TICKETS are $12 General/$6 Student. One-Set  concert - End time is around 9:00.

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Jim Holman Trio with Randy Johnston and Eric Alexander:

Randy Johnston - guitar

Eric Alexander - tenor saxophone

Jim Holman – piano

John Sutton – bass

Tim Davis - drums

Eric Alexander and Randy Johnston played/recorded with each other in and out of new York in the 90's. Jim Holman has had the recent pleasure of recording and performing with each of these titans, Randy this past July with Clark Sommers, John Sutton, and Tim Davis. Jim recorded and performed with Eric last fall with Clark Sommers, John Sutton, and Tim Davis. Holman's most recent release "First Impressions" features Eric, Clark, and Tim. Holman's upcoming album features Randy, Clark, and Tim.

Both Randy and Eric hold high international acclaim and have cultivated their own recognizable voice in the jazz canon.

Randy, Eric, John, and Tim all arrive at Merriman's playhouse just after performing the 7th Annual Labor Day Jazz Fest on Labor Day at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago. Eric and Randy in particular are in from out of town (Eric is based in NYC and is coming from a tour in Japan, and Randy just having come back from his residency at Smalls in New York is coming in from South Carolina) and were in Chicago to perform at the Labor day Jazz Festival with Holman, as well as to record with Holman and his father Scott Earl Holman.

The quintet will perform hard driving, in-the-pocket, straight-ahead jazz. You can expect to hear familiar standards with a swinging groove as well as some originals sprinkled in.

An expressive, often funky hard bopper who is quite comfortable in soul-jazz settings, Randy Johnston is also one of the finest straight-ahead jazz guitarists of the Baby Boomer generation. Johnston has never been an introverted sort of player; he is an aggressive, gritty, hard-swinging musician who brings a great deal of blues feeling to his work. The late Grant Green is Johnston's most obvious influence, and other guitarists who have had an impact on his playing include, among others, Pat Martino, Kenny Burrell, Wes Montgomery, and George Benson (especially the straight-ahead recordings that Benson provided for Columbia early in his career). Blues great B.B. King's electric guitar playing has also been cited as an influence on Johnston, which isn't surprising because the Detroit native definitely knows his way around a 12-bar blues.

The guitarist was born in Detroit, MI -- a city that has given us a lot of great jazz musicians over the years -- in 1956 and moved to Richmond, VA when he was 13. At that point, he was playing rock guitar, and he was a major admirer of the seminal singer/guitarist Jimi Hendrix (who was arguably the first heavy metal artist -- he certainly had a major impact on headbangers like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, Mahogany Rush, and Deep Purple). But eventually, jazz guitar -- not rock guitar -- became Johnston's primary focus. After graduating from high school, Johnston moved to South Florida and attended the University of Miami in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. During his years in Miami, Johnston often sat in when multi-hornman Ira Sullivan (originally from Chicago) held jam sessions in a Unitarian church. In 1981, Johnston left Miami and moved to New York, where he struggled for a few years but became increasingly busy as the ‘80s progressed. And by the end of the decade, Johnston had been employed as a sideman on albums by tenor saxophonist Houston Person and the late singer Etta Jones. But it was in the ‘90s that Johnston became a major name in jazz -- that was when people really started to recognize him as one of the best jazz guitarists of his generation. In early 1991, Johnston signed with Muse and recorded his first album as a leader, Walk On, which was produced by tenor saxophonist Person and engineered by Rudy Van Gelder (the most famous engineer in the history of jazz). In 1992, Johnston was reunited with Person and VanGelder when he recorded his second Muse album, Jubilation. Muse released Johnston's third album, In-A-Chord, in 1994, and Johnston parted company with the New York-based label after that. Then, the guitarist recorded a few more albums in the late ‘90s, including Somewhere in the Night on High Note and Riding the Curve on J Curve. In the ‘90s and early 2000s, Johnston was featured on many albums as a sideman, and the jazzmen who employed him (either on-stage or in the studio) have included Person, Lionel Hampton, Lou Donaldson, Jack McDuff, Dr. Lonnie Smith (not to be confused with Lonnie Liston Smith), and Philadelphia organist "Papa" John DeFrancesco (the father of organist/trumpeter Joey DeFrancesco and the brother of guitarist Johnny DeFrancesco). Johnston's early-2000s releases include Homage on J Curve and Detour Ahead on High Note.

