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The Side Door Jazz Club
Old Lyme Inn, 85 Lyme Street
Old Lyme, CT 06371
Yosvany Terry Quartet
Friday February 2, 2024
8:30PM
Yosvany Terry – Saxaphones and Chekeré
Osmany Paredes – Piano
Yunior Terry – Bass
Kweku Sumbry – Drums
Yosvany Terry traces his family’s roots to the kingdom of Dahomey, or present-day Benin. After being taken taken to work in Haiti and Jamaica, his relatives eventually were able to immigrate to Cuba in roughly 1910. As a child, Yosvany embraced the African musical and religious traditions that were a fundamental and integral part of his home life.
Born into a musical family in Camaguey, Cuba, he received his first musical instruction on the violin from his father, violinist and chekere player Don Pancho Terry who led Maravilla de Florida, the 1950s-formed collective widely acknowledged as one of Cuba’s most respected Charanga groups. As a result of his father’s legacy, Yosvany’s childhood house was home to music and an extended family of Cuban musicians.
Yosvany went on to study Western classical music in Havana at the prestigious National School of Arts (ENA). He chose the saxophone as his primary instrument for expressing his music to a global audience, selecting piano as a way to explore rich textural harmony and translate his music into original compositions and arrangements. His music draws inspiration from parallel and intermingling traditions that have roots in the Caribbean and West & Central Africa, as well as from European harmonic traditions and the broad range of Jazz Traditions. Yosvany became interested in Jazz at 14 and began educating himself via bootlegged tapes and records that found their way to Cuba. In 1995, he began traveling to the U.S. to join the faculty at Stanford Jazz Workshop and to tour with his first Jazz project, Columna B. He has lived in the U.S. since 1999.
Yosvany’s work cross-pollinates technical mastery with experiential vision and a desire for inter-cultural expression. A deep commitment to participating in meaningful exchanges compels Yosvany to perform and record with some of the world’s most talented musicians. Collaborators include Steve Coleman, Rufus Reid, Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Vijay Iyer, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Avishai Cohen, Eddie Palmieri, Silvio Rodriguez, Baptiste Trotignon and Gerald Clayton. Yosvany received a Grammy Nomination, for his New Throned King CD and is a Doris Duke Artist award recipient.
A natural teacher and cultural bearer, Yosvany is driven to share talent, craft and experiential knowledge with the emerging generation of creative musicians, as well as preserve and deepen the understanding of the music from the Caribbean and other parts of the African Diaspora. Over the years, he’s taught courses and delivered master classes across the country and throughout the world. He has served such notable institutions as Princeton University, The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, the Brubeck Institute, NYU, Goddard College, Boston University, Casa de las Americas in Havana, Royal Conservatory of Music in Winnipeg, Banff Center for Arts and Creativity, Columbia University, the University of Salvador de Bahia, University of Rio de Janeiro, and he continues to be resident instructor at the Stanford Jazz Workshop. In 2015, Yosvany joined the full-time faculty at Harvard University as Senior Lecturer and Director of Jazz Ensembles in the Department of Music.
Dave Pietro Quintet
Saturday, February 3, 2024
8:30PM
Dave Pietro – alto saxophone
Scott Wendholt – trumpet
Gary Versace – piano
Jay Anderson – bass
Billy Drummond – drums
A native of Southboro, Massachusetts, Dave Pietro has been on the New York music scene since 1987.His talents as a gifted saxophonist, composer, and educator have made him an in-demand musician who has performed at jazz clubs, jazz festivals, schools and concert halls in more than 30 countries
throughout Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America.
Dave is a member of the Grammy Award-winning Maria Schneider Orchestra and the Grammy-nominated groups – the Gil Evans Project and Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society. From 1994-2016 he played lead alto saxophone and recorded seven CD’s with the Toshiko Akiyoshi Jazz Orchestra. He has also toured, performed, and/or recorded with the bands of Woody Herman, Lionel Hampton, Maynard Ferguson, The Village Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Michael Leonhart, John Fedchock, Mike Holober,
Anita Brown, Pete McGuinness, Jim Widner, Chris Zuar and Arturo O’Farrill. Pietro has performed with many other well known musicians such as Paul Anka, Louis Bellson, Blood Sweat & Tears, David Bowie, Bobby Caldwell, Ray Charles, Rosemary Clooney, Harry Connick Jr., Michael Feinstein, Chaka Khan, Liza Minnelli, James Naughton and John Pizzarelli. He has also studied East Indian music and performed with various groups led by Indian tablist Sandip Burman.
Dave has released nine albums as a leader and his latest CD Hypersphere (ArtistShare-2020) features Alex Sipiagin, Gary Versace, Johannes Weidenmueller and Johnathan Blake, with guests Ryan Keberle and Rogerio Boccato. With it “Pietro has emerged as a leader of importance” says Thomas Conrad of
Stereophile. His release New Road: Iowa Memoirs (ArtistShare-2017) was called “a carefully measured balance between structure and spontaneity, filled with inspirational performances by a top-flight ensemble” by Mark Holston of Jazziz magazine. Embrace: Impressions of Brazil (A Records-2004), featuring a host of musicians including Helio Alves and Duduka DaFonseca was considered “a triumph…one of the most satisfying Brazilian jazz mixes since the first bossa nova tsunami” by Judith Schlesinger of AllAboutJazz. Standard Wonder: The Music of Stevie Wonder, (A Records), featuring Scott Wendholt, Pete McGuinness, David Berkman, Scott Colley and Brain Blade was voted one of the top 10 jazz CD’s of 2001 by Bob Blumenthal of the Boston Globe and Bill Milkowski of Jazz Times. His first two releases featured the rhythm section of Kenny Werner, Dave Holland and Bill Stewart. Dave also co-leads an international quartet “The New York-Tokyo Connection” (NYTC) with pianist Jonathan Katz. Their third Precious (Seven Steps) was released in 2014.