$10 Cover @ the Door / Start 10:30pm / Doors 10pm / Seated Show
Max Ridley
Max Ridley is musician, composer and educator based in Boston. He first started participating in music by singing in the school choir and playing bass guitar in a punk band after school. He began his formal studies in high school at the Boston Arts Academy and it was there that he first fell in love with improvised music and the upright bass. While at Boston Arts Academy, he was selected out of many other young musicians to perform at Boston’s Symphony Hall with the Boston Pops three years in a row. Also during these years, he joined the Berklee City Music program and was able to travel to New York to play for Quincy Jones and his foundation. He was awarded full-tuition scholarships to study at Berklee College of Music for both an undergraduate and graduate degree, earning his graduate degree from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute under the direction of master pianist and educator Danilo Perez. An equally important part of his education was down the street from Berklee at Boston’s historic Wally’s Jazz Cafe. He began going to jam sessions there in high school and more recently, has been the house bass player every Friday and Saturday night with the Jason Palmer Band.
Ridley has shared the stage with renown musicians such as Jeff Coffin, Kenny Werner, Tia Fuller, Ralph Peterson, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jack Dejohnette, Bruce Molsky, Perico Sambeat, Walter Smith III and Jerry Bergonzi. He has performed in venues such as the Blue Note, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Monterey Jazz Festival and the Umbria Jazz Festival. He has played many different styles of music all over the US, Canada and Europe, traveling by plane and staying in hotels, as well as by van and sleeping on couches and floors. Today he is active in New England as a sideman, leader and co-leader for many different groups, both on stage and in the recording studio. He also teaches music as a guest lecturer at different colleges around New England (such as Longy School of Music and the University of New Hampshire) and at the Hamilton-Garrett Music and Arts Academy. He has also spent some time living in Valencia Spain and considers that his second home and musical community.
maxridley.com
Kevin Harris
A very distinctive trait of New York/Boston-based jazz pianist Kevin Harris is his desire to constantly grow, evolve, improve, and advance. Harris plays a distinctive combination of traditional and contemporary music that seeks to celebrate the musical influences of Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis intersecting with J.S. Bach, ScottJoplin, and the folkloric African rhythms of the Caribbean.Among his most notable collaborations are Greg Osby, Bill Pierce, Francisco Mela, Avishai Cohen, Eddie Gomez, Duane Eubanks, Richie Barshay, Ben Street, Jason Palmer, Rudy Royston, Frank Lacey, Jerry Bergonzi, George Garzone, Curtis Lundy, Eric McPherson, Dayna Stephens, Ralph Peterson, Ameen Saleem, Greg Hutchinson, andTerri Lyne Carrington. One of the captivating elements of the Kevin Harris Project is the level of comfort and understanding they have with one another as they dive into soulfully expressive conversations and playful exchanges of ideas.
Both live and recorded performances reflect Harris’s determination to capture his audience through explorative interactions that Terri Lyne Carrington describes as "an exciting commitment to quality". Fred Hersch talks of Harris as one who “plays and writes with flair and real soul" and DownBeat Magazine writes that “Harris' compositions deal with themes of strength, love, courage, and self- awareness.
It's a heavy task he's set up for himself, and he meets the challenge gracefully.”International and national performance includes -Blue Note (NYC, Beijing, Milan, and Boston), New York’sSmalls, Mezzrow, and 55 Bar, Copenhagen’s JazzHus Montmartre-Denmark, Perugia Jazz Festival-Italy, LimaJazz Festival-Peru, Wally’s Jazz Club-Boston, Havana Jazz Festival-Cuba, Panama Jazz Festival - Panama, Catania Jazz-Italy, to name a few.
In 2020 he was nominated by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum to be a Neighborhood Salon Luminary with the goal to exchange creative ideas and dialogue with Boston’s most innovative and thoughtful luminaries, fostering collaborations and artistic networks while shaping Gardner Museum programming.With his most recent projects, “Roots, Water and Sunlight: A Contemporary Octet Expedition through theExpressions of James Baldwin”, “Upward Mothers”, and “Griot Series”, Harris directed his creativity to inspire the audience to reflect on unexpected realities and continuously be committed to positive and courageous changes.As a leader, he has released five albums.
DownBeat defines some of Harris’ compositions as “overall smart, lyrical and engrossing”, and The Phoenix highlights “the tight/loose elasticity, the tension between form and freedom that was the hallmark of so many Miles Davis sessions with Shorter and Herbie Hancock . . . calm and collected, but also loose and full of surprises. "Harris is in demand as a clinician and consistently collaborates with both public and private education institutions nationally and internationally. He is currently on faculty at Berklee College of Music and he is also a MIT affiliated artist. Harris thrives on a courageously playful style of communication in music. A style, in his opinion, that requires every special and sincere habit of listening and an equally patient endeavor to express oneself enthusiastically. He hopes that his performances will always inspire the audience to walk away with a sense of joyful connectedness and community."Participation,” Harris says, "is what keeps our souls alive.
Tyson Jackson
Every time I have the opportunity to play music, I count it as an absolute pleasure. Without it, I would not be who I am today. As I create, I never lose focus on the main idea which is that it must be played in order to positively affect and influence the listener.” Born in West Palm Beach, Florida, Tyson Jackson first discovered his love for music at the ripe age of 3. He distinctly remembers discovering his passion for music and the drums at New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church; beating on hymnals during church services was his forte.
Throughout his academic career, Tyson has attended performing arts institutions dedicated to music—these institutions further peaked his interest and allowed his love for music to grow. Throughout his musical career, Jackson has been afforded many opportunities to study and be mentored by world-renowned artists including Dee Dee Bridgewater, Terence Blanchard, Darren Barrett, AJ Wright, Terri Lynn Carrington, Ralph Peterson, Tia Fuller, Sean Jones, Nona Hendryx, etc. Tyson feels that these experiences are invaluable and have truly helped to propel him in his professional career. “As an artist, I realize that I serve as a vessel for music to flow through. It is my duty to continue to pay homage to the masters who have come before me, while incorporating an innovative approach to my artistry, personal brand, and musical endeavors as I develop.