Nicole Mitchell, Next Jazz Legacy Showcase, Billy Mohler Quartet, and TC3 with Hubert Laws
October 28
8 pm | Next Jazz Legacy Showcase
A special performance by artists selected for the second cohort of Next Jazz Legacy, a new national apprenticeship program for women and non-binary improvisers in jazz for a more inclusive jazz future. Next Jazz Legacy is a partnership between New Music USA and the Berklee Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice.
9 pm | Nicole Mitchell’s Images BeyondImages Beyond is a world-premiere theatrical concert by award-winning flutist/composer Nicole Mitchell that celebrates the unrevealed Afro-surrealist folk art and poetry of her mother, Joan Beard Mitchell (JBM), on the 40th anniversary of her death. Joan Beard Mitchell’s works show an aesthetic connection to the experimentalism and Afro-surrealist ideals within the Chicago Black Arts Movement. In Images Beyond, JBM’s words are organized into a dramatic expression played by actor/vocalist Maia and interwoven with original music by Nicole Mitchell, in an environment that visually features JBM’s paintings, watercolors, and graphic art.
October 29
8 pm | Billy Mohler Quartet The Billy Mohler Quartet will be performing music from Mohler’s three albums: Focus, Anatomy, and Ultraviolet. Billy Mohler is an exploratory jazz bassist who has also amassed wide-ranging credits in the pop world as a Grammy-nominated writer, producer, multi-instrumentalist, and session player, working with Dolly Parton, Macy Gray, Lady Gaga, Nile Rogers, Sia, Awolnation, Mavis Staples, Kelly Clarkson, Steven Tyler, Jon Brion, and a host of others.
9 pm | TC3 with Hubert Laws
Pianist and composer Todd Cochran sees jazz as a profoundly communicative musical expression. Rooted in tradition, robustly universal, and inclusive, his art provides an attractive meeting ground where viewpoints freely interact. In performance, his acoustic trio, TC3, joined with a special guest appearance by NEA jazz master Hubert Laws, explores a nuanced, poetic musical language.
The New Music NJL showcase is supported by the Mellon Foundation and Joe & Nancy Walker.
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