“Third Thursdays”: this month, the harmolodic jazz series features host keyboardist Dave Bryant joined by drummer Gregg Bendian and bassist Hilliard Greene in a high-energy trio format performing on Thursday, May 18, 2023.
Third Thursdays 05/2023 w/Bendian, Greene, Bryant.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – April 28, 2023 – PRLog — Improvising keyboardist Dave Bryant, curator and host of the “Third Thursdays” series of monthly harmolodic jazz concerts, has invited drummer Gregg Bendian and bassist Hilliard Greene to join him in May for a high-energy harmolodic jazz trio experience.
The May concert will be Bryant’s and Bendian’s first in-person performance together since the recording of their Night Visitors album, released in 2020. The album featured a trio of Bryant, Bendian, and the late bassist Charnett Moffett, who passed last spring. All three artists had direct affiliations with free jazz legend Ornette Coleman. Per Wulf’s Music + Blog review of Night Visitors: “Bryant and the two musicians improvise amazingly, adding influences from other music styles as rock, blues and beyond into the performances. . . . Very original and a great tribute to the music of Coleman, taking his concepts forward. Adventurous and a pleasure to listen to!”
Bryant notes, “It’s about time Night Visitors had a CD release concert! It’s just so sad that we can’t perform with our good friend Charnett. But this long-awaited reunion with Gregg and Hill should be both warmly familiar and stylistically wide-ranging.”
This is the second concert in year two of the “Third Thursdays” series. This second year (running from April 2023-March 2024) will continue to feature artists who are also former Ornette Coleman colleagues. The ultimate goal of “Third Thursdays” is to share experiences of free jazz played using Coleman’s unique approach. Each month’s concert is a totally different experience, catapulting performers—and their listeners—out of their usual comfort zone with ear-catching transcendent musical moments.
“Third Thursdays” performances and interviews have been documented at dbryantmusic.com/
Listings information for May:
“Third Thursdays” with Dave Bryant and Friends: a monthly harmolodic jazz series. Continues on Thursday, May 18, 8:00 pm, with Dave Bryant (keyboards) joined by special guests Gregg Bendian (drums) and Hilliard Greene (bass). For further updates, visit dbryantmusic.com/
Further background on the “Third Thursdays” monthly series:
The “Third Thursdays with Dave Bryant and Friends” harmolodic jazz series began in April 2022, with the overall goal of showcasing a diverse range of Boston-area musical artists, as well as Dave’s fellow Ornette Coleman sidemen. A few months ago, it was announced that the funding for “Third Thursdays” monthly series has been extended for another year, starting in April 2023. Dave Bryant is honored that the series has received additional support from the Appalachian Springs Foundation (ASF) in order to continue this 12-month cycle extension.
The intent of “Third Thursdays” is to provide a venue for free jazz improvising artists, both local and national, to perform their work in an acoustically sympathetic performance space with professional video and sound recording to document the event. Dave Bryant was a long-time student and sideman of free jazz legend Ornette Coleman as a member of Coleman’s Prime Time group. Consequently, another key purpose of the series is to document the experiences, reminiscences, and musical contributions of members of Coleman’s bands for presentation in a podcast. The series is providing well-deserved exposure locally and internationally for local free jazz artists and for Coleman collaborators as well as first-hand insights and information from those collaborators about Coleman’s musical processes and philosophy.
All “Third Thursdays” sessions are held monthly at the Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church, located a short walking distance from Harvard Square. Audience seating capacity will abide by whatever health and safety protocols are in place on any given month. The “Third Thursdays” harmolodic jazz series is funded in part by the Appalachian Springs Foundation (ASF), a private foundation located in Charleston, WV. As a nonprofit arts and educational organization, ASF has supported dance, film, music, and educational projects. Many of the “Third Thursdays” concert and interview videos that have been recorded since April 2022 can be found at dbryantmusic.com/
About “Third Thursdays” May guest artists:
Gregg Bendian (drums):
Bendian is a percussionist as well as a composer, producer, educator, and creator of The ProgCast, on which he has interviewed over 150 major musical innovators for the Yale Oral History of American Music, including Jean-Luc Ponty, Dave Liebman, Zoot Horn Rollo, and many more. In addition to collaborating with Ornette Coleman, Bendian has worked with artists that include Todd Rundgren, Jan Hammer, John Zorn, Cecil Taylor, and Pat Metheny. bendianmusic.com (https://www.bendianmusic.com/)
Hilliard “Hill” Greene (bass):
Along with appearing on more than 75 recordings, Greene has two commercial recordings as a solo artist. His most recent recording features Negro spirituals that enslaved Africans used to escape through the Underground Railroad. Greene has performed and/or recorded with numerous artists, including Jimmy Scott (also as Scott’s musical director), Cecil Taylor (also as Taylor’s concert master), Rashied Ali, Joanne Brackeen, Uri Caine, James Carter, Dave Douglas, Vijay Iyer, Frank Lacy, Oliver Lake, Jemeel Moondoc, Jason Moran, Bern Nix, Don Pullen, and Bobby Watson. hilliardgreene.com
Further background information on “Third Thursdays” curator and host:
Dave Bryant (“Third Thursdays” host, keyboards) has been based in Cambridge, MA for many years. Early in his musical career, Bryant was a protégé of harmolodic jazz genius Ornette Coleman, having studied with him, then invited by Coleman to be the first electric keyboardist to perform in his Prime Time group. Bryant joined Prime Time in 1990, touring worldwide and performing on Prime Time’s Tone Dialing album. Bryant’s own first album, Shock Exchange, with liner notes by Coleman, was recorded in 1986 with his trio at that time, bassist John Turner and percussionist Chris Bowman. In 1999, Bryant released The Eternal Hang with Turner, Bowman, George Garzone, Bob Gullotti, and recording engineer Roger Nichols. That same year he performed on the John Tchicai/Charlie Kolhase Quintet disc, Life Overflowing, which was named “Jazz Album of the Year” by Boston Music Awards. In 2015, Bryant released The Garden of Equilibria, which features performances by Bryant, performing in a variety of settings, both acoustic and electric, with Tom Hall, Neil Leonard, Curt Newton, Eric Rosenthal, Jeff Song, and Jacob William. Bryant’s most recent recording Night Visitors is a 2020 collaboration with bassist Charnett Moffett and percussionist Gregg Bendian, which “finds Bryant adapting the Coleman aesthetic to an intensely personal ripple and rumble piano style.” (Mike Hobart, jazz critic for the Financial Times). Jazz journalist Howard Mandel considered Night Visitors one of the best jazz albums of 2020. Other credits include performances with Leroy Jenkins, Bern Nix, Eric Person, Badal Roy, Wadada Leo Smith, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Calvin Weston, and more. Bryant has also performed and lectured in Chicago, San Francisco, Paris, and Istanbul. Bryant teaches at Longy School of Music of Bard College. dbryantmusic.com (http://www.dbryantmusic.com/)
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