Name: Courtney Bryan and Friends
Start: 2019-08-19T19:00:00-04:00
End: 2019-08-19T21:00:00-04:00
Location: Freehand New York

Courtney Bryan and Friends

We carry a solid reputation of presenting cutting edge material with meticulous detail to culture, arts, and entertainment. Welcome to GRUNGECAKE.

GRUNGECAKE

Looking for a chill night out? Come hang out with our artist-in-resident Courtney Bryan  on August 19 for an evening of original music.

Freehand New York

<h3>Courtney Bryan and Friends will include an evening of improvised duets and original compositions. During her artist-in-residency at Freehand New York, composer Courtney Bryan is working on an array of projects including a violin concerto, orchestra piece, and the beginnings of an opera and a musical. These performances will reflect the music influencing the new works as well as current work-in-progress ideas. Featured performers include: Brandee Younger, Ulysses Owens Jr, Calvin Johnson Jr, Rashaan Carter and Jay Gandhi </h3>About the Artists: Courtney Bryan, a native of New Orleans, La, is “a pianist and composer of panoramic interests” (New York Times). Her music is in conversation with various musical genres, including jazz and other types of experimental music, as well as traditional gospel, spirituals, and hymns. Focusing on bridging the sacred and the secular, Bryan's compositions explore human emotions through sound, confronting the challenge of notating the feeling of improvisation. Bryan has academic degrees from Oberlin Conservatory (BM), Rutgers University (MM), and Columbia University (DMA) with advisor George Lewis, and completed an appointment as Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. Bryan is currently an Assistant Professor of Music in the Newcomb Department of Music at Tulane University, the Mary Carr Patton Composer-in-Residence with the Jacksonville Symphony, and serves as a board member of the Musical Arts Society of New Orleans (MASNO), Composers Now, and New Music USA. She was the 2018 music recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, and is the 2019 winner of the Samuel Barber Rome Prize in Music Composition.Bryan’s work has been presented in a wide range of venues, including Lincoln Center, Miller Theatre, The Stone, Roulette Intermedium, La MaMa Experimental Theatre, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Blue Note Jazz Club, Bethany and Abyssinian Baptist Churches, Snug Harbor Jazz Bistro, New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, and Ojai Music Festival. Upcoming commissions include compositions for the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, The Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, International Contemporary Ensemble, Quince Ensemble/Chicago Symphony, and Jennifer Koh/Chicago Sinfonietta. She has two recordings, “Quest for Freedom” (2007) and "This Little Light of Mine" (2010).Learn more about Courtney here: www.courtneybryan.comHarpist Brandee Younger defies genres as a classically-trained musician playing in the avant-garde tradition of her musical predecessors Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane. Ms. Younger delivers a fresh take on the instrument as an educator, curator, solo artist and leader of her own ensemble, The Brandee Younger Quartet. She has produced an impressive body of work since the 2011 debut of her Prelude EP. Her discography includes Brandee Younger Live @ The Breeding Ground, Bluenote Records and Revive Music’s 2015 album Supreme Sonacy Vol. 1, the critically-acclaimed 2016 album Wax &amp; Wane and a 2018 appearance as a featured artist on the Impulse tribute to The Beatles titled A Day in the Life: Impressions of Pepper.Her most recent album Soul Awakening is the first full-length recorded by Younger. Known for expressive interpretations of traditional harp repertoire as well as her continued work with a diverse cross-section of musical talents, Ms. Younger is widely recognized as a creative linchpin whose nuanced presence and willingness to push boundaries have made her irreplaceable on record and in performance. She has shared the stage with jazz leaders and popular hip-hop and r&amp;b titans including Ravi Coltrane, Maxwell, Pharoah Sanders, Jack Dejohnette, Reggie Workman, Common, John Legend and Lauryn Hill. Most recently, her original composition “Hortense” was featured in the documentary “Homecoming” by Beyoncé Knowles.As well versed in performance art as she is the art of creative risk-taking, Brandee Younger challenges commonly-held notions in her quest to ”make the harp a more relevant force in today’s music.” Ms. Younger’s ability to seamlessly inject the harp into arrangements and venues where it has historically been overlooked is a testament to her deep love for and exemplary command of the instrument.Learn more about Brandee here: https://www.brandeeyounger.com/Ulysses Owens Jr. : Heralded as a “powerhouse of a showman” (Glide Magazine), a “legitimate jazz triple