Friday, January 13, 2012 – BYOB – Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 p.m. sharp - $10 at the door / $8 in advance (only at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/217298)

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents
The After Hours Trio + One
& Craig Ebner Quartet featuring John Swana

THE AFTER HOURS TRIO + ONE: Najwa Parkins, vocals; Luke Brandon, trumpet; Dan Hanrahan, guitar; Justin Sekelewski, bass

The AFTER HOURS TRIO + ONE is a Philadelphia-based jazz quartet comprised of NAJWA PARKINS on vocals, LUKE BRANDON on trumpet, DAN HANRAHAN on guitar, and JUSTIN SEKELEWSKI on bass. This uncommon combination makes for a distinctive sound and a versatile band, fit for any venue. The After Hours Trio + One has been active since 2009, and has played at various public and private venues including the historic The Deer Head Inn in Delaware Water Gap, PA, The Piazza at Schmidt’s in Northern Liberties, Philadelphia, and most recently, the COTA (Celebration of the Arts) Jazz Festival in the Delaware Water Gap. The group is also featured on Not the Next Someone Else, the newly released debut album from group leader, Najwa Parkins.  Najwa is a recent graduate of Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance, were she studied jazz voice with Joanna Pascale, classical voice with Dr. Julie Bishop, and trombone with Luis Bonilla.  She has performed with Phil Woods, Bob Dorough, and Tony Marino.

CRAIG EBNER QUARTET feat. JOHN SWANA: Craig Ebner, guitar; John Swana, EVI (electric valve instrument); Justin Sekelewski, bass; Carl Moritz, drums

Guitarist CRAIG EBNER is an avid performer and teacher of music. Since his graduation from the Hartt School of Music in 1992, he has performed with many musicians locally and internationally, most notably, with organist Joey DeFrancesco and drummer Byron Landham whom he toured with extensively from 1999 – 2002.  He has taught in several capacities at the university level as well as the high school and elementary levels. Currently, Craig is on faculty at Temple University in the Jazz Studies department where he teaches guitar performance and jazz history.

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone is a monthly event, showcasing some of Philadelphia’s most creative musicians in a laid-back, BYOB venue that combines the intimacy of a club with a concert hall’s respect for the music.

Friday, December 9 – Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 pm sharp
BYOB – $10 at the door / $8 in advance – Jazz

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents

THE LISA CHAVOUS EXPERIENCE Lisa Chavous, vocals Odean Pope, tenor sax Kelvin Nathaniel, guitar Warren Oree, bass Tony “Stickman” Wyatt, drums

THE HAWK QUARTET Saxophonist/composer, Daniel Peterson’s sax quartet, playing a diverse array of music including originals and works by Monk, Stravinsky, and Bobby Watson – Daniel Peterson, baritone saxophone; Yesseh Furaha-Ali, alto & soprano saxophone; Zach Winger; tenor saxophone; Jeremy Garcia, alto saxophone.

Friday, November 11 – Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 pm sharp - Jazz
BYOB – $10 at the door / $8 in advance
(check www.luckyoldsouls.com for ticket info)
Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents
Eddie Jones Trio feat. Sam Reed
Jonathan Michel Quartet

Eddie Jones Trio feat. Sam Reed Sam Reed, sax Rich Budesa, keys Eddie Jones, drums

Jonathan Michel Quartet Jonathan Michel, bass William Delisfort, piano Anwar Marshall, drums

Friday, October 14 – Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 pm sharp
BYOB – $10 at the door / $8 in advance (only at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/194704)

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents
Jeannie Brooks & Globus-Hoenich Sextet featuring John Swana & Jim Holton

JEANNIE BROOKS QUARTET: Jeannie Brooks, vocals; Jim Holton, piano; Mark Przybylowski, bass;

Gabe Globus-Hoenich, drums

GLOBUS-HOENICH SEXTET feauring JOHN SWANA & JIM HOLTON: John Swana, EVI (electric valve instrument); Jim Holton, piano; Behn Gillece, vibraphone; Dan Hanrahan, guitar; Mark Przybylowski, bass; Gabe Globus-Hoenich, drums

Montreal native GABE GLOBUS-HOENICH is one of Philadelphia’s most promising young percussionists. He currently drums in the Philadelphia-New York area where he has performed with Orrin Evans, Sid Simmons, Tia Fuller, Larry McKenna, Tony Miceli, Mike Boone, Tim Berne, Ralph Alessi, Mark Helias, Marc Ducret, Andy Milne, and Drew Gress. Gabe is also an avid performer of contemporary classical music and performs with the Philadelphia based Chamber Music Now! Ensemble and the experimental group Ensemble No-Amnesia. A 2008 graduate of the Curtis Institute of Music, Gabe has studied with some of the premier percussionists in the world, focusing on contemporary percussion, world percussion, and jazz drumming.  Tonight’s sextet consists of an all-star cast of young and veteran musicians with a unique instrumentation of drums, bass, electric valve instrument (EVI), vibraphone, guitar, and piano.

