Events

Duets – Dianne Reeves, Chucho Valdés & Joe Lovano


Oct. 02, 2021 8:00 PM

tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/07005AF0B3841F67

Uihlein Hall
929 N Water St.
Milwaukee, WI 53202

An evening of piano duets with three masters of jazz. Winner of six Grammy and three Latin Grammy Awards, the Cuban pianist, composer and arranger Chucho Valdés is the most influential figure in modern Afro-Cuban jazz. Five-time Grammy Award winner Dianne Reeves is the pre-eminent jazz vocalist in the world today — her arsenal of talents is richly on display in each and every song of her limitless repertoire.

Hailed by The New York Times as “one of the greatest musicians in jazz history,” Grammy Award winning saxophone titan Joe Lovano has distinguished himself as a prescient and pathfinding force in the arena of creative music. 

Terence Blanchard Featuring The E-Collective With Turtle Island Quartet

Nov. 04, 2021 7:30 PM

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/07005AF0BA8520B9

Uihlein Hall
929 N Water St.
Milwaukee, WI 53202

Wayne Shorter’s evolution as an artist is vast & unending. Performing with and composing for Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers and Miles Davis Second Great Quintet naturally led to the formation of his own legendary groups—first Weather Report, then his musically unparalleled quartet. With Shorter’s career now focused solely on composing, his musical greatness has set the table for his protégé to carry his music forward to the next generation.

In Absence, 2018 USA Fellow, Oscar nominee, and fivetime GRAMMY®-winning trumpeter & composer Terence Blanchard celebrates both the brilliance of Shorter’s legacy and the inspiration he has given Blanchard, influencing his ever-expanding amalgam of music and storytelling.

For this monumental task, Blanchard will unite his internationally acclaimed band The E-Collective, featuring young musical pioneers Charles Altura on guitar, Fabian Almazan on piano and synthesizers, Oscar Seaton on drums, and David “DJ” Ginyard on bass, with the double-GRAMMY®-winning Turtle Island Quartet.

The repertoire will include arrangements of Shorter’s original work, including “Diana” from Native Dancer and “When It Was Now” from Weather Report’s 1982 self-titled release. Blanchard’s compositions will continue to expand on the reservoir of E-Collective tunes, utilizing a string quartet that is uniquely equipped for the full range of color and expression of the Blanchard sonic & stylistic sphere. Original compositions from the band include new contributions from Almazan, and for the first time on a recording, Ginyard. A heart-stopping string quartet work titled “Second Wave,” written by Turtle Island’s own David Balakrishnan, perfectly rounds out the recording.

Absence will be released on Blue Note® and co-produced by manager and SONY alumna Robin Burgess in Fall of 2021, coinciding with Blanchard’s second opera, Fire Shut Up In My Bones opening the Metropolitan Opera’s season. This new album honors the past, present and future of Wayne Shorter.

“Jazz is a fighter. The word ‘jazz’ means to me, ‘I dare you. Let’s jump into the unknown!’”
—Wayne Shorter

Gerald Cannon Quartet at The Jazz Estate

Friday, September 27, 2019 at 7 PM – 11 PM

The Jazz Estate
2423 N Murray Ave
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211

Milwaukee Jazz ….Gerald Cannon is BACK! This is not to be missed…He is bringing his incredible band from NY…Including Milwaukee’s own legend of his own.. Rick Germanson on Piano! Willie Jones III Drums, GIveton Gelin Trumpet

Tickets will be available soon.
2 shows. 7pm, 9:30pm

Gerald carries the knowledge passed on to him by legendary bassists Ray Brown, Sam Jones, Ron Carter and Buster Williams and continues the legacy by conducting master classes throughout the U.S. and Europe. He taught at the Oberlin Conservatory in 2014, the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music in Milwaukee, the New School in New York and at Long Island University. He also gave a number of master classes at the University of Wisconsin in Whitewater and Eau Claire, at Emery University in Atlanta, Georgia and at the Conservatory of Amsterdam. Gerald was also a faculty member of the prestigious Conservatory of Maastricht, Holland.

After leaving Roy Hargrove, Gerald held the bass chair for legendary drummer Elvin Jones until his passing in 2004. Gerald considers his time spent with Mr. Jones a profound period of spiritual and creative growth. Since then, Gerald has worked with jazz heavy-weights Wynton and Branford Marsalis, Pat Martino, Louis Hayes and The Cannonball Legacy, Ernestine Anderson, Carmen Lundy, Abbey Lincoln, Gary Bartz, Joe Lovano, Cyrus Chestnut, Larry Willis, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Steve Turre, Eric Reed, the Dexter Gordon Legacy Ensemble and many other all-star combinations, as well as with his own quartet. He continues to conduct Master Classes around the world and remains the Musical Director for the McCoy Tyner Trio.

