The Fellowship Band; photo credit Erin Larkin
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
6 PM & 8:30 PM
The summer series opens Wednesday, June 19, with a special celebration of Juneteenth featuring Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band (note two separate shows at 6:00 p.m. and 8:30 p.m.). One of the world’s leading jazz drummers, Blade brings The Fellowship Band to the Athenaeum for its first local appearance. The ensemble features Jon Cowherd on piano, Melvin Butler on tenor and soprano saxophone, Myron Walden on alto saxophone and bass clarinet, and Roland Guerin on bass.
Formed in 1997, The Fellowship Band has been called “one of the most distinctive and long-running bands in jazz in the 21st century.” Originating from the meeting of Blade and Cowherd in 1988, while they were studying at Loyola University in New Orleans, the group has released seven albums ranging from Brian Blade Fellowship (1998) to 2023’s Kings Highway. From the beginning, they created a sound of its own genre, encompassing jazz, gospel and folk music that continues to uplift and inspire listeners worldwide.
A multi-Grammy-winning artist and composer, Blade has made past Athenaeum appearances with Ron Miles and Bill Frisell, Jeff Denson, and Wolfgang Muthspiel. His career includes work with artists including Wayne Shorter, Chick Corea, and Joshua Redman as well as Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan. NPR called The Fellowship Band “an all-star lineup that functions more like a harmonious congregation, ebbing and flowing as one … jazz-inflected, gospel-rooted music suffused with a glowing consonance.”
Brian Blade recently participated in Dave Drexler’s “Inside Art” segment previewing his upcoming Athenaeum Music and Arts Library concert and current Fellowship Band album Kings Highway. The interview aired Sunday, June 2nd at 6 p.m. PT on KSDS-FM, Jazz 88.3 (www.jazz88.org). The full online version is now posted to the KSDS web server at the following link:
The direct link to the audio:
https://www.jazz88.org/MP3/IA060224Blade.mp3
The link to the program:
https://www.jazz88.org/Player.asp?f=IA060224Blade&p=https%3A//www.jazz88.org/programs/Inside_Art
You may listen to the segment at any time using your web browser by clicking on the above link. To download and keep the audio file for your records simply right-click (control-click with a Mac) on the time bar and select “Save Audio As.” Or, you can e-mail the link to others by right-clicking on the time bar and selecting “Copy Audio Address.”
Brian Blade & The Fellowship Band
Brian Blade, drums
Jon Cowherd, piano/pump organ
Myron Walden, alto saxophone/bass clarinet
Melvin Butler, tenor/soprano saxophone
Roland Guerin, bass
The Fellowship Band was formed in 1997 and originates from the meeting of Brian Blade and Jon Cowherd in 1988 while they were studying at Loyola University in New Orleans. Over the 27 years that the band has existed, they have released seven albums: Brian Blade Fellowship (1998), Perceptual (2000), Season of Changes (2008), Landmarks (2014), Body and Shadow (2017), live from the archives (2022), and Kings Highway (2023). Visit brianblade.com for touring information and recordings available through Stoner Hill Records and Press.
Brian Blade was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. The first music he experienced was the Gospel and songs of praise at the Zion Baptist Church where his father, Brady L. Blade Sr., has been Pastor since 1961. In elementary school, music appreciation classes were an important part of his development and at age nine, he began playing the violin. Inspired by his older brother, Brady L. Blade Jr., who had been the drummer at Zion Baptist Church, Brian shifted his focus to the drums throughout middle and high school.
During high school, while studying with Dorsey Summerfield, Jr., Brian began listening to the music of John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Art Blakey, Theolonious Monk, Elvin Jones and Joni Mitchell. By the age of eighteen, Brian moved to New Orleans to attend Loyola University. From 1988 through 1993, Brian was able to study and play with most of the master musicians living in New Orleans, such as: John Vidacovich, Ellis Marsalis, Steve Masakowski, Bill Huntington, Mike Pellera, John Mahoney, George French, Emile Vinette, Germaine Bazzle, David Lee, Jr., Alvin Red Tyler, Tony Dagradi and Harold Battiste.