Boasting a warm, finely burnished tone and a robust melodic and harmonic imagination, tenor saxophonist Eric Alexander has been exploring new musical worlds from the outset. He started out on piano as a six-year-old, took up clarinet at nine, switched to alto sax when he was 12, and converted to tenor when jazz became his obsession during his one year at the University of Indiana, Bloomington (1986-87). At William Paterson College in New Jersey, he advanced his studies under the tutelage of Harold Mabern, Joe Lovano, Rufus Reid, and others. "The people I listened to in college are still the cats that are influencing me today," says Alexander. "Monk, Dizzy, Sonny Stitt, Clifford Brown, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Joe Henderson--the legacy left by Bird and all the bebop pioneers, that language and that feel, that's the bread and butter of everything I do. George Coleman remains a big influence because of his very hip harmonic approach, and I'm still listening all the time to Coltrane because I feel that even in the wildest moments of his mid- to late-Sixties solos I can find these little kernels of melodic information and find ways to employ them in my own playing."

During the 1990s, after placing second behind Joshua Redman in the 1991 Thelonious Monk International Saxophone Competition, Alexander threw himself into the whirlwind life of a professional jazz musician. He played with organ trios on the South Side of Chicago, made his recording debut in 1991 with Charles Earland on Muse Records, and cut his first album as leader in 1992 (Straight Up for Delmark). More recordings followed for numerous labels, including Milestone and others, leading to 1997's Man with a Horn; the 1998 collaborative quartet session with George Mraz, John Hicks, and Idris Muhammad, Solid!; and, that same year, the first recording by One For All, Alexander's ongoing band with Jim Rotondi, Steve Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Peter Washington, and Dave Hazeltine.

Eric has appeared in many capacities on record, including leader, sideman, producer as well as composing several of the tunes he records. By now, Alexander has lost count of how many albums feature his playing; he guesses 80 or 90. While he has garnered critical acclaim from every corner, what has mattered most has been to establish his own voice within the illustrious bop-based jazz tradition.

In 2004, Eric signed an exclusive contract with the New York-based independent jazz label, HighNote Records where he has amassed a considerable discography of critically acclaimed recordings. Most recent among them is “Chicago Fire” HCD 7262, “The Real Thing” with Pat Martino HCD 7278 and “Second Impression” HCD 7296. Eric’s most recent HighNote release, “Song of No Regrets,” (HCD 7311) was featured in Downbeat’s “Hot Box”. He is currently working on a new recording project which will see commercial release in mid-2019. Eric continues to tour the world over to capacity audiences. Using NYC as his home base he can regularly be seen in the city’s most prestigious jazz

clubs.

Jim Holman is a pianist/composer/instructor rooted in Chicago who has performed with Eric Alexander, Paul Wertico, Ira Sullivan, Ari Brown, Claudio Roditi, Jimmy Chamberlin (drummer for the smashing Pumpkins), Frank Catalano, Roger Humphries, Cecil Bridgewater, Yotam Silberstein, Donald Harrison, John Moulder, Abe Laboriel, Dennis Carroll, Clark Sommers, Richie Cole and Dana Hall and many more.

Holman’s upcoming album features New York tenor legend, Eric Alexander, along with Clark Sommers, and Tim Davis. His discography also includes two albums on the Delmark lable: “Blues Skies” feat. Ira Sullivan and Roger Humphries, and “Explosion” feat. Richie Cole and Frank Catalano. His most recent release, “Faith,” features alto powerhouse Greg Ward II and Barrett Harmon, and showcases Holman’s compositional perspective.

Holman's musical training started at home as the son of jazz pianist Scott Earl Holman and studying directly under Dave Flippo and Dennis Luxion. He earned his BA in Music from the University of Pittsburgh under the tutalage of Frank Cunnimondo, and MM in Jazz Performance from DePaul University studying with Ron Perrillo. Upon his graduation from Pitt, he jumped right into earning his living teaching and gigging at Chicago clubs such as the Green Mill, Andy's Jazz Club, and the Jazz Showcase. It was during this fruitful period that Holman first started playing with multi-instrumentalist icon, Ira Sullivan, who would travel from Miami to Chicago every year during the late summer for his residency at the Jazz Showcase. Holman made an effort to book gigs every year around this time to play and record with Sullivan. This continued every year until Ira’s passing in 2020. Through conversations and experience sharing the bandstand with Sullivan, Holman grew quickly and started to cultivate his own voice as an artist. It was on Ira’s recommendation that he met Bob Koester at Delmark Records, who would soon after release Holman’s first two albums as a leader. In 2012 he released his debut album “Explosion” on the Delmark label. It featured the late alto legend Richie Cole, and Chicago mainstay Frank Catalano–with whom Holman had performed at the Green Mill for 4 years. It received critical acclaim and international airplay. In 2013 he released his second album on Delmark, “Ira Sullivan Presents the Jim Holman trio: Blue Skies.” It features legends Ira Sullivan and Roger Humphries. It too received acclaim and international airplay.

