$12 adv / $15 day of show.
92YTribeca and WBGO present The Checkout: Live from 92YTribeca, a new series created by Joshua Jackson, host of WBGO’s hour-long music magazine The Checkout, and an unparalleled enthusiast for modern expressions in jazz.
Curated by Jackson in conjunction with 92YTribeca, The Checkout Live will convene some of the most exciting and innovative players on the NYC scene for monthly concerts that will be recorded for future broadcast and podcast. Join us for the city’s hottest new jazz showcase, a living and breathing celebration of the present and future of the music.
THE E.J. STRICKLAND PROJECT (A Tribute to Stevie Wonder)
Drummer, composer and bandleader E.J. Strickland is most known for his work as a member of the long-lived quartet of Ravi Coltrane (along with Luis Perdomo & Drew Gress), and his brother Marcus Strickland’s celebrated electric/acoustic quartets and trio. He also leads his own bands, The E.J. Strickland Quintet & The E.J. Strickland Project. His playing has been described as emitting “fields of cumulative energy, clouds of feather-touch and heavy-handed syncopations, latent with power like an oncoming storm” (Thomas Conrad, Downbeat Magazine). His discography includes over 25 albums with various recording artists, as well as his long-anticipated debut album In This Day (Strick Muzik), released in 2009. For this very special Checkout Live performance, Strickland assembles a stellar band to perform his arrangements of Stevie Wonder songs.
E.J. Strickland - drums, arrangements
Charenee Wade - vocals
Pauline Jean - vocals
Jaleel Shaw - alto sax
Marcus Strickland - tenor & soprano saxes
Tom Guarna - guitar
Ben Williams - bass
& special guest David Bryant - piano
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OLATUJA PROJECT
Jazz, gospel, soul and traditional African sounds mix happily on husband-and-wife Michael and Alicia Olatuja's uplifting debut collaboration The Promise. The album fulfills the promise suggested by Michael’s 2009 debut, Speak, named the R&B Album of the Year at the 9th Annual Independent Music Awards and given a rave review by the BBC’s music website, which called it “the expression of a singular creative voice that taps all the cultures from which it is born.” The Promise (World Tune Records, 2011) fulfills the couple’s collective vision to create music that fuses such traditional elements of African music as the Yoruba tongue, the talking drum and call-and-response vocals with the familiar Western languages of contemporary jazz, traditional gospel, R&B, neo-soul and a funky groove.
Alicia Olatuja- lead vocals
Michael Olatuja - bass
Christian Sands - piano
John Davis - drums
Kofo Wonder - Talking Drum
Rasul A-Salaam - backing vocals
Deah Harriott - backing vocals
Ayana George - backing vocals
Durell Ron Comedy - Dance/Movement
