Uri Caine: piano
Joey Baron: drums
Mark Helias: doublebass
The extraordinary pianist and composer Uri Caine is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary jazz, as well as one of the most original, versatile, sensitive, and intelligent jazz artists of our time. We are particularly proud to welcome him back to our stage for the fifth time. Joining him on stage is the monumental and breathtaking drummer Joey Baron—returning to the FolkClub after his last performance here in 2012. Throughout his illustrious career, Baron has played with legendary artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Chet Baker, Laurie Anderson, John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Lee Konitz, Joe Lovano, David Bowie, Philip Glass, David Sanborn, Al Jarreau, Jim Hall, Randy Brecker, John Scofield, Marc Johnson, Enrico Pieranunzi, and the Lounge Lizards. Completing the trio is a master of the double bass, Mark Helias, whose prestigious collaborations include work with Cecil Taylor, Abbey Lincoln, Edward Blackwell, Don Byron, Bobby Bradford, Ray Anderson, Anthony Davis, Dewey Redman, and Don Cherry. Together, they form a masterful trio, among the finest in contemporary jazz, delivering an amazing concert at the very pinnacle of the genre!
Uri Caine, born in Philadelphia, began studying piano with Bernard Peiffer and composition with George Rochberg. He played in bands led by Philly Joe Jones, Hank Mobley, Johnny Coles, Mickey Roker, Odean Pope, Bootsie Barnes, Bobby Durham, and Grover Washington. He attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied music composition with George Rochberg and George Crumb. After moving to New York in 1985, Caine has recorded 33 albums as a bandleader. His recent CDs include a duo album with drummer Han Bennink, "Sonic Boom" (2013), a critically acclaimed sextet album dedicated entirely to George Gershwin's "Rhapsody in Blue" (2013), "Callithump" (2015) featuring his solo piano compositions, "Calibrated Thickness" (2016) in a trio with Mark Helias and Clarence Penn, and "Space Kiss" (2017) with the Lutoslawski String Quartet. He has recorded projects with his ensemble performing arrangements of Mahler, Wagner, Mozart, Verdi, Schumann, and Bach's Goldberg Variations. He also leads an acoustic trio, with several recordings, including "Live at the Village Vanguard," as well as his electric trio, Bedrock. In 2009, he was nominated for a Grammy for "The Othello Syndrome." Recent compositions include "Agent Orange" (2017), written for the Brussels Philharmonic, and "4 Wunderhorn Songs" (2017), written for the SWF Orchestra. Caine composed "The Passion of Octavius Catto" for the Philadelphia Orchestra with a gospel choir to celebrate the life of civil rights leader Octavius Catto, and "Hamsa" for the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, inspired by Bach's 5th Brandenburg Concerto. He has also received commissions for compositions from the American Composers Orchestra, the Vienna Volksoper, the BBC Concert Orchestra, Concerto Köln, the Basel Chamber Orchestra, the Arditti Quartet, and the Beaux Arts Trio, among others. He was Composer-in-Residence for three years with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and has performed his version of the Diabelli Variations with orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. Caine was the Director of the Venice Biennale in 2003. In recent years, Caine has worked with groups led by Don Byron, Dave Douglas, John Zorn, Arto Lindsay, Terry Gibbs, Buddy DeFranco, Sam Rivers, Barry Altschul, the Woody Herman Band, and the Master Musicians of Jajouka. He has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Pew Foundation, and the USA Artist Fellowships. He has performed at numerous festivals, including the North Sea Jazz Festival, the Monterey Jazz Festival, the Montreal Jazz Festival, and the Newport Jazz Festival, as well as classical festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Munich Opera, the Holland Festival, IRCAM, and Great Performers at Lincoln Center.
