Wednesday, November 8, 6:00 PM
Taos Country Club
Red-Hot & Red
Jazz Native Americans– back by popular demand!
Steve Figueroa- piano, Milo Jaramillo- bass,
Louis Speaking Eagle, drums
FREE! Donations gratefully accepted.
They're back! And they'll put the festival into high gear on night one.
It's going to be a memorable night! The setting is Taos Country Club, where guests can drink and dine in very classy surroundings.
The band was a knock-out when they opened the Festival in 2021. We fully expect them to do it again!
Playing a tasty blend of classic jazz– spiced by Latin and sauced with R&B, the band is led by Steve Figueroa, the superb pianist from Laguna Pueblo. Rounding out the group are the groovy bassist Milo Jaramillo from Isleta Pueblo, and swinging drummer Louis Speaking Eagle, from the Zapotec Nation.
FREE Opening Night Show! RESERVE Starting October 26.
Night Two– Welcoming a Special Guest from Japan
Thursday, November 9, 7:30 PM
Taos Center for the Arts
Taos Festival Allstars
With Special Guest– pianist Tadataka Unno
Doug Lawrence, tenor sax; John Webber, bass; Jerome Jennings, drums
$30 / $25 (Taos Jazz Bebop Society members)
World-class jazz colleagues invite an old friend for a brilliant night of jazz.
Doug Lawrence is known world-wide as the lead tenor saxophonist with the legendary Count Basie Orchestra. His enveloping sound and magnetic performance style have been thrilling audiences for many decades. Doug has worked with a veritable “who’s who of jazz”, including Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Jimmy Cobb, and Joey DeFrancesco. These days he tours and records with such top names as George Cables, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Peter Bernstein, Billie Eilish, Jerry Weldon and Steve Jordan. John Webber, bassist, has had long-running collaborations with Johnny Griffin, George Coleman, Eric Alexander and Jimmy Cobb– and performed with Etta Jones, Horace Silver, Milt Jackson, Brad Mehldau, and many others. Jerome Jennings is a drummer, activist, bandleader, sideman, and Emmy Award-winning composer. He has performed, toured and recorded with legendary musicians Sonny Rollins, Hank Jones, Gerald Wilson, Christian McBride, Ron Carter, George Cables, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis (Jazz@Lincoln Center), and The Count Basie Orchestra, among many others.
Night Two brings together three world-class jazz artists who have been featured in previous Taos Jazz festivals– Doug Lawrence, tenor sax; John Webber, bass; Jerome Jennings, drums–and an exciting guest artist, Tadataka Unno.
Tadataka Unno is Japan’s most famous jazz pianist. He first came to international prominence while being mentored by two of the greatest jazz piano legends– Hank Jones and George Cables. Soon after, he joined the legendary Jimmy Cobb Quartet and recorded and toured the world with the master drummer. Unno has toured and recorded with a great many of the biggest names in jazz including with trumpeter Roy Hargrove for the last two years of Mr. Hargrove’s life.
This will be a rare performance in the USA for Tada. Since he experienced a brutal assault in Harlem in 2020, he has been reluctant to visit the US. But when his mentor George Cables (who was originally scheduled to play) had to cancel, Tada happily agreed to replace him. We feel fortunate and honored to have him. We hope it will be a healing experience for him to take a star turn with old friends in Taos.
2023 FRANK MORGAN TAOS JAZZ FESTIVAL– November 8-11
Taos Country Club, 54 Golf Course Dr, Ranchos De Taos, NM
Night Three– Guitar Magic
Friday, november 10, 7:30 PM
Harwood
Dave Stryker Quartet
"an urban tale spinner, a sharp stylist…a storyteller in sound of the highest degree." –JAZZ TIMES
With Bob Fox, piano; Terry Burns, bass; John Trentacosta, drums
$30 / $24 (Taos Jazz Bebop Society & Harwood members)
“I’ve followed Dave Stryker since his early days... he just gets better and better, with one of the most joyous feels around.” – Pat Metheny
Dave Stryker began his career playing gigs in Harlem with the soulful organist Jack McDuff. There he met Stanley Turrentine, which led to a nine year run, touring the world with Turrentine. Over his career Stryker has performed with such jazz greats as Dizzy Gillespie and Freddie Hubbard, Jimmy Smith, James Moody, Jimmy Heath Eliane Elias, Joe Lovano and many others. Stryker’s band spent the summer of 2022 touring as the opener for Steely Dan. Recent gigs have included Birdland, The Blue Note, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and tours of Europe, Canada and Japan.
Pianist Bob Fox and bassist Terry Burns are actually two of the other band-members with Stryker in the Stanley Turrentine band, so their performance in the Frank Morgan Taos Jazz Festival will be a reunion concert and sure to be an emotional one for the band.
Drummer John Trentacosta will hold it down with his characteristic classy style.
“Guitarist / composer Dave Stryker possesses golden tone, urgent style, and the kind of heated technique that can blow the roof off any gig. " – Ken Micallef, JAZZ TIMES
Festival Final Night!
saturday, november 11, 7:30 PM
taos center for the arts
Grace Kelly
She's back for another star turn– with more musical surprises from her exciting, expanding career.
With Adam Bravo, piano & synth; Cooper Appelt, acoustic & electric bass; Anthony Fung, drums
$30 / $25 (Taos Jazz Bebop Society & Harwood members)
“Grace Kelly has an electric charisma onstage that instantly ignites the room”
– Jon Batiste
Saxophonist-singer-songwriter-composer-band leader Grace Kelly is a one-of-a-kind talent with an enormous and ever-expanding range. In fact you might even say she's "genre-fluid.” Her interests have so many offshoots– from classic jazz to electro-pop, to classy ballads with strings– that she can't be pinned down.
Touted for her scorching alto sax stylings and purring vocals, Grace has performed and recorded with renowned artists including Lin Manuel- Miranda, Dave Brubeck, Lee Konitz, Phil Woods, Huey Lewis, Harry Connick Jr., Gloria Estefan, Questlove, Jon Batiste and Wynton Marsalis. As a solo artist Grace has rocked the jazz world with sold-out concerts, 14 acclaimed albums and a resumé that includes performing at the Hollywood Bowl as well as being part of the house band for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” – all before reaching her mid-20s.
This summer she was named "Rising Star on the Baritone Sax" by Downbeat, no doubt due to her baritone sax collaborations with Leo P. in their innovative online "Saxy School.” Her knock-out performances with The Fearless Flyers, an offshoot of the Vulfpeck band, also rocked the bari-sax world.
Grace's upcoming project, “At The Movies: Grace Kelly with Strings”, features a fifteen-piece string ensemble inspired by “Charlie Parker with Strings.” She gives her favorite movie music (Disney Medley, Back To The Future, etc.) as well as songs by legendary film composers (John Williams, Ennio Morricone) and contemporary artists like Billie Eilish (No Time To Die from the latest James Bond film) fresh new arrangements, fully merging it with her signature sound. She's thrilled to have two special guests, Sean Jones and Cory Wong on the recording.
In addition to working on the album and maintaining a busy touring schedule, Grace makes collaborative videos with internet stars like Mia (the violinist on many videos) and Alexander (singer, Eurovision star) This is her 9th annual appearance in the Taos Jazz Festival. We fully expect more surprises from Grace on November 11.
“A jazz innovator… Making jazz young” – BILLBOARD
“Charismatic and immensely talented… all the chops in the world.”
–DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE
The 2023 FrankMorgan Taos Jazz Festival is funded in part by the Richard B. Siegel Foundation, Taos County Lodger's Tax Fund, Kind World Foundation,
the Town of Taos, and supported by the Historic Taos Inn.