2024 MHJF - FREE: Kerry Politzer Brazilian Duo

Name: 2024 MHJF - FREE: Kerry Politzer Brazilian Duo
Start: 2024-05-04T17:00:00-05:00
Location: Mt. Hood Community College Main Mall

Schedule

Sat May 04 2024 at 05:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

Mt. Hood Community College Main Mall | Houston, TX

This FREE event is part of the 2024 Mt. Hood Jazz Festival, sponsored by Conn-Selmer, held May 3-5 in the College Theatre of Mt. Hood Community College (May 3-4) and at venues in Gresham and Troutdale (May 5).
Tickets on sale Monday, March 11. Weekend passes are available at a discounted rate. Children under 12 are free with a reservation.
The 2024 MHJF is proud to present pianist Kerry Politzer with guitarist Ben Graves for this FREE concert on the Main Mall stage at Mt. Hood Community College.
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Jazz pianist/composer Kerry Politzer has served on the faculty of Portland State University since 2013. She holds a Bachelor of Music from New England Conservatory and a Master of Music from Rowan University.
Kerry has headlined the Montavilla Jazz Festival and performed at festivals and venues including the 25th Annual Gene Harris Festival at Boise State, the Oregon Coast Jazz Party, Kansas City's Black Dolphin, Smalls, Jazz Forum, and Jazz in the Valley (Ellensburg, WA). She enjoys researching and recording various Brazilian composers, and in 2019 she received a Regional Arts and Council Project Grant to perform and record the music of Rio-born composer Durval Ferreira. This project culminated in the release of her sixth CD as a leader, "Diagonal." She is about to release her eighth album, "Ruminations" on PJCE Records.
Ben Graves was born and raised in Tennessee, close to the musical cities of Nashville and Memphis, where he discovered his love of blues, rock, and jazz. Influenced by Wes Montgomery, Grant Green and John Coltrane at an early age; Ben has developed a style blended with not only jazz elements, but Latin, classical and world music as well.
Ben has studied, shared the stage, and toured with national and internationally known artists including Rick Zunigar (Stevie Wonder), Tony Dumas, Leon Russell, Dick Berk and Charles McPherson. While living in Los Angeles, he studied classical guitar with Scott Tennant (of the Los Angeles Guitar Quartet), Evan Hirschelman, and Robert Mayeur. Ben has performed in music festivals all over the U.S., including the Reno Jazz Festival and Portland Jazz Festival.
Together, Kerry and Ben explore choro, samba, bossa nova, and other Brazilian music genres. In their latest project, they perform the amazing works of guitar legend Toninho Horta.