Antoinette Montague - Winter into Spring Schedule of Appearances

    /24-7PressRelease/ - NEW YORK, NY, February 13, 2008 - Thursday thru Sunday, February 21-22, 2008
The Winard Harper Sextet with Dr. BillyTaylor and Antoinette Montague

Blue Smoke :: Jazz Standard
Winard Harper Sextet
116 East 27th Street, NYC 10016
7:30 pm and 9:30 pm (Sat./Sun. 11:00 pm set)
212-576-2232 www.bluesmoke.com

Sunday, March 9, 2008
Bill Easley Quartet with Antoinette Montague

Presbyterian Jazz Society
First Presbyterian Church
East Lincoln & N. Columbus Ave., Mt. Vernon, NY
5:30 Young Musicians
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Saturday, April 5, 2008
Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium
9th Annual Jazz! The Woman's Viewpoint

Antoinette moderates the panel discussion: Brooklyn in the Jazz Tradition
Alma Carrol, Emme Kemp, Sarah MacLawler,
Evette Dorham and Rahkia Abdurahman
Rhythm section: Sandy Blair Trio
Restoration Plaza
1380 Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11216
718-652-1285
1:00 pm to 4:00 pm

Thursday thru Saturday, April 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 2008
Jazz at Lincoln Center's Dizzy Club Coca Cola
Broadway at 60th Street, NYC

Sing into Spring Series
Antoinette Montague
with John DiMartino, Bill Easley, Hassan Shakur, and Steve Johns
Sponsored by Blues/ Straight Ahead
212-258-9595

Antoinette Montague
Born and raised in Newark, Antoinette Montague may have just released her first CD but she has had many invaluable musical experiences. She worked in gospel and r&b ensembles after college, serves as the vice president of the International Women in Jazz, and considers Carrie Smith, Etta Jones, Norman Simmons, Della Griffin and Myrna Lake to be her mentors. Antoinette has worked extensively in the New York area during the past decade with such musicians as Red Holloway, Benny Powell, Bill Easley, Winard Harper, Wycliffe Gordon, Frank Wess, the Duke Ellington Orchestra and Mike Longo's New York State of the Arts Orchestra.

"She has a powerful voice, the ability to hold long notes without wavering, and a knack for making every song sound bluesy. Antoinette Montague's delivery is heartfelt, infectious and memorable."
- Scott Yanow, Los Angeles Jazz Scene

In performance is where you really get a chance to see the passion, fire, and performance inside of this artist. Don't miss out.

Recording and releasing "Pretty Blues" on the Consolidated Artists label raised her profile and has given her much support from WBGO radio, front cover of Jazz Improv magazine, Cover artist on Who's Who in Jazz, Cabaret, and Music from 1600 to Now. On this highly enjoyable CD, Antoinette Montague selected great musicians, Mulgrew Miller, Bill Easley, Peter Washington and produced by Kenny Washington, and is featured belting out blues, interpreting sensitive ballads, combining passion and sophistication, and making every song sound fresh, infectious and topical.

Winard Harper
"Winard Harper's wonderfully orchestrated solos alone might have forced a corpse to grin!"
- Mike Joyce, Washington Post

Born in Baltimore in 1962, Winard had a natural affinity for drumming. He was encouraged to play the drums by his father, who noticed him beating on cans when he was three or four years old. At the age of five, Winard was developing his skills and making guest appearances with his older brother Danny's nightclub band.

Harper's first major gig was with Dexter Gordon in 1982, and shortly thereafter with Johnny Griffin. It wasn't long before his drumming skills captured the attention of Betty Carter. He spent four years working with Ms. Carter's band, inevitably honing his jazz-as-entertainment sense of showmanship. When not touring with his band, Harper continues to work and record with such artists such as Joe Lovano, Avery Sharpe, Steve Turre, Wycliffe Gordon, Frank Wess, Ray Bryant, and Jimmy Heath. His newest CD, Make It Happen, goes further than any of his previous six releases to highlight his talent as drummer, composer and bandleader.

Dr. Billy Taylor
Billy Taylor is an American Jazz legend as a pianist, composer, and educator. He is currently the Robert L. Jones Distinguished Professor of Music at East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. Since1994, he has been the artistic director for jazz at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Washington, D.C. He has been playing piano professionally since 1944, starting with Ben Webster's Quartet on New York's 52nd Street. He later became the house pianist at Birdland, where he performed with the likes of Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. He was a prot g of jazz pianist Art Tatum. In 1958 he was the Musical Director of NBC's The Subject Is Jazz, the first ever television series on the subject of jazz.

With over twenty-three honorary doctoral degrees, Dr. Billy Taylor is also the recipient of two Peabody Awards, NEA Jazz Masters Award, an Emmy Award, a Grammy Award, and a host of prestigious and highly coveted prizes, such as the National Medal of Arts.

Bill Easley
Master reed player, band leader and renowned session player Bill Easley is joined by Antoinette Montague, a Jazz singer who electrifies audiences wherever she performs, for a swinging night of Jazz and Blues celebrating the release of Antoinette's debut CD, "Pretty Blues."

Bill Easley has had a diversified career, as a professional musician, spanning more than forty years. His arsenal of woodwind instruments includes; Tenor, Alto and Soprano Saxophones, Clarinet, and Bass Clarinet, Flute, Alto Flute and Piccolo. In recent years he has played in bands led by such notables as Ruth Brown, Jimmy Smith, Jimmy McGriff, Bobby Short, Louie Bellson, Nicholas Payton, Charles McPhearson, James Williams, Roland Hanna, Earl May, Illinois Jaquett, Ron Carter, Frank Foster, Mercer Ellington, Panama Fransis and Grady Tate among many others.

For Bookings contact:
Jackie Harris & Associates
212-987-0782
646-257-9141
[email protected]
www.jackieharrisjazz.com
www.antoinettemontague.com

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