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We ask that patrons please refrain from text messaging during the performance.

presents

The Kenny Barron Quintet

Soka Performing Arts Center

Friday, February 9, 2018, at 8:00 p.m.

Kenny Barron, pianoJohnathan Blake, drumsKiyoshi Kitagawa, bassJeremy Pelt, trumpet

Marcus Strickland, saxophone

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KENNY BARRONPiano

Honored by the National Endowment for the Arts as a Jazz Master, Kenny Barron has an unmatched ability to mesmerize audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies, and infectious rhythms. The Los Angeles Times named him “one of the top jazz pianists in the world” and Jazz Weekly calls him “the most lyrical piano player of our time.”

Barron was born in Philadelphia in 1943 and while a teenager started playing professionally with Mel Melvin’s orchestra. This local band also featured Barron’s brother Bill, the late tenor saxophonist. While still in high school, Barron worked with drummer Philly Joe Jones and at age nineteen moved to New York City and freelanced with Roy Haynes, Lee Morgan, and James Moody, after the tenor saxophonist heard him play at the Five Spot. Upon Moody’s recommendation, Dizzy Gillespie hired Barron in 1962 without even hearing him play a note. It was in Gillespie’s band where Barron developed an appreciation for Latin and Caribbean rhythms. After five years with Gillespie, Barron played with Freddie Hubbard, Stanley Turrentine, Milt Jackson, and Buddy Rich. The early seventies found Barron working with Yusef Lateef who Barron credits as a key influence in his art for improvisation. Encouraged by Lateef to pursue a college education, Barron balanced touring with studies and earned his BA in music from Empire State College. By 1973 Barron joined the faculty at Rutgers University as professor of music. He held this tenure until 2000, mentoring many of today’s young talents including David Sanchez, Terence Blanchard, and Regina Bell. In 1974 Barron recorded his first album as a leader for the Muse label, entitled Sunset To Dawn. This was to be the first in more than forty recordings (and still counting!) as a leader.

Following stints with Ron Carter in the late seventies, Barron formed a trio with Buster Williams and Ben Riley which also worked alongside of Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Eddie Harris, Sonny Stitt, and Harry “Sweets” Edison. Throughout the eighties Barron collaborated with the great tenor saxophonist Stan Getz, touring with his quartet and recording several legendary albums including Anniversary, Serenity, and the Grammy-nominated People Time. Also during the eighties, he co-founded the quartet Sphere along with Buster Williams, Ben Riley, and Charlie Rouse. This band focused on the music of Thelonious Monk and original compositions inspired by him. Sphere recorded several outstanding projects for the Polygram label, among them Four For All and Bird Songs. After the death of Charlie Rouse, the band took a fifteen-year hiatus and reunited, replacing Rouse

Biographies

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with alto saxophonist Gary Bartz. This reunion made its debut recording for Verve Records in 1998.

After a series of successful duo concerts with bassist Dave Holland, the two masters decided to record The Art of Conversation (Impulse!) released in October 2014. “You can almost hear the wheels of their collective imagination turning, and then the next burst of ear-opening brilliance is upon you” (Something Else!).

In 2016 Barron released the long awaited trio album, Book of Intuition (Impulse!), featuring his bandmates Kiyoshi Kitagawa and Johnathan Blake. It became his eleventh Grammy nomination. His latest recording, Concentric Circles (Impulse!) will be released in Spring 2018 and features his quintet with Mike Rodriguez, Dayna Stephens, Kiyoshi Kitagawa, and Johnathan Blake.

Barron has earned eleven Grammy nods beginning in 1992 for Best Jazz Album for People Time, an outstanding duet with Stan Getz, and most recently in 2014 for Best Jazz Instrumental Solo. He consistently wins the jazz critics and readers polls, including 2016 Downbeat Critics Poll, JazzTimes, and Jazziz magazines. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from his alma mater SUNY Empire State in 2013 and from Berklee College of Music in 2011. In 2009 he was inducted into the National Academy of Arts and Sciences and received the Living Legacy Award from Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation. In 2005 he was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame and won a MAC Lifetime Achievement Award. He was named Best Pianist in 2017 by the Jazz Journalists Association a record seven times.

