David Virelles Trio

NOTE LOCATION: Hertz Hall Myra Melford Jazz Platform Cal Performances has invited pianist and composer Myra Melford to co-curate our jazz programming this season, with concerts that will introduce Bay Area jazz aficionados to artists who are household names in New York and abroad, but may be less well-known on the West Coast. A “stalwart of the new-jazz movement” (The New Yorker), Melford is among the most respected artists of her generation. A Guggenheim Fellow and recipient of the Alpert Award for Music and the Doris Duke Performing Artist Award, she has been a professor of music at UC BERKELEY for the past 14 years, teaching improvisation and composition while maintaining a vigorous international career as a touring and recording artist. “These diverse musicians are at the leading edge of jazz and improvisational music in the world today, innovative performers across generations who are blending composition and improvisation in exciting, original ways.” —Myra Melford Here is what Melford has to say about the singular artists visiting this season; DAVID VIRELLES, piano Rashaan Carter, bass Eric McPherson, drums Spider Web by Nicole Mitchell and Josh Kun Nicole Mitchell, flute, voice, electronics Josh Kun, spoken word JoVia Armstrong, percussion Damon Locks, voice, electronics Joshua White, keyboards S. Ama Wrey, movement, spoken word “When I first heard DAVID VIRELLES, I was struck by how thoroughly his piano playing embodies the traditions of Cuban music, while at the same time drawing in very modern influences from contemporary classical music and the avant-garde. There is great freedom in his playing—he can groove and also take the music out into new territory at the same time.” “There is no one who plays the flute like Nicole Mitchell—everything about her playing is totally unique, and stellar. Nicole I are close collaborators, and I am continually inspired by her imagination and vision. Her fascinating new project Spider Web is a collaboration with scholar Josh Kun, that explores race and politics in Southern California in the context of Afrofuturism, black experimental music, and her own family history.”