JAZZ 6

at the Soul Café presents

PATRICK CORNELIUS OCTET

Award winning saxophonist and composer (and Bay Ridge resident) Patrick Cornelius presents,
While We're Still Young,
a suite for octet featuring songs inspired by the children's poetry of A.A. Milne.
Originally commissioned by Chamber Music America as part of their 2012 "New Jazz Works" program,
While We're Still Young pays tribute to the classic whimsical adventures of Christopher Robin
from Milne's 1924 collection "When We Were Very Young",
all the while giving a nod to timeless jazz composers like Duke Ellington and Gil Evans.

Saturday, April 1, 2017
8:00PM-10:00PM; doors open 7:30PM

Art on the Corner is thrilled to host JAZZ NITE at
Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd's Soul Café!

• Live Music • Delicious Food & Libations • Great Fun •
...and you don't have to leave the 'hood!
Advance tickets are no longer available.
Tickets available at the door on the day of the event: $30pp

Each ticket includes entrance to the event, a glass of wine, appetizers, and a fun evening --
all without leaving the neighborhood!
Additional food and beverages available for purchase.
Credit Cards accepted at the door.

Award winning saxophonist and composer (and Bay Ridge resident) Patrick Cornelius presents While We're Still Young, a suite for octet featuring songs inspired by the children's poetry of A.A. Milne. Originally commissioned by Chamber Music America as part of their 2012 "New Jazz Works" program, While We're Still Young pays tribute to the classic whimsical adventures of Christopher Robin from Milne's 1924 collection "When We Were Very Young", all the while giving a nod to timeless jazz composers like Duke Ellington and Gil Evans.

7 years ago, Patrick’s grandmother gave him a copy of “When We Were Very Young” to read to his new baby daughter Isabella, continuing a family tradition passed along through 3 generations. He instantly fell in love with the poetry’s charming characters and preciously vivid sense of wonder and innocence, and wrote the 6 movements of While We’re Still Young as a multigenerational tribute to his grandmother, mother, wife, and two children.

While not strictly children’s music, While We’re Still Young appeals to the childlike wonder and innocence that still exists within all of us. It asks us to rediscover the joys of discovery, adventure, and love, and to live (in some part at least) as we did when our worlds were simpler.

For it’s world premiere, “While We’re Still Young” was broadcast live nationally in The United States on NPR member stations all over the country on “The Checkout Live” and “JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater”.

Artist bios

Patrick Cornelius, Alto Saxophone and Compositions
In his 15 years in New York City, Texas native Patrick Cornelius has performed his original music in some of the world’s top jazz venues. Hailed as “Self-assured” and “Resourceful” by the New York Times, “Elegant” and “Extraordinary” by DownBeat Magazine, Cornelius has released six albums as a leader, and performed with a wide cross-section of both established masters and rising stars. He has presented his musical projects in settings as diverse as London’s Royal Festival Hall, New York’s The Blue Note, and divey listening spaces like The 55 Bar and Smalls.
As a composer, Cornelius has earned a bevy of accolades and commissions, the most recent being from Chamber Music America and The Doris Duke Foundation, and has been featured several times on the nationally syndicated radio programs in The United States and abroad. An active pedagogue (with diplomas from Berklee, Manhattan School of Music, and Juilliard), Patrick has appeared as artist in residence or guest lecturer at international institutions from Europe to South America. He is currently professor of saxophone at Hunter College in New York City and Snow College in Utah, and music faculty at The United Nations School.

Nick Vayenas, Trombone
Trombonist, trumpeter, and composer Nick Vayenas has been a mainstay on the music scene for the past 15 years. Based in New York City, Nick has worked in a variety of settings both as a sideman and leader. Originally from Boston, Vayenas started his music studies at age 12. He earned scholarships to attend Berklee College of Music, the Manhattan School of Music and the Thelonious Monk Institute, which were key to his technical development as a musician and composer. Vayenas studied with such jazz luminaries as trombonists Hal Crook, Conrad Herwig, Bill Watrous, David Taylor, Phil Wilson, and Steve Turre, as well as trumpeters Terence Blanchard, Greg Hopkins, and Vince Penzarella. Since 2003, Nick has been a member of the horn for section for Grammy® Award-winning recording artist Michael Bublé. He has performed on several Michael Bublé recordings, including Crazy Love, Nobody But Me, and the Grammy® Award- winning Michael Bublé Meets Madison Square Garden. Nick has also worked and recorded with prominent artists such as Josh Groban, Bryan Adams, David Foster, Mariah Carey, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Scott, Aaron Parks, Lionel Loueke, Patrick Cornelius, Dayna Stephens, Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter, Terence Blanchard and Gretchen Parlato.

Helen Sung, Piano
Pianist/composer Helen Sung hails from Houston, TX, where she attended the High School for the Performing & Visual Arts. An aspiring classical pianist before jazz intervened during undergraduate studies at the University of Texas at Austin, Sung went on to graduate from the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance (at the New England Conservatory) and win the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition. Now based in New York City, Sung has worked with a "Who's Who" in Jazz, including the late Clark Terry, Ron Carter, Wayne Shorter, Wynton Marsalis, and MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter.
With five albums as leader, Sung's sixth release Anthem For A New Day (Concord Jazz) topped jazz radio charts and garnered a SESAC Performance Activity Award. Sung also currently performs with fine ensembles such as the Mingus Big Band, T.S.Monk Band, and Terri Lyne Carrington's Mosaic Project (she performed on Carrington's Grammy-winning album Mosaic Project).
Sung is an active composer and has received several commissions and grants, including a 2014 Chamber Music America/Doris Duke Foundation New Jazz Works Grant. Inspired by her experience at the Monk Institute, Sung stays involved in music education through residencies/workshops, and joined the jazz faculties at the Juilliard School and Columbia University in 2015.

