On Jan. 9 2017, jazz virtuoso John Lee invites bassist Sean Drabitt and special guest pianist Justin Salisbury to Studio Live in Cumberland for an intricate and innovative jazz performance.
With each musician having a great deal of musical accolades in their own right, this trio performance presents the “art of trio” in which three musicians perform interactively and create musical conversation on stage.
Along with those musical concepts, the personnel is in a classic piano trio – a setting many historical jazz musicians used as a vessel for creative interplay.
This performance will feature songs from The Great American Songbook with a modern interpretation provided by the trio.
Lee is one of the most acclaimed and respected young jazz musicians in Canada. As a full-scholarship graduate from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Lee has a vast list of musical accomplishments which ranges from having performed at Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola at Jazz at Lincoln Center (NYC) with Cyrus Chestnut to having studied with some of the world’s greatest jazz educators such as Terri Lyne Carrington and Ralph Peterson Jr. Lee maintains a full-time freelance career as a multi-instrumentalist and performs with the likes of George Colligan, Misha Piatigorsky, Brad Turner and Phil Dwyer.
Salisbury is a fresh and modern sound in the U.S. jazz scene. Brought up in the small town of Clatskanie Ore., Salisbury grew up under the tutelage of some of the finest jazz musicians in the Pacific Northwest, including Clay Giberson, Derek Sims and Alan Jones. In 2013, Salisbury had the honour of playing under the direction of NEA Jazz Master Gerald Wilson at the Portland Jazz Festival.
Drabitt has one of the most authentic and truest sounds on the bass today. After a musical life in his youth, Drabitt relocated to New Orleans in the early ’90s where he had the opportunity to partake in musical history in the making – performing with some of the greatest names in jazz today such as Nicholas Payton and Wynton Marsalis. Drabitt moved on to New York City where he lived from 1997 to 2001, adding many credentials on to his vast list of performance accolades. Drabitt remains one of the most in-demand bassists in Canada and continues to perform and teach in Victoria, B.C. where he resides.
Advance tickets, $15, may be purchased at Bop City Records, Courtenay, Church St. Bakery, Comox and Rider’s Pizza, Cumberland. $20 at the door. The performance gets underway at 7:30 p.m., doors at 7 p.m. Studio Live is located at 2679 Beaufort Ave. at First Ave., Cumberland.
