Quentin E. Baxter Announces Trio of Jazz Concerts on Kiawah

Press Release

Multi Grammy-nominated musician, producer, and world-renowned drummer Quentin E. Baxter presents another amazing three-concert series at the Legends Room – Turtle Point Clubhouse located at 1 Turtle Point Lane, Kiawah Island, SC. Each concert is $25 general admission and starts at 5:00pm. A $60 three-concert package is available for a limited time. Tickets will be available at www.baxtermusic.com or 843-766-8814. The concert series is sponsored by the Town of Kiawah Island Cultural Events Fund. 

CARMEN BRADFORD

SUNDAY, JANUARY 19, 2020 at 5:00pm

The first concert of the series will feature award-winning vocalist Carmen Bradford. 

Accompanying Bradford for the concert will be pianist Kevin Bales, bassist Billy Thornton, and drummer Quentin E. Baxter.

2019 Grammy nominee Carmen Bradford was born in Austin, Texas and raised in Altadena, California. Bradford grew up with music in her home and in her heart. It was only natural that Bradford would follow in the footsteps of her great family legacy – she is the daughter of legendary coronet/composer Bobby Bradford and world-renowned jazz vocalist/composer/author Melba Joyce. Her grandfather Melvin Moore sang with Lucky Millender and his Big Band and Dizzy Gillespie’s Big Band in the1940s. Millender also sang with the Ink Spots. Even though she has come from a long line of family musicians, Bradford has carved out a place in music history for herself and is playing an integral role in jazz.

At 22 years old, Bradford was discovered and hired by William “Count” Basie and was the featured vocalist in the legendary Count Basie Orchestra for nine years. She has since performed and/or recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Shelly Berg, Jeremy Monteiro, John Clayton and the Clayton-Hamilton Orchestra, Nancy Wilson, Lena Horne, Doc Severinsen, Tony Bennett, James Brown, Willie Nelson, Tierney Sutton, Liz Wright, Patti Austin, Byron Stripling, Dori Caymmi, George Benson, Frank Sinatra, Joe Williams, Kurt Elling, Jeff Tyzik, Freddie Cole, Benny Carter, Kenny Rankin, Lou Rawls, James Newton, David Murray, the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, along with the National Symphony, Rochester Philharmonic, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Dani Felber Big Band, Dallas Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Vancouver Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Pops, and countless artist around the world.

Bradford performed on two Grammy Award winning albums with the Count Basie Orchestra in the 1980s and later collaborated on a third Grammy Award winning album, Big Boss Band with guitarist George Benson in 1991. Her soulful voice warmed the hearts of the world through the celebrated performance of the classic duet, “How Do You Keep The Music Playing” on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson that same year.

Bradford began another chapter in her illustrious career as a solo artist with her critically acclaimed debut album Finally Yours (Evidence Records) in 1992. The 1995 release of her second solo album With Respect (Evidence Records) established her as one of jazz music’s most diverse and exciting vocal stylists proving to the world that Carmen Bradford was a unique voice in her own right.

Bradford teamed with singer/composer Kenny Rankin for the Benny Carter Songbook Project making history once again. Many well-known musicians were involved in the making of this special album. Some notable attendees were Joe Williams, Ruth Brown, Bobby Short, Peggy Lee, Shirley Horn, Jon Hendricks, Diana Krall, Dianne Reeves, among others. Bradford was chosen to sing “Key Largo” for this Grammy Award winning album. Her performance on “The Benny Carter Songbook” marked another of Carmen’s wonderful studio collaborations reaffirming her stardom.

On occasion, Bradford has loaned her talented voice to stage productions and the music of Hollywood films, cartoons, television and radio commercials, and theater. She sang on the haunting soundtrack for Oprah Winfrey’s “Beloved” and starred in the title role of Duke Ellington’s Folk Opera “Queenie Pie” at the University of Texas, Butler School of Music.

Bradford’s 2004 release, Home With You (Azica Records) is a warm and beautiful collection of vocal and piano duets with guest artist Shelly Berg. The album was yet another departure for Bradford, offering her fans a stripped down, intimate portrait of the artist they have grown to love.

Bradford returned to her big band roots on Sherrie Maricle & The DIVA Jazz Orchestra’s Live from Jazz At Lincoln Centers Dizzy’s Club. This also brought Bradford back to her big band family, The Count Basie Orchestra, which she continues to tour with to this day.

Bradford’s 2015 album with jazz great John Mills, Invisible Design, is another example of her ability to sing all forms of jazz. Carmen is doing it all whether it is a duo concert with her favorite pianists Shelly Berg, Tyrone Jackson or Kevin Bales or  Big Band with an array of bands across the world. She was also on the 2015 Christmas album A Very Swinging Basie Christmas, with the Count Basie Orchestra. That album was conducted by Scotty Barnhart featuring, Carmen Bradford, Johnny Mathis, Ellis Marsalis, and Ledisi.

In 2016 Carmen was the voice on the album Imagination Nation by trumpeter Darren English. His critically acclaimed album won the Pledge For Peace Award from the Global Peace Song Awards, and Best in Jazz Category.

