Guitarist Reinier Baas and saxophonist Ben van Gelder are prominent figures in the Dutch musicscene , and long time collaborators. They have played over 200 shows together in the past years, performing as a duo, as a trio with drum legend Han Bennink and with both their quintets. Their joint efforts have resulted in a collaboration with the multiple Grammy Award winning Metropole Orkest entitled ‘Smash Hits’, which will be released in October 2018, as well as a duo record, which will be released in the spring of 2019. 

An active bandleader, Reinier Baas has toured with his quintet ‘The More Socially Relevant Jazz Music Ensemble’ in Europe, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. His second album ‘Mostly Improvised Instrumental Indie Music’ received the prestigious Edison Award in 2013. As a soloist, he has performed with the Metropole Orkest, Jazz orchestra of the Concertgebouw, New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra, and the National Youth Jazz Orchestra. In 2016, Baas released his fourth studio record “Reinier Baas vs. Princess Discombobulatrix, a ‘mostly instrumental opera’. This collaboration with illustrator Typex and a line-up of 15 prominent improvisers and classical musicians received wide-spread critical acclaim – “Ravel, Prokofiev, Poulenc, Baas, truly!” – VILLA D’ARTE – and earned him a second Edison Award in 2017. Reinier has received composition assignments from the North Sea Jazz Festival, November Music Festival, Südtirol Jazzfestival, and Pynarello. 

Ben van Gelder is an authority on the alto saxophone and a composer with a contemporary view. His music is rooted in tradition but is distinguished by a unique blend of “lyricism, energy, grace, and rhythm.” His albums ‘Frame of Reference’ and ‘Reprise’ garnered outstanding reviews in the Dutch and international press. The album ‘Reprise’ was named ‘best jazz album of the year’ by de Volkskrant. Van Gelder has won various awards, such as the Deloitte Jazz Award and the Stan Getz/Clifford Brown fellowship, and more recently a composition assignment from the Jazz Gallery in New York. He has collaborated with outstanding musicians such as Mark Turner, AmbroseAkinmusire and Aaron Parks. His latest outing ‘Among Verticals’, a record inspired by the painting of Frantisek Kupka, received 5-star reviews in Dutch newspapers NRC and Volkskrant. Ben van Gelder is on the faculty at the Conservatory of Amsterdam.

Reiner and Ben
Featuring: Reinier Baas (g) and Ben van Gelder (s)
Date: Thur 14 March 2019, 8pm
Venue: The Third Eye, Upstairs at 30 Arthur St. Te Aro
Price: General $25, WJC members $20, Students with ID $15

Grammy Nominated reedman, Jay Rodriguez has brought his sound and musical experience to many genres and generations from co-founding the Groove Collective in NYC to recording and playing with artists like Chucho Valdez, Celia Cruz, Prince, Elvis Costello, The Roots, Miley Cyrus, to Craig Harris to name a few.

 www.jayrodriguez.com

Mr. Rodriguez plays with an unreserved flexibly on the tenor, alto and soprano saxophones; flute; and bass clarinet. He has worked with artists from Prince to Elvis Costello to Marc Ribot. On his own forthcoming album, ” Mr. Rodriguez moves between idioms and energies as easily as he switches instruments… – Giovanni Russonello (The New York Times)

Jay Rodriguez
Featuring: Ray Rodrigues (s), Mark Lockett (d), Patrick Bleakley (b)
Date: Thur 28 February 2019, 8pm
Venue: The Third Eye, Upstairs at 30 Arthur St. Te Aro
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $10

Matt Penman and Will Vinson
Featuring: Matt Penman (b), Will Vinson (s), Mark Lockett (d)
Date: Sun 17 February 2019, 7pm & 9pm
Venue: The Third Eye, Upstairs at 30 Arthur St. Te Aro
Price: General $45/80, WJC members $35/60, Students with ID $30/50.

SIMONA MINNS (NYC)

Simona is a New York-based jazz vocalist, composer, and zitherist originally from Lithuania. Her style is known for its unique theatrical flavor, genre-bending, and virtuosic vocal scat improvisation. Her latest work, “A Hunger Artist,” blends her haunting vocals with elements of jazz, musical theater, Lithuanian folk and even rock music to convey the narrative of Franz Kafka’s short story by the same title.

Classically trained on Lithuanian zither, Simona earned her BA in jazz vocals at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Shortly after receiving the European Touring Scholarship, she moved to the United States to study at Berklee College of Music where she majored in Contemporary Composition and Production. She received the Berklee Outstanding Jazz Vocalist Award and regularly performs and presents workshops in the US, Australia, New Zealand, and Europe. Her compositions have been written for drama plays, string quartets, orchestras, and big bands. Simona’s latest compositional work is a string quartet score for the silent film “The Passion of Joan of Arc”.

www.simonaminns.com

Simona Minns
Featuring: James Feekes (d), Leonardo Coghini (p), Chris Beernink (b)
Date: Thur 14 February 2019, 8pm
Venue: The Third Eye, Upstairs at 30 Arthur St. Te Aro
Price: General $15, WJC members and Students with ID $10