Doors open at 7 - Music at 7:30 - $30 advance tickets - $35 at the door
Seated listening room style show - General admission - All ages
The Alluvion Jazz Series presents a guitar summit like no other. Guitarist, composer, and band leader Randy Napoleon will lead an eight-piece band containing five guitar players. This project is called: Waking Dream
The Band:
Randy Napoleon - guitar, leader
Jocelyn Gould - guitar
Luke Sittard - guitar
Chris Minami - guitar
Ben Turner - guitar
Quincy Davis - drums
Langston Kitchen - bass
Rick Roe - piano
RANDY NAPOLEON & WAKING DREAM
Randy Napoleon - We are living in strange times. Pandemics, Political upheaval, Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon, Artificial Intelligence. Life feels like a B roll movie. I’ve acclimated to the unexpected. Throughout day-to-day life, I sometimes have a flash of unreality, as if nothing is as perceived. This is Waking Dream, sometimes it can feel like a nightmare as well.
I’m primarily and obsessively a student of straight-ahead jazz, but the only time I want to be put in a box is when I’m dead. I believe our artistic duty demands a search for new sounds. Also, I want my music to reflect what it feels like to be living in these times. We are in an abstract Picasso funhouse of mirrors. Steven King books feel more real than the daily news.
In spite of many rational reasons for anxiety, I continue to be optimistic. I still believe in humanity’s better angels. The present unpredictability fuels my creative freedom. The border between my dreams and waking reality is blurring. The world looks different.
I’m especially proud to be able to work with these four amazing guitarists. The definition of a humble brag: they are all former students; I’m the proudest teacher in the world! Now the humble part: I was trying to keep up with these young virtuosos! Ain’t that a kick in the head.
JOCELYN GOULD
Jocelyn Gould has become a household name in the guitar world over the last few years. She won a Juno award for Jazz Album of the Year in Canada with her first album, and it has been a whirlwind of success since then. Her humanity, fleet fingers and soulfulness shine through on everything she plays.
LUKE SITTARD
Luke Sittard is as consistent as the sun in the morning and the moon at night. As the adage goes, some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them. Luke is an achiever. Over the last ten years, I’ve watched him doggedly and ceaselessly turn from a beginner into a master. Wherever Luke is right now, he is probably practicing.
CHRIS MINAMI
Chris Minami is another exceptional player and person. While he can certainly burn, the element that stands out to me about his playing is his lyricism. I was planning on recording a solo on the title track, “Waking Dream” but during our tour leading up to this recording, Chris played so heart-wrenchingly and beautifully, I passed the solo to him for the record.
BEN TURNER
Ben Turner is one of the most brilliant musical minds I know. He thinks and hears fast. Like all great artists, he is always expanding and polishing his concept. I’ve never met a young musician who knew more music. He is hungry and ambitious, like all four of these talents, the sky’s the limit.
LANGSTON KITCHEN
The amazing Langston Kitchen. This nineteen-year-old phenom has only been playing bass for two years. I’m convinced he’s been here before. His abundant gift is matched by his seriousness and hard work. Bebop lives.
RICK ROE
Rick Roe won first place in the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in 1994, was twice a semifinalist in Thelonius Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, in 1993 and 1999.
He has given performances with Marcus Belgrave, Donald Walden, Rodney Whitaker, Frank Foster, Andrew Speight, Wycliffe Gordon, Gerald Cleaver, Victor Goines, Louis Smith, Randy Gelispie, Vincent York and more.
QUINCY DAVIS
Quincy Davis was born in Grand Rapids, MI, and comes from a very musical family. He began taking piano and drum lessons at age 6. In his elementary and middle school bands, he also played trumpet and tuba. Both of his parents are musicians who exposed him to all different styles of music including instrumental jazz, European classical, gospel, opera, R&B and jazz-fusion.
Davis has performed and toured with world-renowned musicians such as Frank Wess, Ernestine Anderson, Cecil McLorin-Salvant, Russell Malone, Eric Reed, Paquito D'Rivera, Kurt Elling, Christian McBride and more.
Quincy can be heard on over 50 albums playing with many notable jazz artists.
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