originals Vol. 1.” Expect AHC hits like Streisand’s “At the Same Time” as well as new songs she’s co-written with Oscar winner Alan Bergman, Grammy winner Melissa Manchester, and Grammy nominee, Amanda McBroom. Spoil yourself with a spellbinding show of rousing showstoppers and exquisite ballads, as we follow the arc of Ann’s musical inspiration!

Media quotes:
“For sheer vocal beauty, no contemporary singer matches Ms. Callaway.” – Stephen Holden, The New York Times
“…superbly intelligent, singularly creative pop-jazz stylist who can stand shoulder to shoulder with the likes of Streisand, Ronstadt, Shirley Horn and Dianne Reeves…” – Christopher Loudon, JazzTimes
“Just as Ella Fitzgerald was the greatest jazz singer of her era, so too is the magnificent Ann Hampton Callaway of hers.” – Musical Theatre Review

Musical Style: Jazz funk fusion
When you hear your first Garaj Mahal note, leading into an innovative fusion of funky jazz with a tasty world music flare, all other thoughts leave your mind as the music takes you on an unforgettable voyage. Fans return to experience the band again and again because they know they will always hear something new and progressive from four first-class musicians.
Featuring guitar and sitar virtuoso Fareed Haque, world-renowned bass master and educator Kai Eckhardt, Garaj Mahal combines a century of musical experience to create a sound that’s always new, freshly infused with a wide spectrum of musical expression, and always smoking hot.
Touring extensively since their formation in 2000, Garaj Mahal continues to earn critical acclaim and a growing fanbase thanks to their ability to deliver serious "shut-up-and-listen" grooves while simultaneously bringing the dance
floor alive. Their collective musical experience allows them to constantly push the envelope of composition and improvisation. Garaj Mahal’s sound – a convergence of jazz-style improvisation, mystical Middle-Eastern atmospheres, and danceable American funk – attracts music lovers from all parts of the spectrum and creates a
profoundly unique experience.
Each band member dedicates every drop of his education, history, and life-long passion for music to their audience every time they step on stage. The band member’s virtuosity is no surprise when you look at even a few of the amazing artists they’ve performed and/or recorded with over the years, including Dizzy Gillespie, John McLaughlin, Sting, Cassandra Wilson, Dave Holland, Bela Fleck, Chick Corea, Steve Smith, Zakir Hussain, Edgar Meyer, Les Claypool, Trey Anastasio, Umphrey’s McGee, MMW, Steve Kimock, and Michael Manring. Garaj Mahal’s output is the result of years spent honing their musical relationship on the road and following the band’s return from an extended hiatus, Garaj is already accumulating rave reviews around the country.

Musical Style: Jazz

Ron Carter Foursight Quartet
Ron Carter – Bass
Renee Rosnes – Piano
Jimmy Greene – Tenor Sax
Payton Crossley – Drums

Musical Style: Jazz
Album Release Show: Here, There and Everywhere: The Beatles Songbook (Live)
Join the Annie Booth Trio at Dazzle Denver for a celebration of the release of their latest album, Here, There and Everywhere: The Beatles Songbook (Live). Recorded in front of a live audience in summer 2023, the latest album from award-winning pianist and composer Annie Booth and her trio features twelve tunes from The Beatles songbook, re-arranged and explored in the dynamic jazz piano trio format. Annie is joined by her dear friends and bandmates of 15 years, bassist Patrick McDevitt and drummer Alejandro Castaño.
Annie Booth, piano
Patrick McDevitt, bass
Alejandro Castaño, drums

Musical Style: Blues, Soul Blues
Johnny Rawls is a soul blues legend. In fact, the term “soul blues” was invented to describe his music. With a career spanning more than 50 years, he’s done it all. He’s an internationally recognized recording artist, music producer, and songwriter who tours extensively throughout North America and overseas.
The Blues Music Awards, Blues Blast Awards, Living Blues Awards, and the W. C. Handy Awards have all acknowledged Johnny with multiple awards and nominations, including Soul Blues Album of the Year and Soul Blues Artist of the Year. Living Blues Magazine described him as a “soul-blues renaissance man” when he was featured on the cover in 2002. Johnny is honored to be mentioned on two markers along the Mississippi Blues Trail – one in Hattiesburg, MS marking the Hi-Hat Club, and another in Rocklin ME marking the migration of blues from Mississippi to Maine.

Musical Style: Jazz, Vocal Jazz
Named by her jazz loving grandmother, Jazzmeia Horn was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1991. She grew up in a close church-going family singing gospel music.
Ms. Horn graduated from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, which was attended by other great artists such as Roy Hargrove, Norah Jones, and Erykah Badu. In 2009, she enrolled at The School of Jazz at The New School in New York City.
Ms. Horn won the 2013 Sarah Vaughan International Jazz Vocal Competition and the 2015 Thelonious Monk Institute International Jazz Competition and, shortly after, was signed by Concord Records. In 2017, she released her debut album, A Social Call, which was nominated for a Grammy Award.
Ms. Horn continued to tour nationally and internationally, honing her vocal, performance and writing skills, to get across her message about the global need for love and social change in the world. In 2019, she released Love and Liberation which also received a Grammy nomination. The following year, she published her book, Strive From Within: The Jazzmeia Horn Approach, while recording her big band album, Dear Love.
Dear Love, an album of encouragement through poetry and spoken word addressing the aspects of her community, her love and herself, was released in September 2021.
All while performing, writing, and preparing for a fall 2023 release of her new album, Ms. Horn is teaching students and conducting outreach programs across the globe through The Jazz Horn International Vocal Initiative.