To those who know her, JEANNIE BROOKS is the consummate overall vocalist. Her talents envelope any style, whether it be pop, rock, R&B, soul, gospel or her true passion jazz. Where other artists are stronger in one area that another, Jeannie maintains excellence in all ranges of the vocal arts. That quality alone is enough to garner the respect of any musician that has ever played with her. Her ability to anticipate changes, improvise with trained as well as impeccable natural talent, and her stunning delivery are almost nonexistent in any other vocalist in recent times.

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone is a monthly event, showcasing some of Philadelphia’s most creative musicians in a laid-back, BYOB venue that combines the intimacy of a club with a concert hall’s respect for the music.

For more info, visit their website: www.luckyoldsouls.com

Friday September 9 – Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 pm sharp

BYOB – $10 at the door / $8 in advance (only at http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/186932)

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents
Madison Rast Trio & Behn Gillece Quartet

BEHN GILLECE QUARTET: Behn Gillece, vibraphone; Ken Fowser, tenor sex; Justin Sekelewski, bass; Kevin Daly, drums

Vibraphonist BEHN GILLECE, from the Philadelphia area, started playing music as a percussionist at age 14. He made a full-time commitment to jazz vibraphone at age 22, influenced by such greats as Milt Jackson and Bobby Hutcherson. Since 2006, Gillece has made a name for himself on the New York jazz scene. The ensemble he co-leads with tenor saxophonist Ken Fowser just released its third record, Duotone, on the Positone label. It features their originial music that they have played the past few years at their regular Tuesday gig at Smalls in West Village. Gillece has also played with Spike Wilner, Ryan Kisor, Roy Hargrove, Joe Magnarelli, Joel Frahm, and Steve Wilson and can be heard on the singer/songwrite Melofy Gardot’s 2009 Verve release My One and Only Thrill.

MADISON RAST QUARTET: Madison Rast, bass; Josh Richman, piano; Dan Monaghan, drums; Wesley Rast, percussion

North Carolina native MADISON RAST graduated from the pretigious North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem and received his MA from Virginia Commonwealth University. He moved to Philadelphia in the fall of 1999 to pursue a career in jazz. Since that time he has become one of the area’s most in-demand sidemen. His solid and steady bass lines have supported many notable musicians including Mickey Roker, Jimmy Cobb, Terell Stafford, Orrin Evans, and Eric Alexander. Madison is currently a faculty member at Temple University and Bucks County Community College. Tonight’s performance is a rare opportunity to hear Madison as a leader; the group will play his original compositions and arrangements.

Friday, July 8, Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 pm sharp
BYOB – Jazz $10 at the door / $8 in advance @ http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/182337

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents

Michael Ray’s X-Ray & Josh Lawrence Quintet

Michael Ray’s X-Ray: Michael Ray, trumpet; Jan Simpkins, bass;Rick Taylor, drums
Originally from Trenton, New Jersey, world-reknowned trumpeter MICHAEL RAY is a member of both the Sun Ra Arkestra and Kool & the Gang.  Michael has also recorded with Phish, Delfeayo Marsalis, Galactic drummer Stanton Moore, and avant rockers Iris May Tango and performed live with Aquarium Rescue Unit, Medeski, Martin & Wood, Widespread Panic, Porno for Pyros, Col. Bruce Hampton, and Deep Banana Blackout.

Josh Lawrence Quintet: Josh Lawrence, trumpet; Mike Cemprola, alto sax; Luke Carlos O’Reilly, piano; Micah Jones, bass; Mike DeCastro, drums
JOSH LAWRENCE is an internationally acclaimed trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. He has performed with artists from Erykah Badu to Charlie Persip and toured extensively throughout North America and Europe. His music fuses influences from New York City and Philadelphia into a fresh new sound called Soul Bop.  Lawrence studied at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia and became a popular sideman on the neo-soul and jazz scenes. After graduation, he moved to the historic Sugar Hill neighborhood in Harlem, where he was introduced to jazz masters Barry Harris, Frank Lacy, Jimmy Cobb, Lou Donaldson, and Olu Dara. He co-founded the Uptown Brass at the Church of the Intercession in Washington Heights, worked as musical director for the band Harlem PsychaDelic and taught on faculty as brass instructor at Bronx Arts and Bronx Lab.   Josh is currently living in Philly, leading his own group and playing with Orrin Evans’s Captain Black Big Band

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone is a monthly event, showcasing some of Philadelphia’s most creative musicians in a laid-back, BYOB venue that combines the intimacy of a club with a concert hall’s respect for the music.

