|  Vanguard Jazz Orchestra
Friday, September 11, 8:00 p.m., $20
The unbroken four-decade legacy of Monday night summits at New York’s Village Vanguard, begun by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, draws together some of the city’s finest session players for smart and compelling orchestrations of great jazz music.
Fresh from their 2009 Grammy award for Monday Night Live at the Village Vanguard and their headlining gig at this summer’s Tanglewood Jazz Festival, the current lineup includes Williams Center veterans Terell Stafford, Scott Wendholt, Ralph LaLama, Gary Smulyan, Luis Bonilla, and Douglas Purviance.
Join us for this 23rd annual Easton Jazz Festival, presented in partnership with the Boys and Girls Club of Easton.
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Overtone Quartet: Dave Holland, Chris Potter, Jason Moran, Eric Harland
Thursday, October 8, 8:00 p.m., $22
In the world of jazz, bassist Dave Holland has few equals as composer and bandleader, gathering extraordinary players and entrusting them with space to create. With the Overtone Quartet, an “ensemble of equals,” he steps back from his role as leader to join three collaborators of comparable artistic bent—longtime bandmate saxophonist Chris Potter, heralded young pianist Jason Moran, and drummer Eric Harland—for what promises to be a great performance.
The Boston Globe praised their Newport Jazz Festival performance: “More than the range of influences these four can tap, which is immense, it’s the in-the-moment interplay and improvisation that comes close to state-of-the-art,” and NPR praised “this supergroup’s [skill] with angular, thoroughly modern originals.”
WDIY 88.1 FM, Lehigh Valley Community Public Radio, is our media partner for this concert.
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 Paquito D'Rivera
Saturday, February 13, 8:00 p.m., $20
Cuban-born musical pioneer Paquito D'Rivera has garnered every major award in jazz, including the NEA Jazz Masters Award and the National Medal of Arts (both in 2005), numerous Grammies, and an astonishing series of collaborations with many of the greatest figures in music.
His breakout partnerships with Dizzy Gillespie and the original “United Nations” bands in the 1980s solidified the Afro-Cuban pulse of musical spirit that continues to undergird mainstream American jazz.
Following guest appearances at Lafayette with the Mario Bauza Orchestra (1998) and the Turtle Island String Quartet (2002), D’Rivera returns with his Quintet (first heard at Lafayette in 1992), featuring Diego Urcola on trumpet, Alex Brown on piano, Oscar Stagnaro on bass, and Mark Walker on drums. |
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 Anat Cohen
Wednesday, March 10, 8:00 p.m., $18
Israeli-born clarinetist/saxophonist Anat Cohen arrived on the New York jazz scene in 1999 in full stride. With an artistic palette extending from Brazilian choro and Afro-Cuban tunes to Middle Eastern rhythmic figures, Cohen combines traditional jazz with an intoxicating array of world music. Her most recent recording, Notes From The Village, captures the thrilling energy of her live shows with pianist Jason Lindner, bassist Joe Martin, and drummer Daniel Freedman.
Her recordings Noir and Poetica, released simultaneously in April 2007, inspired a string of enthusiastic reviews. The Washington Post said, “Cohen has emerged as one of the brightest, most original young instrumentalists in jazz, expanding the vocabulary of jazz with a distinctive accent of her own.” The Village Voice spoke of her “enviable insouciance” and Down Beat wrote, “[Cohen’s] stately intonation and unforced elegance on clarinet could take her to the top.”
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