Musical Style: Jazz Guitar

“Obviously, we are in the capable hands of a master. Absolutely fluid touch and beautiful integration between moving lines and harmonic cadences. The sound of the instrument is well-balanced throughout the entire register. The relaxed quality of everything that’s being played gives it such a warm feeling. To play that stuff is extremely hard. This is an absolute master, the best of the best.” – Kurt Rosenwinkel, responding ot Russell Malone’s solo performance of “Remind Me” on Playground [MaxJazz., 2004], in a DownBeat Blindfold Test.
-..—–
Russell Malone is one of the signature guitar players of his generation. The leader of ten albums since 1992, Malone is as well-known on the international circuit for helming a world-class quartet and trio as he is for his long-standing participation in Ron Carter’s Golden Striker Trio, and his recent consequential contribution to the musical production of the likes of Sonny Rollins and Dianne Reeves, who recruited Malone for his singular tone, refined listening skills, limitless chops, and efflorescent imagination.
In all these circumstances, Malone addresses the tradition on its own terms, refracting the vocabularies and syntax of such heroes as Charlie Christian, Chet Atkins, George Van Eps, Johnny Smith, Wes Montgomery, Grant Green, Kenny Burrell, Pat Martino, and George Benson into an argot entirely his own. A master of all tempos, a relentless swinger, he spins his stories — in idioms ranging from the urban and downhome blues, country, gospel, various corners of the American Songbook, and hardcore jazz- with a soulful, instantly recognizable instrumental voice, and seasons them with sophisticated harmonies that are never “too hip for the room.”
“I take pride on being open enough to play with anybody,” says Malone, citing encounters with such diverse artists as B.B. King, Aretha Franklin, Gladys Knight, Andy Williams, James “Blood” Ulmer, and Ornette Coleman. “I love to swing, but I don’t look down my nose at other styles of music, or other musicians. I’ll play with anybody, if the music is good.”
Born in 1963 in Albany, Georgia, where he was raised, Malone received his first guitar—a green plastic four-string- at 4. He began playing in church at 6, and discovered jazz at 12, when he heard Benson perform on a PBS special with Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Red Norvo, Milt Hinton, and Jo Jones. In short order, he purchased Benson’s Cookbook and Benson Burner, and Montgomery’s Smokin’ at the Half Note and Boss Guitar. “Those four records set me on a path that I have not deviated from,” Malone says.
After high school, Malone left Albany for an extended engagement in Houston with organist Al Rylander, who had employed the talented youngster for almost a year in a local club. In 1985, he moved to Atlanta, where he built a reputation sidemanning with, among others, saxophonist-blues singer Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Little Anthony, Peabo Bryson, O.C. Smith and Freddy Cole, and leading units at Walter Mitty’s, a local club where touring musicians jammed after gigs. Two of them, Branford Marsalis and the legendary pianist John Hicks, encouraged Malone to come to New York City. He first visited the Apple in 1985, and began to
network with generational peers, sitting in on various bandstands, jamming late nights at the Blue Note, and attending Barry Harris’ Jazz Cultural Theater.
From 1988 to 1990, Malone worked with Hammond B-3 icon Jimmy Smith, who “told me that he didn’t want me to play like my idols, gave me permission to speak with my own voice.” He garnered more visibility during a 1990-94 tenure with Harry Connick, who made it his practice to feature Malone’s singing and guitar playing at the start of his shows. In 1992, he signed with Connick’s label, Columbia, which released Russell Malone and Black Butterfly, on which Malone addressed the mix of genres-old-school and contemporary pop, original jazz, spirituals, and, of course, the blues—that continue to characterize his mature tonal personality. During a 1994-98 stint with Diana Krall, he performed on three of Krall’s CDs, appeared in the Robert Altman film Kansas City, participated in Roy Hargrove’s Latin Grammy-winning Crisol band, and recorded Wholy Cats (Larry Willis, piano; Rodney Whitaker, bass; Yoron Israel, drums) for Japan’s Venus label. In 1998 he led the first of three recordings for Verve, including a personal favorite, Heartstrings, on which string arrangements by Johnny Mandel, Dori Caymmi,
and Alan Broadbent and an all-star rhythm section— pianist Kenny Barron, bassist Christian McBride, and drummer Jeff Watts enfold a succession of blue flame guitar solos.
Malone’s made five recordings with pianist Benny Green-three of them trios with McBride between 1997 and 2004. Al the aforementioned were close to bass legend Ray Brown, who first recorded with Malone in 2000 on Some of My Best Friends Are…Guitarists, and employed him in a crackling trio with Monty Alexander until his death in 2002, a few weeks after they made Brown’s final, eponymously titled recording. In 2003, Brown’s heir to the bass throne, Ron Carter, who had known Malone since both performed in Kansas City, recruited him for The Golden Striker, a bass-guitar-piano date with the late pianist Mulgrew Miler. Malone continues to play on Carter’s projects, and recently has spent consequential time in Dianne Reeves’ two-guitar unit with Romero Lubambo.
In 2004, Malone launched a still-ongoing relationship with MaxJazz with Playground, followed by Live At the Jazz Standard, Volumes 1 and 2, and the 2010 trio recital, Triple Play, with bassist David Wong and drummer Montez Coleman. Reviewing the latter, jazz journalist Doug Ramsey noted Malone’s “warmth, conversational phrasing and lack of hurry,” adding that, “in the absence of another chording instrument to collaborate or contend with, Malone is free to make harmonic choices without concern for clash or collision.”
“There was a period where I wanted validation, felt I needed to do certain things in order to get people’s approval,” Malone says. “I lacked the confidence to speak with the voice that was in me. But at some point, you have to accept who you are. No one will ever out-do me at being Russell Malone.” Malone’s latest recording is “All About Melody” on High Note Records

