199 Chambers St
New York, NY 10007
USA
Concert at 8:30PM – $30
7PM Free Panel Discussion with Sumi Tonooka. Moderated by Willard Jenkins.
Sumi Tonooka – piano (pictured)
Erica Lindsay – tenor saxophone
Rufus Reid – bass
Victor Lewis – drums
Our Lost Jazz Shrines event will be honoring Cobi Narita and the Jazz Center of New York. Nobuko “Cobi” Narita created the Jazz Center of New York in 1983. The Jazz Center of New York was a venue where many workshops, jam sessions and concerts took place with such artists as Abbey Lincoln, Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Weston and more. Cobi Narita is also one of the founders of the International Women in Jazz, an organization for jazz artists and jazz lovers, with the purpose of advancing the careers of women jazz artists. She is also the founder of Cobi’s Place, a gathering for jazz tap dancers. The Lost Jazz Shrines series is dedicated to bringing legendary NYC jazz clubs back into the consciousness of the world with a thorough remembrance and celebration.
SUMI TONOOKA has been called a “fierce and fascinating composer and pianist” (Jazz Times), “provocative and compelling” (New York Times), and “continually inventive, original, surprising, and a total delight,” (Cuadranos de Jazz, Madrid).
She recently received the Music Alive: New Partnerships residency with The South Dakota Symphony Orchestra, which culminated with a premiere of her symphonic work Full Circle. Tonooka is also a recent recipient of the 2015 Artist Trust award and received the Carl & Jini Dellaccio GAP title to compose a new jazz chamber work, Driftwood. Her recording, Initiation, garnered an “Honorable Mention” in the 2010 Village Voice Jazz Critic’s Poll. Recording often in trio or quartet with such noted jazz stalwarts as bassist Rufus Reid and drummers Akira Tana and Lewis Nash, Tonooka characteristically blends her own compositions with highly personal readings of jazz standards.
In addition to her symphonic and chamber works, jazz recordings and performances, Tonooka has composed over a dozen film scores, including the Academy Award-nominated Family Gathering by Lise Yasui and Daring To Resist by Martha Lubell, which aired on PBS. She is also featured in A Note of Hope, released in 2011, a full-length documentary from Citygate Films on the youngest victims of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Erica Lindsay, composer and tenor saxophonist, is an Artist-in-Residence at Bard College where she teaches jazz composition and arranging and is an active performer, arranger and composer. She studied at Berklee College of Music and then headed to Europe where she performed with her own quintet and had guest performances with Frank Zappa and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. She composed and performed with such ensembles as the Unique Munich Saxophone Choir and the NDR Radio Big Band.
Lindsay moved to New York City and began touring internationally with Melba Liston & Co. During this time she performed with jazz legends such as Dizzy Gillespie, Joe Williams, Al Grey, Britt Woodman and Mary Lou Williams. She composed the musical score for two off-Broadway plays and has also written for television (“Tales from the Darkside”) and modern dance. She is a featured artist in Sally Placksin’s book American Women in Jazz and Burrill Crohn’s PBS documentary Women in Jazz. Some notable recordings from that time include her first recording, Dreamer, on Candid Records, Door of the Cage and Marionettes on a Highwire with Baikida Carroll, Live in Europe with Jeff Siegel and Cloth with Oliver Lake.
Her more recent recordings include Initiation, a collaboration with Sumi Tonooka, featuring Rufus Reid and Bob Braye and Further Explorations, from The Alchemy Sound Project.
Rufus Reid is one of today’s premiere bassists on the international jazz scene. Rufus participated in the BMI Jazz Composer’s Workshop for five years which has empowered him to move more deeply into the composing arena. He has written for string orchestra, jazz ensembles large and small, concert band, double bass ensemble pieces and a solo bass composition. Mass Transit, Rufus’ three movement symphony orchestra composition, premiered in 2011. Reid composed Caress The Thought as a solo piece for bass virtuoso, Diana Gannett, who has performed it several times and recorded it on her 2015 CD Artemis in the Oak Grove with pianist Ellen Rowe.
Rufus Reid is equally known as an exceptional educator. Dr. Martin Krivin and Reid created the Jazz Studies & Performance Program at William Paterson University. Reid retired after 20 years, but continues to teach, conducting Master Classes, workshops, and residencies around the world. Additionally, Rufus’ book, The Evolving Bassist, published since 1974, continues to be recognized as the industry standard as the definitive bass method.
Victor Lewis is an internationally acclaimed drummer and composer. His first job with a nationally known jazz musician was accompanying Hank Crawford in Omaha. On Victor’s first gig in Manhattan, he met trumpeter Woody Shaw. Lewis joined the trumpeter’s band and a few months later, he made his recording debut on Shaw’s classic, The Moontrane. The drummer also began making his mark on the burgeoning fusion and pop jazz scenes, providing the beat on records by Joe Farrell, Earl Klugh, Hubert Laws, Carla Bley and David Sanborn.
By the end of the eighties, Lewis was one of jazz’s busiest freelancers. He toured and recorded with a wide array of the music’s most respected leaders including Kenny Barron, Art Farmer, J.J. Johnson, Mike Stern, John Stubblefield, Grover Washington Jr., The Manhattan Jazz Quintet, Bobby Hutcherson and Bobby Watson. When not driving a group with Bobby from the drum chair, Victor has been the main-stay in the Kenny Barron Quintet since its inception.
An educated drummer, Lewis tries to pass on his knowledge, giving private instruction to students, participating as a freelance instructor with The New School University Jazz School-Mannes Music School Jazz Program in New York City and appearing in drum clinics around the world as often as his schedule allows it. He has participated in a symposium in Modern Drummer magazine and there have been several feature articles about him in publications such as Downbeat, The Wire, Jazz Times as well as Modern Drummer. In 2003 Victor joined the faculty of Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ where he teaches drummers and coaches jazz combos.