TICKETS are $20 General/$10 Student. 

THIS CONCERT OPPORTUNITY WILL BE TWO SEPARATE TIMES: 7:00 performance and 9:00 performance.

These concert performances are sponsored by WETF, 105.7 FM, The Jazz Station. South Bend's very own 24-7 JAZZ, via South Bend radius and streamed worldwide on the web!

https://jazzradiowetf.org/

https://jazzradiowetf.org/profiles/

The Makanda Project, based in Boston, was started in 2005 to explore the previously unrecorded compositions of Makanda Ken McIntyre (1931-2001). Dr. McIntyre, who also made major contributions as a multi-instrumentalist and educator, was a prolific composer with a distinctive voice and a unique gift for doing unexpected things with very musical results. He recorded 75 ofnhis compositions, and, upon his passing, another 350 were found that had not been recorded or, in most cases, performed in public. Makanda Project leader and pianist John Kordalewski, a former McIntyre student, has arranged over 60 of these pieces for the group’s 10-member horn section, and this music is the core of the group’s repertoire. The members of the group include several noted Boston-area bandleaders, as well as top-level musicians from New York and elsewhere in New England.

Given that there is no record of Dr. McIntyre having performed these compositions, the Makanda Project differs from “tribute bands” whose performances are inevitably compared with original recordings. Rather, the McIntyre compositions have served as a vehicle for the group to develop its own sound and identity.

In addition to touring, throughout its history, the Makanda Project has maintained a community focus, while establishing a presence on the Boston jazz scene through its ongoing series of self-produced free concerts in the Roxbury neighborhood.

As the group has evolved, the Makanda Project has developed several ongoing collaborations with renowned musicians who have joined the group as guest artists, performing some of the guests’ own compositions as well as McIntyre pieces. Among them: Oliver Lake, Chico Freeman, Ricky Ford, Craig Harris, Michael Gregory Jackson, and Feya Faku. Dee Alexander first performed with the Makanda Project in Boston in 2022 and has made annual visits there since.

The program includes compositions by Dee Alexander, newly orchestrated for the large ensemble, along with McIntyre pieces from the group’s repertoire. It includes songs with lyrics, improvised solos within the unique forms of Dr. McIntyre’s compositions, free improvisation and use of the voice as a color within the horn section.

Dee Alexander - vocals

Kurtis Rivers - alto saxophone

Rajiv Halim - alto and soprano saxophone, flute

Sean Berry - tenor saxophone, flute

Temidayo Balogun - tenor saxophone

Charlie Kohlhase - baritone saxophone

Jerry Sabatini - trumpet

Haneef Nelson - trumpet

Bill Lowe - bass trombone, tuba

Alfred Patterson - trombone

John Kordalewski - piano, arrangements

Avery Sharpe - bass

Yoron Israel - drums

Dee Alexander is considered Chicago’s leading jazz singer.  She began her career in the late 1970s, being mentored by “Light” Henry Huff and other members of the famed Association for the Advancement for Creative Musicians. In the 1980s, she performed with AACM musicians as well as with the soul-funk group, the Ken Chaney XPerience. In the 1990s, she began leading her own groups as well as working with jazz musicians such as Malachi Thompson and Oliver Lake. She has toured extensively overseas with her quartet and her more experimental Dee Alexander’s Evolution Ensemble, and she works with a variety of Chicago-based ensembles, including the Alexander/McLean Project, the Chicago Soul Jazz Collective, and the Metropolitan Jazz Octet. Her recordings under her own leadership include the critically acclaimed “Wild Is the Wind” and “Songs My Mother Loves.” Her radio programs, produced in Chicago, are heard weekly on WETF in South Bend.

Kurtis Rivers (alto saxophone) has been a consistent and leading force in the Roxbury jazz scene for nearly 40 years, leading bands at various venues in the community. He began his career playing in rhythm and blues bands in his native South Carolina. He was a core member of Salim Washington’s Roxbury Blues Aesthetic, has performed in New York with Ku-umba Frank Lacy’s ensembles, and has toured in Europe on baritone saxophone with the Either Orchestra. He taught in the New England Conservatory Woodwind and Brass Program for more than a decade.

Rajiv Halim (alto and soprano saxophone, flute), is part of the younger generation of Chicago musicians carrying that city’s great jazz tradition into the future. When not traveling, he works around Chicago with his own groups, and with notable area musicians such as Victor Garcia, Ari Brown, Julius Tucker, Ernest Dawkins, Orbert Davis and Marquis Hill.  He has also performed and/or recorded with Chance the Rapper, the Four Tops, Jennifer Hudson, Mike Stern, Cory Henry, Bob Mintzer and a wide range of others. He is currently part of the touring band for Moulin Rouge! The Musical.

