Moran & Iyer Notes.Indd
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Cal Performances Presents Saturday, November , , pm Wheeler Auditorium Jason Moran & Th e Bandwagon and Vijay Iyer Quartet Cal Performances’ – season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. 4 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists Jason Moran & The Bandwagon jazz label, such as Monk, Herbie Hancock and Herbie Nichols. Jason Moran, piano Moran’s debut recording as a leader, Tarus Mateen, bass Soundtrack to Human Motion, which found him Nasheet Waits, drums in the company of Osby, Harland, vibraphonist Stefon Harris and bassist Lonnie Plaxico, was Jason Moran was born in Houston, Texas in released in to great critical praise. (Ben . He began studying the piano at age six, Ratliff of Th e New York Times named it the best but longed to quit the instrument until he fi rst album of the year.) Th e following year’s Facing experienced the sounds of jazz legend Th elonious Left found Moran stripping down to a trio with Monk, an experience that renewed his interest in bassist Tarus Mateen and drummer Nasheet music and established an early role model in his Waits, and prompted JazzTimes to declare the creative development. album “an instant classic.” Moran augmented the Moran went on to attend Houston’s High trio for his third Blue Note release, Black Stars, School for the Performing and Visual Arts, adding avant-garde icon Sam Rivers, who plays where he became an active member of the jazz saxophone, fl ute and piano on the recording. program, playing in the big band and leading Gary Giddins of Th e Village Voice exclaimed, a jazz quartet. His aspirations and talents “Black Stars is possibly a Blue Note benchmark, eventually led him to New York City, where defi nitely one of the year’s outstanding discs.” he continued his education at the Manhattan Moran has performed as a sideman with School of Music, to which he was drawn by such artists as Cassandra Wilson, Joe Lovano, the prospect of studying with the pianist Jaki Don Byron, Steve Coleman, Lee Konitz, Von Byard, who became Moran’s teacher for four Freeman, Ravi Coltrane and Stefon Harris. He years and a role model for life. It was during was the youngest honoree of the New Work this time that Moran also took lessons from Commission by the San Francisco Jazz Festival. other forward-thinking pianists, such as Muhal He was also awarded a grant from Chamber Richard Abrams and Andrew Hill, creative Music America’s New Works: Creation and musicians who imparted a profound infl uence Presentation program, which is funded by the on Moran and encouraged him to fi nd his own Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. For these distinct voice. two grants, Moran used sampled conversations In , while Moran was still a senior as vocal triggers, a technique that would be in college, the drummer Eric Harland, a high at the foundation for many of Moran’s later school classmate of Moran’s, recommended compositions. him to saxophonist Greg Osby, who was in the In , the Cork Jazz Festival awarded process of assembling a band for a European Moran the Guinness Rising Star Award. In , tour. Osby hired Moran based solely on the Jazz Journalists Association named Moran as Harland’s description of his playing, and the the “Up-n-Coming Jazz Musician” of the year. match proved to be auspicious. He has appeared on the cover of JazzTimes with Moran made his professional recording Joe Lovano and on the cover of Down Beat debut on Osby’s Blue Note CD, Further with his mentor, Andrew Hill. Moran topped Ado, which brought him to the attention of Blue the Down Beat Critics Poll in three categories Note executives, who signed the pianist to his in and —Rising Star Jazz Artist, own record deal soon thereafter. Th e association Rising Star Pianist and Rising Star Composer. with Blue Note is fi tting, placing Moran in the In and , the First Run Film Festival lineage of innovative pianist-composers whose awarded Moran “Best Original Score” for Pagan early careers were nurtured by the renowned Harlemann’s Two Th ree Time and Chris Dillon’s CAL PERFORMANCES 5 About the Artists All We Know of Heaven. New York’s Nightlife Coast of the United States. He also did studio Awards honored Moran with awards for Best sessions for some of California’s early rappers. Jazz Combo and Best Performance: Solo Piano. Upon graduation from high school, he Moran has been lecturer/instructor at Banff moved to Atlanta to attend Morehouse College, Center for the Arts, Denmark’s Vallekilde Jazz majoring in music, and began to work the local Camp, Skidmore College, the Manhattan School club circuit, playing a variety of styles on electric of Music, Th e New School and his alma mater, and upright bass. In , Tarus was a guest of the High School for the Performing and Visual reggae superstars Sly & Robbie, with whom he Arts. In , Moran’s family created HSPVA’s performed