Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Howard Alden with Kit Eakle
& DjangoSphere
Guitar virtuosos Howard Alden joins violinist Kit Eakle in a program of music by Thelonious Sphere Monk and Django Reinhardt and more. Kit Eakle’s DjangoSphere project illuminates the connections between Monk and Django’s music. The program will include standards by Duke Ellington and others who influenced both composers, as well as originals inspired by them. Rory Judge, nephew of the legendary drummer Jake Hanna, will keep the group swingin' on drums along with veteran Bay Area bassist, Don Bennett.
$20 - To reserve tickets with your credit card, please call (510) 547-8188
Howard Alden “...may be the best of his generation,” writes Owen Cordle in JazzTimes. George Kanzler of the Newark Star Ledger proclaims that he is “the most impressive and creative member of a new generation of jazz guitarists.” And Chip Deffaa of the New York Post observes that he is “...one of the very finest young guitarists working today.” It seems that the only debate regarding Howard Alden is whether the remarkable jazz guitarist is one of the best or simply the best.
Born in Newport Beach, California, in 1958, Howard began playing at age ten. Soon he was working professionally around Los Angeles in 1979, including stints with with the great vibraphonist, Red Norvo. Moving to New York City in 1982, Alden's skills, were quickly recognized and sought-out by such artists as Ruby Braff, Joe Williams, Warren Vache` and Woody Herman. He has continued to win accolades from critics and musicians, adding Benny Carter, Flip Phillips, Mel Powell, Bud Freeman, Kenny Davern, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie and George Van Eps, as well as notable contemporaries such as Scott Hamilton and Ken Peplowski to his list of impressive credits. Howard Alden has been a Concord Jazz recording artist since the late '80s where his prolific recorded output as leader, co-leader, and versatile sideman, has captured an artist of consistently astonishing virtuosity and originality. howardalden.com
Violinist Kit Eakle is known as one of the most original improvising violinists on the West Coast. He grew up in the Bay Area where he studied classical violin. He also studied with noted composer, John Cage. Moving to Canada he studied jazz improv with Lionel Hampton pianist Elmer Gill and played with Vancouver's finest jazz musicians. Since returning to California in the 1996 he has shared a stage with David Grisman, The Hot Club of Marin, Mark Holzinger and Dan Hicks, among others. Kit Eakle also hosts this concert series devoted to jazz violinists and is currently teaches a course on the History of Jazz Violin at Simon Fraser University and the California Jazz Conservatory, and plays with his own group, DjangoSphere, inspired by the music of Thelonious Sphere Monk and Django Reinhardt.
Rory Judge, nephew of the legendary drummer, Jake Hanna, will keep the group swingin' on drums along with veteran Bay Area bassist, Don Bennett.