Charlie Hunter Trio

Sunday, January 25
at The Blue Note

Born in Rhode Island and raised in the Bay Area, innovative guitarist Charlie Hunter has continued to surprise, engage and enthrall audiences since he arrived on the scene in 1993. Two years later, Blue Note Records signed the bourgeoning musician who had performed on the streets of Europe and in San Francisco and Berkeley, Calif., and issued Bing, Bing, Bing. An energetic and searching improviser, Hunter, who makes his first “We Always Swing” Jazz Series appearance this season with his trio, has, at last count, something close to 20 recordings to his name.

"Through his years on the Blue Note and Ropeadope labels, the terrific guitarist with the undeterred interest in both rockadelic high jinks and braniac abstraction has found one thing he can't do without. Whether playing arranged duets with Leon Parker (Calypso For Grandpa) or inventing instantaneous ditties with Bobby Previte (Up There), he prioritizes the groove."
—Jim Macnie, Downbeat

• Learn More
• Artist's Website

Vanguard Jazz Orchestra

Wednesday, February 18
at The Missouri Theatre

When trumpeter Thad Jones and drummer Mel Lewis, two veteran New York musicians, joined forces in 1965 to form their co-led, namesake orchestra, no one could have known that some 43 years later the group would, in essence, still be together and stand as one of jazz’s great institutions. What began as a “one-off” Monday night club date in the mid-60s at jazz’s most revered basement – The Village Vanguard – has never stopped and in fact continues to this day.

Understandably there have been many changes – in leaders, in personnel, even in the music – but the band’s original intent, its spirit and some of the original charts remain ever-present. Jones, a magnificent trumpeter and composer of such now-standards as “A Child is Born,” eventually left the band and unfortunately passed away in 1986. Lewis carried the torch under his own name until he passed away in 1990.

"There probably isn't a big band in the country that can rival the bullish precision of this one...Not only is the clockwork impeccable, but it takes risks, commissions new pieces, and has exceptional soloists in every section."
— The Village Voice

• Learn More
• Artist's Website

Jamie Baum Septet

Somewhere between modern jazz and 20th Century/21st Century classical music leanings is where we find flutist, composer, arranger and bandleader Jamie Baum. During the course of her two-decade career, Baum has been involved with a myriad of ensembles – both as a leader and side person. This current Baum effort, a tremendously ambitious one, primarily performs the flutist’s original jazz compositions and arrangements as a septet.

Since she arrived on the scene in the early 1980s, Baum has impressed audiences, musicians and critics alike with her inventive, finely crafted compositions demonstrating a commanding and atypical approach to the flute as a lead instrument. Originally from Connecticut, Baum has been New York City-based for quite some time during which she has worked with and along side the full range of accomplished artists such as: Randy Brecker, John Abercrombie, Donald Brown, Kenny Werner, Fred Hersch, Kenny Barron, Tom Harrell, Dave Douglas and Billy Hart among others.

"The new album is a septet outing that flaunts modern classical touches while stressing swing and improvisation. The flutist-composer likes to have her cake and eat it, too; her very capable crew is a group that makes this graceful music truly zing."
— Village Voice

• Learn More
• Artist's Website

Blue Note “70th Anniversary Tour”

Thursday, March 19
at The Missouri Theatre

The motto printed on all of its 78-inch, LP and now CD releases is “The finest in jazz since 1939.” That was the year Alfred Lion launched Blue Note Records, which remains jazz’s most storied label today. In fact, in June, the Jazz Journalists Association – an industry-peer body – named it as the 2008 “Label of the Year.”

Lion was soon joined by Francis Wolff, a photographer by trade who caught the last boat out of Nazi-controlled Germany bound for the United States. For 30 years the two recorded and documented the best jazz had to offer. Everything Blue Note Records produced – from the record covers to the lettering and graphics to the recordings themselves
was immediately identifiable – and often imitated.

• Learn More
• Artist's Website