Quintet to deliver jazz with a twist

Pierce Street Jazz will showcase a quintet of brass, woodwind, percussion and string instruments next week in a performance of new style jazz music.

The Bobby Bradford Quintet will perform March 7, at 7 p.m., at the La Sierra University Alumni Center. The group of music industry professionals, who have worked with many famous acts and recorded numerous albums will offer a concert of “the best in avant garde jazz,” said bassist Henry Franklin. In addition to Franklin, the group will include bandleader Bradford on trumpet, Don Preston on piano, Vinny Golia on woodwinds, and Chris Garcia on drums.

The alumni center is located at11500 Pierce St., Riverside. Admission is free. For further information call 951-785-2148.

Bradford, a jazz trumpeter, cornet player and composer, worked with saxophonist and free jazz innovator Ornette Coleman, a 2007 recipient of the Pulitzer Prize in music. Bradford also held a long-standing musical career with international clarinetist and saxophonist John Carter, who also worked with Coleman.

Bradford and Carter pursued their interests in free jazz stylings with a quartet they initially called the New Art Jazz Ensemble. Following Carter's death in 1991, Bradford continued performance with his own ensemble called The Mo'tet. He is a composer of jazz music on twelve albums and has performed with Eric Dolphy, Charlie Haden, David Murray, Lionel Hampton, Quincy Jones, and Golia. He received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship for jazz history research and has served on the NEA's jazz fellowship advisory panel.

Bradford is an adjunct music faculty member at Pomona College where he teaches the History of Jazz. He also teaches courses at Pasadena City College. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Huston-Tillotson College, now university, in Austin, Texas.

Keyboardist and pianist Preston's professional career included a long-held collaboration with Frank Zappa, according to his biography. He also served as music director for Meredith Monk and is co-founder of the GrandMothers band, a group that performs internationally and with whom he continued to perform last year. The son of a symphonic composer, Preston has scored many feature films and plays, and has performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He is known in jazz circles “for his pioneering contributions in the use of synthesizers and piano,” his biography states.

Preston's performance credits include work with Lou Rawls, Al Jarreau, Nat King Cole, John Lennon and Yoko Ono. He has lectured at several universities including Cornell, Harvard and Yale.

Golia, noted for his expertise with bass saxophone, soprano saxophone and other woodwind instruments, is also a composer who melds jazz, contemporary classical and world music into his work. He has led bands in concerts around the world, including his own 50-piece ensemble, and is a recipient of awards and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the California Arts Council, the American Composers Forum and other groups. In 2006 the Jazz Journalists Association honored him with a lifetime achievement award. He teaches at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia where he holds the Michel Colombier Performer-Composer Chair. He has performed with Anthony Braxton, Henry Grimes, Leo Smith, Horace Tapscott and many others.

Drummer Garcia plays a variety of instruments including North Indian tabla drums, the marimba, hand percussion of South India, percussion, electronic and other musical devices. A native of East Los Angeles, Garcia is a graduate of Cal Arts and has an extensive performance background in wide-ranging musical styles including rock, jazz, world music, and traditional Mexican. He has performed throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and Southeast Asia. His artistic approach often involves combinations of electronic MIDI instruments and tabla. Garcia has arranged and composed for such artists as Thelonious Monk, Frank Zappa and Raymond Scott and has performed with jazz, rock, and world music ensembles as well as classical including the Moscow Symphony Orchestra and the Oslo Camerata.

Franklin's extensive musical background includes performances on more than 150 albums and compact discs including gold releases, many of which he produced. Last March he released his 24th album, “Soul of the World,” recorded with his band on his SP Records label. His band's 2009 album, “Home Cookin',” features the renowned Barbara Morrison on vocals. The project received airplay on KJAZZ 88.1 FM.

Franklin has played his upright bass with numerous jazz and pop greats including Al Jarreau, Stevie Wonder, Count Basie, Freddie Hubbard and Milt Jackson, and was part of the legendary Hugh Masekela's band during the late 1960s. When not on tour in various parts of the United States and the world, Franklin performs at The Historic Mission Inn in Riverside, Calif.

PR Contact: Larry Becker

Executive Director of University Relations

La Sierra University

Riverside, California

951.785.2460 (voice)