Whether he is playing solo, trio, or quintet, Barron is recognized the world over as a master of performance and composition.

JOHNATHAN BLAKEDrums

Johnathan Blake, one of the most accomplished drummers of his generation, has also proven himself a complete and endlessly versatile musician—“the ultimate modernist,” as John Murph of NPR has dubbed him. Blake’s gift for composition and band leading, so ably demonstrated on his 2012 recording debut, The Eleventh Hour, reflects years of live and studio experience across the aesthetic spectrum.

Through years-long memberships in the Tom Harrell Quintet, the Kenny Barron Trio, and other top ensembles, Blake has reaped the benefits of prolonged exposure to the greats of our time—arguably of all time. Through his powerful, evocative drumming and fully rounded artistry, he’s also left a huge imprint on the music of such rising figures in jazz as Hans Glawischnig, Alex Sipiagin, Donny

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McCaslin, Avishai Cohen, Omer Avital, Patrick Cornelius, Michael Janisch, Shauli Einav, and Jaleel Shaw. To date, Blake has appeared on more than fifty albums.

Born in Philadelphia in 1976, Blake is the son of renowned jazz violinist John Blake Jr.—himself a stylistic chameleon and an important ongoing influence.

Blake graduated from George Washington High School and went on to attend the highly respected jazz program at William Paterson University. At this time Blake also began working professionally with the Oliver Lake Big Band, Roy Hargrove, and David Sanchez. In 2006 he was recognized with an ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award and in 2007 he earned his master’s degree from Rutgers University, focusing on composition.

Deeply aware of Philadelphia’s role as a historical nerve center of American music, Blake has immersed himself in the city’s storied legacy—not just jazz but also soul, R&B, and hip hop. In many ways he’s an heir to Philadelphia drum masters such as Philly Joe Jones, Bobby Durham, Mickey Roker, and Edgar Bateman, not to mention younger mentors including Byron Landham, Leon Jordan, and Ralph Peterson Jr. Today Blake is himself an exponent of the Philadelphia sound, described by Aidan Levy of JazzTimes in a review of The Eleventh Hour as “the vertiginous sensation of being both slightly behind the beat and hurtling into the next measure.” Approaches like this, one might add, can only be learned by sitting at Mickey Roker’s right hand and absorbing exactly how the ride cymbal is struck. Such is the painstaking firsthand exploration that undergirds and informs Blake’s musicianship.

Blake’s playing helped the Mingus Big Band land Grammy nominations for the albums Tonight at Noon (2002) and I Am Three (2005). It has also earned Blake spots in groups led by Russell Malone, Randy Brecker, Joe Locke, Ronnie Cuber, and other seasoned jazz veterans. As trumpet great Brian Lynch has said, “Johnathan Blake is without peer among young drummers for the clarity of his beat and the incisiveness of his swing.”

KIYOSHI KITAGAWABass

Bassist and composer Kiyoshi Kitagawa is an integral part of today’s jazz scene. Born in Osaka, Japan, in 1958, Kitagawa began playing the guitar at the age of fourteen and switched to the acoustic bass at nineteen. Kitagawa began his career by playing at various clubs in Kansai area, and quickly became the most sought-after bassist in Japan. In October 1988, Kitagawa relocated to New York City. Soon after, he met Winard Harper at Blue Note’s jam session and joined the Harper Brothers. In September

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1989, he appeared at the Village Vanguard with the group and their live recording Remembrance: Live at the Village Vanguard was extremely well received. That same year, Kitagawa went on to work with Andy Bey as well.

By 1993, Kitagawa established himself as a much in-demand bassist on the New York City jazz scene. He has toured and recorded with the alto great Kenny Garrett with drummer Brian Blade, as well as the Jimmy Heath Quartet, which he spent more than ten years as a regular bassist. That same year, he joined Kenny Barron Trio on the recommendation of a legendary drummer Ben Riley and has been working with him since then. Kitagawa also joined Ben Riley Quartet with Ted Dumber and Steve Nelson, as well as the Terell Stafford Quartet. In 1996, he formed The Trio with a versatile Japanese pianist, Makoto Ozone. Demand for Kitagawa’s talents has led to work with legendary musicians including Tommy Flanagan, Kenny Kirkland, John Hicks, Ronnie Mathews, Mulgrew Miller, Steven Scott, Cedar Walton, Steve Wilson, Gary Bartz, Jaleel Shaw, Frank Wess, Eddie Henderson, Mike Rodriguez, Steve Turre, Steve Nelson, Brian Blade, Albert “Tootie” Heath, Victor Lewis, Lewis Nash, Ben Riley, Jeff Watts, and the Maria Schneider Orchestra.

