Sheldon Brown Quintet - The Music of Herbie Nichols


"The music of Herbie Nichols has been one of my favorite areas of study over the years. Herbie was an amazing pianist and composer, a contemporary of Thelonious Monk and the Be-boppers. He left a substantial body of work that, until recently, has gone largely unnoticed. I have long admired his unique compositional voice - at once profoundly elegant and seriously humorous - and now and then I have persuaded several groups in which I perform to play his pieces. I am pleased to perform this concert dedicated to his work. In addition to tunes by Nichols, we will perform my own short introductions and interludes." -- Sheldon Brown


Composer and woodwind multi-instrumentalist Sheldon Brown formed the Sheldon Brown Group in 1993, and in 1996 he released the jazz/fusion CD "Shifting Currents". He is also featured on Omar Sosa's CDs "Prietos", "Bembon", "Spirit of the Roots" and "Free Roots" and on Ian Dogole's CDs "Ionospheres" and "Night Harvest".

As a composer/member with the Club Foot Orchestra he has performed at The Knitting Factory, Lincoln Center, and the Smithsonian Institution. He performed with Anthony Braxton at the 1986 San Francisco Jazz Festival. He has appeared at the North Sea Jazz Festival, Moers Jazz Festival, Vancouver Jazz Festival, Jazz d'Or, Toronto Jazz Festival and the Spoleto Festival.

He currently teaches composition at the Jazzschool in Berkeley, California.

Sheldon appeared here previously with Hemispheres, Mandala, Clarinet Thing, Ratzo Harris, Michael Wilcox, and the Sheldon Brown Group.


Since settling in San Francisco in 1997, Canada-born trumpeter Darren Johnston has has played with everyone from the ROVA Saxophone Quartet and Myra Melford to Marcus Shelby.

As a bandleader he has released recordings with the United Brassworkers Front, with Fred Frith and Larry Ochs, with his quintet with Ben Goldberg and Sheldon Brown, and with Chicago luminaries Jeb Bishop, Jason Adasiewicz, Nate McBride and Frank Rosaly.

Currently, Darren’s focus is on his award winning “Nice Guy Trio”. He is also an active member of Cylinder, with Aram Shelton, Lisa Mezzacappa and Kjell Nordessen, The Oakland Active Orchestra, the Marcus Shelby Jazz Orchestra, the Bay Area Jazz Composers Big Band, and the Brass Menazeri Balkan brass band.

He was here previously with The Nice Guy Trio and the Evan Francis / Darren Johnston Quartet.

http://darrenjohnstonmusic.com/


Highly regarded as a pianist and arranger, Matt Clark has performed and/or recorded with such jazz luminaries as Bobby Hutcherson, Benny Golson, Eddie Marshall, Jon Faddis, David “Fathead” Newman, Gene Bertoncini, Joshua Redman, and Teddy Edwards, as well as practically everyone who appeared at Jazz at Pearl's in it's heyday.

He was here previously with Larry Schneider, Steve Heckman, Noel Jewkes, Mitch Marcus, and Mandala.


Bassist John Shifflett has performed with Dave Liebman, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Red Holloway, Ernie Watts, John Zorn, Kim Richmond, Madeleine Peyroux, Kurt Elling, Norma Winstone, Tom Harrell, Bobby Hutcherson, John Stowell, Harold Land, and Kendra Shank.

In the Bay Area he can be heard with Boz Scaggs (and CD), Eric Crystal, the Mike Zilber/Steve Smith quartet (and CD), the Scott Amendola Band (and CD), the Taylor Eigsti Trio (and CD's), the Paul Nagel Trio (and CD), Ann Dyer & No Good Time Fairies (and CD's), the Will Bernard Quartet (and CD), Anton Schwartz (and CD's), Ray Brown's Great Big Band, Ben Goldberg, Tim Volpicella (and CD), and many others.

John was heard here previously with Dave Mac Nab, Dave Scott, Michael Zilber, and the Harvey Wainapel / Phil Grenadier Group.


Drummer Jason Lewis has played with a variety of talented musicians including: Joshua Breakstone, John Stowell, Gary Burton, James Moody, Mark Murphy, Norma Winstone, Larry Coryell, Darol Anger, Regina Carter, Johnny Frigo, Ann Dyer, James Carter, Taylor Eigsti, John Handy, Anton Schwartz, Mark Levine, Peter Apfelbaum, Cornelius Bumpus, and Kurt Elling.

For much of the past several years he has been touring with Boz Scaggs, and appears on the latter's recording of standards, "But Beautiful".

Jason was heard here previously with Dave Mac Nab, Dave Scott, Michael Zilber, and Mike Greensill.

www.jsklewis.com/


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