Tim Berne Trio

Mar 11  |  7 pm  |  Bedford Concert Hall  |  Free

Tim Berne | Saxophone
Tim Berne is a composer, saxophonist and educator specializing in improvised music. He has been performing internationally since 1982 with various ensembles including Caos Totale, Fractured Fairy Tales, Bloodcount and Snakeoil among others. He has made over 50 recordings as a leader for labels such as Soul Note, Sony, JMT, ECM and Intakt records. Tim started his own label, Screwgun records, in 1996 and most recently released Angel Dusk with Matt Mitchell. He has taught extensively since the late 90’s giving workshops in South America, Europe and America. Recent awards and residencies include | New York State Council on the Arts, New York State Foundation for the Arts, Readers Digest/Meet the Composer (for the Kronos Quartet and the Rova Saxophone Quartet), McDowell Colony, Djerassi Foundation, Civitella Ranieri. He is currently active with his Snakeoil group and Sun of Goldfinger. 

Gregg Belisle-Chi (池敏超) | Guitar
Gregg Belisle-Chi (池敏超) is an Asian-American guitarist and composer living in Brooklyn, New York, who over the past decade has been “busily establishing himself as an important and distinctive new voice in the contemporary guitar world” and “has emerged as one of the most creatively dexterous musicians” (Earshot Jazz). Within a career of mercurial interests, he has performed with Bill Frisell, Tim Berne, Reid Anderson, Hank Roberts, Chris Potter, Mat Maneri, Jim Black, Ches Smith, Marc Ducret, Steve Swallow, Cuong Vu, Wayne Horvitz, Nasheet Waits, and many more in the Jazz, Improvised, Rock, and Chamber music worlds.

Tom Rainey | Drums
Tom Rainey was born in Pasadena, California in 1957. Since moving to New York in 1979 he has performed and or recorded with the following artists:  John Abercrombie, Mose Allison, Julian Arguelles, Ray Anderson, Tim Berne, Jane Ira Bloom, Anthony Braxton, Nels Cline, Ted Curson, Kris Davis, Mark Ducret, Mark Feldman, Michael Formanek, Drew Gress, Mark Helias, Fred Hersch, Andy Laster, Ingrid Laubrock, David Liebman, Joe Lovano, Tony Malaby, Albert Mangelsdorff, Carmen McRae, Mike Nock, Simon Nabatov, New and Used, Anita O'Day, Andrea Parkins, Herb Robertson, Angelica Sanchez, Louis Sclavis, Brad Shepik, Ken Werner, Denny Zeitlin. Current activities include performing and recording music with the Tom Rainey Trio as well as his quintet, Obbligato. Tom also continues performing with many of the aforementioned artists. 

Christian Dillingham

Mar 12  |  7 pm  |  Bedford Concert Hall  |  Free

Grammy Award-winning bassist Christian Dillingham is equally at home in two musical worlds. His parents spun jazz records around the house, while his mother was an avid pianist who loved to play Chopin and Debussy. These childhood experiences left a deep impression and ended up as the foundational philosophy of his career in music. Dillingham is that rare musician who excels in an orchestral setting, yet has an intuitive feel for nuance and the improvisational skills necessary to play jazz.

A native of Brookfield, Ohio, Dillingham played in rock and jazz bands throughout high school. He became serious about music as a career while at Youngstown State University, studying under the instruction of Tony Leonardi and Micah Howard. After graduating with a Bachelor’s of Music degree in Music Performance with an Emphasis on Jazz, Dillingham’s education continued at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, where he worked with Jeffrey Turner, principal bass of the Pittsburgh Symphony, and subsequently received a Master’s of Music degree in Music Performance. He also attended the National Repertory Orchestra Festival in Breckenridge, Colorado and the School for Improvisational Music in New York.

Upon graduation, Dillingham was invited to play in the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, and moved to the city to perform with them for the next two seasons. Since then, he has made frequent appearances in Chicago’s vibrant classical scene, playing with the Lyric Opera, the Grant Park Symphony, and the Chicago Opera Theatre. Dillingham is also a member of the Chicago Sinfonietta, Present Music (Milwaukee), Fulcrum Point New Music Project, Matt Jones Orchestra, and the Chicago Philharmonic. He appears on albums by the Chicago Sinfonietta and Camerata Chicago.