as a soloist on upright bass. “Moran Scholarship Award,” which is awarded His career took off when he moved to New to an outstanding junior or senior student in York in the late to begin a one-and-a-half jazz. Moran took over responsibility in as year stint with legendary bebop singer Betty part of his commitment to education. Carter, touring Europe and Asia and recording In , Moran was named Playboy’s fi rst- a Grammy Award-nominated CD. ever Jazz Artist of the Year. He recently had a In the early s, Tarus worked regularly world premiere of his latest commission, RAIN, with Marlon Jordan and toured with Roy at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and collaborated with Hargrove, Eddie Harris, Kenny Burrell, video/performance artist Joan Jonas on Th e Milt Jackson, Mark Whitfi eld and Terence Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Th ings, which was Blanchard. With Blanchard, he recorded the performed at Dia Beacon in October . original score and Grammy-nominated jazz suite His most recent Blue Note release, Artist for Spike Lee’s Malcolm X. In , he began in Residence, is Moran’s seventh and most performing with Tim Warfi eld and Rodney adventurous album to date. Moran had Kendrick. He later toured with Kenny Barron accepted—in the span of one year—separate and fl utist Bobbi Humphrey and then joined commissions from three diff erent pre-eminent groups led by Marc Cary, Stefon Harris and American arts institutions: the Walker Art Center Greg Osby. Beginning in , Tarus toured in Minneapolis, the Dia Art Foundation and and recorded as a member of New Directions, Jazz at Lincoln Center. Th e outstanding music a band sponsored by Blue Note, performing created for these commissions was recreated alongside Osby, Mark Shim, Jason Moran, in the studio by his trio, Th e Bandwagon— Harris and Nasheet Waits. Since , he has Tarus Mateen on bass and Nasheet Waits on performed and recorded with Jason Moran and drums—and each of the guest artists who had Nasheet Waits as a member of Th e Bandwagon. participated in the premiere performances of In addition to his work in jazz contexts, Mateen these commissioned works. Artist in Residence has performed extensively as an electric bassist is a record of Moran’s most artistic exchanges with many pop and hip-hop groups. and encounters to date on his true path in the art world, and an original collage of his most Nasheet Waits is a native New Yorker. His ambitious compositions and refl ections on art interest in playing the drums was encouraged today. by his father, legendary percussionist Frederick Waits. Over the course of his career, Freddie California-born Tarus Mateen began his profes- Waits played with such legendary artists as Ella sional career at age , making a three-week tour Fitzgerald, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, McCoy of Jamaica and the West Indies, opening for such Tyner and countless others. Jamaican musical greats as Freddie McGregor and Nasheet’s higher education began at Judy Mowatt. During the following three years, Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he majored he continued to perform throughout the West in psychology and history. Deciding that music 6 CAL PERFORMANCES About the Artists would be his main focus, he continued his In addition to performing, recording and studies in New York at Long Island University, touring, Nasheet teaches private lessons to youth where he graduated with honors, receiving and adults, stressing a personal approach to the his BA in music. While attending LIU, Waits drums and music. He has been heralded for his studied privately with renowned percussionist musicality and creativity by such virtuosos as Ed Michael Carvin. Carvin’s tutelage provided a vast Th igpen, Max Roach, Andrew Hill and Stanley foundation upon which Waits added infl uences Cowell. True to his personal philosophy of the from his father, as well as mentor Max Roach. necessity to balance tradition and modernism, It was Max who fi rst gave Nasheet’s formidable Waits collaborates and performs regularly with talent international spotlight, hiring him as a wide range of artists. He remains dedicated to a member of the famed percussion ensemble exploring his role and creative path in music. M’BOOM. One highlight of Nasheet’s tenure with M’BOOM was its live concert performance with special guests Tony Williams and Ginger Vijay Iyer Quartet Baker. Nasheet’s talent came to the attention Vijay Iyer, piano of reedman Antonio Hart, who asked Waits Rudresh Mahanthappa, alto saxophone to be the drummer in his fi rst quintet. Waits Stephan Crump, bass became a standing member of Antonio’s various Marcus Gilmore, drums ensembles, recording three albums and touring nationally and internationally in noted venues, Vijay Iyer was recently described in Th e Village jazz festivals and live television and radio Voice as “the most commanding pianist and performances.