TROY ROBERTS CD RELEASE PARTY - FEATURING THE TROY ROBERTS QUINTET WITH SPECIAL GUEST ALEX NORRIS

Mon 7 Jul 2008 @ 8:00pm

Admission PJS Members $18 Concessions $20 Guests $25 Tertiary Student PJS Members $9

This evening we are delighted to welcome Perth’s Troy Roberts back to the PJS stage to once again join forces with powerful and effervescent trumpet guru, Alex Norris (USA). Tonight also doubles as a CD release party for Troy’s debut album, ‘Soul Garbage’, which features Australian jazz legend James Morrison, and will be on sale at the special price of $20 for tonight only.

Together with a great Australian trio comprising Russell Holmes (piano), Matt Willis (bass), and Daniel Susnjar (drums), Troy and Alex will perform a mix of their favorite jazz standards and original compositions from Norris’ award winning album, ‘A New Beginning’, and Roberts’ ‘Soul Garbage’. All this will make for a burnin’ evening of exceptionally hard swingin’ jazz.

TROY ROBERTS
Troy began his career in Perth, winning accolades such as the Bob Wyllie, Melville Toyota and James Morrison Jazz Scholarships, and the Downbeat Jazz Soloist Music Award (USA), graduating from WAAPA with a Bachelor of Music by the age of nineteen. He performed with Australian jazz giant James Morrison on his On The Edge album and DVD (recorded live at the Sydney Opera House), and continues to tour Europe with Morrison several times a year.

After relocating to the USA in 2005 to commence a Teaching Assistant position at the University of Miami, Troy has spent the last few years touring the US with a variety of acts, including his WAMi winning nu-jazz outfit VOID and Sammy Figueroa, also appearing on the master percussionist’s Grammy-nominated album ‘The Magician’.

Along the way he has picked up four further Downbeat Awards and worked with a diverse range of artists including Kevin Mahogany, Slide Hampton, Lauryn Hill, Ed Calle, Dennis Macrell, Melton Mustafa, Duffy Jackson, John Fedchock, Jonathan Joseph, Rashawn Ross (Soulive), Obed Calvier (Richard Bona Band), Ludwig Afonso (Spyro Gyra), Robby Ameen, Lew Soloff and his own USA-based project, Jive Collective.

Troy plans to record a new album consisting of original compositions later this year, before a move back to the USA in early 2009.

ALEXANDER POPE NORRIS
After graduating from the Peabody Conservatory studying Classical trumpet in 1990, Alex Norris became active on the Baltimore/ Washington D.C. Jazz scene, performing with artists such as Gary Thomas, Grachan Moncur III, George Colligan and the Rumba Club. He also gained great experience working with Gary Bartz, Dennis Chambers, Billy Hart and the late Carter Jefferson.

After a world tour with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, Alex moved to New York City in 1992, working with the Mingus Big Band, the Village Vanguard Orchestra, Toshiko Akiyoshi’s Jazz Orchestra, Maria Schneider’s Band and was musical director of Betty Carter’s ‘Jazz Ahead’ from 1994 until 1998, the final year of the singer’s life. Alex has performed with jazz luminaries Slide Hampton, Joshua Redman, John Patitucci, The Woody Herman Orchestra, Ray Bryant, Avishai Cohen and Brian Blade. and has also been active in Afro-Cuban Jazz, working with Andy and Jerry Gonzalez, Paquito D’Rivera, Giovanni Hildago, Monguito Santamaria, Poncho Sanchez and Chico O’Farril. In the Pop/R&B world Alex has toured and/or recorded with Incognito, US3, Philip Bailey, Steve Winwood and Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine.

Alex received a Master’s degree from the Manhattan School of Music in ’95, has taught at the Manhattan School, the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music, Towson University and the City College of New York and has just become a full time Professor of Jazz Trumpet at the University of Miami, having recently completed a Doctorate of Music there.

Alex continues to perform all over the world with Manny Oquendo Y Libre, Sammy Figueroa, J.J. Grey and Mofro, and with his own group. He is in constant demand as a guest artist and clinician, appearing on over sixty CDs as a sideman. His latest release is Alex Norris Quintet - ‘A New Beginning’, on the Fresh Sounds Label.

www.troyroberts.com www.myspace.com/troyeee
www.alexnorris.com www.myspace.com/alexpopenorris