Doors open at 7 - Music at 7:30 - $30 advance tickets - $35 at the door
Seated listening room style show
General admission - All ages
Celebrate Organissimo's 25th anniversary at the Alluvion! Featuring all three guitarists that made Organissimo the midwest's favorite soul-jazz organ trio, including original guitarist Joe Gloss.
Special guests include Kevin Bujo Jones on percussion and the incredible Ron Blake on saxophone. It'll be a night of spectacular jazz-funk with that unmistakable Organissimo groove!
FEATURING:
Jim Alfredson - Hammond organ, keys
Randy Marsh - drums, harmonica
Larry Barris - guitar
Joe Gloss - guitar
Ralph Tope - guitar
Kevin Bujo Jones - percussion
Ron Blake - saxophone
JIM ALFREDSON
Jim Alfredson comes from a musical family. His father earned a living as a professional musician for many years and encouraged Jim’s talents from a very young age. Some of Jim’s earliest memories include pulling on the drawbars of his father’s Hammond B3 at the age of four.
His collaborations with some of the biggest names in music are staggering: D’Aneglo, John Mayer, Frank Ocean, Christian McBride — we can keep going.
When he’s not on the road, Jim lives with his beautiful wife Alison in Lansing, MI. Besides practicing, listening, and performing music, Jim enjoys cooking, home improvement, and spending time with his daughters Zora, Stella, & Scarlett. Jim is also a piano tuner / technician in the Lansing area.
RANDY MARSH
Randy Marsh is known throughout the state of Michigan as the drummer of choice. His resume is distinguished and long but he has never rested on his well-deserved laurels. With Organissimo, Randy has found another outlet for his experience, his endless creativity, and his positive spirituality.
Randy has been drumming for almost 40 years and shows no sign of slowing down. Indeed, he is at the peak of his playing with organissimo, bringing fire and intensity as well as his trademark sense of humor. Like his hero Art Blakey, Randy's drumming is truly one of kind.
If he's not behind the drums, chances are Randy is out biking the trails and kayaking the rivers in the wilds of Michigan.
OG GUITARISTS OF ORGANISSIMO
Larry Barris started playing guitar at a very young age. By the age of 13, he was already working professionally in and around Detroit with "The Black Nasty," a well known local R&B band of the era.
Larry quickly made a name for himself among the chitlin circuit, playing behind comedians such as Rudy Ray Moore and Redd Foxx. It wasn't long before Larry started working with a "who's who" of Detroit Jazz heavy weights, including Marcus Belgrave, Teddy Harris, Donald Walden, Dennis Rowland and more.
Ralph Tope picked up the guitar at the age of 16 after hearing Detroit jazz guitar stalwart Perry Hughes. Ralph went to see Perry play constantly, sitting quietly in the audience and intently watching every move.
After many months of appearing at his gigs but never approaching Perry, Mr. Hughes finally asked Ralph why he kept coming out. Ralph exclaimed he wanted to play guitar like him and after much prodding Perry agreed to teach him. Within a few short years, Ralph became and remains an in-demand player on the Detroit scene.
Joe Gloss picked up a guitar at the age of 8 to learn bluegrass and never looked back. His musical appetite carried him through many varied genres before finally settling into jazz in the early 1990s.
Joe is known for his melodic, thoughtful phrasing and almost zen-like calm on stage. His diverse musical background makes him adept in almost any style but he found his true musical voice studying jazz and classical guitar.
KEVIN BUJO JONES
Kevin Bujo Jones is a percussionist, band leader, producer, educator. A native of Englewood, New Jersey, Kevin grew up in a household immersed in jazz, soul, gospel and blues, from Charlie Parker and Lou Rawls to Nat King Cole and Mahalia Jackson, along with the pop and R&B legends of the times. Reportedly, Kevin’s grandmother, Maggie Walker Jones, once played with (and maybe even recorded with) Bessie Smith. The arts of all types were nurtured in the Jones household and piano lessons were a requirement, not an elective.
Jones traces his percussion expertise to the age-old ‘academy of the streets.’ Over the years Kevin has evolved an increasingly comprehensive approach to percussion, commanding respect from artists such as the Isley Brothers, Whitney Houston, Winard Harper, and Reggie Workman.
RON BLAKE
Ron Blake was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico on September 7, 1965 and grew up in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands. The youngest of four children, he inherited his architect father’s love of jazz, particularly the alto saxophone, which he began playing in school at age 10 (having first taken guitar lessons at eight).
Between his playing and performing, his teaching, his music and education efforts in the Virgin Islands (for which he alongside the members of Dion Parson & the 21st Century Band were recognized by the Virgin Islands Legislature and United States Congress), it’s difficult to imagine a jazz artist who has had a fuller or more wide-ranging career. Have we failed to mention that he founded the Caribbean Jazz Institute at the Snow Pond Center for the Arts in Sidney, Maine? And that he has presented master classes and clinics across the country?
In the end, there is no mistaking how important Blake is to jazz. And there’s no better place to appreciate that than Mistaken Identity.
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