Jazz and blues concerts culminate '07-08 Marquee Series (Feb. 29, March 21)

Feb. 12, 2008

Performances include "Bob Nieske 3 and Tre Corda - Double Trio Leap Year Concert" and "Chris Smither"

WHO: The Brandeis Marquee Series presents two professional concerts: “Bob Nieske 3 and Tre Corda - Double Trio Leap Year Concert” and “Chris Smither.”

WHAT: The Brandeis 07-08 Marquee Series has been labeled the university’s “most diverse and ambitious concert season ever,” and the final performances of the series promise to maintain that standard.

The Bob Nieske 3 “makes airy, intimate, and lyrical free jazz that’s easy to get next to,” according to the Boston Phoenix. On Feb. 29 audiences will witness this first-hand as the group takes the stage for the “Bob Nieske 3 and Tre Corda - Double Trio Leap Year Concert.”

Bassist Bob Nieske says his trio plays with “heart, intelligence and humor.” Nieske’s trio, known as one of Boston’s favorite jazz groups, will perform original jazz compositions, arrangements of standard repertoire and improvisations. This is a joint concert by Tim Ray’s trio Tre Corda, featuring Tim Ray, piano, Greg Hopkins, trumpet, and Eugene Friesen, cello, and the Bob Nieske 3, which features Brandeis jazz professor Bob Nieske, bass, Phil Grenadier, trumpet, and Nat Mugavero, drums. The groups will also join together to perform Bob Nieske’s “Pitch Blue” suite for two trumpets, cello, bass, piano and drum set and a Duo Trio by Tim Ray.

On March 21 Chris Smither, a blues artist, guitarist and songwriter, will end this year’s Marquee Series while “singing the blues.” According to NPR, Smither’s voice sounds “like a distillation of the folk and blues heroes he grew up listening to in New Orleans.”

Smither, a Boston Music Award recipient, will play favorites from his collection of his works, which draws deeply from blues, American folk music, modern poets and philosophers. The artist recently earned high honors as his song “Origin of Species” made the “Rolling Stone Best Songs of ’06” list at number 42.

NPR also notes “Smither taps his foot to keep the rhythm, much like the late blues legend John Lee Hooker. His finger-picked guitar lines are sleek, unhurried and insistent.”

WHEN:
Bob Nieske 3 and Tre Corda - Double Trio Leap Year Concert: Friday, Feb. 29, 8 p.m.
Chris Smither: Friday, March 21, 8 p.m.
 
WHERE: Slosberg Recital Hall, Brandeis University, 415 South Street, Waltham, Mass.

TICKETS: Subscriptions or single tickets for events throughout the concert season are available by calling 781-736-3400. Tickets are also available at the daytime box office in the Spingold Theater Center and at the Slosberg box office one hour before events begin. To order tickets online visit: http://go.brandeis.edu/brandeistickets