$15 Cover ($10 Students) / Start 7:30pm / Doors 7pm / Seated Show
Sorceress & Midnight Tales -An evening of creative alchemy, exploring the art of story telling and the interconnections between magic and jazz.
Boston based acclaimed musicians, Laszlo Gardony (piano) and Marco Pignataro (saxophone) will perform unique takes of original compositions and jazz standards, further exploring their creative musical dialogue of an artistic collaboration that spans over a decade. They have toured the Dominican Republic as a duo and have played in clubs, theaters and festivals such as the Rochester Jazz Festival and the Cambridge River Festival, among others. Listen to their beautiful jazz rendition of the Panamanian classic Historia de Un Amor.
As a very special guest, the sensational Filipino vocalist Jireh Calo will join the duo with her soulful and unique musical creativity and haunting voice.
The astounding Italian magician Gogo Cuerva’s will open for the concert with a mind blowing close up magic show. Gogo Cuerva is an international internet sensation with over two hundred fifty million online views of his magic. He was recently featured on Spain’s Got Talent, headlined at the world famous Magic Castle, and is a resident Magician at Holy City Magic Theater in Charleston , South Carolina.
Marco Pignataro
Marco Pignataro is an Italian multi-talented saxophone player, composer, educator and program director based in Boston. Marco has performed extensively across Europe and the Americas in jazz festivals and international music venues, sharing stages and clinics with artists such as Joe Lovano, Eddie Gomez, JoAnne Brakeen, Rufus Reid, John Patitucci, Danilo Perez, Ben Street, Antonio Sanchez, Billy Drummond, Terri Lyne Carrington, Clark Terry, Billy Hart, and Jon Faddis, among others. His debut CD, Sofia's Heart, was produced by jazz legend Eddie Gomez. His 2018 release “Almas Antiguas “(Zoho Music) was selected as one of the best albums of 2019 by Downbeat, which also assigned it a 4/1/2 stars review; “Almas Antiguas” was also featured on CNN en Español and Jazz@Linclon Center. His song ‘Letter to My Son” was finalist in the 2019 International Songwriting Competition. As a side man, Marco also appears in the critically acclaimed CD Per Sempre (BFM Jazz) by the Eddie Gomez Quintet and several others albums.
Marco’s own music is soulful evocative and powerful, blending modern jazz with shades of Mediterranean, folk & Latin influences. Marco's latest projects includes “Passione-Canto Italiano” feat. John Patitucci, Alan Pasqua, Adam Cruz and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and two upcoming releases for Zoho Music: Marco Pignataro’s Dream Alliance “Awakening” featuring Kenny Werner, Nadia Washington and Devon Gates (April 2022) and “Chant for Our Planet” feat. Joe Lovano, Terry Lyne Carrington and John Patitucci, among others (June 2022).
Together with Danilo Perez, Marco currently leads the Berklee Global Jazz Institute (BGJI), the world premiere jazz center of musical creativity at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Marco Pignataro was the director and cofounder of the Jazz and Caribbean Music Department and was the chair of the Jazz Saxophone Department at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico. As a dedicated music educator, Marco also participated as Board Member of the International Association of Jazz Educators (IAJE), as the President and founder of the IAJE Chapter of Puerto Rico, and as a faculty in the University of Veracruz International Summer Jazz Seminars. Marco's column, Style & Influence, was regularly featured in the quarterly magazine Jazz Improv.
Pignataro is a D'addario Woodwind performing artist, and endorser for Mauriat & Lupifaro saxophones and for the Applied Microphone Technology.
Laszlo Gardony
A formidable improviser who lives in the moment” (JazzTimes), Laszlo Gardony has performed in 27 countries and released a dozen albums on the Sunnyside, Antilles, and Avenue labels during his distinguished, decades-long career. Winner of the Great American Jazz Piano Competition, Gardony has been noted for his “fluid pianism” by The New York Times. The legendary Dave Brubeck called him “a great pianist.”
Gardony's new live, solo piano album, “La Marseillaise” (Sunnyside) will be released on October 25, 2019.
His previous solo piano album “Serious Play” (Sunnyside) was named one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2017 by DownBeat Magazine: “Serious Play combines spontaneity and intent. Improvised in the studio, it's a harmonious, emotionally intense whole that sounds like a concert rather than an arbitrary collection of tunes. No matter how busy Gardony becomes, there's a stillness at the center of his music, a distinctive amalgam of central European folk strains, majestic classical piano and improvisational fearlessness.”
Both Serious Play and Gardony's 2015 live sextet album Life In Real Time were named by the Boston Globe as one of the “10 Best Jazz Releases of the Year.”
Gardony has performed and/or recorded with artists including Dave Holland, Miroslav Vitous, Bob Moses, Mick Goodrick, Yoron Israel, John Lockwood, Jamey Haddad, Bill Pierce, Don Braden, and Stan Strickland. In addition to his own recordings on Sunnyside, Antilles and Avenue, his compositions, arrangements and playing have been featured on jazz releases from Blue Note, Accurate, Rounder, and Ronja Music.
A Professor of Piano at Berklee College of Music, Gardony continues to divide his time between composing, recording, concerts and teaching, committed to living an inspired, truthful, and productive life in music
Jireh Calo
Manila-born vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jireh Calo is ever-evolving performer, composer, arranger and producer, Jireh draws much inspiration from jazz traditions, sacred oral traditions, African and Latin Afro/Cuban rhythms, hip hop culture, soul music, and a variety of world music.
Jireh made her debut into the Manila music scene at age 17 as a singer-keyboardist, performing with local jazz and hip-hop bands before diving in as a solo artist and bandleader. At age 18, she formed her first jazz fusion band 'The Jireh Calo Project' and went on to receive critical acclaim from audiences and critics alike in both the indie and jazz scene. In 2014, Jireh won the Boy Katindig Jazz Competition and represented the Philippines at the World Youth Jazz Festival in Malaysia and released her self-titled debut EP.
Jireh has since performed in numerous concerts and international festivals around the globe and has collaborated with globally renowned artists such as Danilo Perez, Esperanza Spalding, Chico Pinheiro, Luciana Souza, and Grace Nono. She graduated summa cum laude from the Berklee College of Music and the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in Boston. Releasing her 2nd EP ' Solid Ground' in 2017, she was nominated for both International and Jazz Artist of the Year at the BMA's.
Jireh remains active today as an artist-educator, performing and creating music while teaching and being deeply involved with her local and global community.