Carmen Bradford has never stopped performing with her Basie family, the Legendary Count Basie Orchestra, conducted by Scotty Barnhart. Even after all these years, Bradford has always said “when they call me, I go.”  She has never forgotten Mr. Basie who opened that wonderful door, and gave her wings. The 2019 Grammy Nominated album All About That Basie with the Count Basie Orchestra, conducted by Scotty Barnhart on Concord Records, features Bradford, Stevie Wonder, Kurt Elling, Jamie Davis, Joey DeFrancesco, Jon Faddis, Wycliffe Gordon, and Take 6.

KATE McGARRY

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 2020 at 5:00pm

The second concert of the series will feature award-winning vocalist Kate McGarry, and the 2019 Grammy-nominated McGarry/Ganz/Versace Trio.

With six critically acclaimed CDs and two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal CD, McGarry has become recognized as a jazz artist who brings authenticity and vitality to every song regardless of genre. The Wall St. Journal calls her music, “Austere and elegant,” New York Times pronounced it, “astute and sensitive.” She currently performs in jazz clubs, performing arts centers and festivals throughout the US and abroad. As an educator she has taught at New England Conservatory and Manhattan School of Music.

Downbeat’s 2016 Critics Poll named McGarry the #1 Rising Star Female Vocalist.  She has been interviewed on All Things Considered, and has performed on Jazz Set w/DeeDee Bridgwater, Piano Jazz w/Marion McPartland, and a host of nationally syndicated radio shows.

McGarry grew up in Hyannis, Mass. She was one of ten children in a musical family that spent many nights singing together. At the University of Massachusetts Amherst she earned a degree in Afro-American Music and Jazz. McGarry began developing her organic vocal style through early training in jazz performance with Dr. Horace Boyer and iconic saxophonist Archie Shepp. Her experiences studying at a meditation ashram and exploring Celtic, Brazilian and Indian music also contributed to her widescreen vision as a vocalist and composer. After years honing her craft in Los Angeles, McGarry moved to New York where her independently produced debut album Show Me was picked up by Palmetto Records. Jazziz Magazine declared, “With this near-flawless album, she has arrived.”

In 2005, McGarry’s Mercy Streets album – which ranged from the Peter Gabriel title track to songs by Björk, Joni Mitchell and Irving Berlin – was called “one of the most important vocal albums of the year” by All About Jazz. Featuring originals alongside tunes by Sting and Bill Evans/Miles Davis, her album The Target was named one of the best jazz vocal albums of 2007 by Downbeat. The Downbeat reviewer called the recording “a milestone of maturity,” adding, “McGarry has the pure untrammeled voice of an ingénue who finds wonder in the simplest of things.” Her 2008 album, If Less Is More, Nothing Is Everything, was nominated for a Grammy Award, with The Wall Street Journal calling it “an exceptionally appealing blend of folk and jazz” for its mix of originals, standards, Brazilian tunes and songs by the likes of Bob Dylan. National Public Radio said: “Kate McGarry is called a jazz vocalist, but she’s hard to pin down. She draws on the music of her youth to inspire her – from the Irish tunes of her family’s roots to musical theater to pop songs.”

In 2008 Kate and her husband Keith Ganz made a foray into children’s music writing and recording 63 original children’s songs for the Heinle Picture Dictionary for Children, a bestselling international ESL educational product. McGarry was then asked to sing the theme song for the hit children’s show, The WonderPets in a special jazz episode that featured the great Eartha Kitt and Jon Hendricks as The Cool Kat and the Hip Hippo.

McGarry has performed on some of the world’s most beloved stages, from Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Birdland to the Newport Jazz Festival, Berlin Jazz Fest and Jazz Baltica and has performed, recorded or toured with such jazz luminaries as Hank Jones, Clark Terry, Archie Shepp, Fred Hersch, Kurt Elling, Maria Schneider, John Hollenbeck and Tony Award winner Jason Robert Brown.

Kate represented the U.S. State Department  and Jazz at Lincoln Center for 3 years in the American Music Abroad program, touring thru Romania, Albania, Brazil, Chile, China and Mongolia.

McGarry’s 2012 CD for Palmetto Records, Girl Talk, was a tribute to her favorite visionary jazz women vocalists. It garnered four stars in Downbeat and showed up on over 20 Best of 2012 jazz critic’s lists. Her 2013 collaboration with John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble, Songs I Like A Lot, was lauded as a milestone in contemporary vocal jazz, receiving a Grammy nomination for Best Arrangement For A Vocalist. Collaborations with Ryan Truesdell, Jeremy Fox have resulted in additional Grammy nominations, awards and accolades.

Kate currently lives in Durham North Carolina with guitarist/producer/husband Keith Ganz. The couple celebrated 10 years of musical and life partnership with their first live duo recording, Genevieve and Ferdinand, on Sunnyside Records. The tunes, as is typical of their live sets, moved freely between jazz, folk, Brazilian and singer songwriter genres.

Their most recent CD The Subject Tonight Is Love was recorded in Durham with long time friend and collaborator Gary Versace. It marks the beginning of a new era of bold and cinematic storytelling. The trio’s many fans funded the recording on PledgeMusic. The Subject Tonight Is Love has been lauded by critics and public alike and received a 2019 Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Vocal CD!

CHICO PINHEIRO

SUNDAY, MARCH 15, 2020 at 5:00pm

The third concert of the series will feature award-winning guitarist/vocalist Chico Pinheiro.

Accompanying Pinheiro for the concert will be flutist David Heywood, pianist Demetrius Doctor, bassist Kevin Hamilton, and drummer Quentin E. Baxter.

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