An evening of jazz, poetry, wine and conversation with Alex Harding and Lucian Ban.
Detroit born baritone saxophonist ALEX HARDING, and Transylvanian expat and New York City based pianist LUCIAN BAN have been at the forefront of contemporary jazz for more than two decades, collaborating and founding several groups together, releasing a handful of diverse albums for American and European labels, performing countless concerts and tours in US and Europe all the while documenting an amazing body of music.
ALEX HARDING
Alex was born in Detroit and studied music in his early years with Yusef Lateef, Beans Bows and Herbie Williams, and had a chance to play with Wynton Marsalis and Donald Byrd while still in high school. In 1998, Alex was part of the Sun Ra All-Star Project that premiered at the North Sea Jazz Festival and the Montreux-Detroit Jazz Festival and has performed with the late Roy Hargrove Big Band and with Aretha Franklin. Critics have hailed him as “the new voice on baritone saxophone, the carrier of the great legacy of Harry Carney, Pepper Adams and Hamiet Bluiett”. Alex Harding has released several albums as a leader garnering glowing reviews and appeared as guest on more than 40 albums. In the October ’97 issue of Jazz Times, the review of Hamiet Bluiett’s Baritone Band said that “Alex Harding attacked the music with steamroller momentum and uncommon ferocity…it was sheer fireworks”
LUCIAN BAN | www.lucianban.com
Called “A name to watch" by The Guardian and ”one of the most gifted pianists to move to New York" (B. Gallanter, Downtown Music Gallery), Lucian Ban is a Romanian born, NYC based pianist & composer known for his amalgamations of Transylvanian folk with improvisation, for his mining of 20th Century European classical music with jazz, and for his pursue of a modern chamber jazz ideal. His music has been described as “emotionally ravishing" (Nate Chinen, New York Times/WBGO), a “triumph of emotional and musical communication" (All About Jazz), “Unorthodox but mesmeringly beautiful" (The Guardian) and as holding an “alluring timelessness and strong life-force"(Downbeat Magazine).
DARK BLUE represents a stunning document of two artists at their maturity, two old friends conversing in the language of modern jazz. As legendary tuba player Howard Johnson writes in the liner notes for the album: “Lucian and Alex have been honing their duo craft for some years. Now they have become one voice when they want to and still manage to complement each other”
$45 @ 204 Pearl Street, Kingston
646 226 0590
Venmo: @donald-matteson
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