Adam Kolker/Sam Yahel Duets

Adam Kolker (saxophones, clarinets, flutes) is a multi-talented performer, composer and arranger.He performed and recorded with latin-jazz artist Ray Barretto from 1994 through 2002 (with whom he received two Grammy nominations). He just returned from a two-week tour of Italy with a quartet he co-leads with John Abercrombie. He also has appeared and/or appears regularly in New York City with such groups as the Village Vanguard Orchestra, the Maria Schneider Big Band, Bruce Barth, Freddie Hubbard and the Jazz Composers Octet, Judi Silvano, the Gil Evans Orchestra, Bobby Prevites Horse, Dominique Eade, the Jazz Composer's Collective, Mario Pavonne, David Berkman, Kenny Wheelers Large Ensemble, Lucia Pulido, Michael Weiss, Alan Ferber's Nonet and many others. He has recorded with Bruce Barth, Peter Herborn, The Story, Ben Sher, Allan Chase, Bobby Previte, Gunther Schuller, et al.Adams first release as a leader, Crazybird, on A Records (with Tim Hagans, Kevin Hays, Jeff Ballard and Doug Weiss), reached the top ten on the CMJ Charts, and received critical acclaim from such publications as Jazz Times, JazzIz and the Village Voice.His second CD, Sultanic Verses, on SatchmoJazz Records (with Bruce Barth, Billy Hart, Ray Barretto and John Hebert) is due to be released soon.Change Of Time -- a trio comprised of Kolker, Russ Lossing and John Hebert , and performing music based on Bela Bartoks Mikrokosmos -- just released their first CD, Change Of Time, on OmniTone Records. It also received critical acclaim, including 4 1/2 stars in Downbeat Magazine.Meditacions, also on Satchmo, received the award for "Best Modern Jazz CD" from the Catalan Jazz Society in 2002.Adam is also a professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.Weblinks:www.adamkolker.comprofile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=252843464 One of the more distinctive voices among a new breed of Hammond B-3 organ players on the jazz scene, Sam Yahel has earned the top spot in Down Beat's annual International Critics Poll as a Talent Deserving Of Recognition for the past four consecutive years. Since moving to New York in 1990, Yahel has worked with a string of notable jazz artists including tenor saxophonists Joshua Redman and Eric Alexander, former James Brown sideman and alto sax great Maceo Parker, guitarists Peter Bernstein and Bill Frisell, trumpeters Ryan Kisor and Jim Rotondi as well as having played on Norah Jones' Grammy-winning Come Away With Me as well as on recordings vocalists Lizz Wright and Madeleine Peyroux.But it has been as a solo artist in his own right that Yahel has made his most personal statements as both composer and player.Weblinks:www.samyahel.com