Joey Baron was born in 1955 in Richmond, Virginia, to a working-class Jewish family. He is mostly self-taught, having learned by observing other musicians and listening to records, radio shows, and television programs. His early influences range from guests on the Ed Sullivan Show and the theme song of the TV show "The Wild Wild West" to recordings by Art Blakey, Ray Charles, Booker T. and the M.G.'s, James Brown, The Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix. In addition to being part of Bill Frisell's band for ten years (until 1995), he has performed and recorded with an impressive list of artists, including Carmen McRae, Dizzy Gillespie, Tony Bennett, Hampton Hawes, Chet Baker, Laurie Anderson, Art Pepper, Stan Getz, Jay McShann, David Bowie, The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Big Joe Turner, Philip Glass, John Abercrombie, Mel Lewis, Pat Martino, Harry Sweets Edison, David Sanborn, Al Jarreau, Jim Hall, Randy Brecker, Marian McPartland, John Scofield, and the Lounge Lizards. Joey Baron is also the co-leader of the group Miniature (with Tim Berne and Hank Roberts) and was a member of Naked City (with John Zorn, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, and Wayne Horvitz). He plays in John Zorn's Masada group, with Dave Douglas (trumpet) and Greg Cohen (bass), and leads a trio with John Medeski and Marc Ribot, as well as the Barondown trio, featuring Ellery Eskelin (saxophone) and Steve Swell (trombone). With Barondown, he has recorded three albums: "Crackshot," "Raised Pleasure Dot," and "Tongue in Groove." Joey Baron also led a stellar ensemble ("the most intriguing ensemble of the season," according to the New Yorker) with Ron Carter, Arthur Blythe, and Bill Frisell. With this group, he recorded for the Songline/Tone Field series of Intuition, "Down Home," an album of his original compositions inspired by the southern R&B sounds of the United States. The second album of the band, "We'll Soon Find Out," was released in the summer of 2000. Both albums were produced by Lee Townsend. Baron also performs solo and in duo with Bill Frisell, and occasionally with The Down Home Band in solo form, with Bill Frisell, Lee Konitz, Vinicius Cantuária, John Abercrombie, and in trio with pianist John Taylor and bassist Marc Johnson. A track he recorded solo, "Alfie," was included in the CD "Great Jewish Music: Burt Bacharach." His main band is Killer Joey, which features guitarists Steve Cardenas and Brad Shepik, along with Tony Scherr on bass. They have self-produced a CD entitled "Killer Joey," featuring Adam Levy, Shepik's predecessor.
Mark Helias is a renowned American double bassist, composer, and producer who has performed worldwide for over four decades. He debuted in Anthony Braxton's quartet and has since collaborated with numerous artists, including Cecil Taylor, Abbey Lincoln, Edward Blackwell, Don Byron, Bobby Bradford, Ray Anderson, Anthony Davis, Dewey Redman, Don Cherry, and David Krakauer. Helias is a prolific composer in the fields of soundtracks, chamber music, and orchestral works, and he has produced numerous artists, including Ray Anderson, Bobby Previte, and Mark Dresser. Since 1984, he has released sixteen albums under his own name. His trio Open Loose, featuring Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey, is one of the most sought-after ensembles on the New York scene. Helias frequently performs solo double bass concerts or as part of the innovative double bass duo “The Marks Brothers” with Mark Dresser. He teaches at Sarah Lawrence College, New School University, and the School for Improvisational Music (SIM).
"As a jazz musician, Mr. Caine thrives on the practice of inspired variation." -- New York Times"
"Caine spreads out a tableau that includes cubist abstraction, syncopated blues, lyrical drama, touches of soul jazz and gospel, and generous helping of swinging hard bop energy.It’s brash, consistently appealing and profoundly stimulating“.-All about jazz
"Caine in his trio incarnation is an unmannered conduit between swing, groove, fusion and free-improvisation.“-Guardian
"Uri Caine’s voracious intellect and lightning-fast reflexes have taken him all over the musical map, from polyglot classical extrapolations to klezmer and on to funk.Whether he’s paying tribute to Monk, refracting Bach and Mahler through a postmodern prism or simply riding hard on a funky groove, keyboard conceptualist Caine is among this city’s most consistently satisfying eclectics. A piano trio may seem like a conventional setup, but not the way Caine imagines it“.-Time out NY
"In the hands of a trio like this, we set off an unpredictable journey, and the introduction served as a reminder that the live experience is something different, unique, not- to-be-repeated. And special. We are a long way from head-solos-head here, and into something much more organic and intuitive and, perhaps above all, free.“-London jazz review
"When Caine uses musical free association, rhythmic trickery, and group interplay, either separately or in combination, he puts his own mark on this format.“ AllaboutJazz-
"Caine and company imbue every tune with an extraordinary blues feeling and a fat swing groove. But this is not just another straight-ahead piano trio outing. Caine gives the form a shot in the arm with these sophisticated compositions, all of which contain a bevy of surprises.“ AllMusic
"A freely-flowing, highly-rhythmic approach to his music. The set bristles with energy right from the start – a joyous bouncing trio in which every player is given equal weight, not just the pianist at the top.“-Dusty Grove
"The trio seamlessly switched from one style to another, classical swing, bop virtuoso, greasy New Orleans street music, impressionistic musings, funk, pop ... The smoothness of style that has changed within a song, the lightning-fast transitions - often within seconds - without drastic rupture and create the flawless coordination in the stage left no room for an eclectic muddle game. There is no bite-style exercises, but a full integration of styles.“ Kwadratur