At the same time, he became a regular presence in Chicago’s rich jazz community, performing at Fred Anderson’s iconic Velvet Lounge, the Green Mill, the Jazz Showcase, Constellation Chicago, Hungry Brain, Andy’s Jazz Club, Elastic Arts and other Chicago venues as well as at the Chicago Jazz Festival. Dillingham has played and recorded with dozens of musicians, including Herlin Riley, John Legend, Kirk Franklin, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Melvin Butler, Kevin Mahogany, Willie Pickens, Dee Alexander, Victor Goines, Bobby Broom, Sean Jones, Peter Bernstein, Greg Ward, Terreon Gully, and Mike Reed.

He currently performs with a number of diverse projects crossing genres from jazz, classical and roots to the avant-garde. He leads his own band which features his original compositions. In the fall of 2020 he was appointed to the faculty of Indiana University as Professor of Jazz Bass.

Emily Kuhn

Mar 13  |  7 pm  |  Bedford Concert Hall  |  Free

Emily Kuhn is a jazz trumpet player based in Chicago, IL, described by the Chicago Jazz Magazine as having “a charismatic style and a sophistication that belies her youth.” Originally from Charlottesville, VA, Emily has made a name for herself as an active bandleader, sidewoman, composer, and educator. She released two albums via BACE Records, Sky Stories (2020) and Ghosts of Us (2023), to numerous accolades. She was named a Luminarts Fellow in Jazz in 2020. 
 
Emily leads two bands: a jazz quintet and a nine-piece chamber jazz ensemble, Helios. Outside of these projects, Emily plays regularly with a wide variety of ensembles across the jazz and Latin scenes in Chicago, including Latin fusion band Son Monarcas, Kitt Lyles’ Real Talk Collective, Gustavo Cortiñas’ Kind Regards, Sam Pilnick’s Nonet Project, Erik Skov’s Liminality, John Dorhauer’s Heisenberg Uncertainty Players, and Christy Bennett's Fumée. She has brought her original music to festivals including Hey Nonny’s Women’s Jazz Festival, the Festival of New Trumpet Music, the MCA's Tuesdays on the Terrace, and the Chicago Park District's Night Out in the Parks series, and she has performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival and Stanford Jazz Festival among others. Emily is currently the Jazz Combo Director and Improv Instructor at Hersey High School, and she has taught throughout Chicago and nationwide through MUSIC Inc., Chicago Jazz Philharmonic, Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras, and Stanford Jazz Workshop. 
 
Emily has a BM and BA in Jazz Trumpet Performance and Environmental Studies from Oberlin. She studied with renowned trumpet players Eddie Henderson, Sean Jones, John D’earth, and John Henes. 

Orrin Evans Trio

Mar 14  |  7 pm  |  Bedford Concert Hall  |  $10

For tickets visit the Rita Box Office

For more than two decades, Yamaha pianist Orrin Evans has made an art form of the unexpected. With more than 25 albums to his credit without ever relying on the support of a major label, Evans has become the model of a fiercely independent artist who’s made a habit of rattling the jazz world’s confining cages. That determination has paid off in accolades like topping the “Rising Star Pianist” category in the 2018 DownBeat Critics Poll and two Grammy nominations.

As a daring pianist, Evans combines raw-edged vigor and left-field nuance into a sound wholly his own. As an adventurous composer he traverses stylistic boundaries with abandon, drawing on full-throttle swing, deep rooted blues, expressive soul or bracing excursions into the avant-garde. As an audacious bandleader, he delights in daring fellow musicians to take bold risks, whether in mutable small group settings or his raucous Captain Black Big Band. As an inventive collaborator, his projects range from the nerve-rattling collective trio Tarbaby, to the guitar/piano duo project Eubanks-Evans-Experience, and Brazilian project Terreno Comum.