Musical Style: Jazz Fusion
“Noy is a true experimentalist who lives on the common ground shared by Thelonious Monk, James Brown, Jimmy Hendrix, Frank Zappa and Stevie Ray Vaughn.” – Rock & Blues Muse
Born in Israel, Oz Noy started his professional career at the age of 13 playing jazz, blues, pop and rock music. By age 16, he was playing with top Israeli musicians and artists. By age 24, he was one of the most established studio guitar players in the country. Oz was also a member of the house band on Israel’s top-rated television show for more than two years. With 8 studio albums and 9 solo albums, his prolific talent shines.
Since his 1996 arrival in New York, Oz has made a huge impact on the local and international music scene. His unique and intoxicating style has broken all the rules of instrumental guitar music by focusing on the groove.
Oz Noy has performed, toured and recorded with Richard Bona, Chris Botti, Gavin DeGraw, Harry Belafonte, Cyndi Lauper, Clay Aiken, Akiko Yano, Wonder Girls, Toni Braxton, Phoebe Snow, Nile Rogers, Mike Clark, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Dave Weckl, Mike Manieri, John Patitucci, The East Village Opera Company, Roger Glover, Bill Evans, Randy Brecker, The Gil Evan Orchestra, Warren Hayes, Gov’t Mule, The Allman Brothers, Umphrey’s Mcgee, Allen Toussaint, Eric Johnson, Mike Stern, John Abercrombie, Wallace Roney, Steve Lukather, John Medeski, Chris Potter, Fred Wesley, Tom Scott, Don Was, Nelly Furtado, Natasha Bedingfield, Phillip Phillips, Andy Grammer, Angelique Kidjo, Matisyahu, Jennifer Hudson, Henry Butler, Gart Hudson, Don Henley, Patti Austin, Take 6, Michael Buble, Josh Groban, Phil Ramone, Paul Shaffer, Dweezil Zappa, Steven Tyler, Joe Perry, Sting, Steve Perry, Allison Krauss, Foreigner, Patty Smyth, Wiz Khalifa, Shelea, Jordin Sparks, Average White Band, Christopher Cross, TYP, Betty Buckley, Idina Menzel, Luke Nelson, Justin Timberlake, Bonnie Raitt, Lizzo, Dave Mathews, Cat Stevens, Scary Pockets among others.
Oz also conducts periodic master classes at The Collective School of Music (New York City), Musicians Institute (Los Angeles), and others.
Jimmy Haslip was born December 31st, 1951 in the Bronx, New York. He grew up in Huntington, Long Island. In 1963 at the age of 13, he became interested in electric bass and has now been playing for 47+ years. Jimmy left New York in 1969 playing music in San Francisco, New Orleans, Denver and Dallas before moving on to Los Angeles in late 1975, where he began touring and recording with many different popular artists.
In 1978 Jimmy Haslip met guitarist Robben Ford and keyboardist Russell Ferrante and formed a group to record Robben’s first solo recording on Electra-Asylum. This critically acclaimed album, called The Inside Story became a landmark recording. That album led to the formation of The Yellowjackets and in 1980 they recorded a debut album for Warner Bros. Records.
Jimmy is actively composing, arranging, producing and performing with Yellowjackets, the two time Grammy winners.
Hailing from South Africa, and completing his music degree from the New England Conservatory in Boston Anton Fig’s career as a drummer has spanned decades; he’s worked alongside artists like Ace Frehley, Link Wray, Cyndi Lauper, Warren Zevon, Madonna, Mick Jagger, and countless more. His technical proficiency, distinctive style, and deep musical knowledge ultimately earned him the nickname “The Thunder from Down Under.” But if you’re David Letterman, you might have called him “Anton Zip” or “Buddy Rich Jr.” when Fig, Paul Schaffer, and the World’s Most Dangerous Band were serving as Letterman’s house band.
It was in 1986 that he joined the Late Show with David Letterman – a position held for 29 years until the show ended! During that run he played with the worlds’ greatest musicians including Miles Davis, James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Tony Bennet, Steve Winwood, to name just a few. When the Letterman Show ended, Anton toured extensively with guitarist Joe Bonamassa as well as playing on most of his albums and live projects since 2006.
Anton recorded an instructional video – “In the Groove Late/Night Drumming” – and was voted #1 Best Rock Drummer in Modern Drummer’s Readers Poll 2010.
He also played many memorable live concerts including Live Aid, The Concert for New York City for 9/11, Bob Dylan’s 30th Anniversary Concert, and countless Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Awards shows.
Oz Noy, guitar
Jimmy Haslip, bass
Anton Fig, drums

