News

The John Brown Quintet, which garnered national attention when its first CD reached number eight on the Jazz Week charts, will perform at the Davis Theatre Saturday, January 30, at 8 p.m.

The award-winning jazz group specializes in playing music from the time-honored Bebop and Hard Bop eras, bringing new life to some of the best-known classics of the Great American Songbook and also introducing original music.  The concert is part of the On Stage at the Davis series at the theatre located at 65 Union Street S, Concord, in Cabarrus County’s historic courthouse.

Tickets are $34.  Box office hours are 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday-Friday. Tickets may be purchased in person or by telephone at 704-920-2753.  Tickets also may be bought online at www.CabarrusArtsCouncil.org.

Quintet leader and bassist John Brown is director of the jazz program at Duke University and has also taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University and Guilford College.  He has performed in the United States and abroad with many jazz greats including Wynton Marsalis, Ellis Marsalis, Delfeayo Marsalis, Elvin Jones, Nnenna Freelon, Diahann Carroll, Rosemary Clooney, Nell Carter, Lou Donaldson, Slide Hampton, Nicholas Payton, Frank Foster, Larry Coryell, Cedar Walton, Fred Wesley and Mark Whitfield.  He was nominated for a Grammy for performing and co-writing Nnenna Freelon’s 1996 Shaking Free.  He has played at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center and at major jazz festivals such as the Montreal Jazz Festival.

The other four quintet members also have impressive resumes.  Trumpeter Ray Codrington has performed and recorded with Eddie Harris, the JFK Quintet, Larry Willis, Hugo Montinegro and Godfather II as his career has taken him to the famed Apollo Theater in New York, the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. and festivals and clubs all along the East Coast.  Saxophonist Brian Miller performed with the North Carolina Central University Jazz Band twice at the White House for President Bill Clinton, and the band has recorded his original composition, “Desmond Street.”  Pianist Gabe Evens has performed extensively in North Carolina, New England and Spain with artists like Nnenna Freeland, the Jimmy Dorsey Orchestra and Lois Deloatch.  Drummer Adonis Rose, who is one of New Orleans Magazine’s ”jazz all stars,” has played with some of the world’s most esteemed jazz artists, including Wynton Marsalis, Dianne Reeves and Harry Connick Jr.

All of this year’s performances in the On Stage at the Davis series have sold out early, so if you like jazz, make sure to buy your ticket to this show soon!

Filed under: Davis Theatre, On Stage at the Davis by admin