Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Laurence Hobgood Trio
In 2016, pianist Laurence Hobgood launched The Laurence Hobgood Trio with the album Honor Thy Fathers, a musical tribute not only to Hobgood’s own father, but to all of the musicians who have inspired him. Howard Reich had this to say in the Chicago Tribune about a recent performance: Just as Honor Thy Fathers can be considered Hobgood's strongest recording to date, this band may provide his best musical forum yet. He will be joined by current members bassist Matt Clohesy and drummer Jared Schonig.
$25 General Admission
Jazz pianist, composer, arranger, producer, Yamaha® artist and Grammy® winner Laurence Hobgood has enjoyed a 30+year career. Highlights include: three consecutive Fellowships to the Aspen Music Festival (1990, '91, '92), being chosen as a 1995 Chicagoan of the Year in the Arts, a 2003 Deems Taylor Award given by ASCAP for the year’s outstanding music journalism, multiple Grammy® nominations and a 2010 Grammy® Award. He's played at many of the world’s most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the White House, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Tanglewood, Hollywood Bowl, and the Sydney Opera House. For almost 20 years he served as pianist/arranger/collaborator/co-producer for singer Kurt Elling during which time he wrote virtually all of the material on Elling's first ten albums, all of which received Grammy® nominations.
Laurence's newest project is called “t e s s e t e r r a"; Hobgood combines his love of jazz trio and writing for string quartet with uplifting arrangements of what he calls the "ex-panded songbook" -- repertoire ranging from Cole Porter to Crosby Stills & Nash, Paul McCartney to Hoagie Carmichael, Sting to Chopin. The writing embodies the signature style of composing and arranging Hobgood has be-come known for: imaginatively innovative yet fun and thoroughly accessible to audiences. He's reunited with the celebrated, New York-based string quartet ETHEL and at the core lies the ebullient playing of his trio which features Jared Schonig on drums and Matthew Clohesy on bass. “t e s s e t e r r a” will be released in March of 2019 on UK-based Ubuntu Records. laurencehobgood.com
Matt Clohesy, Australian bassist left his hometown of Melbourne for the USA in 2001. Based in New York City, he has since gained much recognition as an acoustic and electric bassist worldwide. He has been called upon to tour and/or record with such notable band leaders as Seamus Blake, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Geoffrey Keezer, Eric Reed, Kevin Hays, Ingrid Jensen, David Kikoski, Laurence Hobgood, Donny McCaslin, Tom Scott, Sean Jones, Jonathan Kreisberg, Joel Frahm, Lage Lund, Mike Moreno, Will Vinson, John Ellis, Jo Lawry, Gretchen Parlato, Alan Ferber, Eric Alexander, Nat Adderley Jr, Diego Urcola, David Weiss, JD Allen, Jon Gordon, David Schnitter, Brad Shepik, Maria Schneider and the John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble.
Clohesy is regularly involved with Grammy nominated and Downbeat award winning composer Darcy James Argue's Secret Society. In the pop world he has performed with Grammy winner Colbie Caillat and can be heard often with the Chris Bergson Band and Dana Fuchs Band.
Prior to moving to New York, Matt received a Bachelor of Music at the Victorian College of the Arts in Melbourne and worked with Australian artists including Dale Barlow, Mike Nock, Joe Chindamo, Paul Grabowsky, Barney McAll, Vince Jones and the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. mattclohesy.com
Grammy-Award winning drummer, composer & bandleader Jared Schonig has toured and/or recorded internationally with Nicholas Payton, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Donny McCaslin, Darcy James Argue & Secret Society, Laurence Hobgood, Tim Hagans, Fred Hersch, Wycliffe Gordon, Tom Harrell, Joe Locke, and Ernie Watts among others. A favorite among vocalists, Schonig has toured with Grammy Award-winners Kurt Elling, The New York Voices, Kristen Chenoweth, Cynthia Erivo and singer/songwriter Donna Lewis, in addition to rising vocal supergroup Duchess, Spencer Day, Laila Biali and Shayna Steele. He has performed around the world from Carnegie Hall to festivals in Zimbabwe. Schonig also co-leads The Wee Trio, named “a group to watch” by Downbeat Magazine with five critically-acclaimed albums to its name. When at home in New York City, Schonig plays on a number of Broadway shows – he recently held the drum chair for the critically acclaimed Tony, Grammy and Emmy-award winning Broadway Revival of The Color Purple and is currently playing drums and percussion for The Prom. He also is an in-demand drummer/percussionist for studio recordings, jingle sessions and other commercial music recordings. jaredschonig.com