Recipient Information
Location
Brooklyn, New York
Medium
Jazz Quartet
Year of Award
2020
Grant or Fellowship
Jazz Road Tours Grant
Grant Amount
$6,275
Performances
- Moon and Sixpence Music and Art House. March 8, 2020. Modesto CA
- Hillview Middle School. March 11, 2020. Menlo Park CA
- Bird and Beckett. March 12, 2020. San Francisco CA
- California Jazz Conservatory. March 13, 2020. Berkeley CA
About the Artist
The Jessica Jones Quartet is an improvising jazz ensemble which performs original experimental music. Their music derives from the jazz tradition using structured original compositions as a framework for freer improvisation. Combining two tenor saxophones with bass and drums, the group creates an exciting, robust new soundscape. Working with drummers and bassists on the forefront of the experimental jazz scene has allowed the group a level of exploration that gives birth to a unique sound. The compositions of Jessica Jones and husband and fellow tenor saxist Tony Jones are currently given life by the innovative and energetic rhythm section of drummer Kenny Wollesen and bassist Stomu Takeishi.
The eclectic musical backgrounds of the band members infuse the music with the energy and creativity of new textures while remaining firmly rooted in the jazz tradition.
The Jessica Jones Quartet has played in the Knitting Factory Festival in NYC, and the Eddie Moore Jazz Festival in Oakland, California, where the group headlined with special guest Don Cherry. The group has been featured in venues on the east and west coasts of the US and released two CDs (Family on Nine Winds, Nod featuring Connie Crothers and Joseph Jarman on New Artists) to critical acclaim. Their most recent release, Word (New Artists), features vocalist Candace Jones, poets Arisa White and Abe Maneri, and french horn player Mark Taylor as well as young lion saxophonist Dayna Stephens holding down the bass chair for much of the CD.
Poets, storytellers, and other collaborators from Tristano-lineage pianist Connie Crothers to innovative jazz French horn player Mark Taylor have been augmenting the core quartet as the band continues to explore creative alliances and seek new adventures.
