Nat Harris Quartet

Nat HarrisNat Harris is a native of Russia who dedicated his education to music from his early youth.After college, Nat worked as a jazz guitarist and teacher.His talent on guitar launched him out of his Russian homeland, where he'd held a teaching position at the College of Music Arts, and brought him to Moscow as a performer.As a guitarist with the Allegro Jazz Ensemble, Nat played concert and festival stages around the world. After moving to the US in 1991, Nat became guitarist of the Morgan State University Choir, and performed with the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra and Baltimore's Meyer Hoff. Nat has played extensively with artists such as Miles Evans, Valery Ponomarev, George Benson, Seleno Clarke, Joey DeFrancesco, and Randy Brecker. Described as both a "young phenom" and an "absolute great," Jeb Patton has earned a well-regarded reputation in the international jazz community. The multi-talented Patton is known as a "player of great expression" and "not one to tread the predictable," as well as a "simpatico accompanist" for The Heath Brothers, an "innovative" arranger, and one who "cuts an impressive swath on his composition, 'Hanna's Mood,'" a tribute to his late teacher, Sir Roland Hanna. Jeb Patton graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences degree with a major in music from Duke University, where he studied piano with Tibor Szasz, Douglas Buys, and Jane Hawkins. As a member of the Duke Jazz Ensemble under Paul Jeffrey, he performed with and/or arranged for more than 60 professional jazz artists, including 48 musicians from New York and more than 12 international jazz musicians from Italy, Monaco, and Portugal. Studying under Sir Roland Hanna and Jimmy Heath, Jeb earned his Master of Arts degree, summa cum laude, in 1997 from the Aaron Copland School of Music, Queens College, City University of New York, where he also received the Louis Armstrong Award for composition from the ASCAP Foundation. Since graduating, Jeb has toured throughout the United States and abroad with the Heath Brothers and with Jimmy Heath's Generations Quintet, performing in theaters, festivals, concert halls, colleges, and clubs. Since moving to New York in 1996, Jeb has also played with the Charles McPherson Quartet, the Charles McPherson-Tom Harrell Quintet, Etta Jones, the Faddis/Hampton/Heath Sextet, Winard Harper's group, the Antonio Hart Quintet, Lewis Nash, Sachal Vasandani, Roberta Gambarini, Javon Jackson, James Moody, Diego Urcola, Jeremy Pelt, Keter Betts, Eddie Locke, Marlene Verplank, among others. Major national and international festival appearances with the Heath Brothers include Savannah Music Festival (2005), New Orleans Jazz and Heritage (2005), Tri C Festival (2005), Newport (Rhode Island, 2004), Mt. Hood (Oregon, 2004), Charlie Parker Festival (NYC 2004, 2002), Atlanta (Georgia, 2004), Baden-Baden Festival (Germany, 2003), 8th Salzburg Jazz Autumn Festival (Austria, 2003), 45th Annual Monterey Jazz Festival (California, 2002), 3rd Annual Healdsburg Jazz Festival (California, 2001), North Sea Jazz Festival (Holland, 2000), ýarhus Jazz Festival (Denmark, 2000), the Pori Festival (Finland, 1999), Graz "Jazz-Sommer" (Switzerland, 1999), and Wiggin Jazz Festival (England, 1999), Notable New York City performances include appearances with the Heath Brothers in "Birds of a Feather: A Charlie Parker Tribute," at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, May 21, 2004, (also featuring the Roy Haynes Quintet), and the January 24, 2004, NEA Jazz Masters Award Concert.the Opening Nights of Jazz at Lincoln Center, Jimmy Heath's 75th Birthday Celebration, October 19 and 20, 2001; and Jazz at Lincoln Center, Duo Series with Percy Heath in the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse, February 1 through 3, 2001. Performances in 2003 included a concert at the Chamber Music Hall in Berlin that was broadcast on Berlin Jazz Radio and a concert series in Rome. In September 2000, Jeb traveled to Greece with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band under the direction of Jon Faddis and at the invitation of the Consulate General of the USA to perform Ellington's "Black, Brown and Beige Suite." He has also appeared on three S.S. Norway Jazz Cruises as part of the Jimmy Heath Big Band, with Jimmy's small band, and with the Heath Brothers. Career highlights also include performing with Antonio Hart at the Kennedy Center in October 2003 at the National Visionary Leadership Project Gala and Awards Dinner. As students of Jimmy Heath, the duo performed a medley of all Jimmy Heath compositions in honor of Heath being named a Visionary in the Performing Arts. Inspired by the late Sir Roland