Freddie Bryant's Kaleidoscope West Trio

About

Freddie Bryant, guitar Doug Miller, bass Sylvia Cuenca, drums $25 cover charge; byob. Students, $10. Reservations, call 415-586-3733. We're pleased to welcome NY-based guitarist Freddie Bryant back to Bird & Beckett! Tonight, his Kaleidoscope West Trio presents "Poems, Groove and Song," a special program curated for Bird and Beckett’s intimate space. The music is based on a kaleidoscope of influences from straight-ahead to blues, New Orleans grooves to Brazilian, Latin and world rhythms, with songs drawn from his recent album "Solo Bossa" and his acclaimed song cycles, "Upper West Side Love Story" and "Live Grooves...Epic Tales." Freddie's latest recording project is his most intimate and his first complete album of solo guitar, Solo Bossa , which features 14 of his original compositions written over the last four decades. The title refers to bossa nova and many of the tracks have that classic feel made famous in the early 1960’s. The music takes the journey from bossa to samba as well as baiao, bolero, waltz and a sultry ballad-bossa in 7/4. About the Live Grooves...Epic Tales song cycle, noted jazz journalist, Bill Milkowski wrote, "A multi-directional musician...shifts easily from straight ahead jazz to Indian ragas, acoustic world music, bossa novas and grooving sambas...guitarist Freddie Bryant and the Kaleidoscope Trio expand his ever-widening musical palette on Live Grooves...Epic Tales." Upper West Side Love Story: a song cycle , performed in its Spring 2022 live premiere by an all-star nine-piece chamber ensemble fronted by jazz vocalist Carla Cook, with a string section led by violinist Regina Carter and featuring saxophonists Steve Wilson and Danny McCaslin. Released as a 16-song double cd in 2023, the recording was featured by the Daily News in a two-page spread and Downbeat Magazine included it on its “Best CDs of 2023” list, where Carlo Wolff noted that "Bryant's) project…speaks to joys and tribulations common to us all…over more than 90 minutes (it) delivers blues, hip-hop, Afro- Cuban, Afrobeat, reggae and spoken word. His passionate lyrics and colorful music suffuse his reflections on a neighborhood so gentrified he had to leave.” Jason Koransky, writing on www.downbeatjazz.com , wrote, "Guitarist Freddie Bryant is a rhythmic and melodic sponge. Put him in any musical situation, be it classical, jazz, funk, Senegalese, etc., and he’ll tend to become one with the music.” Freddie received a master’s degree in classical guitar from Yale School of Music and is in demand in the New York jazz and Brazilian scenes where he has worked with Eliane Elias, Tom Harrell and many others. He was a member of Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy Septet and has played with the Mingus Orchestra for two decades. His impressive array of guitar styles are featured on numerous CDs and albums showcasing his work on acoustic and electric guitars. His ten albums spotlight his intimate solo guitar to intricate ensemble work that brings an orchestral sound to a jazz ensemble. His touring has brought him to 55 countries where he collaborated with musicians from a variety of backgrounds, including Indian classical musicians, African singers, oud players, traditional Arab groups and klezmer bands. In 2006, Bryant spent a week in Cuba, performing solo and working with other Cuban musicians. As an impassioned educator, he has taught jazz to all ages around the world and is on the faculties of Berklee College of Music in Boston and Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen, Holland. 2017 saw the World premiere at the London Human Rights Watch Film Festival of Complicit with his music score. His nine CDs to date include: Monk Restrung, celebrating the music of Thelonious Monk, Dreamscape: Solo, Duo, Trio featuring Chris Potter and Scott Colley, Live Grooves…Epic Tales, Brazilian Rosewood, Boogaloo Brasileiro, Live at Smoke with Steve Wilson, Chris Cheek, Diego Urcola, Edward Simon, Edsel Gomez, Avishai Cohen and Jordi Rossy, Take Your Dance into Battle with Don Braden, Ira Coleman and Billy Drummond as well as Trio del Sol co-led with Misha Piatigorsky and Gilad. For more info visit his website: www.freddiebryant.com