*THERE ARE TWO 70 MINUTES SETS*
FIRST SET 8.30pm – 9.45pm
SECOND ADDITIONAL SET 10.05pm – 11.20pm
Line Up –
Ben Wendel – Saxophone
Aaron Parks – Piano
Gilad Hekselman – Guitar
Matt Brewer – Bass
Kendrick Scott – Drums
This is a performance with a great story and commitment! And thus we shall have an unforgettable night of music.
In 2015, Grammy nominated and award-winning saxophonist, bassoonist, composer Ben Wendel released a music-video art project entitled The Seasons ‘” inspired by a set of twelve piano pieces written and release each month by Tchaikovsky in 1876. Wendel’s modern take on the idea was to compose and release twelve original jazz chamber duets in video format on YouTube with modern luminaries Joshua Redman, Luciana Souza, Eric Harland, Julian Lage, and Ambrose Akinmusire, among others. As the videos garnered acclaim among social networks, the project became an unexpected word of mouth success and was featured prominently in The New York Times (Best of 2015), NPR’s All Things Considered, and the CBC.
In 2016, After viewing an expressionist painting by Lee Krasner at The Whitney Museum entitled ‘The Seasons,’ Wendel decided to expand upon the original duets project by reimagining the arrangements for a five-piece ensemble comprised of musicians and dear friends from The Seasons ‘” Aaron Parks (piano), Gilad Hekselman (guitar), Matt Brewer (bass) and Kendrick Scott (drums). And this is the line-up that we see here tonight. A privilege to have such an all star line-up of many friends of the club on one night.
The Seasons album was released on Motéma Music in October 2018 to critical acclaim.
Wendel has enjoyed a varied career as a performer, composer and producer, including tours with artists such as Ignacio Berroa, Tigran Hamasyan, Antonio Sanchez, Gerald Clayton, Eric Harland, Taylor Eigsti, Snoop Dogg and the artist formerly known as Prince. Wendel is also a founding member of the Grammy Award nominated group Kneebody. As a composer, he has received an ASCAP Jazz Composer Award, the 2008, 2011 and 2017 Chamber Music America ‘New Works Grant’ and most recently was awarded the Victor Lynch-Staunton award and the Concept to Realization grant by the Canada Council For The Arts. He also co-wrote the score for John Krasinski’s adaptation of David Foster Wallace’s, Brief Interviews With Hideous Men.
With his technical fluency, strategic melodic thinking and cleanly dusted tone, Wendel has become an idol to an entire generation of young tenor saxophone students.
The New York Times
Those who wish to be called creative musicians should actually create music, and hardly no one has done that better recently than Ben Wendel . . .
LA Weekly
‘The Seasons,’ a vividly imagined collection of duets by the saxophonist and bassoonist Ben Wendel, was one of the standout jazz records of 2015. But it was never released in album form, and took the entire year to hear in full . . . For the project, Mr. Wendel cast a wide net, creating what amounted to his own cross-sectional portrait of the modern jazz mainstream.
The New York Times