THE SHOWROOM SESSIONS: Streaming LIVE from Piedmont Piano Company
Camille Thurman with the Darrell Green Trio
Downbeat magazine and SF Jazz rising star saxophonist and vocalist Camille Thurman collaborates with the incomparable drummer Darrell Green for a performance debuting original music written during quarantine. They were featured on NPR this past June for a series called “Alone Together Duets,” and recently completed a tour of Africa sponsored by the U.S. State Department and American Music Abroad. Renew your senses of what jazz sounds, looks, and feels like listening to two of the most dynamic young, creative, and talented forces on the music scene.
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Donations/tips accepted via Venmo: @camillethurman, paypal.me/darrellgreen79, or CashApp: $dgreen79
Remember the name, Camille Thurman. As a composer, multi-instrumentalist, vocalist, and unique interpreter of the jazz tradition, she is quickly becoming one of the standard-bearers for the form, making a considerable and dynamic contribution to the legacy of jazz while paying tribute to its heroes.
Fluid and powerful on the tenor saxophone and highly inventive as a vocalist, she also plays the clarinet, bass clarinet, flute, and piccolo and the soprano saxophone. Her rich sax sound has been compared to Joe Henderson and Dexter Gordon, while her vocal approach—including an impressive scatting ability—has been classified alongside that of Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter.
In a few short years, Thurman has shared stages with such jazz and R&B luminaries as George Coleman, Roy Haynes, Dianne Reeves, Wynton Marsalis, The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JALCO), and many more. Equally adept as a player and a singer, the New York City native has already amassed several distinctive honors for her musicianship, has four full-length recordings as a leader to her credit, and has been recognized for her compositional abilities.
Thurman tours internationally with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JALCO); she is the first woman in 30 years to work full-time, two seasons with the world-renowned orchestra. When she is not touring with the JALCO, Thurman is on the road with her band, The Camille Thurman Quartet, and a featured collaborative artist with the Darrell Green Trio, where she performed at the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, and other international jazz festivals.
Thurman’s mission is to spread a love for jazz to new audiences, old and young, and to inspire younger artists toward musical excellence. As such, she is also an educator, presenting lectures, teaching ensembles, and conducting masterclasses in various schools, colleges, camps, community centers, and arts organizations. Much of her teaching focuses on performance coaching.
Already hailed as one of the most important “triple threat” artists on the scene, Camille Thurman is poised to become one of the leading lights keeping the glorious traditions of jazz alive and well. For her, music is its own reward. camillethurmanmusic.com
Innovative drummer Darrell Green is one of the leading, most sought after drummers on today’s jazz scene. As a prolific sideman, bandleader, educator, clinician, composer, and producer, Darrell developed his mastery in the heart of Oakland, California.
He developed a style rooted in modern post-bop, but retains elements of his gospel and classical lineage. As a soloist, Green is known for his effortless, masterful technique and captivating rhythms that bring the music to life, taking audiences on a spiritual journey. Many have compared his rhythmic sense of style, inventiveness, feel to the likes of Elvin Jones, Tony Williams and Art Blakey —being deeply rooted in the drum tradition. Though jazz is his primary focus, Green is conversant in every genre from straight-ahead jazz to Latin and West African music.
As a performer, Darrell has toured and performed in notable concert halls and music festivals in over 50 countries around the world, including Jazz At Lincoln Center, The Blue Note Jazz Club, Birdland, The Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall and the Montreaux Jazz Festival. He has toured and recorded with leading jazz artists such as Cassandra Wilson, Pharoah Sanders, Benny Golson, and many more.
Darrell has a strong belief in mentorship and nurturing the next generation of musicians. He was the product of a community of mentors (including Billy Higgins, saxophonist Bill Stewart, Faye Carol, Wallace and Antoine Roney) that helped him to develop and shape his musicianship and skill. His strong desire and mission to give back to the community has led him to conduct masterclasses, clinics, and workshops all around the world. Within his exhaustive schedule of recording and touring, Darrell conducts residencies at educational institutions, universities and cultural centers. Darrell was the drum instructor at UC Berkeley’s “Young Musician’s Program” for 8 years as well as an instructor at numerous jazz camps across the country and around the world (Jazz Camp West, Stanford Jazz Camp, Lafayette Jazz Camp). Recent educational residencies include Montana State University, Hart School of Music, Queens College, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project and Northeastern University. darrellgreen.net
Bassist Ron Belcher has traveled the nation and the world bringing his rhythmically buoyant, emotionally uplifting style to the stage for a wide array of jazz artists. Ron has performed or recorded with such international stars as Branford Marsalis, Regina Carter, John Handy, Pete Escovedo, Donald Bailey, Ledisi, Rodney Franklin and Ernie Andrews, as well as a virtual “who’s who” of the San Francisco jazz scene.
Matthew Clark is a masterful pianist who evolved from a child prodigy into a pillar of the San Francisco jazz scene. Born and raised in Buffalo, New York, Matthew played clarinet in school and took private piano lessons at the age of 6. Matthew studied Music at Oberlin Conservatory, the first University to make significant social change in the United States—getting attentive lessons from the legendary jazz pianist Barry Harris.
After his formal education at Ohio’s prestigious Oberlin Conservatory, Clark planted roots in the SF Bay area and quickly became a first-call rhythm section player, working steadily with an impressive list of jazz heavyweights including Bobby Hutcherson, Marcus Shelby, Steve Turre, Andrew Speight, Joshua Redman, Teddy Edwards, Frank Morgan, Jon Faddis, Marcus Belgrave, Benny Golson, Wycliffe Gordon, Vincent Herring, Jim Snidero, Ken Peplowski, Jeremy Pelt, and Eric Alexander.