Kitagawa has recorded with many of the leading names in jazz and can be heard on numerous albums. A partial list includes Look To the Sky with Pete Minger, You or Me with Jimmy Heath, Triology with Kenny Garrett; The Trio, Three Wishes, Dear Oscar, and No Strings Attached with Makoto Ozone; Fields Of Gold with Terell Stafford, American Song with Andy Bey, Prelude To A Kiss and Wide Angle with Miki Hayama, Balance with Will Sellenraad, Teranga with Jon Faddis, and Images and The Traveler with Kenny Barron. In addition to being a highly dependable sideman, Kitagawa has shown his manifold talents as a composer and arranger. As a leader, Kitagawa has released five albums in Japan on the Atelier Sawano label including Ancestry (2004), followed by Prayer (2005), Live at Tsutenkaku (2006) which is released as a DVD, and Live in Japan (2007), all featuring Kenny Barron and Brian Blade. His latest release was I’m Still Here (2007) featuring Danny Grissett and Brian Blade. Besides these trio albums, his interest in expanding the full potential of the instrument has led him to record solo albums. His live recording of solo performance at the Big Apple jazz club in Japan was released in 2000 followed by a studio recording of Solo 2 in 2007, both from Music Information Records. Kitagawa currently resides in Brooklyn, New York, where he remains active as a member of Kenny Barron Trio/Quintet, Jon Faddis Quartet, Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy Septet, and his own group.

JEREMY PELTTrumpet

Jeremy Pelt has become one of the preeminent young trumpeters within the world of jazz. Forging a bond with the Mingus Big Band very early on, as his career progressed, Pelt built upon these relationships and many others which eventually lead to collaborations with some of the genre’s greatest masters. These projects include performances and recordings with Cliff Barbaro, Keter Betts,

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Bobby “Blue” Bland, Ravi Coltrane, Frank Foster, Winard Harper, Jimmy Heath, Vincent Herring, John Hicks, Charli Persip, Ralph Peterson, Lonnie Plaxico, Bobby Short, Cedar Walton, Frank Wess, Nancy Wilson, and the Skatalites, to name a few.

Pelt frequently performs alongside such notable ensembles as the Roy Hargrove Big Band, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, and the Duke Ellington Big Band, and is a member of the Lewis Nash Septet and the Cannonball Adderley Legacy Band featuring Louis Hayes. As a leader, Pelt has recorded ten albums and has toured globally with his various ensembles, appearing at many major jazz festivals and concert venues.

Pelt’s recordings and performances have earned him critical acclaim, both nationally and internationally. He has been featured in the Wall Street Journal by legendary jazz writer and producer Nat Hentoff, and was voted Rising Star on the trumpet five years in a row by Downbeat magazine and the Jazz Journalist Association. Pelt is currently touring throughout the United States and Europe in support of his latest release, Make Noise! (Highnote rec. 2017).

MARCUS STRICKLANDSaxophone

“People have to be careful when they call something new,” says saxophonist and composer Marcus Strickland. “I think about what’s around me instead of trying to create something new. Everything is inspired by something else. Ecclesiastes says: ‘There’s nothing new under the sun.’”

Strickland may wax philosophical when he gets talking about his remarkable Blue Note/Revive debut Nihil Novi (a Latin phrase that translates to “nothing new”), but make no mistake, this is music for your heart and your feet as well your mind. Along with producer Meshell Ndegeocello, he draws upon a world of music from J Dilla’s hip-hop beat making to Bartók’s Hungarian folk music. From Fela’s propulsive Afrobeat to Mingus’s freewheeling jazz truths. This is music of the people and for the people.