In 2017 Holman, along with his father Scott Earl Holman, launched the Annual Labor Day Jazz Festival (originally called the Rusty Jones Labor Day Jazz Festival as a nod to the late great drummer Rusty Jones). In its first incarnation, it was a non-stop 9 hour jam session, with Sullivan and the Holmans as co-hosts. It featured several house bands including drum legend Paul Wertico. Soon after, Holman shifted the jam session format to a showcase of top-tier artists each Labor Day. Sullivan continued to host along with Holman until Sullivan’s passing. The most recent iteration was held at the Jazz Showcase featuring Eric Alexander, Paul Wertico, Clark Sommers, Ari Brown, John Sutton, Matt Ulery, Mark Neuenschwander, Tim Davis, Sam Robinson, Ted Sirota, Linard Stroud, Jim Holman, and Scott Earl Holman. Holman’s compositional approach is documented in his latest Album “Faith,” which features alto great, Greg Ward II. Holman tends toward melodic themes that spin out within through-composed forms. Harmonically he has an affinity for dense sonorities with careful voice leading being juxtaposed against block voicings. Particularly in “Faith,” Holman experiments with the implications of the back-beat, and electronic orchestration.

As a performer, Holman draws most heavily from bebop, and post-bop language. Particular artists that weigh heavily on him: Sonny Clark, Herbie Hancock, Bill Evans, Wally Cirillo, Gonzalo Rublecaba, Brad Mehldau, Oscar Peterson, Kenny Drew Jr., and many more. Although his adventurous harmonic sense is often cited, perhaps a greater portion of his focus aims at phrasing.

He uses his experience to not only further his own grasp of musical truth but also to facilitate his teaching private lessons. Holman stresses the importance of some basic fundamentals such as 4-note voices in closed and open position, to more advanced and subjective analysis such as the rhythmic implications on the harmonic function in Bach’s Prelude VI in book 1. His general teaching philosophy emphasizes the importance of music theory, but also stresses an equal awareness that it is just that– theories. They are somewhat arbitrary and are only useful to help the practitioner codify sounds. What is the most important is to hear the next note before they play it. His students will often hear phrases like “a note in time,” or “every note is in every key.” Holman continues to search for evermore precise and lyrical approaches in music as a performing artist.

John Sutton is a bassist/composer and educator based in Chicago. As a natural storyteller, both his playing and writing reflect his belief in the power of simplicity and humor. In recent years, John has composed for over 15 feature length and short films as well as theme music for multiple web series and other media projects. He releases original music under his own name and as The Vine Street Alternative, a saxophone trio based in NYC. John has been featured on recent releases by Vine Street Alternative, Saxsquatch, Ryley Walker, Mikel Patrick Avery, Tammy McCann, and Rana Santacruz. He has performed in many world famous venues including The Getty Museum, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, NYC Winter Jazz Fest, Millennium Park Pritzker Pavilion, as well as NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series. He is the creator of the web series Bass Solo: a sketch comedy show exploring what it means to be a musician in today’s world.

Drummer, Tim Davishas Performed with Nat Adderly Quintet, Mose Allison, Randy Brecker, Nick Brignola, Steve Cardenes, Rodney Dangerfield, Kurt Elling, John Fedchock, Von Freeman, Eddi Harris, Carmell Jones, Barney Kessel Sheila Jordan, Dave Liebman, Kitty Margolis, Mike Metheny, James Moody, Carol Sloan, Tiny Tim, Bill Watrous, Claude “Fiddler” Williams, Larry Willis, Dave Onderdonk, Kelly Brand and Nextet, Marlene Rosenberg, Steve Million, Dennis Luxion, and many more.

As an educator Davis conducted workshops, master classes, and performance clinics. Adjunct Faculty at University of Missouri and Concordia University. Consultant to the Kansas City Magnet Schools music education program. Taught privately in addition to group instruction.

Tim has been featured in many festivals and venues:

1984-Montreux Jazz Festival

1987,1988,1989-Kansis City Jazz Festival

1993 Chicago Jazz Festival

1991,1994,2002- other performance venues in Germany, France, Spain

(World’s Fair 1991), and Singapore.

Concerts and events made possible, in part, with support from the Wells Fargo Philanthropic Services Private Trust Foundations, which include grants from the Stanley A. and Flora P. Clark Memorial Community Trust Foundation (2020-2021; 2022-2023 seasons), the John, Anna, and Martha Jane Fields Memorial Trust Foundation (2021-2022; 2022-2023 seasons), and the Florence V. Carroll Charitable Trust (2021-2022; 2022-2023 season). Special concert event support provided by the Arts Midwest Grow, Invest, Gather (GIG) Fund grant (2022-2023 season). Activities are made possible in part by the Arts Organization Support (AOS), Indiana Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency (2023-2024 season).

Concerts and events made possible, in part, with support from The Esther and George Jaruga Charitable Foundation (2020-2023 seasons). The Student and Home Grown Series concerts made possible, in part, with support from the ArtsEverywhere Grant from the Community Foundation of St. Joseph County, and the Arts Project Support Grant and the Arts Recovery Grant through the Indiana Arts Commission.

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