While continuing to work with The Fellowship Band, Blade was a member of the Wayne Shorter quartet since 2000. He has recorded with Daniel Lanois, Joni Mitchell, Kenny Garrett, Ellis Marsalis, Chick Corea, Marianne Faithfull, Norah Jones, Emmylou Harris and Bob Dylan.
The Kentucky-raised, New Orleans-schooled, New York-based Jon Cowherd is best known for his long- running partnership with drummer/bandleader Brian Blade, with whom he co-founded the Grammy nominated Brian Blade and The Fellowship Band, whose acclaimed, influential albums showcase Cowherd's stellar keyboard work and singular compositional skills. When not recording and touring with the Fellowship, Cowherd has worked extensively with a broad array of players and singers from the jazz, pop and rock worlds including Joni Mitchell, Norah Jones, Brandi Carlile, KD Lang, Rosanne Cash, Iggy Pop, Glen Hansard, Cassandra Wilson, John Scofield and Lizz Wright.
In 2013, ArtistShare and Blue Note records released Cowherd’s first album as a leader “Mercy” which features Bill Frisell, John Patitucci and Brian Blade. Cowherd and Blade also directed the all star Joni Mitchell tribute “Joni 75” along with such artists as Brandi Carlile, Glen Hansard, Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Chaka Khan, Diana Krall, Kris Kristofferson, Los Lobos with Marisoul, Graham Nash, Seal, James Taylor and Rufus Wainwright.
In 2017 Cowherd released a new recording on the exclusive “vinyl only” Newvelle record label. “Gateway” consists of 7 compositions by Cowherd and one from Brian Blade and features Steve Cardenas and Tony Scherr.
As an arranger, Cowherd has scored for big band, strings and symphony orchestra for Brandi Carlile, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright, the Fellowship Band and the Shreveport Symphony and the Loyola University Symphony Orchestra.
Other current touring projects include Alicia Olatuja, Nate Smith and Kinfolk, Tom Guarna’s Wishing Stones project and a new project with John Scofield touring in the Spring & Summer 2022 called “Yankee Go Home”.
Myron Walden was born in Miami, Florida, moving with his mother to the Bronx at age 12, and grew up listening to a wide range of rhythm and blues, blues, soul, and gospel music. Shortly after the move, as Myron's uncle was listening to a recording of Charlie Parker's 'One Night in Washington,' young Myron was profoundly moved by the music and, hearing the uncle exclaim "Tell it Bird!," he immediately knew that music was his calling and that music would be his voice.
In some ways, his 2009-2010 trio of albums best reflects the way music made him feel at that early age. "When Brian Blade Fellowship was formed I was really inspired. Here was a jazz master who knew country, blues and early rock. Brian helped me realize the vast possibilities in music. My passion is too expansive to be limited to one style. I like to express myself and my emotions beyond the conventions of any one genre." With new recordings, 'Momentum', 'In This World' and 'Countryfied', Walden has created a body of work full of range and passion.
Myron's first formal instruction came during middle school at the Harlem School of The Arts' after school program. Myron attended LaGuardia High School of Music and the Arts in New York City, and after graduation attended the Manhattan School of Music, graduating in 1994. That previous year, he won the prestigious Lincoln Center Charlie Parker Competition.
During the 1990s, Myron established his credentials as a performer in New York's jazz scene, and was a fixture at the legendary Small's, a fertile ground for the nurturing of new jazz talent. As he shared the stage with Nat Adderley, Freddie Hubbard, Wynton Marsalis, and Roy Hargrove, his stature as a performer grew. Myron also developed his skills as a composer and, during this period, his compositions were recorded by Antoine Roney, Ravi Coltrane, Vincent Herring, Carl Allen and Winard Harper.
