#tomharrell

Tom Harrell – Passages

The true poets of jazz are rare beings. They’re also hard to define, but once you’ve been touched by their music, you know who fits the mold and who doesn’t. It is time to recognize Tom Harrell as a player who has emerged forcefully from the ranks to earn his rightful place in the trumpet hierarchy. This band has the feel of a true partnership. While the songs come from Harrell’s fertile imagination, there’s a sense of trust and compatibility among the players (Jazz Messengers).

Tom Harrell – Oak Tree

Tom Harrell

Booking a successful music festival is never easy, but most of the time it involves hiring touring musicians who come as a package deal. In jazz, this isn't a bad thing, as working ensembles serve as essential vehicles for developing and refining new compositions, arrangements and concepts, the art form's life blood.

What sets the Stanford Jazz Festival apart from its eminent presenter peers is that many of its concerts are singular events that don't happen anywhere else. By drawing on the deep pool of exceptional improvisers who serve as faculty at the Stanford Jazz Workshop, the festival always presents several mix-and-match combos, bringing together players in new combinations. Often electrifying, occasionally revelatory, and sometimes disappointing, the concerts embody the risk-taking that draws many people to jazz in the first place.

Jazz vocalist Dianne Reeves.