Deanna Witkowski and Sarah Manning at Jazz Gallery

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On August 4th, east meets west at the Jazz Gallery with performances by the Deanna Witkowski Quartet and Sarah Manning's Shatter the Glass. Witkowski, a pianist/composer/vocalist with an illuminating presence in the New York scene, will play the first set at 9 pm. West Coast saxophonist and composer Sarah Manning makes her New York City debut at the 10:30 set with her new group Shatter the Glass, in support of her most recent album, "Live at Yoshi's: Two Rooms Same Door" (ArtistShare).

Winner of the 2002 Great American Jazz Piano Competition, Deanna Witkowski looks to diverse musical worlds in her fusions of jazz, Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, classical, and sacred music. An accomplished bandleader and composer with three releases under her name, Witkowski has been described as "consistently thrilling" with a "boundless imagination" (All Music Guide) and "a clear musical vision" (JazzTimes). In the last year, Witkowski has devoted much of her energies to becoming increasingly fluent in Portuguese and in arranging works by Brazilian composers such as Ivan Lins and Djavan. Her Jazz Gallery date will feature these new arrangements as well as her own compositions, as played by bandmates Adam Kolker on soprano and tenor saxes, Dave Ambrosio on bass, and Scott Latzky on drums.

According to Nat Hentoff, "Sarah Manning can swing as naturally as she breathes…Manning plays – and writes – in what is unmistakably her own voice." Manning has produced two albums of her original compositions and headlined top venues from Yoshi's in Oakland, California to the Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz. In June of 2007 she was profiled in Down Beat Magazine. Featuring pianist Art Hirahara, bassist Thomson Kneeland and drummer Kyle Struve, Shatter the Glass features what critic Andy Gilbert calls Manning's "compelling new voice, marked by a big, bracing sound and a knack for delivering angular phrases with graceful precision." A four day residency of intensive open rehearsals from July 31st – August 3rd at the Northampton Center for the Arts in Massachusetts will precede their New York debut. A key objective of Shatter the Glass is to eradicate the notion that women are somehow "the other" in jazz, as perpetuated by the many "women in jazz" festivals, novelty "girl groups" and events that marginalize their contributions. Shatter the Glass will follow Saturday's performance with a Sunday evening concert at Saint Peter's Church on 54th and Lexington.

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