Next up, on Saturday, July 20, is a special reunion of the Peter Erskine Trio with special guest Bob Mintzer, featuring Erskine on drums, Alan Pasqua on piano, Darek Oles on bass, and Bob Mintzer on tenor sax. The Athenaeum has a special relationship with Erskine, Pasqua, and Oles, going back to Oles’s 1998 appearance with Charles Lloyd, Erskine’s 1999 performance with trumpet master Kenny Wheeler, and many other stellar performances. DownBeat called the members of the trio, “jazz masters communicating in a highly evolved common language,” adding, “the group chemistry was equal parts sensitivity and combustibility, a balance of wide-open looseness and masterful precision. It all hinges on the group’s penchant to swing relentlessly while exploring a vast realm of expressive possibilities informed by each player’s considerable depth of experience. Erskine is a consistently refreshing catalyst; Oles is pitch-perfect and rock-steady; and Pasqua’s less-is-more approach to the keys provides contemporary harmonic and melodic context while leaving space for magic to unfold around him.” The Athenaeum hosted CD release concerts for the trio’s Grammy-nominated CD, Standards, and for Standards 2, which features all four of this concert’s artists. Known widely for his 30-year stint with the Grammy-nominated band Yellowjackets and as the leader of the WDR Big Band, Mintzer has been praised by DownBeat for his “prodigious talent and ingenuity.” Peter Erskine recently participated in Dave Drexler’s “Inside Art” segment previewing his upcoming Athenaeum Music and Arts Library concert. The interview airs this Sunday, July 7 at 6 p.m. PT on KSDS-FM, Jazz 88.3 (streaming live at www.jazz88.org and phone apps). The full online version is now posted to the KSDS web server at the following link: https://www.jazz88.org/MP3/IA070724Erskine.mp3 Athenaeum Music & Arts Library on Facebook / Instagram
