Meetinghouse Arts will host a concert featuring internationally acclaimed jazz pianist and composer Laszlo Gardony on Oct. 8. Gardony is considered one of the most impressive and technically skilled pianists working in jazz today.
“A formidable improviser who lives in the moment” according to the JazzTimes, he has performed in 27 countries and released 13 albums on the Sunnyside, Antilles and Avenue Jazz labels during his decades-long career. Winner of the Great American Jazz Piano Competition, Gardony has been noted for his “fluid pianism” by The New York Times, and the legendary Dave Brubeck called him “a great pianist.”
His 14th album, “Close Connection” will be released on Dec. 2, 2022, by Sunnyside Records. His previous solo album “Serious Play” was named one of the Best Jazz Albums of 2017 by DownBeat Magazine. A Professor of Piano at Berklee College of Music who also teaches at Harvard University’s Jazz Combo Initiative, Gardony divides his time between composing, recording, concerts and teaching.
Visit LGJazz.com for more information and listen at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 5, to Dave Wade interview Gardony on Wade’s “Juke Jive N’Jazz” show on 90.9 FM, WMPG. The show will also be archived for later listening.
Coming up Nov. 12, the Hadacol Bouncers will play the music of Fats Waller, James P. Johnson, Louis Armstrong and more. Their music is a hybrid of New Orleans jazz, Chicago-style jazz, novelty songs and other classics. Hadacol has a traditional line up of banjo/tenor guitar, piano, tuba, drums, trombone, soprano sax/clarinet and trumpet/cornet. The Hadacol Bouncers formed in the summer of 2013 for a Portland, Maine Swing Dance festival and have never looked back.
The group is a joint effort by co-band leaders Tom Whitehead (piano) and Peter Dunphy (banjo). Tom has a multi-style background in blues, New Orleans R&B and bebop piano. Peter has been playing New Orleans and Chicago-style jazz since he was fourteen. For the Hadacol Bouncers, Tom and Peter handpicked some of their favorite musicians from the Portland and Portsmouth jazz scene. Like any band of this size, there are several players who rotate in and out.
Both performances are part of Meetinghouse Arts’ exciting new jazz series, All That Jazz, which will continue with a performance by the Duane Edwards Trio on March 4, 2023 and, in April, the dynamic Rhythm Future Quartet. Tickets can be purchased at the door or from eventbrite.com/o/meetinghouse-arts-33657308415.
The mission of Meetinghouse Arts is to cultivate Greater Freeport as a vibrant center for arts and culture by fostering creative collaboration, expanding access to arts and cultural assets, and amplifying the arts and culture as powerful tools to create, strengthen, and connect community. Meetinghouse Arts Gallery & Stage provides the primary performance venue for Meetinghouse Arts. It is located at 40 Main St. in Freeport. For more information, as well as the community calendar of arts and cultural events, visit meetinghousearts.org.
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
