Ninety Miles Project — made up of Stefon Harris (vibraphone and marimba), David Sánchez (saxophone) and Nicholas Payton (trumpet) — will bring its Cuba-influenced jazz to Music Hall on Thursday, November 29, 8 pm, as part of the Wisconsin Union Theater’s Isthmus Jazz Series.
Ninety Miles refers to the distance between Florida and Cuba. Harris and Sanchez, together with trumpeter Christian Scott, collaborated in Havana with Cuban pianists Rember Duharte and Harold López-Nussa to create an album and a BBC documentary . The result is a true Cuban/American musical collaboration that defies political borders and the record is a vehicle to explore the connections between two countries separated politically but united by the common roots of Latin Jazz music.
Bringing this music to Madison, four-time Grammy nominated vibraphonist-composer Stefon Harris is heralded as “one of the most important young artists in jazz” (the Los Angeles Times). Puertorican born, Grammy award- winning saxophonist David Sánchez is one of the most exciting players on the contemporary scene. His last Concord release, Cultural Survival, topped the critics’ best jazz albums of the year’s lists and garnered accolades from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and more. New Orleans native Nicholas Payton is the son of bassist and sousaphonist Walter Payton. By the time he was nine he was playing in the Young Tuxedo Brass Band alongside his father. He studied with Ellis Marsalis and recorded with Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, and Doc Cheatham, among others.
Call the Box Office at 608-265-ARTS (2787) for more information. Tickets are: $25 General Public, $21 Union Members, UW-Madison Faculty & Staff, and non UW-Madison Students, $10 UW-Madison Students, $14 youths age 6-18 (up to two youth tickets with purchase of an adult ticket). Buy online, call the Box Office at 608-265-ARTS (2787), or purchase in person at the Campus Arts Ticketing box office in Vilas Hall, 821 University Ave.
This performance is sponsored by the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Performing Arts Committee and Isthmus Weekly and is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board, and Wisconsin Union Theater Endowment Fund. Media sponsor is WORT, 89.9 FM.