Musical Style: Jazz Harp
The sonically innovative harpist, Brandee Younger, is revolutionizing harp for the digital era. Over the past fifteen years, she has worked relentlessly to stretch boundaries and limitations for harpists. In 2022, she made history by becoming the first black woman to be nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition. That same year, she was also nominated for an NAACP Image Award. Ever-expanding as an artist, she has worked with cultural icons including Common, Lauryn Hill, John Legend, and Moses Sumney. Her current album, Brand New Life, builds on her already rich oeuvre, and cements the harp’s place in pop culture. As the title of the album suggests, Brand New Life is about forging new paths–artistic, personal, political, and spiritual. On this album, Younger salutes her musical foremother, the trailblazing harpist Dorothy Ashby, while also speaking to the sentiments of more recent generations. “We’re bringing new life to Dorothy Ashby’s popular and previously unreleased compositions. We’re creating new life…for the instrument,” Younger said. Brand New Life is an album about living fully, in neon bright color.
In March of 2022, Younger flew to Chicago and began recording Brand New Life in the home studio of her long time collaborator and friend, Makaya McCraven, who both produced and played drums on the album. In the Windy City, Younger hoped to harness some of Ashby’s funky energy from a recording she did there nearly five decades before. Younger gathered artists who have had a sense of kinship with Ashby; from the internationally-lauded neo-soul bassist/vocalist/rapper Meshell Ndegeocello, to her long-time bassist Rashaan Carter, plus the legendary rapper and producer Pete Rock and the talented contemporary producer 9th Wonder. The latter producers introduced hip hop and R&B listeners to Ashby in the 1990s and early 2000s via slick samples. Pete Rock and CL Smooth’s 1992 release, “For Pete’s Sake,” samples Ashby’s 1968 hit “Come Live With Me.” 9th Wonder’s remix of singer Amerie’s 2003 R&B classic “Why Don’t We Fall in Love,” also includes a Dorothy Ashby sample from “Come Live With Me.” With Younger’s solo rendition of this heavily sampled song on Brand New Life, she builds a sonic bridge between generations. “I wanted everyone on the record to have a special connection to Dorothy [Ashby],” she said. For the project, Younger also recorded a number of Ashby’s compositions that were never recorded before, alongside Ashby fan favorites and Younger originals.
The emotional complexity of the album is stunningly captured in the title track, “Brand New Life,” an original co-written by Younger and singer, Mumu Fresh. “This love is so deep, time and space couldn’t keep you away from me,” Mumu Fresh sings. Younger’s playing paints lush details over Mumu Fresh’s smooth vocals leaving nothing to be sonically desired. Against the backdrop of current social issues–climate change, racism, health disparities, and women’s rights–the song speaks to a desire that many people have for change, for something new in the world. “Brand New Life” reaches listeners at the level of the human.
Love is a subtle but insistent thread throughout the album. The opening track, “You’re a Girl For One Man Only,” is a previously unrecorded Dorothy Ashby composition. Sonically, it is tender and evocative of a first kiss or the early seasons of new romance. Younger recalls the original song’s lyrics’ more traditional message of romantic longing that we still hear in popular music today. Boy chases girl. Girl succumbs. In Younger’s version, there is a sense of agency and exploration. Younger creates a mesmerizing atmosphere. In the second half of the track we are met with a delicate dance between Joel Ross on vibraphone and Younger on harp, the two instruments pining through the melody.
Brand New Life is part of her steadfast efforts to amplify the contributions of black women harpists and to keep their legacies alive. Her care for and attention to Dorothy Ashby as a musical ancestor has been consistent throughout her career. Akin to the popular hashtag, #CiteBlackWomen, which demands that consumers credit and recognize black women for their intellectual labor, Younger urges us to recognize Ashby’s contribution to the American songbook. The album is part of a larger project of recognizing not only the history of innovators of distinguished harp – a history that places Ashby and Younger together on a continuum – but also the presence of everyday black women.
“Running Game” was an obscure seven-inch single release originally entitled “Double Talkin’” and featured Ashby on piano. In the song’s intro, we hear what sounds like a casual conversation at a black women’s beauty salon or at a social gathering of sorts where women freely share advice and observations on life with one another. The voices in the intro are of Younger’s mother and aunt. Younger sets up listeners by reading the lyrics from Ashby’s original. “Every man I meet is double talkin.’ Where did the good men go?” The women candidly respond to the song lyrics. One says, “As far as game, men have been running game since day one.” The track leads into, “Running Game,” a ballad with inflections of Negro spirituals and the blues. Here, Younger’s expressivity on her instrument is incomparable. As the strings (arranged by DeSean Jones) hum behind her, the “double-talking” gold-digging man comes into full view. “Running-Game” ends on a note of optimism, of marching forward despite life’s struggle.
Younger was born and raised in Hempstead, New York. As a teen in the early 1990s, she bopped to the beats of artists like LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, and Busta Rhymes. Among these hip hop greats, she discovered Ashby’s music by way of hip hop legend Pete Rock. She began playing harp at the age of eleven and eventually enrolled at the Hartt School of Music at the University of Hartford in Connecticut where she studied classical music. It was through the encouragement of legendary saxophonist Jackie McLean that she made her first foray into jazz with the harp.
Hearing Ashby for the first time led her to envision new possibilities for herself as a harpist. “She was covering all of these popular tunes and soundtracks [of the time] and I wanted to do that. She’s playing pop, jazz and everyone’s sampling her–DJ Premier, Pete Rock, J. Dilla. Hearing, then seeing her as a Black Woman, while I’m this random little isolated black girl playing a harp by myself was everything to me.” Younger forged her way with a small but mighty group of black women harpists as examples—Sarah Lawrence from her hometown, Ann Hobson-Pilot, Dorothy Ashby, and Alice Coltrane—who were consistent sources of inspiration.
In 2006, after graduating from the Hartt School, Younger went on to develop a name for herself on the jazz and commercial recording scene in New York City. To date, her performance roster is fierce. As a side-woman, she has played alongside jazz icons such as Pharoah Sanders, Ravi Coltrane, Jack DeJohnette and Reggie Workman. Younger’s commitment to carrying the torch can also be seen through her work as a performer and educator. In 2008, she earned a Master of Music from New York University’s Steinhardt School. During this time, she began to work seriously as an educator. She has been guest faculty and lecturer at numerous universities including but not limited to Berklee College of Music, Princeton University, Howard University and Tulane University. Currently, she serves as teaching artist faculty at New York University and The New School.
In 2020, Younger was named winner of the DownBeat Critics Poll in the category of “Rising Star” harpist. Her work as side-woman is evidence of Younger’s undeniable presence in the sound of contemporary jazz today. In recent years, she has appeared on albums by Lakecia Benjamin, Robert Glasper, Jeremy Pelt, The Baylor Project and Makaya McCraven, just to name a few. In addition to her contributions as a side-woman, Younger’s commitment to honoring the legacy of black women harpists can be seen through her curatorial work. She has curated a number of performances dedicated to honoring the work of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. This work speaks to her dedication as a purveyor of black music and history.

