MYSTERIOUS Within the Philadelphia Jazz Community, with the Larger Goal of Connecting to the Global Community

Home , Jimmy Oliver (musician), Mickey Roker, Orrin Evans

Philadelphia Jazz Project (PJP) works to inspire a network to support, promote, archive, and celebrate the diverse elements MYSTERIOUS within the Philadelphia jazz community, with the larger goal of connecting to the global community. PJP is a sponsored project TRAVELERS 2: of the Painted Bride Art Center, with funding provided by the Wyncote Foundation. Great Migrations Free Library of Philadelphia Concert Series The mission of the Producers’ Guild is to ensure that the In collaboration with the Philadelphia Jazz Project and the Producers’ Guild appreciation and enthusiasm for the rich cultural heritage of African American Arts continues to thrive in Philadelphia, Program Guide: 2015 - 2016 especially Black Classical Music, commonly known as jazz. Back by overwhelming popular demand! The Music Department at the Parkway Central Library is again collaborating with the All events in this series are FREE. Philadelphia Jazz Project and the Producers’ Guild to present: Mysterious Travelers 2: Great Migrations. Through FREE concerts Parkway Central Library | Montgomery Auditorium every fourth Monday night from September 2015 through May 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103-1189 2016 audiences will hear from veteran as well as up-and-coming musicians who are shaping the future sounds of Philadelphia with For more information, full biographies, and the most up-to-date a sharp ear to the legacies of our past. This season will directly details, visit freelibrary.org or call 215-686-5316. honor and celebrate the past century’s brave journey of African Americans to Philadelphia from the South to which we owe our rich urban musical heritage. Starting in January 2016, each band leader will be presenting a new composition inspired by the Great Migration during his or her set. You’ll hear it first, here at your Free Library of Improvisation.

Parkway Central Library Montgomery Auditorium 1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

freelibrary.org MONDAYS at 7:00 p.m. in the Montgomery Auditorium

1| September 28, 2015 | Trombonist and Philadelphian Brent White has toured the globe with the likes of Roy Ayers, John Legend, Kindred the Family Soul, and the Sun Ra Arkestra. He has performed with Zap Mama, Orrin Evans, Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, Fresh Cut Orchestra, and he has recorded with Patti Labelle. A fixture of the scene at Ortlieb’s Jazzhaus in the past and across Philadelphia and New York today, Brent is a master of his instrument and fluent across a variety of styles. So much so, that the legendary Mickey Roker has been heard exclaiming, “You got it, Brent... that sound!”

2| October 26, 2015 | Drummer, pianist, and composer Kevin Ripley hails from Philadelphia and can be heard performing daily at venues 2| across our city and its countryside. He leads a trio at Deanna’s in the upriver artists’ village of Lambertville, New Jersey, and performs frequently with ill Delta, Hot Bijouxx, Triage, and in numerous jazz combos with such local scenesters as Madison Rast, Brian Howell, Timothy Brey, Chris Simonini, Dan Hanrahan, Najwa Parkins, and many others. A rising young talent, Ripley is known for a distinctively intense melodic approach to the drum set that draws inspiration from a vast array of musical idioms.

3| November 23, 2015 | Pianist and composer Bernard Samuel’s performance history runs deep into our local jazz history. He has played with local treasures such as Hank Mobley, Philly Joe Jones, Bootsie Barnes, Little Jimmy Oliver, and many more. With a compositional style influenced both by R&B vocal groups such as The Harptones and The Temptations as well as by the piano approach of Hank Jones, 3| Red Garland, Tommy Flanagan, and Kenny Barron, Samuel has drawn praise from the Inquirer for his “hard speedy rhythmically punchy, yet metrically free” style.

4| 4| December 28, 2015 | Trenton made guitarist Anthony DeCarlo, and Philadelphia has taken him. A founder of South Philadelphia’s emergent musical hub, Tasker House, DeCarlo stands at the center of growing community of young musicians. He has worked with Kenny Lattimore, Dwele, Laurin Talese, Jeff Bradshaw, Tweet, Jason Nelson, and Matt McAndrew. With his guitar in hand, DeCarlo hopes to change the world with the positive force of music.

5| January 25, 2016 | Bassist, composer, and Temple University faculty member Madison Rast migrated to Philadelphia at the turn of this century after a long period of intensive study at several prestigious music schools to our south. He is among our city’s most in-demand sidemen,, whose deeply grounded bass lines have supported Mickey Roker, Orrin Evans, Sean Jones, and Joanna Pascale. His debut album of original compositions, as well as a recording of the poetry of Walt Whitman set to original music in collaboration with pianist Garry Dial and saxophonist Dick Oatts, are soon to be released. 5| 6| February 22, 2016 | Globe-trotting musician, writer, and composer William “Wali” Bickley came up in Philadelphia and blossomed in Spain and Gibraltar where he formed his multinational group, Inner Journey Bands. Another group he led, The Real Live Band, shared the stage with Roy Ayers. Wali has recorded and written songs for Khan Jamal. Recently, Wali has been scoring music for the theater and 6| recording an album with Inner Journey.

7| March 28, 2016 | Najwa Parkins is a highly sought after trombonist, vocalist, educator, composer, lyricist, dancer, actress, and performing artist. She leads her own quartet, Najwa Parkins and the After Hours Trio, but is also a member of the Emmy-nominated Alex and The Kaleidoscope Band, as well as Phil Woods and the Festival Orchestra, Hot Bijouxx, Bachelor Boys Band, and her own solo projects. She has shared the stage with artists from Benny Golson to Branford Marsalis. In 2011 she released her debut album Not the Next Someone Else, and 2015 will see the release of the eagerly awaited Najwa Parkins Live at the Deer Head Inn. 7| 8| April 25, 2016 | Saxophonist Victor North migrated south from Alaska to Philadelphia to immerse himself in our rich jazz culture. Since landing he’s worked with Mickey Roker, Charles Fambrough, John Swana, Terell Stafford, Jimmy Bruno, Duane Eubanks, and Jymie Merritt, and spent five years playing with the Afro-Cuban jazz pianist, Elio Villafranca. Most recently North leads his own group, Three Blind Mice, works with Orrin Evans’s Captain Black Big Band, and holds court frequently at Chris’s Jazz Cafe.

9| May 23, 2016 | Drummer Kim Pedro is a visual and performance artist, and a builder of community. With the Sun Ra Arkestra’s DM Hotep and under the mentorship of Robert Kenyatta, he founded the JazGuardian Musicians’ Organization. In addition to serving as 8| a Performing Arts Instructor for the Department of Recreation, he’s the originator and prime mover for the Artists’ Collective, NU GRuV Network. Over his career he’s accompanied Monika Herzig, Raimundo Santos, Vanida Gail, Kaligata, King Sound Vibration, Melange, and even a President of the United States.