Ravi Coltrane Quartet @ Jazz Forum This Weekend!

Ravi Coltrane Quartet
Ravi Coltrane is a critically acclaimed Grammy™ nominated saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. In the course of a twenty-plus year career, Mr. Coltrane has worked as a sideman to many, recorded noteworthy albums for himself and others and founded a prominent independent record label, RKM.

His mother, Alice Coltrane, was a significant influence on Ravi and it was he who encouraged Alice to return to performance and the recording studio after a long absence. Subsequently, Ravi produced and played on Alice Coltrane’s powerful, ‘Translinear Light’, which was released in 2004.

Ravi has released six albums as a leader. His latest, ‘Spirit Fiction’, was released in June of 2012 for the Blue Note label. Additional credits include performances as well as recordings with Elvin Jones, Terence Blanchard, Kenny Barron, Steve Coleman, McCoy Tyner, Jack DeJohnette, Matt Garrison, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Geri Allen, Joanne Brackeem, and The Blue Note 7, among others. He is a co-leader of the Saxophone Summit with Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman.

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Ana Fernandez Quartet
Ana Fernandez has been singing since she was 9 years old, when she won a competition in a TV show. Since then, she has been working with acclaimed musicians such as Itaiguara Brandao, Cidinho Teixeira, Salgadinho, DuDu Nobre and others. She performs a wide range of Brazilian music; Samba, Choro, Forro, Bossa Nova, MPB, etc. People call her Brazilian Tina Turner also Spanish people call her Brazilian Celia Cruz.

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Jay Leonhart Trio
Jay Leonhart has been recognized as a very accomplished bass player for a long time now. He has been named the Outstanding Bassist In the Recording Industry three times and is always mentioned when the discussion turns to the outstanding. At age 13, while playing banjo with his brother in a dixieland band in Baltimore, Jay watched and listened to the bass player and knew that the bass was the instrument he would play forever.
Since that time Jay has been privileged to play with Judy Garland, Duke Ellington, Thad Jones, Buddy Rich, Jim Hall, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, Marian McPartland, Kenny Barron, Sting, James Taylor, Papa Jo Jones, Roy Eldridge, Louie Bellson, Dick Hyman, Luciano Pavoratti, and many more.
Over the years, Jay Leonhart has been writing and singing his own very individualistic songs about his life as a bass player. He now performs his music worldwide to very receptive audiences, appearing primarily with his trio, which plays regularly at Birdland in New York, when not gainfully employed elsewhere.

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Larry Willis Quintet
Larry Willis is a leading American jazz pianist and composer, who has performed in a wide range of styles, including jazz fusion, rock music, Latin music, Bebop and Avant-Garde. After his first year studying music theory at the Manhattan School of Music he began performing regularly with Jackie McLean. After he graduated he made his first jazz recording, McLean’s Right Now!, which featured two of Willis’ compositions. His first recording of any type, however, was as a singer with the Music and Arts Chorale Ensemble, performing an opera by Aaron Copland under the direction of Leonard Bernstein. He decided to concentrate on jazz because of the difficulties African American musicians had in finding work in concert music. He is still recording and touring around the world. Throughout his illustrious career he has performed with a wide range of musicians, including a stint of seven years as keyboardist for Blood, Sweat & Tears (beginning in 1972). Some of the other musicians he has played and recorded with include Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Woody Shaw, Hugh Masekela, Cannonball and Nat Adderley, Stan Getz, Art Blakey, Art Taylor, Clifford Jordan, Carmen McRae, Shirley Horn, Richard “Groove” Holmes, Earl May, David “Fathead” Newman, Alphonse Mouzon and Carla Bley. Don’t miss the Larry Willis Quintet at the Jazz Forum feat. Josh Bruneau, trumpet, Steve Davis, trombone, Blake Meister, bass, and Billy Williams, drums.

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Klaus Mueller Quartet feat. Portinho
A jazz pianist of diverse influences and abilities, Klaus Mueller, was born in Germany and raised in Japan, Chile, and Brazil. He began piano lessons in Japan at the age of six. After graduating from Stuttgart University of Music and Performing Arts in 1998, he was granted a full scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service to further complete his studies at the New School in New York. He has been an integral part of the New York Jazz and Brazilian music scene, having performed and recorded with artists including Portinho, Ron Carter, New York Voices, Harry Allen, Leny Andrade, Paquito D’ Rivera, Steve LaSpina, Emilio Santiago, Marcos Valle, Toninho Horta, and Filó Machado. Tours and workshops have led him throughout the United States, Europe, the United Kingdom, Russia, and the Caribbean. Mueller is not only regarded as a fine keyboardist but also as an arranger, most notably for jazz piano legend Herbie Hancock, creating orchestral versions of songs from Hancock’s critically acclaimed “Gershwin’s World” album in collaboration with Robert Sadin in 2003. He also arranged music for the prestigious classical label Deutsche Grammophon, and worked as a musical director and accompanist for the opera singer and Tony Award-winner Paulo Szot. On Mueller’s 2012 album release Far-Faraway, he performed with jazz bassist Ron Carter and Brazilian drummer Portinho. His latest album Village Samba, released in 2016, features mostly original compositions interpreted by some of today’s finest Brazilian and New York-based musicians.

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Ray Blue Quartet
Ray Blue’s music can be described as a fusion of straight ahead jazz and rhythmic groove. Ray is a New York bred saxophonist, composer, arranger and educator who performs internationally. After receiving a graduate degree from the University of Iowa, Ray returned to New York, got re-connected on the scene and studied at the Jazz Mobile with Charles Davis, Stanton Davis and later with Paul Jeffrey, Charlie Lagond, Sonny Sharrock and Barry Harris. Some of his mentors include Arthur Blythe, Houston Person, Ornette Coleman and Benny Powell. Ray Blue is also a graduate of Wm. Penn University, which annually presents “The Ray Blue Jazz Award” since 2004 to a graduating senior. Ray released his first CD as a leader, Always with a Purpose, in 2001. Then came Ray Blue Live at Liars Theater in 2004 and “Ray Blue Live at Liars Theater 2 in 2005. In 2006 Ray released ‘Transvision’ on the Neu Klang label and Berries and Blues in 2010.

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