Akua Dixon At Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival

It's not as if there were ever clear paths for cello players beyond the European classical tradition, but Akua Dixon made one for herself. The New York City native found work in the pit band of the Apollo Theater, the multi-racial Symphony of the New World, and the bands of many jazz musicians — including drummer Max Roach's Double Quartet. As she developed her jazz chops, she also started her own string quartet, featured prominently on her new self-titled album. Akua Dixon also features her crafty arranging for strings over jazz standards and Afro-Latin grooves.

Jazz Night In America visits Sistas' Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn — a year-round venue which also helps to present an annual month-long grassroots festival in the heavily African-American neighborhood — to take in Akua Dixon's performance at the Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival. In addition to the string ensemble featured on her latest album, Dixon is also joined by her two children: vocalist Andromeda Turre and drummer Orion Turre.

read more at: https://www.npr.org/event/music/401349210/akua-dixon-at-central-brooklyn-jazz-festival

Akua Dixon At Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival

April 22, 2015 • It's not as if there were ever clear paths for cello players beyond the European classical tradition, but Akua Dixon made one for herself. The New York City native found work in the pit band of the Apollo Theater, the multi-racial Symphony of the New World, and the bands of many jazz musicians — including drummer Max Roach's Double Quartet. As she developed her jazz chops, she also started her own string quartet, featured prominently on her new self-titled album. Akua Dixon also features her crafty arranging for strings over jazz standards and Afro-Latin grooves.

Jazz Night In America visits Sistas' Place in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn — a year-round venue which also helps to present an annual month-long grassroots festival in the heavily African-American neighborhood — to take in Akua Dixon's performance at the Central Brooklyn Jazz Festival. In addition to the string ensemble featured on her latest album, Dixon is also joined by her two children: vocalist Andromeda Turre and drummer Orion Turre.

read more: http://www.npr.org/event/music/401349210/akua-dixon-at-central-brooklyn-jazz-festival

Institute of Jazz Studies

Photo by Ed Berger

Jazz Strings Concert Series
October 9, 2012 - 2 - 4 PM

Jamale Davis Group

Jamale Davis, bass

Bassist Jamale Davis, born and raised in Irvington, New Jersey, is one of the up and coming bassists active on the New York/New Jersey jazz scene. Paying his dues and learning his craft in well respected jazz spots such as Smalls, Arthur's Tavern, The Garage, Skippers, and Little Branch, Jamale has had the privilege of playing and learning from some of the top jazz musicians. Getting his start in the Jazz Mosaic Ensemble at Rutgers - Newark (led by Newark legend Leo Johnson), Jamel Davis has become one of the featured jazz bassists around Newark, New Jersey, where he currently resides.

Jazz Strings Concert Series
November 13, 2012 - 2 - 4 M

Aaron Weinstein with Warren Vaché

Violinist Aaron Weinstein was named a "rising star violinist" by Downbeat magazine and is quickly earning a reputation as one of the finest contemporary jazz violinists. As a featured soloist, he has performed at Carnegie Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, Wolftrap Center for the Performing Arts, Birdland, Blue Note the Iridium, and abroad at jazz festivals in England, France, Switzerland, Iceland and Israel. Aaron has performed and recorded with an array of jzzz icons including: Les Paul, Bucky Pizzarelli, John Pizzarelli, Scott Hamilton, Dick Hyman, Dave Frishberg, Ken Peplowski, Houston Person, Jon Hendricks, and Annie Ross, as well as New York Pops founder/conductor Skitch Henderson. He has written arrangements for a number of artists including Janis Siegel, Michael Feinstein, Billy Stritch and Hilary Kole. Aaron is a New York Nightlife Award winner and a recent graduate of the Berklee College of Music where he was awarded a full four-year, talent-based scholarship.

Trumpeter Warren Vaché is a supremely accomplished, versatile and rare performer. He has been astounding audiences worldwide for decades with his superb cornet, trumpet and flugelhorn stylings. Through live performances and recordings, along with stage, screen, radio and television appearances, Warren conveys incredible warmth through his burnished tone and intelligent improvisations.
He has performed and recorded with such luminaries as: Benny Goodman, Rosemary Clooney, Benny Carter, Hank Jones, Gerry Mulligan, Woody Herman, Ruby Braff and Bobby Short to name but a few. He can also be found in the company of such leading contemporaries as: Phil Woods, Jon Faddis, Terrell Stafford, Howard Alden, Jessie Davis, Alvin Queen, Brian Lemon, Tony Coe, Alan Barnes, Richard Wyands, Bill Charlap, Harry Allen, John Allred and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra...the list is a virtual "Who's who" in Jazz, spanning every style in the history of the music.
Warren Vaché has performed at every major jazz venue and festival throughout the globe from club dates at Condon's and the Blue Note to the Newport Jazz Festival, the North Sea Jazz Festival and Perugia in Italy, including concerts at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, The Vienna Opera, and the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Jazz Strings Concert Series
March 12, 2013, 2:00 - 4:00 PM

Akua Dixon - cellist

Akua Dixon is a native of New York City. A graduate of the High School of Performing Arts, she studied cello with Benar Heifetz and composition with Rudolf Schramm. Akua studied bass concepts with Reggie Workman and Jazz Practice Techniques with Jimmy Owens at the Collective Black Artists Institution of Education. She is the 1998 recipient of "The African American Classical Music Award," given by the Northern New Jersey Spelman Alumnae Association. Among the many noted artists that she has performed with, a few are: Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton, Maz Roach, Betty Carter, Ray Charles and Tony Bennett. She has been engaged at many Broadway shows, including Doonesbury, Barnum, Cats and Dreamgirls. Akua performs nationally and internationally at concert halls and colleges, public schools and libraries; at jazz festivals in Chicago, Hawaii, Berlin, St.Lucia, Tri-Sea, North Sea, Pori, Saalfelden, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Martinique, Guadaloupe and San Diego. Her music for string quartet has been featured on an eight country, 26-concert tour of Europe and Scandinavia.