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| Program at Bard features the Erica Lindsay/Sumi Tonooka Quartet The Bard Music Program presents a classical/jazz concert on Wednesday, October 19. Free and open to the public, the program will begin at 8:00 p.m. in Olin Hall. A performance by the Erica Lindsay/Sumi Tonooka Quartet is the highlight of the jazz component of the program. The quartet features Lindsay on sax, Jonathan Blake on drums, Tonooka on piano, and Rufus Reid on bass. Reid is the recipient of the Mellon Jazz 2005 Living Legacy Award, to be awarded October 21 at the Kennedy Center. Erica Lindsay has performed and toured with leaders such as Melba Liston, Clifford Jordan, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Reggie Workman, George Gruntz, Sumi Tonooka, Pheeraon akLaff. Lindsay has been active composing for theater, television, and dance, as well as performing with poets and performance artists Carl Hancock-Rux, Janice King, Janine Vega, Mikhail Horowitz, and Nancy Ostrovsky. She is featured in Burrill Crohn's film documentary, "Women in Jazz", and in Sally Placksin's book"American Women in Jazz" Her quintet can be heard on the Candid Records release 'Erica Lindsay--Dreamer", which the "Penguin Book of Jazz Recordings "has called “tremendously impressive” and “a record that shouldn't be missed.” Lindsay has been working most recently with Oliver Lake, Baikida Carroll, Howard Johnson, Jeff Siegel, Thurman Barker, and the San Francisco-based group Trace Elements. Four CDs are soon to be released that feature Lindsay: "Yes/Live at the Rosendale Café"; a duo collaboration with Ricky Carter titled "Soulcatcher"; a Trace Elements CD titled "Live at Bruno's"; and the first CD from the Erica Lindsay/Sumi Tonooka Quartet titled, "Initiation". Noted jazz critic Francis Davis placed Sumi Tonooka among the best of today's young pianists. During a career now spanning more than 20 years, Tonooka has been surprising and delighting audiences and quietly piling up accolades from jazz writers and her fellow musicians. Workin trio or quartet with such noted jazz stalwarts as bassist Rufus Reid and drummers Akira Tana and Lewis Nash, Tonooka characteristically blends her own compositions with highly personal readings of jazz standards. Her first professional stint at age18 was with the Philly Joe Jones quartet, Le Grand Prix. From there she went on to perform with such luminaries as Kenny Burrell, Little Jimmy Scott, Sonny Fortune, Red Rodney, Benny Golson, and David “Fathead” Newman. Tonooka holds a bachelor of music degree from Philadelphia College of Performing Arts. She studied piano with Bernard Peiffer, Susan Starr, Mary Lou Williams, and Stanley Cowell, receiving additional training in piano and composition from Madame Margaret Chaloff of the New England Conservatory of Music. In addition to her jazz recording and performing, she has composed for film and dance. write your comments about the article :: © 2005 Jazz News :: home page |