Bruce Dudley Quartet plays Music of Thad Jones, ft. Aliquo, Linton, Brasley

Pianist Bruce Dudley leads his quartet playing the Music of Thad Jones, featuring Don Aliquo on saxophone, Rob Linton on bass & Ryan Brasley on drums.
American jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader Thaddeus Joseph Jones (1923-1986), born in Pontiac, Michigan to a musical family of ten (an older brother was pianist Hank Jones and a younger brother was drummer Elvin Jones) was universally admired by musical peers for his charts, bassist Charles Mingus once called Jones “the greatest trumpet player I’ve heard in this life.” Trumpeter Tom Harrell said Jones’s imaginative tone was “like Louis Armstrong on acid.” A harmonically advanced trumpeter and cornetist with a distinctive sound, as well as a talented arranger and composer, Jones had a very productive career. Self-taught on trumpet, he started playing professionally with Hank Jones and Sonny Stitt when he was 16. He served in U.S. Army bands during World War II (1943-46).
After the war, Thad Jones continued his professional music career, eventually winding up with Count Basie in 1954, for whom he arranged, composed, and performed. He stayed with Basie for nine years. Thad achieved critical acclaim during this time, but not for his work with Basie. Much of Jones's music was stylistically original and didn't always fit in with the Basie group which he left in 1963. In the early sixties he became a free lance arranger and performer in the New York area. In 1965 he and drummer Mel Lewis formed the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Big Band. The group initially began with informal late night jam sessions amongst New York's top studio musicians. The group eventually began performing at the Village Vanguard, to wide acclaim, and continued with Jones in the lead for twelve years. In 1979 they won a Grammy Award for their album Live in Munich. Jones also taught at William Paterson College in New Jersey.
In 1978 Thad moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, where several other American jazz musicians had gone to live. There, he formed a new band Eclipse, composed for The Danish Radio Big Band and taught jazz at the Royal Danish Conservatory in Copenhagen. In later years his playing ability was overshadowed by his composing and arranging skills. Jones’ big-band arranging style was unique, especially from the standpoint of featuring dissonant voicings in a tonal context. His best known composition is the standard – “A Child is Born.”
Bruce Dudley is a Steinway Concert Artist and has been performing jazz piano for over 40 years on concert stages, in clubs, and private residences throughout North and South America. He specializes in the Great American Songbook, as well as in the rich history of American jazz styles, from Ragtime and Stride to Modernism, Post Modernism, and performance of original music. In addition to his work as a solo artist, he leads a trio, quartet, and larger ensembles, with horns and/or strings, while also enlisting the award winning voice of his wife, Sandra Dudley. An active educator, Dudley has presented clinics across Canada, the United States, and in Colombia, South America. His recordings as a leader include DPSW Quartet - Live at the Cave (2019), The Solo Sessions (2012), Mostly Monk (2010), and Semblance (1997). Dudley has also performed with artists Aretha Franklin, Crystal Gayle, Nelson Riddle Orchestra, Herb Ellis, Randy Brecker, Little Anthony and the Imperials, the Ink Spots, and has played keyboards for over 35 touring Broadway shows, including Beautiful, Wicked, Jersey Boys, Guys and Dolls, Grease, Fiddler on the Roof, Legally Blonde, among others. Bruce Dudley has published articles for Downbeat magazine and presented scholarly research at conferences in the Netherlands, Canada, and the United States. His book 25 Piano Etudes in Idiomatic Styles was published in 2021 by Keuka Waters Music. Dudley is Associate Professor of Music at Belmont University. He has a Doctorate of Musical Arts from the University of Colorado, a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from the Eastman School of Music, and a Bachelor of Science in Music Business and Technology from New York University.
"As the leader, Dudley set the evening’s tone with a supple, rich blend of assertive melodic statements, delightful accompaniment, first-rate phrasing, counterpoint and harmonizing." Ron Wynn - ArtsNash
"Dudley, whose fluent lines jet around the keyboard, absorbing motifs into the stream, without a split second of hesitation, at any point of rhythm in the bar, are stunning to listen to…" HALIFAX CHRONICLE HERALD
"Dudley plays the piano with such grace and authority that he has quietly become the pianists that other pianists go to hear." HOUSTON POST

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