Dan Costa Quartet

Name: Dan Costa Quartet
Start: 2024-11-01T19:30:00+13:00
Location: 65 Hanover Street, Dunedin Central

Schedule

Fri Nov 01 2024 at 07:30 pm

UTC+13:00

Location

65 Hanover Street, Dunedin Central | Dunedin, OT

Dan Costa Quartet
International pianist Dan Costa returns to Dunedin Jazz Club in November to perform his original Latin-Jazz compositions with an all star band including tenor saxophonist Bill Martin, double bassist Umar Zakaria and drummer Carl Woodward. Costa is a highly renowned jazz pianist and world music composer who will be subsequently departing on a two week tour of Aotearoa with this ensemble as part of the 2024 Chamber Music New Zealand in partnership series. Dan Costa’s music reflects his mixed cultural background as well as his fondness for the natural environment, bringing together philosophical concepts, modern jazz colours and world music genres. It has been featured by the BBC, Jazz FM, Sky, Rolling Stone Magazine, and others.
Dan Costa was born in London to Italian and Portuguese but has become something of a citizen of the world, growing up in eight countries and speaking eight languages. He is currently based in Georgia but regularly travels the world to collaborate with different musicians and share his music with new audiences. The focus for this concert and tour is the new compositions from the album Beams (2022), which was recorded in New York with jazz legends such as John Pattituci, Dave Liebman and Mike Stern. Costa has received many awards and positive reviews for his work, including his first album Suite Três Rios (2016) being named as one of the best albums of the year by Downbeat magazine.
Costa’s compositions are all based around Latin rhythms which he has studied extensively by travelling to Brazil and studying at São Paulo's UNICAMP. In his recordings, he has developed pianistic techniques that capture the different sounds and unique rhythms of percussion instruments associated with Brazilian folk music. New Zealand audiences will be privileged to hear Costa performing these compositions with a full quartet, including double bassist Umar Zakaria, who travels from Melbourne to perform on this two week tour. Building on his own passion for the latin jazz albums of Stan Getz, tenor saxophonist and club director Bill Martin will be exploring the improvisational possibilities of these compositions with long time collaborator Carl Woodward, a renowned drummer who has also spent years studying the nuances of Latin rhythms.
Hanover Hall is a licensed venue with a cash bar. Personnel:
Dan Costa (piano)
Bill Martin (tenor saxophone) Umar Zakaria (double bass) Carl Woodward (drums)
Dan Costa Quartet
Friday, 1 November, 7:30pm
Dunedin Jazz Club @ Hanover Hall
Timings: 7 pm doors open, 7:30 Set One, 8:15 break, 8:30 Set Two, 9:30 Finish.
Tickets at www.dunedinjazz.club
Adult: $28.75 (includes $3.75 GST) Cash $30 Senior / Unwage: $23 (includes $3 GST) Cash $25 Student: $17.25 (includes $2.25 GST) Cash $20
Full Bio:
Dan Costa
Praised for melodic sensibility by DownBeat Magazine, Dan Costa is a jazz/world music pianist, composer. His first album, Suite Três Rios (2016) was recorded with Jaques Morelenbaum, Leila Pinheiro, Ricardo Silveira, Marcos Suzano and others, and was considered one of the best albums of the year by DownBeat
Magazine. His second album Skyness (2018), recorded with Bossa Nova legend Roberto Menescal, Seamus Blake, Romero Lubambo, Portuguese fado exponent Custodio Castelo and others, was deemed “rare and luxurious” by All About Jazz, while Live in California (2020) was praised for “profound expression” by Jazziz Magazine. His music reflects his studies of classical music and jazz in Monaco, popular music at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, and jazz at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espectáculo in Portugal. With grants for outstanding achievement, he researched Brazilian music at São Paulo's UNICAMP and then pursued further studies at Berklee College of Music. He also recorded the jazz standard "Love Dance" with one of its creators, Ivan Lins, and an original single with trumpeter Randy Brecker titled “Iremia”, as a message of peace. His latest album Beams (2022) was recorded in New York City with Dave Liebman and John Patitucci, among others. He has conducted masterclasses at several universities and has written for publications such as Encyclopaedia Britannica.
Umar Zakaria
Umar Zakaria is a New Zealand bassist and composer whose music unites diverse traditions that stretch across cultural boundaries. A student of legendary jazz bassists Cecil McBee, Lynn Seaton, and Paul Dyne, he was one of three bassists selected worldwide to participate in the Betty Carter Jazz Ahead programme for performer-composers at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. Umar’s orchestral scores were recorded for the NZSO/Todd Corporation Young Composer Awards in 2008 and 2010, and were performed by the NZSO and Royal New Zealand Ballet in a collaborative concert in 2012. Influenced by the musical traditions of his Malay heritage, Umar’s innovative bass playing was featured on the album Gelombunk by Malay percussion virtuoso Riduan Zalani in 2018. In 2018 he was named Best Jazz Artist by Recorded Music New Zealand and he was recently appointed as the 2023 Jazz Composer-in-Residence at the New Zealand School of Music—Te Kōkī.