Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present a rare Bay Area performance
An Evening with Michele Rosewoman
In Solo and Trio Performance

Michele Rosewoman - piano
Aaron Germain - bass, Jeff Marrs - drums

Saturday, January 28 at 8PM
at Piedmont Piano Company's new store located at
18th & San Pablo, Oakland (1728 San Pablo Ave.)

$17 - please call 510-547-8188 to reserve tickets with your credit card

New York-based pianist/composer Michele Rosewoman stands out in her class as a visionary band leader and performer. For over two decades, she has deftly fused acoustic modern jazz, funk, electric fusion and elements of Cuban folkloric music to create a distinct musical experience. Born in Oakland, California, Michele Rosewoman studied jazz with the great pianist/organist Ed Kelly whom she met when she was 18 and joined the Laney
Junior College Big Band. Ed Kelly became an important mentor and friend. “Ed instilled in me the larger concept of music and sound and encouraged me toapproach the tradition with my own voice” Early studies in percussion led her to avidly explore Cuban and Haitian folkloric idioms.

She moved to New York in 1978 and throughout her career has performed with great musicians from both the jazz and Latin music worlds, including Jimmy Heath, Julian Priester, Gary Bartz, Julius Hemphill, Oliver Lake, Reggie Workman, James Spaulding, Billy Hart, Greg Osby, Gary Thomas, Steve Coleman, David Sanchez, Miguel Zenon, Robin Eubanks, Terri Lyne Carrington, Celia Cruz, Paquito D'Rivera, Cuban master Orlando ‘Puntilla’ Rios, Andy Gonzalez, Pedro Martinez and many others. With her 'Quintessence' and 'New Yor-Uba' ensembles serving as the main vehicles, she expands the horizons and boundaries of jazz while remaining firmly rooted in tradition.

Her Quintessence ensemble brings together some of the most inventive voices in jazz while New Yor-Uba, with its un-compromised synthesis of contemporary jazz and traditional religious Cuban folkloric music, unites master musicians from both musical worlds. Many have cited the experience of playing within these contexts as notably influential in their own development as musicians, composers and band leaders.

Rosewoman has received great critical acclaim and prestigious awards; highlights include major support from the National Endowment for the Arts, Chamber Music America and an ASCAP/Meet the Composer Commission. She has performed at festivals, colleges, concert halls and clubs and conducted educational workshops throughout the U.S., Canada and Europe. Ms. Rosewoman is currently working on repertoire for her next CD. Slated for release in the Spring of 2012, this solo piano recording with special guests will be her first release since the Downbeat Magazine 4-star rated CD, Michele Rosewoman and Quintessence/The In Side Out.

www.michelerosewoman.com

"With delicate beauty and intensity, Michele's music bends the borders of cultures, not just notes. She has picked up a variety of torches and created a bonfire." JAZZIZ MAGAZINE

"No other pianist-composer in jazz brings the music of the African diaspora together quite like Michele Rosewoman.... Rosewoman is way past collecting influences. Simply put, she's one of the most creative and fully realized jazz artists on the scene today." CD NOW

"Rosewoman's writing is jubilant and architectonic. Fats Waller meets Anthony Braxton... a Monkish motif will give way to a pastoral swing episode a la Hank Jones. Rosewoman's melodies are as joyfully convoluted as Parker's." THE VILLAGE VOICE