In 1996, Myron's debut album, 'Hypnosis,' was released to great critical acclaim, followed in 1999 by 'Like a Flower Seeking the Sun,' both from NYC Records. In 2002, 'Higher Ground' premiered, with 'This Way' appearing in 2005. The latter were released on Fresh Sound New Talent Records. Myron composed and arranged original music for all four recordings.
All About Jazz and the Jazz Journalist Association named 'This Way' as one of the Top Ten records of 2005. In addition to developing his voice and profile as a leader, Myron has had the good fortune to belong to two bands of particular meaning to him and significance to American music.
In 1997, Myron joined The Fellowship Band at its inception, and he continues to record and perform with the group today. Myron's soulful, passionate solos on the alto saxophone and bass clarinet are frequently cited as moving and exciting parts of this ensemble's performances and Brian has credited Myron's voice as one of his inspirations for his compositions.
In 2003 Myron joined the late Ray Barretto's band. With that band, Myron not only recorded and performed, but also composed and arranged. In fact, Barretto's final GRAMMY-nominated album, 'Time Was - Time Is,' released in 2005, featured two of Myron's compositions, including the title track. Myron served as the arranger for one of the tracks on that album that particularly moved both fans and critics, "Motherless Child." In addition, in 1996 Myron joined as an original member of the New Jazz Composers Octet, for whom he continues to compose, record and perform today. The New Jazz Composers Octet featured Freddie Hubbard at the time of his passing.
Myron is also pursuing his musical journey as a leader with multiple projects. One feature of the newer projects is that he is playing predominantly the tenor saxophone. A few years ago the compositions Myron was beginning to write took on a deeper voice. Although Myron's alto voice is very full, he committed to developing his tenor playing, to better serve the music. This allowed him to add a new voice to his rapidly developing compositions, and to diversify his sound with a refreshed voice that lends depths of feeling to his creative new music.
Melvin L. Butler is Associate Professor at the University of Miami, where he teaches in the Department of Musicology at the Frost School of Music and serves as Associate Dean of the Office of Academic Enhancement for Undergraduate Affairs. He is also a faculty affiliate of the University of Miami's Center for Global Black Studies. In October 2023, he began a two-year term as the thirty-fifth President of the Society for Ethnomusicology.
A scholar-performer with broad interests in music and religion of the African diaspora, he has conducted field research on popular music and religion in Haiti, Jamaica, and the United States. In these transnational contexts, he interrogates the cultural politics of popular culture and religious worship while attending to the role of musical style in constructing individual and collective identities. His research explores black music-making, improvisation, and transcendence, with an emphasis on discourses of cultural authenticity and power that inflect Spirit-filled Christian worship.
Dr. Butler's first book, Island Gospel: Pentecostal Music and Identity in Jamaica and the United States (University of Illinois Press, 2019), examines the theological and experiential connections between Jamaican and African American Pentecostal music and gospel performance. His second book, tentatively titled Claiming Haiti: Music and the Cultural Politics of Transcendence in Haiti, is under contract with Oxford University Press. At the heart of his work lies a critical reconsideration of how music relates to processes of boundary-crossing, identity formation, and social positioning in post-colonial contexts. His awards include a Ford Foundation Pre-Doctoral Fellowship (1999-2003) and a Fulbright IIE field research grant (2001-2002). In addition, he was the Thurgood Marshall Dissertation Fellow at Dartmouth College in 2004-2005. From 2008 to 2010, he served as Secretary of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (U.S. Branch).
An internationally acclaimed jazz saxophonist, Butler has performed with Brian Blade and the Fellowship Band for over two decades. He is featured with this ensemble on several albums. He has worked with several other jazz artists as well, including Betty Carter, John Daversa, Joey DeFrancesco, Eric Essix, Christian McBride, Jimmy McGriff, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Reuben Wilson. Butler is a featured soloist on the Grammy-winning recording by the John Daversa Big Band, American Dreamers: Voices of Hope, Music of Freedom (2018). He has also toured the U.S., Europe, and the Caribbean with celebrated Haitian band Tabou Combo, with whom he recorded three albums--Why Not? (1997), 360 Degrees (1997), and Sans Limites (2000). He earned his bachelor’s degree from Berklee College of Music, and an MA and PhD in music from New York University.
