BRATTLEBORO — The Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) will present The Convergence Project in the VJC’s last concert of this season on Saturday, June 13, beginning at 7:30 p.m.
The Convergence Project changes each year to feature a different combination of musicians. This year’s band is a quintet with Eugene Uman (piano and compositions), Stacy Dillard (saxophone), Mimi Jones (bass), Jhair Sala (percussion), and Brian Shankar-Adler (drums). This ensemble performs Uman’s compositions, many of which are based on the indigenous rhythms of Colombia, South America. Listeners can expect to hear a diverse program of original music whose vocabulary draws on hard bop horn lines, gospel harmonies, and deep funk grooves.
All quintet members have notable careers as recording and performing artists.
Uman is the VJC’s director, a pianist, and a composer who enjoys playing energetic rhythms and bold melodies that reflect his musical journey. The inspiration behind the name “The Convergence Project” is from his incorporation of rhythms such as cumbia, pasillo, bambuco, and currulao, with the North American styles he absorbed and studied in his youth. The Convergence Project is essentially a mash-up of the styles he loves “where groove reigns supreme.”
Jones attended the LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and then the Manhattan School of Music on a full scholarship. As a Jazz Ambassador, Jones toured Africa, Europe, Russia, China, South America, Central America, and the Caribbean for the U.S. State Department. Jones has released three albums as a leader and appears on recordings with Rudy Royston, Lizz Wright, Tia Fuller, Luís Perdomo, Camille Thurman, and others.
Adler is a multidisciplinary percussionist and composer who has performed out in nature as well as at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and other prestigious venues. Having recorded and/or toured with a range of performing artists from Ballet Hispánico to Elizabeth Swados, Adler currently teaches at Bates College, Bowdoin College, University of Maine, and the Vermont Jazz Center.
Sala is known for his deep roots in Afro-Peruvian and Afro-Cuban traditions, blending them with a fresh, contemporary edge. He will primarily be playing cajon and congas in the concert, but he’s equally at home on bongos, timbales, and a range of traditional Latin percussion instruments.
Dillard has taught saxophone and ensembles at the VJC Summer Workshop. He can be found on recordings with Cyrus Chestnut, Captain Black Big Band, Eric Revis, Winard Harper, Wycliffe Gordon and many others.
The Vermont Jazz Center is located at 72 Cotton Mill Hill. Tickets are $25-plus for general admission; visit www.vtjazz.org or call 802-254-9088 ext. 1.
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