Piedmont Piano Company is pleased to present
Ed Reed and His Trio CANCELLED
Unfortunately, this concert has been cancelled due to the current coronavirus situation. They hope to reschedule in the near future.
$20 General Admission
Ed Reed, 91-year-old recording and performing jazz vocalist, and 2014’s #1 Rising Star Male Vocalist (DownBeat magazine Critics Poll), has been singing his entire life, though it was not until 2007 that he recorded and released his first album, just before his 78th birthday. He has since recorded three other critically acclaimed albums and performed in many of the world’s prominent jazz venues, including three sold out nights at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Acclaimed for his ability to interpret the poetry inside a song’s lyric by highlighting emotion, nuance, and irony , Ed has been reviewed in major jazz and news publications, was a guest on the legendary Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz NPR radio program, and was profiled by Nat Hentoff in the Wall Street Journal. edreedsings.com
Adam Shulman has been a staple of the San Francisco jazz scene since he moved to the city in 2002. Before then, Adam was a student at UC Santa Cruz where he studied with pianist Smith Dobson and the trumpeter/arranger Ray Brown. He received his degree in classical performance under the tutelage of Maria Ezerova. Adam can be seen as a sideman with countless Bay Area musicians and vocalists such as John Wiitala, Vince Lateano, Marcus Shelby, Anton Schwartz, Andrew Speight, Erik Jekabson, Ed Reed, Gary Brown, Patrick Wolff, Faye Carrol, Kellye Gray, Ian Cary, and Mike Zilber among many others. Adam has also played as a sideman with internationally renowned artists Stefon Harris, Willie Jones III, Dayna Stevens, Miguel Zenon, Mark Murphy, Alan Harris, Luciana Souza, Paula West, Ratzo Harris, Larry Coryell, Sean Jones, Grant Stewart, John Clayton, Bobby Hutcherson, Bria Skonberg and with the Glen Miller Orchestra. adamshulman.com
John Wiitala is a freelance bassist, active in the Bay Area Jazz scene since the 1980s. He's played and recorded with pianist Jessica Williams' trio, Mark Levine's Latin Tinge, the Bruce Forman Trio, Bill Bell, Wesla Whitfield and Mike Greensill, Ed Reed, Erik Jekabson, Adam Shulman, Patrick Wolff and Randy Porter. He currently teaches at the California Jazz Conservatory and annually at flutist Ali Ryerson's Master Class at Hidden Valley, the Stanford Jazz Workshop and the Theo Bleckman/Laurie Antonioli Vocal Intensive. Wiitala has had the fortune to accompany a few of his musical "heroes" through the years: Joe Henderson, Benny Golson, Mark Murphy, Charlie Rouse, Shorty Rogers, Bud Shank, Bob Dorough, Mose Allison, Charles McPherson, Kenny Barron, Albert Tootie Heath, Pete Jolly, Mike Wofford, Lou Levy, Bobby Hutcherson, Mary Stallings, Joe Locke, John Handy, Noel Jewkes and Calvin Keyes. He counts among his mentors Hal Stein, Flip Nunez, drummers Richie Goldberg and Donald Duck Bailey and pianist Smith Dobson IV.
Born and raised in California, Akira Tana earned degrees from Harvard University and the New England Conservatory of Music. Tana has worked with Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt, Zoot Sims, Hubert Laws, Milt Jackson, Jim Hall, Art Farmer, The Paul Winter Consort, Paquito D'Rivera, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, Lena Horne, The Manhattan Transfer, Ruth Brown, Charles Aznavour, Maurice Hines, and Van Dyke Parks. He has appeared on over 150 recordings.
Tana co-led a quintet with the bassist, Rufus Reid called TanaReid, has five releases, Yours and Mine and Passing Thoughts, on Concord Records and Blue Motion and Looking Forward, and Back to Front, on Evidence Music. On Sons of Sound, Akira has two releases as a leader, Moon Over the World and Secret Agent Men. The third US releasee on Sons of Sound as a leader is a project by the Secret Agent Men Band playing themes from the movies of James Bond, entitled Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, featuring the vocalist, Annie Sellick. Just released in Japan is a project entitled JAZZaNOVA on Vega Records that features the vocalists, Claudio Amaral, Claudia Villela, Jackie Ryan, Carla Helmbrecht, and Sandy Cressman. Guest artists include Branford Marsalis and Arturo Sandoval. This project will be released in the US in 2017. A recent release as a leader is a recording entitled Otonowa, which features jazz interpretations of Japanese folk and pop melodies that date as far back as the 1800s. The newest release for Otonowa, the group’s name, is Stars Across the Ocean. This group has completed four tours of Tohoku performing and teaching for communites still rebuilding from the Earthquake/Tsunamai of 2011. An active teacher and clinician, Tana has taught at Rutgers University, Queens College, Jersey City State College, New York University, and is currently on the faculty at San Francisco State University and the California Jazz Conservatory in Berkeley, CA.
Mr. Tana is a product endorser of YAMAHA DRUMS, SABIAN CYMBALS, and VIC FIRTH STICKS. akiratana.com