Sax – DCjazz

Halley Shoenberg

washingtondcjazz7 — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 21:50:41 +0000

Mastering sound and mood, Halley Shoenberg is an accomplished saxophone and clarinet player whose style is collected from several sources of jazz, theatre and popular music. From swinging originals to noted modern-era favorites, her intelligently inspired brand of music shines with unique clarity.

A multi-instrumentalist who plays clarinet, saxophone and flute, Shoenberg has produced three CD releases, Love Goes ‘Round, Someday, and Private Concert which include several of her original compositions. A native of Silver Spring, Maryland, Halley earned her Bachelor’s degree in Jazz Studies from Indiana University and Master’s in Arts Administration from Florida State University.

As leader of her own “Halley Shoenberg Jazz Quartet” and other ensembles, most recently adding the “Halley’s Hot Gumbo Swingtet,” her concert and festival presentations have won the hearts of jazz enthusiasts who demand master musicianship.

Past performances include the “Halley Shoenberg Octet” in concert at Strathmore Mansion and her bands at DC area festivals such as the Bethesda, MD Fine Arts Festival, Alexandria, VA Jazz Festival and the Silver Spring Swings concert series. As the clarinet soloist in DC’s premiere swing band, Halley is regularly featured on classic swing masterpieces and evening-long Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman tributes. She has played at major venues including the Kennedy Center, National Parks, at the Shenandoah Valley Music Festival and Blues Alley. Her Trio was featured in Worchester, MA at a live performance and broadcast for WICN Radio.

Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw, Buddy DeFranco, and Ken Peplowski influence her clarinet playing. Her saxophone style pays respect to Art Pepper, Lee Konitz, Charlie Parker, Lester Young and Stan Getz. Halley is also inspired by the legendary music of Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole and the Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Stan Kenton big bands.

Having intensely studied classical and jazz, she currently teaches private lessons to young clarinet and saxophone students in addition to performing. At Indiana University’s School of Music Halley studied with David Baker, Dominic Spera, James Campbell, Tom Walsh, Lynn Baker, J.B. Dyas and many more outstanding musician-teachers of performance, history, and composition. After graduation, Shoenberg served as intern in the Smithsonian’s jazz history department. During her arts administration graduate program at Florida State University, she performed and toured with the school’s award-winning jazz ensemble and interned at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

Based in Washington DC, her performances on saxophone in Rhapsody in Blue and the West Side Story Suite have been heard on tour in Germany with the Washington Symphony Orchestra. She has also performed traditional “Dixieland” jazz with the Potomac River Jazz Club’s Federal Focus Jazz Band, which participated in Chilliwack Jazz Festival in British Columbia and at the French Quarter Jazz Festival in New Orleans. Shoenberg has performed in New York, at the Boswell Sisters Centennial in New Orleans and at the Women in Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center.

In addition to the Halley Shoenberg Jazz Octet, Quartet and Trio, Halley performs and has recorded with the Tom Cunningham (swing) Orchestra, the James Bazen (modern-style) Big Band, the La Salle (1920’s and 30’s jazz) Dance Orchestra, the Bitter Dose (gypsy jazz) Combo, Craig Gildner and Blue Sky 5, and Shannon Gunn and the Bullettes.

Visit http://www.halleyjazz.com/

Jeff Antoniuk

washingtondcjazz7 — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 21:41:01 +0000

Saxophonist Jeff Antoniuk is internationally respected as a jazz composer and musician. Now living in Annapolis, Maryland, the Canadian born artist appears on numerous recordings and has been consistently well received by critics.

With a master’s degree from the University of North Texas in jazz performance and West African ethnomusicology, Antoniuk spent a decade touring and recording with the Unified Jazz Ensemble. In 2004, he formed his own heavy hitting quartet, the Jazz Update.

The group celebrated the release of their first album together in 2007. Brimming with Antoniuk originals and luscious covers, the CD Here Today quickly climbed the jazz radio charts in the US and Canada and achieved stellar success in the world of high tech music sourced through high speed cable, Internet and broadband.

With the quartet’s 2010 album Brotherhood Antoniuk and company step out with fresh, memorable, and beautifully executed compositions. The progressive jazz disc delivers sophisticated and compelling rhythm, melody and harmony. Its global themes are brought home with depth and humor. Brotherhood began receiving significant airplay and advance sales even before the official release date.

