Friday, February 11 – Doors: 8:30 p.m., Show: 9 pm sharp – BYOB – Jazz
$10 at the door / $8 in advance (at www.brownpapertickets.com/event/153100)
Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone Presents
Lucas Brown Quartet & the Wade Dean Enspiration
LUCAS BROWN QUARTET featuring JOHN SWANA: Lucas Brown, piano; John Swana, EVI; Jason Fraticelli, bass; Wayne Smith, Jr., drums
THE WADE DEAN ENSPIRATION: Wade Dean, alto sax; Michael Pracher, tenor sax; Adam Siegel, alto sax; Neil Podgurski, piano; Jason Fraticelli, bass; Anwar Marshall, drums
LUCAS BROWN is a performing artist and composer and a graduate of Temple University, where he studied jazz performance at the Esther Boyer College of Music. Most well-known as the organist with saxophone legend Bootsie Barnes and in the trio Three Blind Mice (with Victor North and Wayne Smith, Jr.), tonight Lucas will debut a new quartet and play his original compositions on piano and keyboard. Lucas will be joined by veteran trumpeter and master of the electric valve instrument (EVI) JOHN SWANA, bassist JASON FRATICELLI, and drummer WAYNE SMITH, JR. (of the Sun Ra Arkestra and the Chris’ Jazz Cafe Tuesday night house band). While Lucas can be seen often in the Philadelphia area performing jazz, jazz-fusion, and some experimental music, he is also an avid classical music fan as well as a composer of various styles. Some influences include electronic music, the world music traditions of Brazil, Latin America, India, and Africa, and avant-garde music. He looks to collaborate with musicians of other traditions and bring those experiences back to enrich his own music. Lucas studied at Temple with Terrel Stafford, Bruce Barth, Ed Flanagan, Tom Lawton, Ben Schacter, and others. His formal musical training began at age 5, studying classical piano. In junior high school he began to study jazz guitar and subsequently began to teach himself organ as well. He also has studied classical composition with Robert Convery and Mark Rimple. Lucas collaborates frequently with the great drummer Byron Landham and has also performed with Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein, Larry McKenna, Gerald Veasley, Dr. Eddie Henderson, Tim Warfield, Steve Turre, Ralph Bowen, Mickey Roker, Duane Eubanks, and Sean Jones. Lucas has appeared at festivals in Nashville, Omaha, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Somers Point as well as notable clubs including the Blue Note, Smoke, and Fat Cat in New York and The Smithsonian Museum and Blues Alley in Washington DC.
Among the new generation of “Young Lions” invigorating the East Coast jazz scene these days, one of the most impressive voices interpreting the American classics belongs to young saxophonist/composer WADE FULTON DEAN. Grounded in the rich traditions of jazz since his teen years, young Dean commands enormous respect from contemporaries and music critics for his soulful interpretations of jazz chestnuts and for his contributions to the literature of jazz. Dean and his band, The Wade Dean Enspiration, are developing a strong fan base at Philadelphia’s hottest performance venues. Acutely aware of the city’s gifts to America’s music legacy, Wade deliberately chose The City of Brotherly Love to showcase the lessons he learned as a sideman performing with exceptional musicians on a variety of bandstands. From those encounters come inventive improvisations that erupt from the depths of his soul. His solid technical skills expose his formal training as an honored graduate student at Philadelphia’s competitive University of the Arts. His teachers and mentors have included jazz giants: Tim Warfield, Ben Schachter, John Ellis, Don Glanden, Chris Farr, Norman David, and Ron Kerber. Wade was born and raised in Orangeburg, S.C. within a strong family that encouraged his music aspirations.
With his mother’s tutelage, he learned to play the piano, his first instrument of choice. Soon, though, he took up the saxophone and never put it down. During his apprenticeship on the instrument, Wade learned the nuances of the horn from his uncle, Johnnie Williams, a baritone saxophonist in the Count Basie Orchestra. Dean received a baccalaureate degree in music education at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. After teaching for one year at a Memphis public school, he continued his formal music studies at Philadelphia’s University of The Arts where, in 2007, he earned a master’s degree in jazz studies. As he left, the iconic performing arts institution conferred upon Wade Dean the university’s “Merit Award for Excellence in Music.”
A monthly event, showcasing some of Philadelphia’s most creative musicians in a laid-ack, BYOB venue hat combines the intimacy of a club with a concert hall’s respect for the music.
Lucky Old Souls @ Moonstone
Jazz and more… the 2nd Friday of each month
