Ember set to headline Jazz at The Other Side in Utica
Collaboration and improvisation are at the heart of jazz music.
No act personifies that more than the trio, Ember.
Experience it for yourself when Jazz at The Other Side brings the band to Utica on Saturday, May 25, for a 7:30 p.m. show.
The group, featuring Utica area native Vinnie Sperrazza on drums, Caleb Wheeler Curtis on sax and trumpet, and Noah Garabedian on bass, has been described as a “jazz trio with a collective mindset.”
The collaborative trio (previously Curtis+Garabedian+Sperrazza) presents a performance that is true band-centric, with little or no hierarchical playing. All three members represent an integral part of the ensemble as leaders, collaborators and instigators.
The trio’s music is tight and organized but open and expressive, maintaining a true freedom of improvisation, exploration, and creativity.
“Most of the process of playing together is listening to each other, allowing each other to do what we do and finding a way to fit into that,” Curtis explains.
Saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist Caleb Wheeler Curtis draws from a wide range of influences including progressive bop and free improvisation, along the lines of John Coltrane or Ornette Coleman. Based in Brooklyn, Caleb is a leader and core member of several bands, including Ember, two-time Grammy nominee Orrin Evans & The Captain Black Big Band, Walking Distance, and the Fat Cat Big Band.
His third album as a leader, HEATMAP, received widespread critical acclaim, with All About Jazz calling him “one of the more interesting alto saxophonists to emerge since 2000.”
Bass player and composer Noah Garabedian holds a BA in Ethnomusicology from the University of California in Los Angeles, and a Master of Music Performance from New York University.
As a composer and bandleader, he has released two albums under his own name and has represented the US State Department on two separate tours as a musical ambassador where he performed for the public, taught workshops on music, and collaborated with local musicians. As a sideman, Garabedian has performed and/or toured with Ravi Coltrane, Jeff Tain Watts, Andy Milne, Kris Davis, Ralph Alessi, Myron Walden, Nir Felder, Frank LoCrasto, Okkervil River, and Julian Pollack.
Vinnie Sperrazza is a jazz drummer now based in Brooklyn, but born in 1979 in Utica, New York. Drumming and music are a family affair for Sperrazza, whose father plays and taught drums in Central New York.
The younger Sperazza completed his Bachelor of Arts degree at William Paterson University in 2002 and moved to Brooklyn later that year, where he has performed with noted jazz pianist James Williams, Mulgrew Miller, Richard Davis, Clark Terry, and other jazz legends,
“What energizes us is the sense that we're part of a much wider moment, connected to a lot of our peers while standing on the shoulders of our mentors and inspirations,” says Vinnie.
Tickets are $25, or $10 for students. To reserve, call 315-735-4825, or email kodomenico@verizon.net.
This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Ember, with one local member, set to perform in Utica
