Jazz Vespers: Mike McGinnis, Carmen Staaf, Gui Duvignau
About this Event
Welcome to Jazz Vespers!
However you are connecting with Saint Peter's, we hope you will find a wide and warm embrace. Among the skyscrapers and hustle and bustle of Midtown, this is a place of respite and renewal. Whether in person in our Sanctuary, or streaming from home. Jazz Vespers is free of charge with donations welcome at the door or online.
About Jazz Vespers
Jazz Vespers, NYC's unique jazz prayer service, is held every Sunday at 5:00 P.M. Originating in 1965 with The Rev. John Garcia Gensel, he believed jazz to be "probably the best music for worship because it speaks to the existential situation of a human being. It is the personal expression of the person playing it." Saint Peter’s Church, the “First Church of Jazz,” remains a spiritual home to jazz musicians and lovers of jazz. Founded by Ruth and Duke Ellington, Billy Strayhorn, Joe Newman and Sheila Jordan, among many others, today the community represents the best of the New York City jazz scene.
This Week We Welcome...
Mike McGinnis (woodwinds)
Carmen Staaf (piano)
Gui Duvignau (bass)
About Mike McGinnis
Over nearly three decades on the New York jazz scene, saxophonist, clarinetist, composer, educator and Selmer artist Mike McGinnis has amassed a body of genre-defying work that includes seven albums as a leader. He has explored a range of instrumentation, from Mike McGinnis +9 (Road*Trip, Road*Trip II: Outing) to the multimedia landscape tone poem Angsudden Song Cycle (482 Music); from eclectic chamber jazz as co-leader of The Four Bags and OK|OK to lyrical trio exposition with jazz legends Art Lande and Steve Swallow (Singular Awakening, Recurring Dream, both on Sunnyside).
In June 2024 McGinnis led his Seneca Sextet at Carnegie Hall, playing original music for the 100th birthday of Nobel Prize–winning Swedish neurophysiologist Torsten Wiesel. Mike also launched his own recording imprint, Open Stream (a mashup of “open source” and “Third Stream”), to serve as a platform for boundary-breaking work by himself and colleagues. A sought-after arranger, he has written charts for Joe McGinty of The Loser’s Lounge, and has enjoyed long-running associations with Yo La Tengo, Stew and the Negro Problem, the Bernie Worrell Orchestra and many others.
Additional performance credits include Anthony Braxton, Alice and Ravi Coltrane, Peter Apfelbaum, Gerald Cleaver, Steve Coleman and more.
Mike is musical director of the Davalois Fearon Dance Company and director of jazz at Brooklyn Conservatory of Music. He has performed on Broadway in the Tony-winning Fela! and on film in the Oscar-winning director Ang Lee’s Taking Woodstock. He backed Iggy Pop, Jane Birkin and The Roots on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
About Carmen Staaf
Music legend Herbie Hancock calls Carmen Staaf "a consummate jazz
pianist with equal talent in composition, orchestration and arranging."
She was the pianist and Musical Director for NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee
Bridgewater for eight years and has performed everywhere from the
Village Vanguard with John Zorn, to Lincoln Center as a guest soloist
with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis, to
recordings with Natalie Merchant (“Keep Your Courage”) and Lila
Downs (“Pecados Y Milagros”). She was a fellow at the prestigious
Thelonious Monk Institute, where she studied with Wayne Shorter and
Herbie Hancock. Later, she was tapped, with Herbie’s approval, to
transcribe his performances and consult on his course for masterclass.com.
As a composer, she has been commissioned by the Jazz Coalition, the
Jazz Education Network, and trombonist Jennifer Wharton, and created
orchestral arrangements for the American Ballet Theater. A Yamaha
Artist, Carmen has played at venues including Carnegie Hall, the
Kennedy Center, the Newport and Monterey Jazz Festivals, the Playboy
Jazz Festival (where she performed in a two-piano setting with Herbie
Hancock and Wayne Shorter), International Jazz Days in Paris and at the
White House, and throughout Europe, Latin America, Morocco, India
and Japan. She was a DownBeat Critics Poll Rising Star Jazz Artist in
2024 and was a Rising Star Pianist in the poll for three years. She played
with the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra several times in 2025, as well as
releasing her album “Sounding Line” to critical success and touring with
Dee Dee Bridgewater, Jenny Scheinman, and her own trio. She and
Allison Miller released their duo album "Nearness" (Sunnyside) in 2022
to wide critical acclaim, including selection as one of DownBeat’s “Best of
2022.” She and Miller also co-lead Science Fair, whose eponymous debut
was selected by the NY Times, LA Times and DownBeat in their “Best of
2018” lists. She is also on recordings by Jeff Williams, Dan Blake, Jenny
Scheinman, and many others.
www.carmenstaaf.com
About Gui Duvignau
Gui Duvignau is a French-Brazilian bass player and composer whose
multi-cultural background has led to a life of traveling and musical exploration.
A jazz musician in essence, he also draws inspiration from a variety of musi-
cal traditions and cultures, as well as his experiences performing Brazilian
music and Rock/Pop. He is interested in creative and original music in all its
forms. A graduate of Berklee College of Music and New York University, he has re-leased five albums as a leader featuring his original compositions:
Porto (2010), in collaboration with singer Sofia Ribeiro; Fissura (2016) on the
Parisian label Onze Heures Onze. 3,5,8, (2021) released on Sunnyside
Records; Baden (2022) featuring special guests Ron Carter on bass and Bill
Frisell on guitar; and his latest album Live in Red Hook (2024) featuring Ja-
cob Sacks and Nathan Ellman-Bell.
Duvignau’s music and recordings have been featured on radios across the
world, in playlists on Apple Music and Spotify, and in publications such as, The New York Times, Downbeat magazine, JazzTimes, Jazziz, Jazz Magazine, Jazz News, All About Jazz, among others.
www.guiduvignau.com
About Saint Peter’s
If you are looking for a religious community, this may be a place for you! We are a Sanctuary and Reconciling in Christ Parish of the ELCA. We are a bi-lingual English-speaking and Spanish-speaking community. We are Brown, Black, White and more. We are persons of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Some of us hold citizenship, others of us are Dreamers, asylees or seeking documentation. A good way to begin this journey is to participate in our Sunday liturgies.
Where is it happening?
Event Location & Nearby Stays:
USD 0.00
