Saturday May 20th, 2017 8pm-11pm
The Jazz Estate
2423 North Murray Ave.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin 53211
Kristen Lee Sergeant‘s emergence on the NYC jazz scene has branded this innovative artist with a distinct musicality, an intuitive sense of vocal phrasing, fresh lyrical interpretations, and arrangements all her own – and the word is spreading nationally. Jay Edwards, WCLK-FM Atlanta’s On-Air Jazz Tones host says “Sergeant takes your breath away as an effervescent spirit whose superb vocals and phrasing inject the lyrics with new life.” The Boston Globe has called her “especially entertaining.”
In October, Sergeant debuted the record at Birdland, and the performance spoke to even greater things to come. Downbeat chose her CD as its’ Editors’ Pick (September ‘16) – praising her “buttery to deliciously tart” vocals and “dramatically fresh arrangements.” Jay Edwards of WCLK-Atlanta notes her “effervescent spirit which injects the lyrics with new life.” Grammy winning writer, Bob Blumenthal, says her “superior intonation and control, an interpretive command that ranges from defiance to gentility, a willingness to take risks with harmony and rhythm, the freshness of her arrangements, synchronicity with her accompanists, and the manner in which all these elements yield a supremely musical package.”
Ted Nash enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer, conductor, composer, arranger and educator. Born in Los Angeles into a musical family (his father, Dick Nash, and uncle, the late Ted Nash, were both well-known jazz and studio musicians), Nash has that uncanny ability to mix freedom with substance, blues with intellect, and risk-taking with clarity. He is a co-founder of the New York-based Jazz Composers Collective, a musician-run, non-profit innovative entity dedicated to presenting the original works of composers pushing the boundaries of their self-expression. Nash is also a long-standing member of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, with Wynton Marsalis.
Nash has become one of the most significant jazz composers of the 21st century. His recordings have received wide critical acclaim, appearing on the “best-of” lists in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, and The Boston Globe. Portrait in Seven Shades, his first big band recording, garnered two Grammy nominations. His following big band album, Chakra, received critical acclaim and charted on Billboard.
“Neither a poster boy for the avant-garde nor a blinders-on traditionalist, Nash is simply his own man.” -Washington Post
