Thursday, February 22, 2018 @7:30
The Message is truly an all-star band. Its five members, Donald Harrison (alto saxophone), Billy Pierce, (tenor and soprano saxophones) Brian Lynch (trumpet), Sullivan Fortner (piano), Carl Allen (drums), and Essiet Essiet (bass), collectively have decades’ worth of experience delivering top-tier jazz performances live and on recordings. Four of the five members of The Message—all but Sullivan Fortner, born in 1986—are alumni of Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, the iconic jazz band that played in various iterations from the fifties to 1990. All come together to revisit the Messengers’ swingin’, hard-bop tradition, with a focus on arrangements of Jazz Messenger pieces by such esteemed composers as Wayne Shorter, Cedar Walton, Benny Golson, Lee Morgan, and Freddie Hubbard, but also always playing original compositions that respect the band’s roots. Taken altogether, The Message’s musical message is one that only gets better with age.
Pre-show talk in Bowker Auditorium at 6:30pm
Ticket Prices: $35, $25; Students $10