1/12/20:</br>Tamir Hendelman & Sean Jones
Duos might be the most exciting ensembles we present. That goes double for piano-trumpet duos. We have presented two memorable ones. Our Orrin Evans/Josh Lawrence duo in 2016 was revelatory. And while they had played many times together previously, never as a duo. Then there was Bruce Barth & Terell Stafford in 2017—two masters singing and swinging the night away. Duos offer interaction—2 musical personalities talking to and interacting with each other. But in a duo, both musicians are totally exposed—nowhere to hide. To me, that’s most exciting.
For our first salon of 2020, two more jazz masters meet:
Tamir Hendelman appeared here @exuberance in 2017. At that time, I called him a phenomenon—blistering technique, quick wit as an improvisor with profoundly refined pianism. Born in Tel Aviv, Tamir began studying piano at age 6. Almost four decades later, Tamir commands the high ground as composer, arranger, educator and performer.
Tamir famously drives the piano seats of the Jeff Hamilton Trio and the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra. He serves on UCLA’s jazz faculty. And he has burnished his career as the go-to arranger and accompanist for singers—Natalie Cole, Roberta Gambarini, Jackie Ryan and Barbara Streisand among them. As composer and leader, Tamir guides his own trio and has produced 2 acclaimed albums.
Sean Jones picked up the trumpet at the age of 10 in Warren, Ohio. He played lead trumpet in the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra for six years, followed by a three-year stint with the SFJAZZ Collective. Over his career, Sean has recorded and/or performed with Illinois Jacquet, Jimmy Heath, Frank Foster, Nancy Wilson, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Wilson, Marcus Miller, Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter among others. I’ve been spellbound by him in blistering sets with Orrin Evans. He has recorded eight albums for Mack Avenue. Once brass chair at Berklee, he now heads jazz studies at Johns Hopkins’ Peabody Institute in Baltimore. Chairman of Jazz is an apt moniker for Sean Jones.
Sean and Tamir promise a program of originals and meditations on Miles Davis. Musicians of this caliber cannot disappoint, and we are beyond proud to present them. Grab your seat now for what should be a standing-room-only evening.
@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.