The Grammy-nominated Tom Harrell Quintet will perform at Hope College on Monday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. in Dimnent Memorial Chapel.
Harrell has been praised by “Newsweek” for his pure melodic genius, and he is a frequent winner in “Down Beat” and “Jazz Times” magazines’ Critics and Readers Polls. He is also a Trumpeter of the Year nominee two years in a row, for the 2010 and 2011 Jazz Journalists Association Awards. His discography spans more than 260 recordings and his career more than four decades.
Harrell has four successful recordings with the current members of his quintet, which includes tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, pianist Danny Grissett, drummer Johnathan Blake and his bassist of 12 years, Ugonna Okegwo. “The Time of the Sun” (2012) is the group’s most recent release. The quintet’s previous albums, “Roman Nights” (2010), “Light On” (2007) and ”Prana Dance” (2009), were released to wide critical acclaim and won SESAC awards for topping the radio charts in the U.S.
A graduate of Stanford University with a degree in music composition, Harrell is a prolific composer and arranger. Carlos Santana, Cold Blood, Azteca, Vince Guaraldi, Hank Jones, Kenny Barron, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Danish Radio Big Band, WDR Big Band, Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Metropole Orchestra and Arturo O’Farrill & the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra are among the many who have recorded or performed his work. Harrell’s composition and arrangement, “Humility,” was recorded for the latter’s 2008 release, which won a Grammy for the Best Latin Jazz Album.
In addition to the 26 albums and thousands of concerts worldwide as a leader, Harrell has worked with important figures in jazz history including Stan Kenton, Woody Herman, Dizzie Gillespie, Horace Silver, Bill Evans, Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Sam Jones (with whom he briefly co-led a big band in the 1970s), Jim Hall and Charlie Haden, and with contemporaries such as Joe Lovano and Charles McPherson. In 2006, Harrell was awarded a Chamber Music America grant with which he composed and performed new pieces for trumpet and piano. He also wrote symphony orchestra arrangements for the French Orchestre National de Lorraine and the vocalist Elisabeth Kontomanou for a live recording album released in 2009, “Siren Song.”
Tickets for the Monday, Dec. 3, concert are $10 for regular admission, $7 for senior citizens, and $5 for children 18 and under, and are available at the ticket office in the main lobby of the DeVos Fieldhouse. The ticket office is open weekdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and can be called at (616) 395-7890. Tickets are also available online at tickets.hope.edu/ticketing/
The DeVos Fieldhouse is located at 222 Fairbanks Ave., between Ninth and 11th streets. Dimnent Memorial Chapel is located at 277 College Ave., on College Avenue at 12th Street.
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