1/13/19:</br>Darryl Yokley

Darryl Yokley thinks big. His latest project Pictures at an African Exhibition tackles big issues in a sprawling panorama of movements and inquiries.

What happens if one appropriates the programatic concept of Russian nationalist Modest Mussorgsky’s famous suite to contemplation of the African Diaspora?

Yokley’s suite of 13 movements attaches to paintings of British artist David Emmanuel Noel portraying the African drama. The joys and pains thus addressed are specific, yet Yokley is "hopeful that, with the themes we’ve explored in this project, we can see that although we all have differences in our various cultures across the world, we all have more in common than we have differences." Ambitious aspirations for a visionary artist.

Darryl is both an accomplished jazz and classical concert artist. He has performed with Orrin Evans, the Captain Black Big Band, Nasheet Waits, Valery Ponomarev, Eddie Allen, Jack Walrath, Ralph Peterson, Frank Lacy, Duane Eubanks and others. He teaches saxophone, flute and clarinet at the Fort Lee School of Music.

Joining Yokley @exuberance are musicians well-known to Philadelphia audiences.

Zaccai Curtis has memorably played this venue with his brother Luques and with Ralph Peterson’s Triangular III trio. An inventive and percussive pianist, Zaccai is a brilliant composer and arranger, as evidenced by the spectacular Completion of Proof. He is cofounder of the Truth Revolution recording collective and recipient of a 2017 New Jazz Works grant from Chamber Music America. 

Mike Boone might be the best known jazz musician in our town—his bass the stalwart foundation for innumerable ensembles, including his own. Stands with his quartet including drummer son Mekhi at Smalls in New York are legendary. He has appeared @exuberance with both Sumi Tonooka and Uri Caine. Besides his peripatetic performance schedule, he teaches at Temple’s Boyer College of Music.

Wayne Smith Jr. is a Philadelphia native who, having finished studies at Berklee, began playing with the likes of Donald Byrd, Orrin Evans, Duane Eubanks, John Ellis, Stacy Dillard and Bootsie Barnes. He is co-founder of Three Blind Mice with Victor North and Lucas Brown. Now in New York, he helms the Wayne Smith Quintet and plays regularly with George Burton and the Sun Ra Arkestra.

@exuberance parties at Matt’s are by invitation only to provide a dignified, comfortable and acoustically ideal setting for worthwhile art and ideas. Cellphones and other devices are to be holstered during the performances. Between sets, conviviality rules.