Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Free Dive
Benefit Concert for Fernando Barba’s Recovery Fund
Free Dive has been performing and recording original compositions and arrangements together since 2003. The groove-based quintet features Jeff Cressman (trombone), Bryan Dyer (vocals), Cecilia Engelhart (vocals, percussion), Steve Hogan (bass, beatboxing), and Keith Terry (drums, body music). The absence of a chordal instrument gives Free Dive their fresh sound -- open, transparent, cinematic, evocative.
Fernando Barba is the founding director of Barbatuques, the famed body music ensemble based in São Paulo, Brazil. Barba is in a very slow recovery from surgery to remove a brain tumor 6 months ago. Free Dive perform only 2 or 3 times a year, so this is a great opportunity to be close and personal with the band while supporting a good cause.
$20 - $50 suggested donation - To reserve tickets with your credit card, please call (510) 547-8188
Jeff Cressman is a unique talent who is equally in demand as a trombonist and as a sound engineer. A native of San Francisco, Jeff began playing trombone in the Berkeley Public School Jazz Project, like contemporaries Peter Apfelbaum, Benny Green, and Joshua Redman. Jeff has recorded and toured with such diverse artists as the Carlos Santana Band, Don Cherry, the Peter Apfelbaum Sextet, the Charlie Hunter Trio, Tito Puente, Sheila E., and Pete Escovedo to name a few. As an engineer, he has recorded and produce numerous projects for the likes of SFJAZZ Collective, John Santos and the Machete Ensemble, Eddie Marshall and Holy Mischief, NPR, Monterey Jazz Festival and many more. Jeff has also mixed numerous live shows for such artists as Betty Carter, Toots Thielmanns, the Modern Jazz Quartet, and Sheila E. cressmanmusic.com
Bryan S. Dyer is a vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, producer and educator who has performed with some of the Bay Area's top A Capella groups over the last 20 years. Comfortable in all genres of music from Classical to Rock & Roll, R&B to World, his versatility keeps his services in demand. Bryan's wide vocal range and familiarity with many instruments allows him to use his voice as a true instrument with limitless applications. For more details, visit bryandyer.com.
Vocalist Cecilia Engelhart's recent projects include : Trio 3 with dancer Ellen Webb and bassist Scott Walton, exploring collaborative composition and improvisation for voice, bass and dance; Tanaora, a Latin/Brazilian jazz ensemble and Free Dive with Keith Terry, Steve Hogan, Jeff Cressman and Bryan Dyer. She has also performed regularly with the Meredith Monk Ensemble as soloist and ensemble singer since 2000. Cecilia is also a founding member and production manager for the International Body Music Festival.
Steve Hogan is a bass player, beatboxer, and multi-instrumentalist. A bay area native, he has been performing regularly since he was a small child, locally and throughout the world. He is fluent in a plethora of styles from Jazz and R&B to Rock and World Music, incorporating this knowledge not only in his live performance, as well as his work as a musical educator.
Keith Terry is a percussionist/rhythm dancer whose work encompasses a number of allied performance disciplines — music, dance, theater, performance art — which he brings together to create an artistic vision that defies easy categorization. As a self-defined "Body Musician," Keith uses the oldest musical instrument in the world — the human body (his own) — as the basis for exploring, blending and bending traditional and contemporary rhythmic, percussive and movement possibilities. For more details, visit crosspulse.com.