Musical Style: Afro-Jazz Fusion
Having toured internationally, sharing stages with both African and American luminaries including Kojo Antwi, Amakye Dede and Victor Wooten, Ghana born drummer and composer, Paa Kow, (pronounced Pah-Ko), blends rhythm and artistry from his home with jazz and African roots creating his own Afro-Fusion sound. Dubbed “Ghana’s most artistic drummer” (Modern Ghana), he plays a custom, hand-carved, traditionally inspired Ghanaian drum set that is the only one of its kind in the world, guaranteeing an extraordinary cultural and musical experience.
Growing up in the small village of Enyan Denkyira near Cape Coast in Ghana, West Africa, Paa Kow began to play music and tour with his family’s concert band at a very early age. He has since grown to be widely recognized as one of the most remarkable drum set players to tour in Africa, Europe, and America. Paa Kow’s deep groove and prodigious talent reveal a unique ability to speak to listeners with his drums, inspiring a profound spiritual conversation and fulfilling his vision to spread the music and culture of his homeland by touring the world.

Musical Style: Jazz
“Run the Gauntlet” emerges as the latest album from Kris Davis, accompanied by the extraordinary talents of bassist Robert Hurst and drummer Johnathan Blake. Seamlessly melding composition with improvisation, this album stands as a testament to Davis’ singular voice within the jazz landscape.
The title, ‘Run the Gauntlet,’ serves as a metaphor for overcoming challenges to achieve one’s goals. In this project, Davis pays homage to six trailblazing women pianists who have left an indelible mark on her journey as a pianist and composer: Geri Allen, Carla Bley, Renee Rosnes, Angelica Sanchez, Marilyn Crispell, and Sylvie Courvoisier. These remarkable women not only navigated the male-dominated field of jazz but also profoundly influenced Davis’s development as a pianist and composer. By dedicating the album to these extraordinary women, Davis honors their resilience and groundbreaking contributions as leaders in the jazz community.

Kris Davis, piano
Robert Hurst, bass
Johnathon Blake, drums

“A phenomenal talent whose feel for classic soul music is bone deep…This woman is on fire.” — The New York Times
Morgan James is a Juilliard trained singer, songwriter, actress and recording artist in New York City.
Morgan is currently on tour supporting her fifth studio album, “Nobody’s Fool”. She independently released her studio albums of original soul music, entitled Memphis Magnetic, and A Very Magnetic Christmas recorded to analog tape in Memphis, Tennessee. Other albums include “Reckless Abandon”, which prompted the Huffington Post to call MJ the “Brightest Breakout Artist of the Year”. In addition to her original music, Morgan co-produced and starred in an all-female concept recording of “Jesus Christ Superstar”. Morgan has taken on full album covers of the Beatles’ iconic ‘White Album’, Joni Mitchell’s “Blue”, Jeff Buckley’s “Grace”, and many more. Morgan recorded two full-length albums with Epic Records: “Hunter” and “Morgan James Live, a celebration of Nina Simone“. All of her music can be found on all streaming platforms, and hard copies on her website or at shows.
On Broadway, Morgan was in five back-to-back original companies: The Addams Family (starring Nathan Lane and Bebe Neuwirth), Wonderland, Godspell and Motown: The Musical, and as a guest at Kristin Chenoweth’s For The Girls.
With viral sensation Postmodern Jukebox and with her own YouTube channel, Morgan’s music videos have accumulated more than 285 million views (and climbing).

Morgan James will host a VIP Meet and Greet before her show at Dazzle – for information or to purchase a seat for the VIP Meet and Greet go to https://www.dazzledenver.com/morgan-james-vip-meet-and-greet/

For more information, please visit www.morganjamesonline.com. @morganajames

Musical Style: Jazz hip hop fusion
Kassa Overall is a Grammy-nominated musician, emcee, singer, producer and drummer who melds avant-garde experimentation with hip-hop production techniques to tilt the nexus of jazz and rap in unmapped directions.
On his first two studio albums GO GET ICE CREAM AND LISTEN TO JAZZ and I THINK I’M GOOD, Kassa layered virtuosic drumming, meticulous production techniques, and incisive lyricism to establish himself as a rhythmic innovator and visionary poet, using his voice to address the injustices of the carceral system, the pharmaceutical industry, and anti-black racism, while wrangling with the perils of his own mental illness.
On ANIMALS, his Warp Records debut out May 26, Kassa pushes his kaleidoscopic, subversive vision further. He layers Roland 808s against avant-garde drumming in the vein of his mentors Elvin Jones and Billy Hart, the latter of whom he studied with at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Virtuoso musos appear alongside rap poets, including Danny Brown, Wiki, Lil B, and Shabazz Palaces. Top-flight jazz improvisation weaves in and out of orchestral string arrangements by Jherek Bischoff. The album’s diverse, all-star roster of collaborators includes several of his close friends, like vocalists Nick Hakim, Laura Mvula, Francis and the Lights, and jazz stars like Theo Croker and Vijay Iyer.
ANIMALS pushes Kassa’s message further too, the title a loaded metaphor for the paradoxes of his life as an entertainer and as a black man in America. ANIMALS is the sound of an artist aware of the cost of embodying one’s natural self in the public eye, a deep reckoning with the two-sided truth that to perform one’s freedom for an audience can mean succumbing to life inside a cage.

Musical Style: Jazz
Scott Amendola, Ben Goldberg, & Todd Sickafoose play the music of Thelonious Monk, and more!