With a new band and a new project entitled Grass Roots, New Orleans based singer-songwriter-bassist Roland Guerin is starting a new musical chapter. Drawing from a wide spectrum of genres, including American folk, blues, zydeco, rock and jazz, Guerin creates a singular style at the heart of which are stories told through multi-layered melodies, rhythms and expressive lyrics in the range of Steely Dan, Sting and Peter Gabriel.
Raised in a musical family – his father was a great lover of jazz and classical music, his mother, a blues and zydeco bass player – Guerin began playing bass at the age of 11. Throughout his formative years, Guerin was strongly influenced by pop, rock and R&B music of the 70’s and 80’s. Bands and artists such as Cameo, Dazz Band, Rush, the Brothers Johnson, Gerry Rafferty, America, and Booker T & The MG’s seeded his love for great songs and inspired him to write music of his own.
While studying Marketing at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Guerin joined legendary jazz educator Alvin Batiste’s Band, The Jazztronauts. Having inherited much of Batiste’s musical innovations and concepts, Guerin developed ways to bring his own musical voice to life. The jazz genre became his avenue toward success. Over the course of his career, Guerin toured and performed with legendary musicians, such as George Benson, Jimmy Scott, Frank Morgan, Vernel Fournier, Gerry Mulligan, Allen Toussaint, Dr. John, John Scofield, Mark Whitfield, Ellis Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, and Paul Gilbert. He also participated in the recording of numerous albums, including the Blind Boys of Alabama’s Grammy Award winning album Down in New Orleans, Marcus Roberts’s Grammy Award nominated recording of George Gershwin’s classic Rhapsody in Blue, and Allen Toussaint’s album Connected.
As a member of the Marcus Roberts Trio from 1994 to 2009, Guerin performed at the head of symphony orchestras across the world, among which the Berlin Philharmonic, the Boston Symphony, the Chicago Symphony, and Seiji Ozawa’s New Japan Philharmonic. From his collaboration with Ozawa and Roberts, Guerin developed a deeper understanding and appreciation of orchestration and arrangement, both of which carry great importance in his own musical composition.
In 1998, Guerin released his first album, The Winds of the New Land, featuring Peter Martin on piano, Nicholas Payton on trumpet, Donald Edwards on drums, and Mark Whitfield on guitar. The record was acclaimed for its innovative style of composition and arrangement. JazzReview called it "a literal piece of art", while the New Orleans Magazine named Guerin a Contemporary Jazz All-Star. He followed up with an album from the Roland Guerin Sextet, Live at the Blue Note, released by Half Note Records. Over the following decade, Guerin released 4 more successful albums, and performed with his own band at major venues and festivals worldwide, such as the Blue Note in Tokyo and the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Guerin joined the Allen Toussaint Band in 2008, touring and performing with Toussaint until his passing in 2015. Soon thereafter, Guerin joined the band of legendary Dr. John, becoming his last Musical Director. During his time with Toussaint and Dr. John, Guerin found his way back to his musical roots. Integrating American folk melodies, blues, zydeco, African rhythms, and rock with jazz soloing and orchestral arrangements, Guerin creates an entirely new and singular musical experience.
These concerts are generously sponsored by the Sleet Music Performance Fund in memory of San Diegans Don Sleet (jazz trumpeter), Marshall Sleet (bandleader and composer), Anna Mae Sleet (vocalist), and Jeffery Sleet (concert cellist).
The concerts will be in person at the Athenaeum Music & Arts Library. There are no physical tickets for these events. Your name will be on an attendee list at the front door. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. respectively. Seating is first-come; first-served. These events will be presented in compliance with State of California and County of San Diego health regulations as applicable at the time of each concert.