Friday, June 10 – Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 pm sharp – BYOB – Jazz
$10 at the door / $8 in advance

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents
Dave Manley’s Indigenous & the Scriptors

Dave Manley’s Indigenous: Dave Manley, guitar; Jason Fraticelli, bass;
Francois Zayas, cajon & other percussion
Guitarist DAVE MANLEY’s trio INDIGENOUS explores Brazilian, Afro-Cuban, Flamenco, and jazz influences with bassist JASON FRATICELLI and Cuban-born percussionist FRANCOIS ZAYAS.  It is the culmination of Dave’s extensive R&B and jazz experience and ten years of solo nylon-string guitar gigs.  When Dave, a native of Detroit, first arrived in Philly, he immersed himself in the local music scene and was soon working with DJs King Britt and Josh Wink and members of the local jazz/rock outfit Cross Town Traffic.  He left Philly briefly to attend the New School, and when he returned he found himself in the middle of a mini musical renaissance, the birth of the “Neo-Soul Sound.”  Dave went on to write for and tour with artists including DJ Jazzy Jeff, Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, Herbie Hancock, Raheem DeVaughn, and Carol Riddick.  Dave, along with Pete Kuzma, co-wrote the song “Still Here,” which appears on Jill Scott’s “Beautifully Human: Words and Sounds Vol. 2.”

The Scriptors: Bryan Rogers, tenor sax; Matt Engle, bass; Mike Szekely, drums
The Scriptors perform original compositions with other treatments ranging from the standard jazz repertoire to postbop harmolodics, taking as their launching off point a thoughtful, dynamic, and expansive improvisational language. Drawing upon rhythmic and harmonic principles associated with a range of jazz idioms, the group’s musical lines of flight seek out spaces of liminality and intensity.  Saxophonist BRYAN ROGERS and bassist MATT ENGLE were both members of the quartet Shot x Shot; Bryan is also a member of Bobby Zankel’s Warriors of the Wonderful Sound.  “The modern scriptor is born simultaneously with the text, is in no way equipped with a being preceding or exceeding the writing… there is no other time than that of the enunciation and every text is eternally written here and now.” – Roland Barthes

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone is a monthly event, showcasing some of Philadelphia’s most creative musicians in a laid-back, BYOB venue that combines the intimacy of a club with a concert hall’s respect for the music.

Friday, May 13 – Doors: 8:30 p.m. Show: 9 pm sharp – BYOB – Jazz

$10 at the door / $8 in advance at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/169808

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents

Warren Oree & The Arpeggio Jazz Trio and Puzzlebox

WARREN OREE & THE ARPEGGIO JAZZ TRIO: Warren Oree, bass; Umar Raheem, tenor & soprano sax; Greg “Ju-Ju” Jones, drums – WARREN OREE & THE ARPEGGIO JAZZ ENSEMBLE have performed throughout the world.  The band’s repertoire includes original and standard compositions.  Everyone in the band composes, which gives the group a versatile sound that appeals to a variety of audiences. Their music is flexible, ranging from soft, contemplative melodies, to energetic, multi-rhythmic arrangements.  Bandleader and bassist Warren Oree has toured and/or recorded with Jamaladeen Tacuma, Khan Jamal, and Hamiette Bluiette and performed with Donald Byrd, Wynton Marsalis, and Odean Pope. He is also busy behind the scenes.  He is co-founder and artistic director of LifeLine Music Coalition and co-producer of  the West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival.  Saxophonist UMAR RAHEEM has toured and recorded with Hank Mobley, Sunny Murray, Monnette Sudler, and others.  Drummer GREG “JU-JU” JONES has been playing drums for over thirty- five years and has performed with Donald Byrd, Odean Pope, and John Blake.

