Gregory Tardy, Boris Koslov, Clarence Penn, and Alex Norris

975 East McMillan Street,Cincinnati OH 45206

10 September, 2022

Description

Jazz Vivace proudly presents this wonderful ensemble as part of the 2022 Fall Jazz Series. Set 1: 7:00 pm - 8:15 pm | Set 2: 9:00 pm - 10:15 pm - Sold Separately Born into a musical family, Gregory Tardy began his musical career studying classical clarinet. In high school, Gregory excelled in music, winning many awards and scholarship offers. While studying with renowned clarinetists Russell Dagon and Jack Snavely, Tardy began preparing for a symphony career. Over time, he began to be asked to play saxophone, to fill in missing gaps in various ensembles. Although he never practiced the saxophone seriously, Tardy began getting calls to play local funk gigs in the Milwaukee area. At the prodding of his older brother, Tardy finally listened to the duo recording of John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk playing “Monk’s Mood”, and then immediately determined to be a jazz musician. His passion for the saxophone took over his studies and soon his clarinet was gathering dust. At this time, he moved to St. Louis and after a year of performing on the jazz and blues scene, he decided to move back to his birthplace, New Orleans, in order to focus his jazz studies even further. “This proved to be a great move”, Tardy says. “ There were all of these outstanding players down there-many of which went on to be well known, like Nicholas Payton, Brian Blade, Victor Goines, Mark Turner, Delfeayo and Jason Marsalis, and far too many others to mention. Many, like I, came to study with Ellis Marsalis; some were just hanging out. It was there that I really started to get my playing together.” While in New Orleans, Tardy also played with some of the local brass bands and did some gigging with the Neville Brothers, Allen Toussaint, and groups of all styles. But he never stopped pursuing jazz. In 1992, Tardy recorded his first solo project, Crazy Love. 1992 is also the year that he was picked up by Elvin Jones Jazz Machine, a relationship that lasted several years. During the time with the legendary Elvin Jones, Tardy felt that it was finally time to move to the Big Apple. In New York, he went on to perform and record with an extremely large array of prominent artists including Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas, Wynton Marsalis, Jay McShann, Steve Coleman, Betty Carter, James Moody, Bill Frisell, Rashied Ali, John Patitucci, and many more. In 1999, Tardy began to play in various bands led by the great Andrew Hill; a relationship that lasted many years and produced several highly acclaimed recordings. He has also performed and/or recorded alongside many other notable saxophonists, such as Joe Lovano, Mark Turner, Chris Potter, Dewey Redman, Ravi Coltrane, and many others. In more recent years, Tardy has gone full circle, bringing his clarinet out of retirement, using it on recordings by Tom Harrell, Ohad Talmor/Steve Swallow, Stefon Harris, Chris Potter, and Andrew Hill. Two-time Grammy Award-winning acoustic and electric bassist, composer, and arranger, Boris Kozlov has been on New York and international jazz scene for the past 20 years. Currently serving as a Bassist, Arranger, and Musical Director for Mingus Big Band, Mingus Dynasty, and The Orchestra, as well as leading his own projects, he has also been a first-call bassist for such important jazz acts as Michael Brecker, John Blake, Ray Barretto's New World Spirit, Lew Tabackin, David Kikoski, Alex Sipiagin, Jean-Michel Pilc, and many others. Boris Kozlov was born in Moscow, USSR on December 5, 1967. Having a chance to go to Children's Music School to study piano for 7 years, he fell in love with the bass and won the Gnesin Music Academy competition to enter college at the age of 15 on electric bass guitar. While being influenced by rock and classical music, he took interest in jazz at 17 and went on to study acoustic bass with a notable bassist Anatoly Sobolev. Upon graduation in 1987 with a Diploma of Honor at the age of 19, he served mandatory 2 years in the Soviet Army, where he had to play tuba and other brass instruments besides basses in the military band. Once out of the Army, he was hired by the State-owned 'Melodia' Studio Ensemble in 1989 and proceeded to record more than 40 albums with them as well as many other Soviet jazz artists. At the same time, he continued his studies at The State Academy of Music. At the First USSR Competition of Jazz Soloists in 1990, he won The Grand Prix as well as a special prize for his original composition. After winning the first spot in the Young Musician category in USSR Jazz Journal in 1991 he moved to New York. Clarence Penn is one of the busiest jazz drummers in the world, a leader of multiple bands, a composer, a prolific producer, and an educator. Since 1991, when he arrived in New York City, Penn has placed his unique blend of mega-chops, keen intellect, and heady musicianship at the service of a staggering array of A-list artists—a chronological short-list includes Ellis and Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Stanley Clarke, Steps Ahead, Makoto Ozone, Michael Brecker, Dave Douglas, Maria Schneider, Luciana Souza, Richard Galliano, and Fourplay. Penn’s impressive discography includes several hundred studio albums (including the Grammy-winning recordings 34th and Lex by Randy Brecker and Concert in the Garden and Sky Blue by Maria Schneider) representing a 360-spectrum of jazz expression, and he’s toured extensively throughout the United States, the Americas, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia. He’s composed music for films and commercials, and produced tracks for numerous singers in the pop and alternative arenas. He earned a “Ten Best of 1997” accolade from the New York Times for his first leader recording, Penn’s Landing. A graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he was a protégé of Ellis Marsalis, Penn is active as an educator and drum clinician. From 2004 to 2012, he taught on the faculty of the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music. He’s also served on faculty at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the Saint Louis College of Music in Rome, Italy, and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Intensive Jazz Institute. Penn currently leads several ensembles. His most recent “rhythmically intoxicating” recording is 2014’s “Monk The Lost Files” arrangements of the music of Thelonious Monk. Released on the Origin record label an amazing quartet comprising saxophonist Chad Leftkowitz-Brown, Pianist Gerald Clayton/Donald Vega, and bassist Yasushi Nakamura performing the music of Thelonius Monk with today’s modern jazz sensibility. Near completion is a “world music” studio project of songs and instrumentals that melds background voices—including his own—with a world-class band. Whether Penn is leading his own band or performing as a sideman, he brings to the table unfailing versatility and professionalism, an ability to find creative ways to interpret a global array of styles and idioms, and a stated intention “to play music that’s warm and organic for the people and for myself.” Alex Norris grew up in Columbia, Md. where he began studying music at the age of 9. After graduating high school he received a scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music to study trumpet. He graduated from the Conservatory in 1990. In 1992, Norris moved to New York City to pursue a career as a jazz trumpeter. Here, he found work with the Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Toshiko Akiyoshi's Jazz Orchestra, and Maria Schneider's Band. From 1994-1998, Norris was a member of Betty Carter's Jazz Ahead, becoming musical director in 1998; the final year of Carter's life. Norris has also performed and recorded extensively in the bands of Lonnie Plaxico, Jason Lindner, and Ralph Irizarry's Timbalaye. Norris has worked with many noted jazz musicians such as Slide Hampton, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Chris Potter, Carl Allen, John Patitucci, Mulgrew Miller, and Brian Blade. Norris is very active in Afro-Cuban jazz, as well, having worked with Andy and Jerry González, Manny Oquendo, Paquito D’Rivera, and Chico O’Farril. $10 drink minimum charged per person in the party, per set, if the total for beverages purchased by the party does not meet the minimum. Important Notices: If you do not check in by 15 minutes into the start of the set, we reserve the right to resale your seats with no refund to you.There are no refunds within 24 hours of the start of the performance.Seats are sold by the table, or by individual stools. Please check the map below for details about the location of the tables. For larger parties, please call (513) 601-9897 and leave a message and we will do our best to accommodate a custom arrangement.