Hanah Jon Taylor Artet

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Scheduling issues for the 31st annual festival required a change of dates, and organizers seized the opportunity to expand the former two-day event into a 10-day extravaganza with 27 different performances and events at various locations throughout Madison. This year’s focus will be on local and regional acts. There are a number of acts on the Memorial Union Terrace, a State Street “jazz stroll,” a concert highlighting jazz’s gospel roots, and another honoring women’s contributions to the genre. There’s also a world premiere from saxophonist Hanah Jon Taylor, Songs for the Emerging Man. Details: isthmusjazzfestival.com.

press release: The world premiere of "Songs for the Emerging Man," will be performed by the Hanah Jon Taylor Artet and urban poets including Laduma Nguyuza. The Hanah Jon Taylor Artet features Kirk Brown on piano and keyboards; Dushun Mosley on percussion; Darius Savage on bass; and Hanah Jon Taylor on woodwinds.

“Songs for the Emerging Man” is offered as a musical score to the highlights, challenges and triumphs of the under-privileged growing into manhood; his dreams and aspirations contrasted by the way the world views him in stereotype.  

Tickets ($20) will be available at the door.

Bios:

Hanah Jon Taylor moved to Madison over two decades ago from Chicago and is arguably the preeminent saxophonist and flutist in Madison jazz, as well as a leading catalyst, organizer and educator in inter-arts programming. Taylor was founder and director of The Madison Center for the Creative and Cultural Arts, which offered concerts and multi-arts classes. Taylor also directed Freedom Fest, which presented such world-class performers as Archie Shepp, Sonny Fortune, Richard Davis, Cecil McBee, Edward Wilkerson, acclaimed Chicago singer Dee Alexander, and Corey Wilkes and Roscoe Mitchell of the legendary Art Ensemble of Chicago. He was also the proprietor of Café CODA, Madison’s only fully-dedicated jazz club, for which Taylor continues searching for a new home.

Taylor has been a long-time member of the influential Chicago-based Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM). With a career spanning over 30 years, he has appeared with the likes of Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Richie Havens and many of the AACM’s leading lights, including percussionist Steve McCall, saxophonist Roscoe Mitchell, pianist Jobic LeMasson, the Ethnic Heritage Ensemble, the Colson Unity Troupe, bassists Rafael Garrett and Malachi Favors, and the Great Black Music Ensemble of Chicago.

“Hanah Jon Taylor lives and breathes the history of creative improvised music….Taylor has internalized the jazz tradition and carved his niche as a composer, bandleader, and fearless improviser.” - Chris DuPré (from Madison Music Collective)

Percussionist Dushun Mosley is based in Chicago, and has toured extensively as a soloist, in duets, trios and big bands. He has been called upon to do numerous engagements in social clubs, music halls and festivals in cities throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, the Caribbean, Africa and Japan. These performances have contributed to his distinguished reputation as a forerunner in this generation of innovators. His style is traditional jazz, blues and funk in a combo band setting, but he feels equally at home pushing big bands and orchestras to their limit.

Kirk Brown, keyboards/music production/sound designer, has been involved in the music industry for over 25 years. He has worked with a variety of great musicians, graphic artists, dancers, poets/spoken word artists and more. He studied at the Chicago School of Music as a child, playing recitals, solo and duo piano. He studied and performed in Chicago at Malcolm X City College and Governors State University. As a member of the jazz combos at both colleges, those groups won many national jazz competitions. Professionally, he began working with Malachi Thompson in the early 1970s and still works with him today as a member of his Freebop Band. He has worked with many recognized artists over the years: the late, great saxophonist, comedian, teacher and innovator Eddie Harris; master saxophonist Gary Bartz; New Orleans avant-garde saxophonist Kidd Jordan; John Coltrane's driving drummer, Elvin Jones; trumpet/historian Wynton Marsalis; many members of the AACM (Don Moye, Henry Threadgill, Muhal Richard Abrams big band and others); guitarist Phil Upchurch; and the Muntu Dance Theatre of Chicago, to name a few.