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McCullough / Shultz Quintet Featuring Tim Hagans

September 12, 2019
The Jazz Estate
2423 N Murray Ave
Milwaukee, WI

$10 Advance General
$12 Night of Show
$17 Special Reserved Table Seating

Tickets: https://timhagans.brownpapertickets.com/

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Trumpet – Tim Hagans Grammy-winning trumpeter
Trumpet – Chad McCullough
Bass Trumpet – Ryan Shultz
Keyboards – Paul Mutzabaugh
Bass – Larry Kohut
Drums – Eric Montzska

Hagans grew up in Dayton, Ohio. His early inspirations included Miles Davis, Freddie Hubbard, and Thad Jones, to whom he dedicated For the Music Suite, a 40-minute piece for jazz orchestra composed on a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1974, Hagans joined the Stan Kenton band,[1] with whom he played until 1977, when he toured with Woody Herman. He then left for Europe, where he lived in Malmö, Sweden, a hotbed of the European jazz scene. While in Europe, he toured extensively and played with Dexter Gordon, Kenny Drew, Horace Parlan, and Thad Jones. His first recorded composition, “I Hope This Time Isn’t the Last,” appears on the album Thad Jones Live at Slukefter (Metronome, 1980).
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JOHN SCOFIELD TRIO FEATURING STEVE SWALLOW & BILL STEWART

Saturday, August 17, 2019
7:30 PM – 10:00 PM
SHARON LYNNE WILSON CENTER FOR THE ARTS
19805 West Capitol Drive
Brookfield, WI 53045
Tickets

“Scofield has always been true to his evolving identity as an improviser, no matter what style he is playing … As always, Scofield inflects even flat-out bebop with a deeply guitaristic blues sensibility” (Jazz Times)

One of the most popular jazz guitarists of all time is back with his great friends Steve Swallow and Bill Stewart, a “telepathically tight trio” that can be called legendary!

A true musical chameleon, John Scofield’s raw and rugged style remains recognizable, whether he plays acoustic jazz, electric funk, or gospel. In the early 1980s, he played with Miles Davis before launching a successful solo career. For the seventh annual Wilson Center Guitar Festival, “Sco” will join two old friends and longtime musical mates to explore a repertoire of jazz standards and savvy original compositions that has kept jazz vigorous and visceral since its birth.

Scofield has been part of a trio since the late 1970s with Steve Swallow, an undeniable innovator of the electric bass, and together they recorded on influential albums such as Shinola and Out Like A Light. Since the 1990s, Scofield celebrated great successes with drummer Bill Stewart in various line-ups that include famous musicians such as Joe Lovano, Randy Brecker, and Larry Goldings. In 2004, the trio Scofield/Swallow/Stewart released the album EnRoute (Verve), which was recorded live at The Blue Note.

Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe

Thursday, June 20, 2019 at 7 PM – 10 PM
Turner Hall
1040 Vel R. Phillips Ave., Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53203

Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe
Thursday, June 20th
Turner Hall Ballroom
Doors 7pm // Show 8pm

Singer and saxophonist Karl Denson fronts the Tiny Universe as if he’s preaching the gospel. His energy and spirit are contagious while his songwriting serves a larger message of fellowship—across generations, genders, religions and cultures.
Highly regarded as one of the best live acts on the planet, KDTU distills the sweeping stylistic range of its concert performances into their own authentic sound featuring Denson and his long-standing seven piece unit. Along with KDTU, Denson served as the saxophonist for Lenny Kravitz’s band, and as the touring saxophonist with The Rolling Stones, while continuing to hold down his role as a founding member of the seminal funk band, The Greyboy Allstars.

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Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, originally scheduled for Sunday, June 23rd has been rescheduled to Thursday, June 20th at Turner Hall Ballroom. All previously issued tickets will be honored on the new show date and do not need to be exchanged.

tickets

Patricia Barber Trio at The Back Room

Saturday, September 28, 2019 at 7 PM – 10 PM
The Back Room @ Colectivo Coffee
2211 North Prospect Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202

WMSE 91.7FM presents
An Evening With Chicago’s Own
Patricia Barber Jazz Musician Trio
Saturday, September 28th
The Back Room @ Colectivo
Doors 7pm // Show 8pm

A tireless performer who refused to conform to more conventional vocal jazz idioms, Patricia Barber worked her way up through the Chicago jazz scene slowly, almost reluctantly, after having spent several years in Iowa attending college and performing with local groups.
Catch the unique style and unusual voice that’s made her a local jazz legend when she returns to The Back Room!