Scott Amendola, Ben Goldberg, and Todd Sickafoose have been playing music together in various forms for nearly 30 years. Together as a trio they bring virtuosic mastery of their instruments, along with band sensibility to create a playful, and thoughtful musical experience. Thelonious Monk’s music has captured their collective heart ever since they all heard him as young upstarts. Along with original music, the trio will journey through all kinds of moods, and musical landscapes.
“If Scott Amendola didn’t exist, the San Francisco music scene would have to invent him.” 
Derk Richardson, San Francisco Bay Guardian . For Scott Amendola, the drum kit isn’t so much an instrument as a musical portal. An ambitious composer, savvy bandleader and capaciously creative foil for some of the world’s most inventive musicians, Amendola applies his rhythmic virtuosity to a vast array of settings. His closest musical associates include guitarists, Nels Cline, Jeff Parker, Charlie Hunter, Hammond B-3 organist Wil Blades, violinists Regina Carter and Jenny Scheinman, clarinetist Ben Goldberg, players who have each forged a singular path within and beyond the realm of jazz.
Todd Sickafoose is a Tony and Grammy award-winning composer, producer, orchestrator, bandleader and double bassist. He produced and co-arranged all three albums of the Broadway hit Hadestown and also produced Anaïs Mitchell’s album Young Man in America. Since 2004, Sickafoose has recorded and performed internationally with artist/activist Ani DiFranco. Straddling the worlds of folk, indie rock, jazz and chamber music, his own band Tiny Resistors has performed at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Stern Grove Festival, Angel City Jazz Festival and been featured on many “Best-Of” lists including the Village Voice and JazzTimes. Writing for Tiny Resistors, he recently created Bear Proof, a long-form chamber jazz hybrid commissioned by the Doris Duke Foundation.
Clarinetist / composer Ben Goldberg grew up in Denver. He was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. Since 1992, when his group New Klezmer Trio “kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music” (SF Chronicle), Ben has shaped a career through curiosity and experimentation. The New York Times says Ben’s music “conveys a feeling of joyous research into the basics of polyphony and collective improvising.” Downbeat Magazine has twice named him Rising Star Clarinetist.
Scott Amendola – drums/percussion/electronics
Ben Goldberg – clarinet
Todd Sickafoose – bass

Join multi award-pianist and composer Charu Suri, who has made history by performing four times at Carnegie Hall as the first Indian jazz artist to do so, in her debut at Dazzle. Charu blends Indian ragas (modal scales) with jazz and has composed five albums, including her latest, RAGS & RAGAS, which was recorded with Steve Gadd, John Patitucci, and Joe Lastie. Join her in a very special evening, relax and listen to her unique world that New York City Jazz Record says defies Rudyard Kipling’s saying, “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.”

Musical Style: Jazz
Nduduzo Makhathini grew up in the lush and rugged hillscapes of umGungundlovu in South Africa, a peri-urban landscape in which music and ritual practices were symbiotically linked. The area is significant historically as the site of the Zulu king Dingane kingdom between 1828 and 1840. It is important to note that the Zulu, in fact the African warrior code, is deeply reliant on music for motivation and healing. This deeply embedded symbiosis is key to understanding Makhathini’s vision.
The church also played a role in Makhathini’s musical understanding, as he hopped from church to church in his younger days in search of only the music. The legends of South African jazz are deep influences as well, Bheki Mseleku, Moses Molelekwa, and Abdullah Ibrahim. “The earlier musicians put a lot of emotions in the music they played,” he says. “I think it may also be linked to the political climate of those days. I also feel there is a uniqueness about South African jazz that created an interest all around the world and we are slowly losing that too in our music today. I personally feel that our generation has to be very conscious about retaining these nuances in the music we play today.”
Through his mentor Mseleku, Makhathini was also introduced to the music of John Coltrane’s classic quartet with McCoy Tyner. “I came to understand my voice as a pianist through John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme,” he says. “As someone who started playing jazz very late, I had always been looking for a kind of playing that could mirror or evoke the way my people danced, sung and spoke. Tyner provided that and still does in meaningful ways.” Makhathini also cites American jazz pianists including Andrew Hill, Randy Weston and Don Pullen as significant influences.
Active as an educator and researcher, Makhathini is the head of the music department at Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape. He has performed at renowned festivals including the Cape own International Jazz Festival and the Essence Festival (in both New Orleans and South Africa), and in 2019 made his debut appearances the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City, as well as Jazz at Lincoln Center where he was a featured guest with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra on their 3-night musical celebration The South African Songbook in Rose Theater. He is a member of Shabaka Hutchings’ band Shabaka and the Ancestors appearing on their 2016 album Wisdom of Elders, and has also collaborated with artists including Logan Richardson, Nasheet Waits, Tarus Mateen, Stefon Harris, Billy Harper, Azar Lawrence, and Ernest Dawkins.
In addition to producing albums for his peers (such as Thandiswa Mazwai’s Belede and Tumi Mogorosi’s Project Elo), Makhathini has released eight albums of his own since 2014 when he founded the label Gundu Entertainment in partnership with his wife and vocalist Omagugu Makhathini. Those albums earned him multiple awards and include Sketches of Tomorrow (2014). Mother Tongue (2014). Listening to the Ground (2015), Matunda Ya Kwanza (2015); Icilongo: The African Peace Suite (2016) Inner Dimensions (2016), and Reflections (2016). His 2017 album Ikhambi was the first to be released on Universal Music South Africa and won Best Jazz Album at the South African Music Awards (SAMA) in 2018. His Blue Note debut Modes of Communication: Letters from the Underworlds was released in 2020 to wide critical acclaim earning many end of the year “Best Of” lists.

