Jazz Fest 2009 - April 2-4

Robin Eubanks

Robin Eubanks is the premier jazz trombonist of his generation.

Whether performing with his groups, EB3 or Mental Images, or witht he critically acclaimed Dave Holland Quintet and Big Band - with whom he was an original member - Robin is an artist whose impact on audiences has proven powerful and lasting. Robin has recorded seven albums as a leader featuring his original music.

Robin began studying music at the age of eight and continued through college, when he graduated cum laud from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. As a student, he studied not only trombone, but also the finer points of Theory, Harmony, Composition and Arranging. Following his graduation, the young trombonist moved to New York City where he began a career taht has since yielded an amazing array of collaboratins with such notable artists as Art Blakey, Elvin Jones, Eddie Palmieri, Sun Ra, Barbra Streisand, The Rolling Stones and Talking Heads - just to name a few. He's won Grammys for his performances on Michael Brecker's Wide Angles and Dav Holland's What Goes Around.

For the last several years, Robin has divided his rigorous performing schedule with an appointment at The Oberlin College Conservatory where he serves as a tenured Professor of Jazz Trombone. In 2002, he won a compositional grant from Chamber Music America, followed by an ASCAP Composer's grant in 2003. Other musical groups now commission him as a composer, and as with his performing career, his compositional interests are staggeringly diverse. Musically fluent, but also stylistically multilingual, the eclectic composer speaks a variety of musical "languages." How does he do it? The key appears to be a combination of math and magic.

To hear him explain it:

"My compositions can change fluidly from Swing to Funk to Latin to 11/8 or 7/4, without sounding foced or awkward. This allows me to draw upon all of my experiences. I have the freedom to create forms that unite diverse influencesinto new structures that are organic."

However it's done, in addition to his own recordings, his compositions can be heard on several Dave Holland Quintet and Big Band recordings. The Mingus Big Band has also recorded his arrangements. Colleges and universities throughout the United States are performing Robin's original works and have arranged his music for their ensembles.

Other notable commissions includ: Cause and Effect, which had its world premier with the Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra in 2003; string and horn arrangements for Freddie Cole's recording, This Is Always; Cross Currents for the late great JJ Johnson's Grammy notminated recording, The Brass Orchestra; and an arrangement of Genesis for McCoy Tyner's Big Band.

And if that were not enough, in the intervening years Robin has become not only an eminent musician, composer and performer, but also a popular lecturer and clinician at leading educational institutions throughout the U.S. and abroad.

Kenni Holmen
(From Kenni's website: http://www.kenniholmen.com/kenni_holmen_music_III/kenni.htm)

Kenni Holmen is one of the most active touring and recording musicians from the Twin Cities Area. Kenni has performed with many local, national and international artists over his twenty-year career. In addition to recording album projects and jingles, he also writes, co-produces and has performed with New Age artist Lori Line since 1993, including a performance at the White House in the fall of 2000.

Kenni has performed with Michale Bolton, Celine Dion, Johnny Mathis, Tony Bennett, T.C. Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Higgins, The Rev, Billy Graham, Crusade, The Glen Miller Orchestra, Doc Severinson, Garrison Keilor, The Minnesota Orchestra, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and many others. He has also recorded with Janet Jackson, Rod Stewart, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Ben Sidran, Baby Face David Haas, andMarty Haugen to name a few. Prince's horn section, "The Hornheads," have featured Kenni and have toured since 1992.

The Twin Cities Reader eleborates on Kenni's impressive skills.“When T.S. Monk brought an acclaimed ensemble to the Guthrie Theater to honor the compositions of his father, Thelonious Monk, one of his saxophonists fell ill the day of the gig. After a series of frantic phone calls to unearth a local horn player who could read and adequately play some of the most complex and idiosyncratic in the jazz cannon, Monk tabbed Kenni Holmen for the assignment. Throughout the evening, Holmen played the charts with the requisite verve and agility, to the point that Monk singled him out for a solo on a tune toward the end of the show. When Holmen held his own among some of the finest musicians in jazz, Monk nodded to him again during the concert’s rousing climax. Holmen took off, boosting the already high energy level another notch with a scintillating solo that chased its tail in tighter and tighter circles until resolving itself back into the theme. Many in the audience gave him a standing ovation; saxophonist Bobby Watson and tuba player Howard Johnson were among those who congratulated him when the song was over. But those locals who have made Holmen one of the most in-demand for both commercial work and concert activity weren’t surprised.”

Adam Rogers

Adam Rogers was born and raised in New York City. He studied jazz guitar with Barry Galbraith, Howard Collins, and John Scofield. During his four years at the Mannes Conservatory of Music he studied Classical Guitar with Frederic Hand. Since the beginning of his professional career he has played on over 200 commercially released recordings and toured extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, South America, The Middle East, and Russia. Adam has been entusiastically reviewed in the New York Times, Downbeat, Jazz Times, The Village Voice, Newsweek, Jazz Hot, The Chicago Sun Times, and Tower Pulse Magazine among numerous other periodicals worldwide.

For Eleven years he co-led innovative and critically acclaimed group Lost Tribe, which has toured nationally and internationally, releasing three albums. Adam has also been featured performing, touring and recording with artists such as Michael Bracker, Cassandra Wilson, Norah Jones, Walter Becker (of Steely Dan), Regina Carter, Hogn Zorn, Randy Brecker, Laurie Anderson, The Mingus Orchestra, Terence Blanchard, Simon Shaheen, The Gil Evans Orchestra, John Pattitucci, Ravi Coltrane, Bill Evans, Lizz Wright, The Brecker Brothers, Jacky Terrasson, Kenny Barron, George Russell, Brian Blade, Elaine Elias, Alana Davis, David Krakauer, The NEptunes, Giora Feidman, Jack McDuff, Larry Coryell, Chris Potter, and Ronald Shannon Jackson among others, as well as playing music for the theater with The Great Lakes Theater Company, Joseph Papp's public Theater and The Metropolitan Opera. In the summer of 1999 he was the featured solosist with the Dresden Symphony Orchestra performing John Mclaughlin's "Apocalypse." He has also maintained a presence in the N.Y.C. studio world having palayed on the soundracks of numerous films and television commercial jingles.

Recently, Adam has been focusing more on recording and performing original music with his own groups. His debut CD on Criss Cross Records, "Art of the Invisible", featuring Edward Simon (piano), Scott Colley (bass), and Clarence Penn (drums) was released in 2002. The follow up, "Allegory", in 2003, is with the same rhythm section plus Chris Potter on saxophone. Featuring the group from "Allegory", this third release, "Apparitions", was released in April 2005. A new trio record, "Time and the Infinite", with Scott Colley and Bill Stewart was released in February of 2007.