Presale starts Wednesday, 04.17 at noon (code: JAZZ)
Public on sale begins Friday, 04.19 at noon

tickets

Dirty Dozen Brass Band at The Back Room

Wednesday, July 10, 2019 at 7 PM – 10 PM
The Back Room @ Colectivo Coffee
2211 North Prospect Avenue
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53202

One of the original new-school New Orleans brass bands, a Dirty Dozen show guarantees a good time infused with both bebop and funk! There will be dancing and handkerchief-waving aplenty.

Tickets on sale now!

Rempis / Lopez / Packard at The Sugar Maple

Sunday, April 14, 2019 at 8 PM – 10 PM
The Sugar Maple
441 E Lincoln Ave
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53207

Dave Rempis (Reeds)
Brandon Lopez (Bass)
Ryan Packard (Percussion)

Show 8 pm / Doors 7:30 $15 (in the back room)

This working trio finds journeyman Chicago saxophonist Dave Rempis alongside two of the brightest talents in a younger generation of improvising musicians. Bassist Brandon Lopez is a musician whose virtuosity knows no bounds, currently one of the most in-demand bassists on the New York jazz and improvised music scene. Percussionist Ryan Packard counters that depth with his own breadth of interests, working in contemporary classical ensembles, indie rock bands, and jazz groups alike around Chicago, not to mention his doubling abilities on electronics. These two together provide a formidable rhythm section that can veer from hard-driving grooves to luscious soundscapes with total ease.

Active since the summer of 2017, the trio made its first studio recording in March of 2018, released in early 2019 on Rempis’ Aerophonic Records imprint. This debut outing is titled The Early Bird Gets, and is perhaps the “jazziest” project any of them are involved with; a result that even the band members found surprising. But after honing their sound through live gigs in 2017 and early 2018, it became apparent that their free-improvised conversation kept returning to a similar destination: a three-way exploration of rhythm and tempo that left them working solidly within the jazz tradition. Not the one fixed into predictable stylistic corners, but the one defined by a spirit of boundless curiosity and exploration. A tradition they stretched back and forth like so much taffy.

The way these three unite into a groove is truly remarkable. Not as something to be closely adhered to, but as something to turn upside down, inside out, and ass backwards, as they expose every last facet of it. At times this means slowing it down, speeding it up, or splitting those two approaches up amongst the band simultaneously. At other times it means jumping to another dimension on the turn of a dime. And while that methodology may feel counterintuitive to the end result, it’s not. This band has a classic approach that has an inherent life and energy to it that dates back to the beginnings of jazz as an art form. It truly swings.

https://www.daverempis.com/rempislopezpackard

Fire! with Mats Gustafsson, Johan Berthling & Andreas Werliin at The Sugar Maple

Monday, March 25, 2019 at 8 PM – 10 PM
The Sugar Maple
441 E Lincoln Ave
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53207

Fire! 8 pm / Doors 7:30 $15
Mats Gustafsson (tenor, baritone saxophone, live electronics), Johan Berthling (bass), Andreas Werliin (drums)

Fire! consists of members from The Thing, Tape and Wildbirds & Peacedrums. Fire! formed in 2009 to develop a fresh approach to improvised music drawing on influences from free jazz, psychedelic rock and noise.

Fire! has played and recorded with Jim O’Rourke and Oren Ambarchi.

New album The Hands was released on Rune Grammofon, January 2018. It is the trio´s sixth album and once again displays a totally uncompromising and intriguing mix of (mostly) heavy, dark and intensely burning music whether one decide on calling it jazz or rock.

Few bands in any genre generate so much raw visceral impact.(AAJ)
…makes Earth sound like Return to Forever. (Jazzwise)
…Mats Gustafsson, whose sax has never sounded more bloodied and bruised than it does here, now has a three-piece unit easily The Thing’s equal in sheer heft and force. (the Quietus)
Ducking clichés in taking a different approach, Fire! could be seen to be freeing up free jazz. (Record Collector)
The Hands is Fire!´s sixth release and it continues to fan the flames of the Scandinavian trio’s explosive soundworld. (BBC Music)