Streamed LIVE from Orcas Center on Thursday, August 20th, 2020.

Charlie Porter and Friends

200820 Charlie Porter & Friends final from Orcas Center on Vimeo.

An event not be missed, GRAMMY award winning trumpeter and composer Charlie Porter has assembled an exciting new group combining some of the best talent from New York City, Seattle and Portland for this one-time special live stream event on Orcas Island featuring music from his first two albums, as well as a sneak peak at several songs off of his upcoming release.

Group Bios:

 

Charlie Porter (trumpet):

Hailed by DownBeat as “fluid, expressive and magnificent” Internationally acclaimed and Grammy Award-winning trumpeter and composer Charlie Porter first cut his teeth on the New York jazz scene in the late ’90s, while simultaneously studying classical trumpet performance at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of famed trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis. Though he has a strong penchant for improvised music, Charlie has since delved into many projects from jazz and classical to Arabic, Indian, African, Australian Aboriginal and Korean music, seeking to find common ground among all “good music” and avoiding the pigeonholing of genre labels.

Though he has recorded many albums as a side musician, Porter has two recent albums as a leader that have been garnering high praise. He recently released his second album as a leader “Immigration Nation,” recorded in New York City, on the Origin Arts label in late November 2019. It has been hailed by Jazziz Magazine as a “joyful but tempered expression of optimism…poignantly voiced…nuanced performance,” “Sublime…Joyous…Fascinating” by Jeff Krow of Audiophile Audition, and as “A sterling merger of politics and music” by Chris Spector of Midwest Record.

Previously, he released the debut eponymous album, “Charlie Porter,” in 2018, which featured a who’s who of Portland jazz musicians, including the legendary Mel Brown and Chuck Israels. It was hailed as “A testament to Porter’s prodigious talent and imaginative creativity” by All About Jazz and as “Technical wizardry” by DownBeat Magazine.

Charlie has toured the world as a side-man and band-leader in jazz and also as a classical soloist and chamber musician, performing and recording with many notable musicians and groups over the last twenty years ranging from jazz greats including Joe Zawinul, Mike Longo, Paquito D’Rivera, Ira Sullivan, Aaron Diehl, Mike Holober, Jimmy Greene, Jay Thomas, David Berger, Charli Persip and Chuck Israels to classical artists such as Simone Dinnerstein, Sarah Chang, and Joyce DiDonato as well as world-music greats Goran Bregovic, Marcel Khalife, and Kim Duksoo, among many others. He is also a founding member of the grammy-nominated electro-acoustic Absolute Ensemble, directed by Kristjan Jarvi. Charlie’s recent collaboration on opera star Joyce DoDonato’s crossover album “Songplay” earned him a Grammy Award for 2019.

Porter holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Manhattan School of music in jazz and classical performance. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at the Paris Conservatory. Before his college studies, he attended the Palm Beach County School of the Arts. Among many awards to his credit, Charlie was the first trumpeter to win 1st place in both the classical and jazz divisions of the National Trumpet Competition. As a composer, he has been commissioned by Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Foundation.

Nick Biello (sax):

Nick Biello is developing a reputation as an exciting and artful musician. He has shared the stage with world-class artists, such as Slide Hampton, Cedar Walton, the Jimmy Heath Big Band, Rich Perry, Phil Markowitz, Steve Davis, and Orrin Evans, among many others.

Nick has been recorded on hundreds of albums, from his own original projects to his work as a sideman for other artists. His debut album, “Vagabond Soul,” released in 2017 on the Truth Revolution Recording Collective, features Phil Markowitz, John Benitez, Clarence Penn, Paul Jones, Andrew Renfroe, and Vincent Lionti.

In demand as a composer and arranger, Nicholas has written arrangements that have been performed by artists such as Stevie Wonder, Dave Koz, and Kelly Rowland. His work has been televised on networks such as ABC and ESPN, and heard in venues in Las Vegas, L.A., and New York City. He has worked with members of the famed Apollo Theater house band in music composition and production.

Michael Glynn (bass):

Born in Seattle, bassist Michael Glynn began performing professionally at the age of 16. While living in the Pacific Northwest, New Mexico, and the Bay Area he has performed with such jazz luminaries as Eric Alexander, Peter Bernstein, Seamus Blake, Conte Candoli, Eddie Daniels, Dave Grusin, Louis Hayes, Geoffrey Keezer, Don Lanphere, Mark Levine, Harold Mabern, Lewis Nash, William Parker, Aaron Parks, Bud Shank, Bobby Shew, Gary Smulyan, and Terell Stafford. In addition to his jazz work, Michael has performed in a variety of other genres, including classical concerts with the New Mexico Philharmonic, the New Mexico Symphony, Opera Southwest, and Canticum Novum Santa Fe, calypso with steel drum legend Ray Holman, and Arab/European music with Iraqi-American oud virtuoso Rahim Al Ha.

Marina Albero (pianist):

Pianist, composer, and educator Marina Albero is a captivating performer born in Barcelona and based in Seattle since 2015. Albero’s piano playing is an absolute celebration of life, her spirited performances are intelligent, uplifting, and delightfully engrossing.

Albero deftly draws on a lifetime of music tradition, from her native Barcelona in classical as well as flamenco, to Cuba and Son Cubano, to American jazz. Albero was the recipient of the Golden Ear Award as Emerging Artist of 2018 and she has been awarded as best instrumentalist and best record of 2019 (“A life soundtrack”).

Max Holmberg (drums):

“Max is a Seattle-based drummer, percussionist, and teacher. He’s had the opportunity to perform in seven different countries, and is regularly featured as a guest artist at festivals and various institutions of education. He runs several community-oriented jazz happenings including the podcast Jazztalk Seattle and the weekly Angry Beaver jam session. Some of his closest musical mentors include Benny Green, Neal Smith, Ralph Peterson, Jr, Betram Lehmann and Joanne Brackeen. Max is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston.”