Jazz Vespers: Noah Baerman Trio

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Noah Baerman is a jazz pianist, composer, educator, and activist who has recorded twelve acclaimed albums under his own name and several more as a co-leader of cooperative ensembles including Trio 149, Envisage Collective, and Playdate, earning praise from Downbeat, Jazz Times, Jazziz, the NYC Jazz Record, WNPR’s Jazz Corridor, and the Village Voice. He is the author of ten instructional books published by Alfred Publishing Company and teaches at several institutions including Wesleyan University, where he is the jazz piano instructor and has directed the Jazz Ensemble since 2007. In 2012 he founded Resonant Motion, a non-profit dedicated to the intersection of music and positive change. He has recently been awarded an Artists Respond grant from the CT Office of the Arts and the Arts Advocacy award from the City of Middletown, where July 10, 2020 was declared “Noah Baerman Day” in the city.

Bassist Henry Lugo has been the bassist in Noah Baerman’s ensembles for over twenty years and ten albums including the co-led duo album Alter Ego. He spent several years as the bassist in drummer Yoron Israel’s High Standards group and in the group of the late Melvin Sparks and has performed with a diverse cast of jazz artists including Steve Davis, Joel Frahm, Ralph Lalama, Ted Rosenthal and Joe Beck as well as accompanying dozens of guests of Resonant Motion’s “Jazz Up Close” series, including Victor Lewis, Monnette Sudler, Steve Wilson, and Freddie Bryant. He is also a busy educator, with teaching endeavors including work at Southern Connecticut State University, Charter Oak State College and Naugatuck Valley Community College as well as his position as Strings Director for Co-op High School in New Haven.

Dennis Mackrel first came to prominence in the early 1980s as the drummer for the Count Basie Orchestra, with which he remained for several years past Basie’s passing. His performance credentials since have included significant stints as the drummer in other prominent big bands, including the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, Carla Bley Orchestra, and Dizzy Gillespie All Star Big Band, as well as in small ensembles led by Hank Jones, Joe Williams, George Shearing, Randy Sandke, Keter Betts, and others. He is also a celebrated composer, arranger, and conductor whose work has been recorded by many ensembles including those of Basie, McCoy Tyner, and Frank Wess, as well as by numerous ensembles that have commissioned new compositions from his pen. He is a professor at the Aaron Copland School of Music at Queens College.