Greg Wall - tenor Saxophone
Andy Gravish -Trumpet
Jen Allen - Piano
Essiet Essiet- Bass
Sylvia Cuenca - Drums
The great Wayne Shorter, 1933- 2023, was among the most influential improvisers and prolific composers in Jazz history.
Since his first performances with Art Blakey in the late 1950’s, he stayed at the forefront of Jazz, simultaneously straddling the past and the future of the music.
Although his saxophone playing was inimitable, his writing influenced just about every jazz composer to follow,
Speak No Evil was one of several albums Wayne recorded for Blue Note in 1964, his first year as a member of Miles Davis’s mid-1960s quintet. The album is generally regarded as one of Shorter's finest, and also a highlight of the Blue Note catalogue. NPR’s Murray Horwitz stated in 2001 that "Speak No Evil is sort of a consolidation of Wayne Shorter's compositional excellence. It's so thorough and consistent and wide-ranging. It's almost a manifesto for his ideas. Those ideas were new 40 years ago, but they're still fresh today.”
New York Times critic Ben Ratliff included the album in his publication Jazz: A Critic's Guide to the 100 Most Important Recordings stating that it offers "the first taste of a gnomic compositional style that would haunt jazz forevermore… Just about everybody playing jazz born in the 1950s and after accepts it as a foundation.”
On June 12, as part of our Distinctive Disc playlists series, we will celebrate the compositions that make up “Speak No Evil” with a stellar group of artists who have been listening and performing this music their entire careers. Come hear how this music is still alive and growing, 60 years later!
Pianist Jen Allen has shared the stage with renowned artists such as Don Braden, Jimmy Greene, Freddie Hendrix, Camille Thurman, Nat Reeves, and Sarah Caswell. An active recording artist, her discography includes her debut album Pieces of Myself, Sifting Grace, her upcoming release Possibilities, and collaborative projects like Raise Up by Trio 149. She has also contributed to numerous other recordings as a sideman.
Andy Gravish launched his career as trumpet soloist with the great drummer Buddy Rich, touring with Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Sarah Vaughn. After moving to NYC in 1989, he began performing with various jazz groups such as Toshiko Akiyoshi/Lew Tabakin, the Bill Kirchner Nonette, Paquito D'Rivera's Big Band, andThe Vanguard Jazz He is present on many recordings in various formats from big band to small group jazz, as well as commercial recordings and jingles.
Sylvia Cuenca is an active drummer on the New York and SF Bay Area jazz scenes who is contributing outstanding performances in a variety of situations. She has had the honor of sharing the bandstand with saxophone legend Joe Henderson for 4 years and trumpet legend Clark Terry for 17 years before that.
Essiet Okon Essiet first received critical acclaim decades ago as a member of saxophonist Bobby Watson's post hard bop group Horizon and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He has long since established himself as one of New York's premier bassists, touring and recording with Famoudou Don Moye, Abdullah Ibrahim, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, James Moody, Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Cedar Walton, Sam Rivers, George Adams, Pat Martino, Kenny Burrell, Jackie McLean, Frank Morgan, and Kenny Barron.
Greg Wall, Artistic Director of JazzFC, has performed and recorded with Hasidic New Wave ,Greg Wall’s Later Prophets , Zion80, and Greg Wall’s Unity Orchestra, and has made many session appearances for record dates and film scores.
Greg moved to Westport, CT in 2013 and has curated a weekly Westport based Jazz series since 2015, performing weekly with a rotating lineup of internationally acclaimed NYC based and touring Jazz artists.
