On December 17 Litchfield Jazz Presents will host Native Soul – Live from TELEFUNKEN Soundstage @ 7:30pm
Bandmates include four great names in jazz-bassist Marcus McLaurine, saxophonist/flutist Peter Brainin, pianist Noah Haidu, and drummer Steve John with special guest, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix. Hendrix has performed with the Count Basie Orchestra, the Christian McBride Big Band, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, and Alicia Keyes.
For their first ever appearance for Litchfield Jazz, the group’s performance will be “To C.T. With Love”: A tribute to the legendary Clark Terry. The tune by the same name was written by McLaurine for Native Soul’s most recent record, What Is That Isn’t (Cellar Music) and inspired the group to record an upcoming full-scale tribute to the late trumpeter.
Clark Terry was born in 1920. His career spanned 70 years, and he became one of the most recorded jazz musicians ever, producing more than 900 records. Terry played with Count Basie and then moved on to the bands of Quincy Jones and Oscar Peterson. He worked with the Tonight Show band for a decade and was the first black artist to become a regular on network television. Encouraged by Billy Taylor and Milt Hinton, he bought instruments for young hopefuls and instructed them, an idea that led to the Jazz Mobile in NYC. From 2000 onward, he hosted Clark Terry Jazz Festivals, held his own jazz camps, and played 50+ jazz festivals on six continents. Terry composed over 200 songs and performed for eight US Presidents. He died in 2015 at 95.
Marcus McLaurine recorded and toured with Terry for 25 years. Peter Brainin played with pianist Hilton Ruiz Mongo Santamaria, Chico O’Farrill, Bobby Sanabria, Paquito D’Rivera, Wynton Marsalis, and others. Steve Johns worked with Sonny Fortune, Randy Brecker, Stanley Turrentine, and Billy Taylor. Noah Haidu, the band’s youngest member, played with jazz heavyweights Ambrose Akinmusire, Mike Stern, Jeremy Pelt, Benny Golson, and Eddie Henderson and wrote his first orginal for Native Soul. Both McLaurine and Johns are long-time Litchfield Jazz Camp faculty members.