Musical Style: Jazz
Singer Tierney Sutton and pianist Tamir Hendelman have a musical relationship that goes back over 20 years. While Sutton racked up 9 Grammy nominations for her 14 albums as leader, Hendelman was arranging, recording and performing with Barbra Streisand and Natalie Cole, leading his own trio, and being the featured pianist of the Jeff Hamilton Trio and Grammy-Winning Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. And along side all this, Tierney and Tamir still found time to tour as a duo in Italy, Japan, China and throughout the U.S.
Yet it was the pandemic that cemented and deepened the partnership of these 2 LA-based artists. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Tierney and Tamir created and presented live-streamed themed shows as well as creating “By Request” video dedications for fans around the world.
Says Sutton: “This is truly one of my very favorite projects. No pianist in the world swings harder than Tamir and he’s an encyclopedia of songs so I’m able to be so free and improvisational. This project is a joy.”

Musical Style: Jazz
Hailed as a “Sax Phenom” by the New York Daily News, Chad LB has toured globally as a bandleader and with superstars ranging from Chris Botti to Taylor Swift. Chad has been a featured soloiston 2 GRAMMY-winning albums and in concert with premiere ensembles like the Juilliard Jazz Orchestra and Multi-Grammy winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra. No stranger to the big screen, Chad has made appearances on numerous TV shows with pop icons and rock legends like Don Henley, as well as the Hollywood film “Here Today” with Billy Crystal and Tiffany Haddish.

Musical Style: Black American Music
As a leading voice in American popular music, the Grammy Award-winning Nicholas Payton is a multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, composer, producer, arranger, essayist, and social activist who defies musical and artistic categories. All the while, he honors the tradition of what he terms “postmodern New Orleans music,” as well as the spirit of Black American Music, of which he states, “There are no fields, per se. There are lineages.”
The New Orleans-born Payton has followed his calling since growing up under the tutelage of his parents — acclaimed bassist Walter Payton and Maria Payton, a pianist and vocalist. Already a prodigy before entering the first grade, he began playing trumpet at age four and started performing professionally at age 10. Before the age of 20, he was already in demand by everyone from Danny Barker and Clark Terry to Elvin Jones and Marcus Roberts. Payton released his first album, From this Moment, in 1995 on the famed Verve label. He received his first Grammy nomination in 1997 for the album Doc Cheatham & Nicholas Payton, and for the category of Best Instrumental Solo, which found him winning the award that year.
Payton has released over 20 recordings as a leader, pushing musical boundaries and showcasing a variety of contemporary and traditional styles, while displaying his ambidextrous ability to play both the trumpet and keyboard at the same time when he’s inspired to do so. He has collaborated with numerous mentors and contemporaries alike, ranging from Common and Cassandra Wilson to Trey Anastasio, MonoNeon, and Jill Scott, to Dr. John, Joseph “Zigaboo” Modeliste of The
Meters, Allen Toussaint, and Abbey Lincoln to name a few. His most recent albums are Quarantined with Nick and Maestro Rhythm King, both released in 2020.
“Everything I write is about life experiences. The music means nothing without life. A life lived. It’s not just notes on a page. It’s not just a technical exercise. It’s vibrations and energy,” Payton says. “And I’m striving to help lift, if possible, raise the vibration of the collective conscious one audience, one album, one song at a time. If I can’t do that, there’s no point in me playing. That’s why I play. It’s about contributing to society and inspiring. That’s my life as an artist, period. Challenging people to think differently, to think critically and to not be slaves to the system and
the status quo.”
In addition to Payton’s work as a performer, he is an equally respected composer, having written The Black American Symphony an orchestral work, which the Czech National Symphony Orchestra commissioned and performed. He led a live concert performance of Miles Davis’ renowned Sketches of Spain with the Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland.
“Pretty much all the music that I play is centered in Black culture, Black music. And that’s why I’ve eschewed jazz and came up with the terminology, Black American Music, because I want to be connected to the whole of it,” Payton says about genre. “It’s all the same. John Coltrane and Charlie Parker and James Brown could be neighbors. So what’s the distinction there? The only difference in the music is who they came through, and where they’re from.”
As a leader, Payton’s seminal writings and discussions on the problematics of the term and associations of “jazz” have inspired musicians, researchers, music listeners, and thinkers alike. As such, he termed Black American Music, or #BAM for short, to represent the breadth of improvisational musical creations created by Black people in the U.S., regardless of genre. His introduction of #BAM into the lexicon of popular music discourse landed him an entry in the New York Times’ “The Decade in Jazz: 10 Definitive Moments” in 2019.
“(Black American Music) is … a liberation music, it is our first global recognition in humanizing, if you will, a class of people who were systematically dehumanized for centuries,” Payton says. “The concern for me is to draw from the wellspring of all the great Black ancestors who inspired me to play this music in the first place. And to hopefully keep that energy, that spirit.”
Through his mission-driven work and art, Payton continues to creatively move boundaries, while inspiring and remaining inspired by the pioneering lineage of Black American Music, of which he is a part.

Musical Style: Holiday Show
To watch Stella Cole perform is to be transported back in time. Her sense of joy and wonder is infectious – one look at her massive social media following makes this clear. Take a quick scroll through the comments of any of her many viral videos and you’ll see not only her irresistible charm, but an ability to expose fans of all ages to the wonders of the Great American Songbook, especially when these timeless stories are told honestly by an artist with an uncanny ability to transcend generations.
On her highly anticipated debut recording, Stella is presented performing interpreting a collection of classics in a variety of settings, including many featuring an orchestra arranged by multiple Grammy-winner Alan Broadbent. Featuring songs made famous by everyone from Barbra Streisand (“When the Sun Comes Out”) and Judy Garland (“The Boy Next Door” and a classic re-interpretation of “Over the Rainbow”) to Billie Eilish (“My Future”) and Audrey Hepburn (“Moon River” of course!), it is sure to be one of the most impressive vocal recordings of 2024.
Upon first hearing Stella Cole, one is immediately struck by her rich tone and extraordinary vocal control. However, what is particularly rare is her ability to interpret songs that were initially intended for actors in character in a direct, personally vulnerable way that connects to something within herself, placing her in the lineage of the greatest interpreters of the repertoire. Perhaps most exciting, to her many young fans, who have never heard these songs before, these are Stella Cole songs, which clearly makes her one of the most exciting artists of her generation.

