Nicole Mitchell Sextet

 

Nicole Mitchell

Nicole Mitchell will take the stage backed by a group of local notable jazz musicians to present an evening of exciting new music. Nicole Mitchell’s career as an award-winning flutist, composer, recording artist, and educator has left a lasting mark on the world of jazz and beyond. Her innovative approach to music, combined with her dedication to social justice and education, have established her as a leading figure in contemporary creative music.

As an award-winning composer, bandleader, and educator, Mitchell is perhaps best known for her work as a flutist, having developed a unique improvisational language and having been repeatedly awarded “Top Flutist of the Year” by Downbeat Magazine‘s Critics Poll and the Jazz Journalists Association (2010-2022).

Mitchell initially emerged from Chicago’s innovative music scene in the late 1990s. She started with Maia and Shanta Nurullah in Samana (the AACM’s first all-woman ensemble) and as a member of the David Boykin EXPANSE, and she is the founder of Black Earth Ensemble, Black Earth Strings, Sonic Projections, and Ice Crystal. Mitchell composes for contemporary ensembles of varied instrumentation and size and incorporates improvisation with a wide aesthetic expression.

The former first woman president of Chicago’s Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, Nicole Mitchell celebrates endless possibility by “creating visionary worlds through music that bridge the familiar with the unknown.” Some of her newest work with Black Earth Ensemble explores intercultural collaborations, such as Bamako Chicago, featuring Malian kora master Ballake Sissoko, and Mandorla Awakening with Kojiro Umezaki (shakuhachi) and Tatsu Aoki (taiko, bass, shamisen).

As a composer, Mitchell has been commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, Art Institute of Chicago, the Stone, the French American Jazz Exchange, Chamber Music America (New Works), the Chicago Jazz Festival, ICE, and the Chicago Sinfonietta.

Mitchell has performed with creative music luminaries such as Craig Taborn, Roscoe Mitchell, Joëlle Léandre, Anthony Braxton, Geri Allen, George Lewis, Mark Dresser, Steve Coleman, Anthony Davis, Myra Melford, Bill Dixon, Muhal Richard Abrams, Ed Wilkerson, Rob Mazurek, Billy Childs, and Hamid Drake. She is a recipient of the Herb Alpert Award (2011), the Chicago 3Arts Award (2011), the Doris Duke Artist Award (2012), and the United States Artist Award (2020).

Having previously taught at the University of California Irvine and the University of Pittsburgh, Nicole Mitchell is a currently Professor of Music at the University of Virginia.

  Bandcamp  
 

Dustin Shrum – trumpet

Dustin Shrum is a highly in-demand trumpet player and music educator in the St. Louis area. Dustin is currently the Director of Bands at Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in the St. Louis Public Schools District.  He is also the Adjunct Professor of Trumpet/Jazz Studies at Jefferson College in Hillsboro, MO.  Dustin has performed with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, Dave Weckl, Joey DeFrancesco, Byron Stripling, Marilyn Maye, and The Temptations.

Kendrick Smith – saxophones

Musician, composer and arranger, Kendrick Smith has a career that spans two decades. Born and raised in the historic city of East Saint Louis, Illinois (hometown of the legendary Miles Davis) he studied under the tutelage of the late great Hamiet Bluiett and has shared the bandstand with musicians such as Branford Marsalis, Russell Gunn, Keyon Harold, Peter Martin, Ronnie Burrage, Victor Goines and Kamasi Washington to name a few.  With two successful albums under his name and a third on the way, his contributions to the music extend beyond the realm of any specific genre: composer of symphonic works with the University City Symphony Orchestra in St. Louis,  Director of the “Yes Jazz” Big Band, Founder of the “All Star Jazz Festival,” CEO of Truly Reeds, and Director of the Nonprofit “Build A Yes” Jazz Music Society.

Paul Steinbeck – bass

Paul Steinbeck is an associate professor of music at Washington University in St. Louis. He has written extensively about the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Art Ensemble of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, and Fred Anderson. Steinbeck’s book Sound Experiments, a study of ten influential pieces by AACM composers, is published by the University of Chicago Press (2022). His previous book Message to Our Folks, a history of the Art Ensemble, is available in English from the University of Chicago Press (2017). With Fred Anderson, Steinbeck is co-author of Exercises for the Creative Musician (2002/2010), a method book for improvisers.

Ben Dicke – drums

Originating from the east coast, Ben Dicke attended Berklee College of Music in Boston MA, earning a BM in performance in 2013. There, he studied with Ian Froman and Terry Lyne Carringtion, focusing on traditional and contemporary jazz vocabulary and technique.  He continued his education in 2015 with legendary jazz drummer and educator Bob Gullotti of the Fringe. Throughout this time he performed with numerous Americana, R&B and Jazz artists in stages up and down New England.  Since moving to St. Louis in 2018, Ben has been immersed in its legendary jazz scene and makes regular performances around the area, most notable a member of the Kendrick Smith Quartet.

Daniel Herrera – piano

One of the most promising young pianists in St. Louis, Daniel Herrera has quickly turned heads with his incredible playing. After coming through Jazz St. Louis’s JazzU program, many have seen Herrera around town as a member of Kendrick Smith’s quartet.