Edward Wilkerson Jr., Vincent Chancey, Brian Smith and Ronnie Burrage to highlight portoluz “Jazz on a Summer’s Day”, Sunday July 24th

 

Summer tours will create a rare super group in this exclusive-to-Lakeside concert. Audience members will have an opportunity to witness four major “A-list” jazz musicians who are coming together for the first time. These seasoned musicians will be performing in various combinations; playing improvised music and the artists original compositions in the 75 minute performance.

Featured on the program are Vincent Chancey and Ronnie Burrage from New York City and Edward Wilkerson Jr. and Brian Smith from Chicago. All artists have impressive résumés that read like a Who’s Who of Jazz. With the last giants of the golden era of jazz passing on to glory, these artists who came of age in the 1970’s and 80’s are assuming the mantle of the elder statesmen of the art form.

 Vincent Chancey French Horn and Composer
Over the past 25 years Chancey has built a solid reputation as an accomplished french horn player, performing in a wide variety of musical contexts. He first came to prominence as a regular member of the Sun Ra Arkestra in the late 1970’s. After he worked for six years with the Carla Bley Band, in 1984, he joined Lester Bowie’s Brass. For many years, he has also been part of the David Murray Big Band. Elsewhere he has played with Chick Corea, Cassandra Wilson, Shirley Horn, Randy Weston, The Gil Evans Orchestra and The Mingus Orchestra. In the Contemporary Classical idiom, he has worked with Guus Janssen on varied projects in The Netherlands as well as become an accomplished composer in his own right.

Edward L. Wilkerson, Jr is an internationally recognized American jazz composer, arranger, musician, and educator based in Chicago. As founder and director of the cutting edge octet, 8 Bold Souls, and the 25 member performance ensemble, Shadow Vignettes, Wilkerson has toured festivals and concert halls throughout the United States, Europe, Japan, and the Middle East. Defender, a large-scale piece for Shadow Vignettes, was commissioned by the Lila Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fund and featured in the 10th Anniversary of New Music America, a presentation of BAM’s Next Wave Festival.

His music can be heard on fourteen recordings, including two film soundtracks and the critically acclaimed albums Birth of a Notion, and 8 Bold Souls, both on his own Sessoms Records label.

One of the great saxophone and clarinet players on the Chicago scene, Edward Wilkerson Jr.,  has been particularly associated with medium- to large-scale projects (somewhat daunting in an era when creative music bandleaders are challenged to keep even small ensembles together). He has also been a major presence in Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), teaching composition at the organization’s music school and serving for a time as AACM president.

Ronnie Burrage, Drummer. Burrage’s style draws elements from hard bop, bebop, funk, and soul. Burrage sang in the St. Louis Cathedral boys’ choir from age seven to eleven and performed with Duke Ellington at the age of nine. He was considered a child prodigy playing with  members of the St. Louis Metropolitan Jazz Quintet. At 17, Burrage moved to New York City and played with Sonny Fortune, Lester Bowie, Defunkt, Teruo Nakamura, Sir Roland Hanna, Major Holley, [Arthur Blythe]], Jackie McLean, Andrew Hill, and McCoy Tyner. He then cofounded Third Kind of Blue with John Purcell and Anthony Cox. Later work includes recordings with Defunkt, Abdullah Ibrahim,the World Saxophone Quartet to name just a few. Burrage played for several years with Wayne Shorter and is currently, Burrage is Producer and Artistic Director at Bluenoise Studio, Frederick, Maryland as well as Professor of Practice at The Pennsylvania State University

 Brian Smith, Bassist/Composer, studied bass extensively with Joseph Guastefeste (principal bassist of the Chicago Symphony.) Mr. Smith began studying privately conducting and composition briefly, with the late Ralph Shapey, later working under the tutorage with the late Hale Smith. Arriving in New York City in 1976, Mr. Smith composed and performed music for The Composers forum (NYC), The Dance Theater of Harlem, Thomas W. Buckner, The Ebony Ensemble, Northeastern Symphony and others. 

Smith has performed and recorded with many artists, including Anthony Braxton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Philly Joe Jones, Henry Threadgill, Sam Rivers Big Band, Lionel Hampton Big Band, Frank Foster Sextet, Fred Anderson, and Edward Wilkerson’s ensemble(s) to name a few. He has performed and been a member of the University of Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Civic Orchestra, Florida Symphony Orchestra, the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, Dance theater of Harlem in addition to several ensembles and bands in the New York Tri-State area.

In 1979, he founded and was musical director of the World Bass Viol Ensemble and The World Chamber Music Ensemble which he composed directed/conducted as well. Mr. Smith’s musical ideas sometimes find expression in unusual instrumental groupings, as evidenced by his 1988 work (dedicated to the late Maxwell Roach) MAX-ium for percussion ensemble (nine percussionists).  

 Support for the Jazz on a Summers Day series is generously provided by the Pokagon Fund, the Lakeside Inn and the LillStreet Art Center. Additional media support is provided by WHCR and WVPE.