Santa Fe Jazz

Tickets $45 per person through Lensic Community Box Office, 988.1234 .

Lensic Box office charges apply.

This impressive group of progressive jazz figures includes:

pianist and 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship Award recipient Geri Allen;

clarinetist/composer and 2007 USA Gund Foundation Fellow Don Byron;

saxophonist/flutist/composer and 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship Award  and 2006 Melon Jazz Living Legacy Award recipient Oliver Lake;

bassist Dwayne Dolphin who performed on Nancy Wilson's Grammy Award winning R.S.V.P. cd; and drummer  and

drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts whose career recognitions include 14 Grammy nominations and 5 Grammies for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance.

Anything is possible with this Geri Allen All Star Band!

See the expanded mini-bios below of this extraordinary quintet!

Jazz pianist and 2008 Guggenheim Fellowship Award recipient Geri Allen is also a producer and music educator who has collaborated with many of the greats of modern jazz, including Dave Holland, Ron Carter, Ravi Coltrane, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Ornette Coleman, Betty Carter, Mary Stallings and Charles Lloyd. She is an Associate Professor of Jazz Piano and Improvisation Studies at the University of Michigan and has more than 15 cd’s to her credit on Telarc, Polygram, Storyville, Blue Note and Polygran labels. She has been described as the quintessence of what a present day mainstream jazz pianist should be.

Clarinetist/composer and 2007 USA Gund Foundation Fellow Don Byron has recorded with Uri Caine, Dean Bowman, Vernon Reid, Bill Frisell, Joe Henry and others. He has composed for silent film, served as director of jazz for the Brooklyn Academy of Music, and scored for television. His stylistic sweep covers everything from jazz atonal improvisation to straight ahead exploration of traditional jazz to klezmer. He is a jazz historian with more than 10 cd’s to his credit as leader

Saxophonist/flutist/composer, poet, and painter Oliver Lake is a 1993 Guggenheim Fellowship Award and a 2006 Melon Jazz Living Legacy Award recipient. He is a co-founder of the internationally acclaimed World Saxophone Quartet  and has received music commissions from the Library of Congress, Rockefeller Foundation, McKim Foundation, and the Lila Wallace Arts Partners Program. Lake appears as a leader/player on at least 100 recordings and has collaborated with a veritable “who’s  who” of progressive jazz.

Bassist Dwayne Dolphin is a veteran of the acoustic, electric, and piccolo bass and has performed with Hank Jones, Abbey Lincoln, Stanley Turrentine, Maceo Parker and notably on Nancy Wilson’s Grammy Award winning R.S.V.P. cd. Dolphin continues to be an international presence in bass as a performing and recording artist.

Drummer Jeff “Tain” Watts has performed with Wynton Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Betty Carter, Michael Brecker and many other leading jazz figures. He holds the unique distinction of being the only musician to appear on every Grammy Award winning jazz recording by both Wynton and Branford Marsalis.  Watts has worked in both the film and television industry(Tonight Show with Jay Leno) and has half a dozen cd’s of his own as leader and performs on 30 or more well recognized recordings of other name jazz figures. His career recognitions include 14 Grammy nominations and five Grammies for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance-Group, all on Columbia Records, two with Branford Marsalis and three with Wynton.