Since the turn of the century, the Miami-native has made indelible imprints on the modern jazz scene playing with such titans as Roy Haynes, Dave Douglas, and Jeff “Tain” Waits and reinvigorating the genre with his own band Twi-Life.

credit: Gulnara Khamatova

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Beginning with his 2001 debut, At Last (Fresh Sounds/New Talent), he’s also been steadily building an impressive body of work. Last year Strickland appeared on Blue Note/Revive’s acclaimed statement of purpose, Supreme Sonacy Vol. 1, on which he and singer Christie Dashiell delivered a spellbinding makeover of Janet Jackson’s 1986 quiet-storm classic, “Let’s Wait Awhile.” The New York Times review singled out the track, writing that it “approaches the high bar for simmering R&B covers set by the Robert Glasper Experiment.”

Nihil Novi picks up some of the sonic cues from Supreme Sonacy, but with production help from Ndegeocello, Strickland paints an even more expansive musical canvas. The latest incarnation of Twi-Life is the centerpiece: trumpeter Keyon Harrold (known for his work with such R&B and hip-hop artists as D’Angelo, Erykah Badu, Jay-Z, and Common), bassist Kyle Miles, drummer Charles Haynes, organist Mitch Henry, and keyboardist Masayuki Hirano. Nihil Novi also includes appearances from singer Jean Baylor, bassists Pino Palladino and Ndegeocello, keyboardist James Francies, drummer Chris Dave, guitarist Chris Bruce, and pianist and fellow Blue Note artist Robert Glasper.

Consisting entirely of original songs, Nihil Novi was born of Strickland’s passion for DJ beat making, which has shaped both the way he composes and how he improvises. It also inspired him to recruit Ndegeocello as the album’s producer. “Because of all the layers and textures involved, I wanted someone who was very experienced at producing and creating this kind of music,” Marcus explains. “Meshell is genre-less; she doesn’t go by genres. She goes by who she is as a person. And that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m not interested in affixing myself to a particular genre; I want to express who I am musically as a person.”

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Soka University of America Board of Trustees:Steve Dunham, JD, ChairTariq Hasan, PhD, Vice ChairYoshihisa Baba, PhDMatilda BuckLawrence E. Carter Sr., PhD, DD, DH, DRSMaria Guajardo, PhDClothilde V. Hewlett, JDLawrence A. Hickman, PhD

Soka University of America Administration:Daniel Y. Habuki, PhD, PresidentEdward M. Feasel, PhD, Vice President of Academic Affairs & Chief Academic OfficerArchibald E. Asawa, Vice President for Finance and Administration & CFO & Chief Investment

OfficerTomoko Takahashi, PhD, Vice President of Institutional Research and Assessment & Dean of

Graduate SchoolKatherine King, PHR, Vice President for Human Resources and Risk ManagementWendy Harder, MBA, APR, Director of Community RelationsHyon J. Moon, EdD, Dean of StudentsAndrew Woolsey, EdD, Director of Enrollment ServicesBryan Penprase, PhD, Dean of Faculty

We would like to thank our Board of Trustees and our Administration for their extraordinary support of

Soka Performing Arts Center.

With deepest gratitude to the donors who made Soka Performing Arts Center possible.

Kris Knudsen, JDKaren Lewis, PhDDaniel Nagashima, MBAGene Marie O’Connell, RN, MSDavid P. Roselle, PhDYoshiki TanigawaShunichi Yamada, MBA

Soka Performing Arts Center Staff:David C. Palmer, General ManagerRebecca Pierce Goodman, Marketing and Administrative ManagerShannon Lee Blas-Blair, Patron Services ManagerSam Morales, Technical Services ManagerSteve Baker, House Manager; Hana Kurihara, Stage Manager; Ray Mau, Lighting Technician; Hiroyuki Connor Miki, Assistant Production ManagerJim Merod, Director, Jazz Monsters Series and Soka University Jazz Festival

Students of Soka University of America who serve as patron and technical services crew, as well as marketing assistants. Citizens of Aliso Viejo and surrounding communities who volunteer their service as ushers and hospitality aides.

Our Sponsors and Partners:Orange County Register, KJazz 88.1, KUSC 91.5, California Presenters, California Arts Council.