John Ellis, Tenor Saxophone, Bass Clarinet
If that Dickens chap hadn’t already snagged it, “A Tale of Two Cities” would make the ideal title for the John Ellis story. The gifted, versatile saxophonist/clarinetist/composer occupies an imaginary (and extremely imaginative) space directly between the celebratory, welcoming spirit of New Orleans and the edgy, frantic streets of New York City. Both as the leader of his own eclectic projects and as an in-demand sideman for a mind-boggling number and variety of artists, Ellis expresses a keen intellect and easy virtuosity while maintaining a mischievous gleam in his eye and never letting tongue stray far from cheek.

Nadje Noordhuis, Trumpet
Combining cinematic sweep, transportive emotion, and rich melodic grandeur, Australian-born trumpeter/composer Nadje Noordhuis possesses one of the most unforgettably lyrical voices in modern music. Her deeply-felt, clarion tone and evocative compositional gift meld classical rigor, jazz expression, and world music accents into a sound that is distinctively her own. Noordhuis was one of ten semi-finalists in the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Trumpet Competition and was selected as a Carnegie Hall Young Artist to undertake a weeklong residency with trumpet great Dave Douglas in 2010. Recent engagements include a yearly week-long run at New York's Village Vanguard with Rudy Royston's 303, performances with the Grammy-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra, performances at jazz festivals in Europe, Canada and Brazil with Grammy-nominated Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, and regular appearances with her group at the historic 55 Bar in Greenwich Village.

Perry Smith, Guitar
Guitarist Perry Smith combines the tradition of Jazz with broad influences from R&B, Rock and Folk to create his signature style. Originally from California, Smith is now based in Brooklyn where he leads his own group and is a sideman for jazz and contemporary artists. Smith’s extensive performance resume includes notable venues such as the Blue Note Jazz Club (NYC & Tokyo), The Village Vanguard (NYC), Dizzy's Club @ Lincoln Center (NYC), Healdsburg Guitar Festival, Montreal Jazz Festival, Java Jazz Festival (Indonesia), Rochester Jazz Festival, Hoffest (Berlin), The 2005 World Expo (Japan), The Jazz Bakery (LA) and Yoshi’s Jazz Club (SF Bay Area). As a composer, Smith was a finalist in the 2007 International Songwriting Competition and won the 2006 ASCAP Young Jazz Composers Award. In 2005, Smith received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Flora L. Thornton School of Music at the University of Southern California, where he studied guitar with jazz legend Joe Diorio. In 2011 he completed his Masters in Music at New York University studying with the great John Scofield.

Thomson Kneeland, Bass
Acoustic bassist and composer Thomson Kneeland has established himself as a formidable sideman and leader since moving to New York City in 2003. Finding himself equally quite at home in traditional swing and modern jazz settings, Kneeland has established himself as an in demand bassist with a rock solid swing feel and a unique virtuosic and rhythmic voice; but while delving deep into the jazz history, Kneeland also brings a variety of musical interests to the table from classical counterpoint and 20th century chamber music to Indian Karnatic music, Balkan folk music, fusion and more. Kneeland has released 5 albums as a leader, including Mazurka for a Modern Man and The Voice of Silence (2010), featuring a quintet of his peers making their mark on the NYC scene. Recent tours in 2016 find Kneeland working with Rudresh Mahanthappa,Ted Rosenthal, Jed Levy, Bobby Avey, and others. As a leader, sideman, and composer, Kneeland has appeared on over 40 recordings to date and performed with Rudresh Mahanthappa, Alex Sipiagin, Jerry Bergonzi, Kenny Werner, George Garzone, Bobby Avey, Ted Rosenthal, Dave Liebman, Matana Roberts, Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, Joe Maneri, Gunther Schuller, Peter Leitch, Peter Mazza, Paul Bollenback and many others. He has performed internationally at such venues as The Newport Jazz Festival, The Kennedy Center, Medellin University in Colombia, the Toronto Jazz Festival, the Perth Jazz Festival, the Vancouver Jazz Festival, and more.

Eric Doob, Drums
Two-time GRAMMY Award Nominee Eric Doob has established himself as one of New York City's most exciting and dynamic new drummers, playing and collaborating with some of the leading artists in the world today.
Eric's captivating approach to the drums has been highlighted on tours and recordings with saxophone luminary Paquito D'Rivera since 2008, and he has accompanied the musical legend on a wide variety of projects and artistic collaborations. Appearing on multiple international tours with MacArthur Fellow Miguel Zenon and his quartet, Eric has performed the acclaimed saxophonist's music on major stages around the globe.
Eric has also played with Christian Scott, The New York Voices, Dave Samuels and the Caribbean Jazz Project, Edmar Castaneda and Dr. Lonnie Smith. He has appeared as a guest artist with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and made multiple appearances with the NDR Big Band of Hamburg, Germany. In 2013 Eric received a GRAMMY nomination for his work on Manuel Valera's New Cuban Express. In 2015 he was again recognized with a nomination for his contribution to Emilio Solla's Second Half. Eric has performed and taught extensively throughout North America, South American, Europe, and Asia, playing at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals in the world. He is a Sabian Cymbals and Vic Firth Drumstick artist and currently resides in Brooklyn, NY.

Last update: 3/11/17