Hanna, Patton is also very involved with classical music. Classical performances include a solo recital at Queensborough Community College featuring the Chopin Ballades and two performances with the New York Philomusica. These concerts featured Ellington's concerto, A New World A-Comin' arranged for chamber ensemble, Haydn Piano Trio in Eb major, and a premiere of a chamber piece by Michael Berkeley. In addition, Patton performed Ellington's concerto with the Queens College Orchestra in honor of Sir Roland Hanna, and has performed extensively with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's New Black Music Repertory Ensemble. Patton studied classical piano with Sir Roland Hanna and Lawrence Schubert. Presently, when Jeb is not on the road with the Heath Brothers, he teaches piano, improvisation, transcription and ear training at Queens College and Five Towns College. weblinks: www.jebpatton.com Perhaps the most recorded bassist of his generation, Peter Washington has also played an integral part in two of the most important and highly praised jazz trios of the last 20 years, in addition to a who's who roster of jazz artists.Born in Los Angeles, California, in 1964, Washington attended the University of California, Berkeley, where he majored in English Literature and played in both the UC Symphony and the San Francisco Youth Symphony. In 1986, while performing in San Francisco with alto saxophonist John Handy, he was asked by Art Blakey to move to New York and join the seminal Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers.Washington remained with the Jazz Messengers from 1986 to 1989, and during this time was able to establish himself as a ubiquitous, first- call freelance bassist; a position he has occupied to this day.In the early 1990's Washington joined the Tommy Flanagan Trio , called by many the greatest trio in jazz, and remained until Flanagan's death, in 2002. For the past ten years he has been a member of the very highly acclaimed Bill Charlap Trio.In addition to these long- term commitments Washington has worked and recorded with an extremely large number of top- tier artists, of all generations. A partial list of those he has recorded and performed live with would include Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Golson. Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Benny Carter, Hank Jones, Milt Jackson, Bobby Hutcherson, Kenny Burrell, Phil Woods, Cedar Walton, Joe Henderson, Ray Bryant, Frank Wess, Clark Terry, Lionel Hampton, Charles McPherson, Jimmy Heath, Percy Heath, Jimmy Cobb, Louis Hayes, the Newport All Stars, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, Gerald Wilson,Lou Donaldson, Barry Harris, Lew Tabakin, Sweets Edison, Johnny Griffin, Jackie McLean, Sir Simon Rattle and the Birmingham Symphony, Richard Wyands, Teddy Edwards, Johnny Coles, Frank Morgan, and more f the youngergenerations, Washington has recorded and performed with Mulgrew Miller, Tom Harrell, the Brecker Brothers, Don Grolnick, David Sanchez, Eric Alexander, Benny Green, Javon Jackson, Brian Lynch, David Hazeltine, One For All, Steve Nelson, James Carter, Renee Rosnes, Steve Turre, Regina Carter, Kenny Washington, Grant Stewart, Robin Eubanks, Joe Magnarelli, Geoff Keezer, Billy Drummond, Jeremy Pelt, Ryan Kisor, Walt Weisokopf, and many, many others.Peter Washington has also enjoyed associtions with vocalists as diverse as Andy Bey, Freddie Cole, Karrin Allyson, Chris Conner, Mark Murphy, Georgie Fame, Ernie Andrews, Paula West, Eric Comstock, Anne Hampton Calloway, Marlena Shaw, and Ernestine Anderson.A complete discography would list, as of this writing, over 350 recordings, and is expanded on a weekly and monthly basis.In the scope and breadth of his career thus far, his adaptability, and in his emphasis on creative, supportive, swiging time- playing as well as inventive and intelligent soloing, Washington has been compared to the likes of George Duvivier, Milt Hinton, and Ron Carter. Pete Van Nostrand was born and raised in Binghamton, NY. A graduate ofRutgers University, and The Juilliard School, he has been around NewYork since 2000 and has been called on to perform with Steve Davis,Jeremy Pelt, Eric Reed, Aaron Parks, Gerald Clayton, Chihiro Yamanaka,Dan Nimmer, Jeb Patton, Jim Rotundi, Mike LeDonne, Paula West, SachalVasandani, among many others. More recently has has been working withKenny Barron, Brian Lynch, Jimmy Heath, Kurt Elling, The ClaytonBrothers, and Natalie Cole. Currently he can be heard touring with theAaron Dhiel Quartet, Cécile McLorin Salvant, and the Gerald Claytontrio. A supportive sideman and young veteran of the New York City Jazzscene, he continues to keep busy in New York and on the road.petevannostrand.com