threat” (Critical Jazz) and a drummer who “take[s] a back seat to no one” (The NewYork Times), performer, producer and educator Ulysses Owens Jr. goes the limit in the jazz world and beyond.Owens has been named a Rising Star by DownBeat’s Critics Poll for five years straight, 3rd Runner-Up in “Classic Drum” category by Modern Drummer Magazine“Readers Poll.” He is a recipient of the 2013 ASCAP Plus Award, the 2014 GlobalMusic Award and the 2015 Jazz at Lincoln Center Swing! Award.Claiming four successful albums of his own (It’s Time for U, Unanimous, Onward andUpward, and Falling Forward.) Owens has also gained special attention for his performances on the GRAMMY award-winning albums Dedicated to You (Kurt Elling)The Good Feeling (Christian McBride Big Band.) GRAMMY award-nominated albums;Giant Steps,” and Countdown (Joey Alexander) Out Here, Live at The VillageVanguard (Christian McBride Trio) and most recently, Nat King Cole, and Me (GregoryPorter.)Learn more about Ulysses here: https://www.usojazzy.com/Bassist Rashaan Carter grew up in the Washington, D.C. area. Through the nurturing of his father, a saxophonist, and his mother, a jazz radio programmer, Carter forged an interest in music. He worked and gained experience in Washington’s local music scene, and after high school, moved to New York City to attend The New School University. While attending the New School, Carter studied with Buster Williams and Reggie Workman. He also began to work with many of the university’s faculty, including Joe Chambers and Jimmy Owens. Rashaan has since worked with Benny Golson, Curtis Fuller, Louis Hayes, Wallace Roney, David Murray, Henry Threadgill, Ravi Coltrane, Geri Allen, Marc Cary, Cindy Blackman, Doug and Jean Carn, Antoine Roney, Sonny Simmons and many more. He has also studied with one of his prime influences, Ron Carter. Rashaan regularly performs with a myriad of artists in and outside of New York and can be found on various recordings as well.Calvin Johnson is a saxophonist, composer and bandleader born and raised in New Orleans, Louisiana. He could not escape being a musician as he is a 3rd generation musician NOLA saxophonist. Johnson was able to nurture and expand his love and interest in the music business at the famed performing arts high school the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts (NOCCA). While having always maintained a full-time music career Johnson received his B.S. in Business from the University of New Orleans. Calvin stays involved with the community through a number of organizations such as the Preservation Hall Foundation, where he serves as a clinician and leads youth music workshops throughout the New Orleans Metro Area. He is an avid supporter of music in the City of New Orleans and the youth within his city through a partnership with the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation and the New Orleans Public School System where he serves as a musician mentor to aspiring music students. Johnson also has the pleasure of giving back to the community and the continuum of jazz by serving as a faculty member of the prestigious Louis Armstrong Summer Jazz Camp. On stage Johnson heads the band Calvin Johnson and Native Son. Native Son's self-entitled sophomore release was received to rave reviews and voted as one of the the top releases of 2015 by Offbeat Magazine Readers Poll as well as achieving 8th highest grossing album sold at the 2015 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage festival. Calvin has toured and/or recorded with the likes of: Harry Connick Jr., Aaron Neville, Jason Derulo, Blind Boys of Alabama, Irma Thomas, Preservation Hall, Mannie Fresh, Mystikal, Irvin Mayfield, the New Orleans Jazz Orchestra, and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. In the spring of 2019 Calvin made his acting debut with a featured role in the upcoming Hollywood biopic "Bolden!" about jazz's first trumpeter and New Orleans native Buddy Bolden. In the film Johnson is casted as "Frank Lewis", the cocky and arrogant yet thorough clarinetist in Buddy Bolden's band. Now Calvin finds himself a resident of NYC and begins a new chapter in his career. Jay Gandhi: A multifaceted artist, Jay is a senior disciple of the legendary bansuri maestro Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. In addition to accompanying his Guru on multiple concert tours, he has established himself as a prominent solo performer of Hindustani classical flute.His parallel explorations in the world of Jazz have afforded him the honor of performing with such greats as Ravi Coltrane, Reggie Workman, Jeff “Tain” Watts, as well as of sharing the stage with the legendary Pharoah Sanders.Based out of NYC, Jay maintains a busy schedule of touring, teaching and as a founding member of the Brooklyn Raga Massive, a prominent musicians collective.

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Courtney Bryan and Friends

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