Popular shows at Blues Alley, the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian and U Street clubs show the Jazz Update to be equally adept at live performance. The group surprises and satisfies wherever they perform.
“Antoniuk continues a long-running tradition among jazz composers of stretching boundaries.“ – Michael Buckley, WRNR 103.5 FM Visit jeffantoniuk.com

Todd Marcus

washingtondcjazz7 — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 20:32:59 +0000

Voted a Rising Star in 62nd Annual Critics Poll for “clarinet” and “miscellaneous instrument” categories.
— Downbeat, July 2014

“Baltimore-based Todd Marcus, the virtuoso bass clarinetist and composer, is a master of straight-ahead jazz.”
— Baltimore Sun, January 2014

Rising Egyptian-American bandleader Todd Marcus appears with a quartet featuring jazz masters George Colligan on piano, Warren Wolf on drums and Kris Funn on bass. The performance will include selections from Marcus’s “Blues for Tahrir Suite,” to be featured in his upcoming release on Hipnotic Records. Inspired by the Arab Spring movement in Egypt, the work transcends stylistic boundaries, merging classical Middle Eastern harmonies and motifs with American jazz.

As in most Marcus lead programs, this concert will feature plenty of straight ahead standards delivered in new arrangements. The show will also include Marcus originals such as audience favorite, “Solstice” and debut several new compositions that show his unique use of the bass clarinet.

Since the early 2000s, Marcus has won accolades for his novel use of the clarinet and his unique compositions, earning extensive praise for concerts and recordings. Based in Baltimore, he has worked with Bennie Maupin, Don Byron, Larry Willis, Odean Pope, Tim Warfield, Xavier Davis, Mike Formanek, Gary Thomas and Helen Sung. He was the 2014 winner of Charm City’s prestigious Baker Artist Award, and his 2012 album, Inheritance, was selected by NPR as one of the top 10 albums of the year. On it Marcus led two distinct quartets, including the one to be heard at Blues Alley.

Pianist George Colligan recorded on Inheritance with Marcus while he still lived in the D.C. area. Colligan now resides in Portland, Oregon, where he is a member of the Jack DeJohnnette’s New Quintet.

The rhythm section includes Baltimore virtuoso Warren Wolf on drums. Equally proficient on vibraphone and marimba, Wolf is becoming known around the globe.

Bassist Kris Funn is a Baltimore native known far beyond the region. He has toured internationally with alto saxophonist Kenny Garrett, traveled to major jazz festivals on six continents and performed with artists such as Nicholas Payton, Pharaoh Sanders, Jeff Majors and Jeff Lorber.

For more info and performance dates, visit http://toddmarcusjazz.com

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Marshall Keys

washingtondcjazz7 — Sun, 25 Apr 2021 18:42:52 +0000

“Marshall Keys’ dulcet tones and earthy compositions conjure the spirits of jazzmen past and future.”

From mainstream to contemporary, from bebop to hip-hop, he plays the saxophone with a sense of grace and emotion that is wholly without cliché.

Saxophonist Marshall Keys represents as high a level of musicianship as can be found anywhere, and his versatility and strong sense of melody have made him somewhat of an icon in his native Washington, DC. He interprets improvisational music in its many forms and his performance schedule reflects this diversity. Marshall has received a National Endowment for the Arts grant and was commissioned by the Smithsonian to perform the works of Wayne Shorter. He was guest performer and lecturer at the Romare Bearden Exhibit at the National Gallery of Art. He has enjoyed two collaborations with Mexican jazz pianist Juan Jose Calatayud at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, DC and at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach, California. He has toured Central and South America twice for the State Department as a Jazz Ambassador and In
May of 2005 traveled to Guinea, West Africa to perform and to lecture on the history of jazz in the US.

In August of 2009 he was guest soloist at the Ford Amphitheater in Hollywood, California playing music from the Harlem Renaissance. He joined Jason Moran’s Bandwagon at the Kennedy Center for two performances in 2012, and backed Stevie Wonder at the Howard Theatre in February 2013. The Marshall Keys Group performs at the DC Jazz Festival every year it is held.

He has worked with many of the world’s greatest musicians including: Jimmy McGriff, Jimmy Scott, Lionel Hampton, Stevie Wonder, Clark Terry, Jimmy Heath, Groove Holmes and Jimmy Witherspoon. He has played in jazz festivals in the US, Germany, Ireland, Holland, Mexico, Indonesia, The Virgin Islands and was a featured performer on the 17th Annual Norway Jazz Cruise, and the East Coast Jazz Festival in Washington, DC.
Marshall began his training in the DC Youth Orchestra Program and continued it in the Jazz Studies Program at Howard University. He cut his teeth playing in local bands before gaining his first professional experience with The Blackbyrds and a long association with the great blues organist Jimmy McGriff with whom he recorded the album “Countdown”.

marshallkeys.com
marshallkeys@mac.com
facebook.com/marshallkeys