PUZZLEBOX: Keith DeStefano, bass; Maxfield Gast, alto & soprano sax; Steven Gokh, tenor sax; Mark Allen, baritone sax; Stan Slotter, trumpet & flute; Larry Toft, trombone; Anam Owili-Eger, piano; Joe Falcey, drums “Bassist KEITH DESTEFANO leads the Puzzlebox octet, and his original repertoire receives little exposure at proper jazz clubs. It’s not the only trend DeStefano has bucked.  He also bypassed music school, and began composing and playing the upright bass fairly late in life. ‘I would just constantly have ideas for tunes,’ the Philadelphia bandleader said. ‘The natural thing to do was to get a band together and play them.” – Eric Fine, in Downbeat (September 2010). Including such talented (and busy) Philadelphians as veteran trumpeter/flutist STAN SLOTTER, saxophonists MAXFIELD GAST and MARK ALLEN (a member of Bobby Zankel’s Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, Orrin Evans’s Captain Black Big Band, and Norman David’s Eleventet), trombonist LARRY TOFT (Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, West Philadelphia Orchestra), and pianist ANAM OWILI-EGER, Puzzlebox has been praised by Karl Stark in the Philadelphia Inquirer (“ambitious writing”) and David Adler in the Philadelphia Weekly (“Mingus-like in its swinging abandon and its aura of bluesy romance, not to mention its compositional seriousness”).

Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone is a monthly event, showcasing some of Philadelphia’s most creative musicians in a laid-back, BYOB venue that combines the intimacy of a club with a concert hall’s respect for the music.

A Lucky Old Souls production, www.luckyoldsouls.com

Friday, April 8 – Doors 8:30pm, Show: 9pm sharp – BYOB – Jazz
$10 at the Door / $8 in advance at (www.brownpapertickets.com/event/165951)

Lucky Old Souls Presents:
LEON BOYKINS TRIO: Leon Boykins, bass; Alex LoRe, alto saxophone;
Dustin Kaufman, drums

JUSTIN SEKELEWSKI QUINTET featuring JIM HOLTON: Michael Pracher, tenor saxophone; Adam Siegel, alto saxophone; Jim Holton, piano; Justin Sekelewski, bass; Nick Wight, drums

Bassist/composer LEON BOYKINS strives to positively influence the public through music. Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., Leon showed an interest in music at a young age. His musical journey started on the piano, where he learned the basics of melody and harmony. He then moved to the bass, which introduced him to the foundations of rhythm. In high school, after performing with various regional high school jazz bands and all state orchestras, Leon decided to make music his career path. Upon graduating from Schenley High School, Leon enrolled in West Virginia University. In the fall of 2005, he transfered to Temple University in Philadelphia, where he received a Bachelor of Music in jazz performance. While living in Philadelphia, Leon quickly made a name for himself as both a performer and an educator. He had the opportunity to share the stage with many musical greats, including pianist Orrin Evans, saxophonist Ben Schachter, trumpeter John Swana, trumpeter Terrel Stafford, drummer ?uestlove, and many more. Currently, Leon lives in New York City, pursuing a Master’s degree in music performance at the prestigious Manhattan School of Music. He is focusing on jazz performance, classical bass technique, and composition. Bass mentors have included Harvie S, Jeremy McCoy, Larry Grenadier, Madison Rast, Mike Boone, Douglas Mapp, Dr. Andrew Kohn, Paul Thompson, Bill Howard and Dwayne Dolphin. He would like to thank his friends, family, books, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City for all the educational experiences that they have provided.

The JUSTIN SEKELEWSKI QUINTET was formed in the fall of 2010. The band consists of musicians who are all based in Philadelphia and perform regularly in Philadelphia and the surrounding areas up and down the East Coast. Bassist Justin Sekelewski, pianist JIM HOLTON, and drummer NICK WIGHT have been playing together on a consistent basis for several years. Saxophonists ADAM SIEGEL and MIKE PRACHER provide the perfect complement to the ethos of this group: moving jazz in a new and exciting direction while holding a firm grasp on the history of the music and the idea that jazz was and still is music of the people. Pianist, cellist, composer, and arranger Jim Holton has performed extensively in the Philadelphia Area, New York, and New Jersey with several groups, including the critically-acclaimed Rhythm and Brass, Orrin Evans’s Captain Black Big Band, and Joe Sudler’s Swing Machine, which backed artists such as Jon Faddis, Clark Terry, Slide Hampton, and Al Grey. Some of the many musicians he has worked with over the years include bassists Tyrone Brown, Mike Boone, and Charles Fambrough; drummers Byron Landham, Mickey Roker, Billy James, Ryan Faulkner, and Cornell Rochester; and horn players John Swana, Bootsie Barnes, Larry McKenna, and Clifford Adams. In addition to performing, he teaches cello and piano, and is one of the ministers of music at Saint John’s Lutheran Church in Ambler, Pa.