Musical Style: Jazz
Christian McBride is an eight-time GRAMMY-winning bassist, composer, and bandleader. He is the Artistic Director of the historic Newport Jazz Festival, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), the TD James Moody Jazz Festival, and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. McBride is also a respected educator and advocate for youth, and serves as Artistic Director of Jazz House KiDS and the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Sessions. In addition to artistic directing and consistent touring with his ensembles, he hosts NPR’s “Jazz Night in America” and “The Lowdown: Conversations With Christian” on SiriusXM. Whether behind the bass or away from it, Christian McBride is always part of the music. From jazz to R&B, and pop/rock and hip-hop/neo-soul to classical, he is a luminary with one hand ever reaching for new heights, and the other extended in fellowship—and perhaps the hint of a challenge—inviting us to join him.

For this show he is joined by four rising young master instrumentalists including saxophonist Nicole Glover, guitarist Ely Perlman, pianist Mike King, and drummer Savannah Harris.
Michael King – keys
Virtuosic pianist Michael King, a Chicagoan native, began playing drums in his local church band at the early age of 4. This fortuitously melodic schooling nurtured an undeniable affinity to the piano and organ, the very seat that he began to occupy, by ear, at age 14. Mr. King is an alumni of Lincoln Park High School and the prestigious Oberlin Conservatory. He was selected to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute and The Ravinia Jazz Scholars program on merit scholarships. Michael has performed with Bobby Watson, Kevin Eubanks, Dave Liebeman, Gary Bartz, Billy Hart, Joel Frahm, Rufus Reid, & Antonio Hart, among others. Currently you can catch Mr. King touring internationally with: DeeDee Bridgewater, Robin Eubanks, Theo Croker’s DVRK FUNK, Soul Understated, & Marcus Printup.
Savannah Harris – drums
Savannah Harris is a New York City-based drummer, composer and producer. Raised in Oakland, California by musician parents, she gravitated towards the drums at age 2. Steeped in a jazz tradition, Savannah views its connection to all forms of diasporic and folkloric music as central to her approach. She’s performed and recorded with indie and experimental artists Helado Negro, Georgia Anne Muldrow, KeiyaA, Nick Hakim, Kate Davis, Justin Allen, and Standing on the Corner. Her jazz recordings include releases from Peter Evans, María Grand, and Or Bareket. She’s performed with Geri Allen, Jason Moran, Ambrose Akinmusire, Terrence Blanchard, Linda May Han Oh, Billy Childs, Immanuel Wilkins, Joel Ross, and Aaron Parks. Presently, she tours extensively with Christian McBride, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and Kenny Barron. In 2019, Savannah was awarded the Harlem Stage Emerging Artist Award, and she received her master’s in jazz performance from Manhattan School of Music. She was featured twice in the January 2021 issue of Modern Drummer as both a featured artist and a contributing writer. In October of 2021, she debuted her solo piece “With Inner Sound, Truth” commissioned by Issue Project Room as a tribute to composer Ruth Anderson. Savannah was also featured in Sixteen Journal’s “JAZZ” edition, with portraits shot by photographer James Brodribb.
Nicole Glover – saxophone
Saxophonist, bandleader, composer, and educator Nicole Glover, is based in New York City and has established herself as a rising star and a musician in great demand. Her most recent solo recording is Strange Lands (Savant), with the venerable pianist George Cables. The London Times awarded the album 4 stars, calling it “otherworldly.” It remained near the top of the Jazzweek radio charts for 11 weeks. Nicole is also an integral member of the supergroup ARTEMIS, led by pianist Renee Rosnes. In May 2023, the collective released their 2nd recording, In Real Time, on Blue Note Records.
Growing up in Portland, Oregon, Nicole was a student of the American Music Program, a program dedicated to priming students for a career in jazz. In 2009, she moved east to attend the jazz program at William Paterson University. There, she studied with pianists Harold Mabern, Mulgrew Miller and tenor saxophonist Rich Perry.
Currently, Nicole is a member of an new quintet led by bassist Christian McBride, and she performs often with Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. She has worked with drummers Al Foster, Victor Lewis and Kenny Washington, Grammy award winning vocalists Dee Dee Bridgewater and Buika, saxophonist Rudresh Manhanthappa, vibraphonist Joel Ross, and pianists Geoffrey Keezer, Luis Perdomo, and George Colligan among others. She recently performed Mary Lou Williams’ “Zodiac Suite” with the Philadelphia Orchestra under the musical direction of pianist Aaron Diehl.
An experienced educator, Nicole is on faculty at Princeton University, Manhattan School of Music, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is a passionate teacher, and has given many masterclasses and private lessons to aspiring musicians all over the globe.
Ely Perlman – guitar
Ely Perlman (b. 1999) is a guitarist, composer, and producer hailing from Tel Aviv, Israel. A third-year student at the Berklee College of Music, Ely Perlman is a member of Christian McBride’s newest band. In addition to collaborating with other acclaimed artists such as Shai Maestro and Ben Wendel, Ely leads multiple musical projects, including a jazz quartet highlighting his compositional vision and an indie band called “SWIMS.” Ely released “All We Got” in 2022, his first single as a singer/songwriter, and is currently working on his self-produced debut album. He received his early musical education at the esteemed Jazz Department of the Thelma Yellin High School of the Arts, graduating with honors, and at the Center for Jazz Studies at the Israel Conservatory of Music, Tel Aviv