Tuesday, June 2

Tuesday in the Plaza

Montclair Women’s Big Band

Ellen Seering, director
Featuring Denise Perrier

Healdsburg Historic Plaza
Healdsburg Ave. at Matheson St.

Date: Tuesday, June 2
Time: 6 – 8 pm
Free public event Underwritten by Howard & Barbara Wollner of the Kismet Fund

“One of the most formidable new jazz ensembles, male or female, on the West Coast. This is premium-grade big band jazz.” – All About Jazz

The sight of 17 women swinging is a powerful thing. For veteran trumpeter Ellen Seeling, that’s exactly the point of the Montclair Women’s Big Band. Featuring a cast of top-flight soloists and a potent book of big band standards, the group was created to showcase some of the region’s most prodigious female jazz players.

The MWBB cemented its status as a world-class jazz ensemble with the release of its self-named debut CD. Recorded at George Lucas’s state-of-the-art Skywalker Sound in Marin County, the CD was engineered by two-time Grammy winner Leslie Ann Jones, the Skywalker studio’s legendary scoring department manager. Focusing on standards and classic jazz compositions, the album captures the band’s swaggering power.

In addition to Seeling and co-director/saxophonist Jean Fineberg (whose credits range  from David Bowie to Dizzy Gillespie), the orchestra boasts heavyweight talents such as pianist Tammy Hall, alto saxophonist Sonya Jason, and trumpeter Christy Dana. And vocalist Denise Perrier adds her lusty lungs to this dynamic performance. Above all the MWBB’s mission is to swing, and the orchestra delivers a brassy, blues-drenched wallop, adding a strong feel for Latin grooves to a book redolent of Count Basie and Thad Jones.

» Visit Montclair Women’s Big Band on the web

5:30 Pre-concert event: Get there early to see the popular annual performance of Tacuma King and the Children’s Percussion Workshop in the Healdsburg Plaza.

» Return to Complete Schedule

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Billy Higgins Legacy Band

Featuring Azar Lawrence and Henry “the Skipper” Franklin

Palette Art Café
235 Healdsburg Ave.

Time: 8 – 11 pm
Tickets:  No cover

This after-plaza session  is a perfect way for jazz lovers to celebrate the music, as the Billy Higgins Legacy band evokes the great jazz drummer’s spirit with Azar Lawrence on sax, Henry  Franklin on bass line, and Myron Cohen on drums.

A regular at the World Stage, the performance space in Los Angeles’s Crenshaw District that Billy Higgins turned into an invaluable jazz outpost, Azar Lawrence is an ideal person to lead a band celebrating the legacy of the late, beloved drummer. Like Higgins, Lawrence hails from LA. He first gained attention at 19 playing at a southside club with drummer Otis “Candy” Finch, and before long he was working with Ike & Tina Turner, the Watts 103rd St. Band, and War.

He joined the jazz big leagues when Elvin Jones hired him for what turned out to be a two-year run. Lawrence was one of the most sought after saxophonists of the 70’s, a passionate, spiritually charged improviser who recorded a series of classic albums with Jones, McCoy Tyner and Miles Davis.

While many people thought he had dropped out of music, he spent the 80’s and 90’s working as a producer and songwriter, for instance collaborating with Maurice White on several tunes featured on the hit Earth Wind & Fire album “Powerlight.”

For his Healdsburg performance he’s joined by drummer Myron Cohen and veteran bassist Henry “The Skipper” Franklin, a big man with a huge sound sought after by everyone from Freddie Hubbard, Hampton Hawes and Count Basie to Hugh Masekela (”Grazin’ In the Grass”) and Stevie Wonder (”The Secret Life of Plants”).

» Visit Azar Lawrence’s  website

» Return to Complete Schedule

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