THURSDAY, APRIL 24 at 7 P.M.

Homage to the Messengers: the music of Horace Silver

Arcata Playhouse

James Zeller joins forces with young drumming phenom Ramsey Isaacs to present a series of concerts honoring Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. The Jazz Messengers began as a collective group in the 1950s and continued for over 35 years ending with Art Blakey‘s passing in 1990. An incredible number of jazz luminaries were at one time “Jazz Messengers”, including Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Freddie Hubbard, Cedar Walton, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Dorham and Benny Golson, just to name a few.

The series will take place once a month on Thursday nights at the Arcata Playhouse, moving chronologically through Jazz Messengers history. Each show will feature the music of a composer or multiple composers from a particular period.

First up, April 24 is Origins: Compositions of Horace Silver. Blakey and Silver worked together in the early 1950s, rotating in the role of bandleader. Silver’s soulful finger poppin’ tunes are considered by many to be the genesis of the hard bop style.

Several of his compositions appear on A Night at Birdland, a record originally released under the name the Art Blakey Quintet and later issued under the Messengers moniker. In late 1954/early ‘55, Blakey recorded an album with Horace Silver called Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers. After this, Silver and Blakey parted ways with Blakey keeping the Messengers name. The program will feature music from Horace Silver’s Messengers period as well as his later groups.

The band for the first jazz messengers show April 24 will be James Zeller, trombone; Tree, tenor saxophone; Matthew Seno, Piano; Danny Gaon, bass; and Ramsey Isaacs on drums in the role of Art Blakey himself.

So, Creative Sanctuary and the Humboldt Jazz Collective invite you to come have a ball, and in the words of Art Blakey, “If you feel like tapping your feet, tap your feet. If you feel like clapping your hands, clap, your hands. And if you feel like taking off your shoes take off your shoes. We are here to have a ball so we want you to leave your worldly troubles outside and come in here and swing.”

DATES/TIMES

• Thursday, April 24 : 7-9 p.m.

WHERE

• Arcata Playhouse

PRICE

• $15
• $30 sliding scale
• $25 sliding scale
• $20 sliding scale