East River Jazz Features Evans, Washburn, Miller
East River Jazz, which highlighted our spring and summer with a bright mosaic of musical events, continues this month with concerts featuring pianist Vince Evans’ Trio, Bill Washburn’s Rhythminic Accents and the Kent Miller Quartet.
Evans’ Trio plays at a free concert from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Oct. 12 at the Whole Foods Market, 600 H St. NE. Evans, a veteran musician and educator, has performed and recorded with such stars, according to East River Jazz publicity, as “Prince, Phyllis Hyman, Al Jarreau, George Benson, Bill Withers, Gerald Albright, Luther Vandross, Lenny White, Lalah Hathaway, Isaac Hayes, Patti LaBelle, Angie Stone, Chuck Brown and Dianne Reeves … to name a few!”
Washburn, another veteran pianist of the DC scene, has led his Rhythminic Accents since 1998, and his group heads the show “Trane Tracks: The Music of John Coltrane” at 3 p.m. on Oct. 13 at the Anacostia Arts Center. With Washburn will be Zack Graddy, saxophone, Jeron White, bass, and Joe Henderson, percussion. The show will “explore some John Coltrane music familiar to your listening history along with some lesser known compositions,” says East River Jazz.
The series “In the Spirit of Bird” by East River Jazz continues this month with Miller’s group playing at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 at the Anacostia Playhouse, 2020 Shannon Place SE. The show is “the second fundraising performance to support the Kent Miller Quartet’s opportunity to present their music honoring composer/saxophonist Charlie Yardbird Parker during the 100th anniversary year of his 1920 birth!”
The quartet includes Miller on bass, saxophonist Benny Russell, pianist/composer Darius Scott and drummer/percussionist Greg C. Holloway.
InPerson … Gilad Edelman
Straight out of New York comes saxophonist Gilad Edelman, inserting himself into the DC scene with some sharp, cutting, soaring licks. That was a Friday night happy-hour set at JoJo’s on U Street, with Edelman entertaining an end-of-the-week crowd cutting loose itself. Edelman led some jamming sets on his alto sax, with Hamilton Price on bass and Julian Berkowitz on drums, on tunes like “What’s New,” “Polka Dots & Moonbeams” and “Here’s That Rainy Day.” Edelman’s CD “My Groove, Your Move,” a few years back, prompted AllAboutJazz.com to call him “A smart, soulful alto saxophone stylist,” and the saxophonist showed all of that and more at JoJo’s. See www.giladedelman.com for more information.
InPerson … Bill Brower Fundraiser
Saxophonist Aaron Martin blew hard-driving, low-flying, blues-laden licks while bassist Luke Stewart grooved lyrical gems and Warren “Trae” Crudup III ripped and splashed whipping soliloquies of his own on drums that Sunday last month at the former Colmar Manor, Maryland, firehouse, now an arts space. Hosted by former DC Space guru Bill Warrell, the event was a fundraiser for our favorite producer, journalist and promoter William “Bill” Brower, now in a rehabilitation hospital in DC.
Giants in attendance that day, in addition to Warrell, included WPFW-FM radio programmer, Washington Informer columnist, poet and more Askia Muhammad, as well as fellow WPFW programmer Rusty Hassan, WOWD-FM programmer Bobby Hill Jr., master photographer Michael Wilderman and others.
For more information on Brower, see www.caringbridge.org.
October Highlights: … Sofia Viola, Oct. 11, Atlas Performing Arts Center … Cheyney Thomas/“My Thoughts in Three” CD release, Oct. 11, Westminster Presbyterian Church … Vince Evans Trio, Oct. 12, Whole Foods Market, H Street NE … Richard Baratta & The Gotham Circle, Oct. 14, Blues Alley … Eric Alexander, Oct. 15, Blues Alley … Sergio Mendes & Bebel Gilberto/The 60th Anniversary of Bossa Nova, Oct. 16, Strathmore Music Center/North Bethesda … Gerald Clayton, Oct. 16, Blues Alley … NSO Pops: Nat King Cole at 100, Oct. 17, Kennedy Center … Geovane Santos: Brazilian Jazz, Oct. 17, Germano’s Piattini/Baltimore … Joshua Breakstone CD release/Tribute to Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers, Oct. 18, Germano’s Piattini/Baltimore … Eric Jacobson Quartet, Oct. 17, Twins Jazz … Remembering Butch Warren, Oct. 18, Westminster … Bill Charlap, Oct. 18, Montpelier Arts Center/Laurel, Maryland … Anthony Nelson & Cecil Brooks, Oct. 18-19, Twins Jazz … Joe Vetter Quartet, Oct. 23, Twins Jazz … Tribute to Oscar Peterson/Charles Covington, Oct. 25, Westminster … Larry Brown, Oct. 25-26, Twins Jazz … Thinking About Jazz/Oscar Peterson, Oct. 26, Westminster … In the Spirit of Bird, Oct. 28, Anacostia Playhouse …
October Birthdays: Walter Bishop Jr. 4; Jo Jones 7; Larry Young 7; Pepper Adams 8; Abdullah Ibrahim, Kenny Garrett 9; Thelonius Monk 10; Junior Mance, Harry Edison, Art Blakey 11; Mel Rhyne 12; Art Tatum, Ray Brown, Von Freeman, Lee Konitz, Pharoah Sanders, Johnny Lytle 13; Fela Anikulapo-Kuti 15; Roy Hargrove 16; Cozy Cole 17; Wynton Marsalis 18; Jelly Roll Morton 20; Dizzy Gillespie, Don Byas 21; Ernie Watts 23; Jimmy Heath 25; Milton Nascimento 26; Zoot Sims 27; Clifford Brown 30; Illinois Jacquet, Booker Irvin 31.
Steve Monroe is a Washington, DC, writer who can be reached at steve@jazzavenues.com and followed at www.twitter.com/jazzavenues.