Sean Berry (tenor saxophone, flute) grew up in Pullman, Wash., and attended Washington State University.  He has performed with Craig Harris, Oliver Lake’s big band and Matt Wilson, and he maintains an active freelance schedule playing with various ensembles. He also performs as a leader in various formats and teaches woodwinds and piano in school-based settings. He has a master’s degree from New England Conservatory.

Temidayo Balogun (tenor saxophone) is the group’s youngest member. He moved to Boston in 2021 from Osun state, Nigeria, to study at the Longy School of Music. In his native Nigeria, he performed on piano and talking drum as well as saxophone and worked as an instrumentalist, musical director and producer with diverse bands such as Yinka Davies, Taye Mayegha, Ope and the Stereo Choir, and Native Brains.  He has recently released his first US recording as a leader.

Charlie Kohlhase (baritone saxophone) is well known in the Boston area for his work as a leader, sideman, and radio host.  He has recorded eight CDs with his own bands and has co-led recordings with John Tchicai and Roswell Rudd.  He has placed among the leading baritone saxophonists in both the readers’ and critics’ polls for Downbeat Magazine.  His radio program, “Research and Development,” heard Mondays from 2 to 4 p.m. on WMBR (88.1 FM), is an important Boston-area outlet for creative music. He is on the faculty of the Longy School of Music.

Jerry Sabatini (trumpet) is one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the Boston scene, performing in a wide range of local ensembles. He has recorded four CDs as leader of the group Sonic Explorers, featuring his original compositions, and appeared on numerous others as a sideman. He has toured the Middle East with Turkish pianist Mehmet Sanlikol. Sabatini teaches and directs student ensembles at Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Mass., and Clark University in Worcester, Mass.

Haneef Nelson (trumpet) is a leading figure on the Hartford, Conn., jazz scene, both as a musician and as an organizer. He performs frequently with his own groups, featuring his original compositions. He has worked with Rene McLean, Bill Saxton, Donald Byrd, George Cables, Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Winard Harper, Zaccai Curtis, Luques Curtis and many others, and his arrangements have been played by various big bands.  He currently teaches at the University of Rhode Island, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Western Connecticut State University.

Bill Lowe (bass trombone, tuba) has performed with major bandleaders ranging from Muhal Richard Abrams, Henry Threadgill and Cecil Taylor, to Frank Foster, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis and Mercer Ellington. He has received commissions from Meet the Composer, the Connecticut Commission for the Arts, and other organizations for composing projects that include opera, musical theater, and classic written texts set to music. He has taught literature as well as music at Yale, Wesleyan, Northeastern and Columbia Universities and the University of Pennsylvania.

Alfred Patterson (trombone) has been a member of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington Orchestras and also performed with David Murray, Slide Hampton, Muhal Richard Abrams, Roscoe Mitchell and Oliver Lake. He has performed with the Alvin Ailey Dance Company, the American Ballet Company and the Bolshoi Ballet, and in the pit orchestras for “Dreamgirls,” “Dancing” and “La Cage Aux Folles.”  He currently leads the Ebony Brass Quintet. He is a former tenured faculty member at Lehman College of the City University of New York.

Richard Harper (trombone) was a close colleague of Makanda Ken McIntyre’s.  He taught with him at the State University of New York at Old Westbury for more than 20 years and also played piano in his ensembles, appearing on two of his recordings. His wide-ranging career has included work as a trombonist in various big bands, a vocal teacher and coach, and a musical director for dance, theater and church choirs. He has also written musicals that have been staged at the Gatehouse and Apollo Theaters.

John Kordalewski (piano, arrangements) studied with Makanda Ken McIntyre in the 1970s and performed with him in the 1990s.  He began his performing career in Washington, D.C., and moved to Boston in 1991. He has worked as a sideman with Carl Grubbs, Ricky Ford, Odean Pope, Andy McGhee and Webster Young, and led his own Boston-area trio. He has collaborated as an arranger with Chico Freeman, Michael Gregory Jackson and Feya Faku, and has conducted the Chicago-based Chico Freeman Orchestra featuring his arrangements. He has been artist-in-residence at the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban, South Africa, on two occasions during the past decade.

Avery Sharpe (bass) is best known for having spent more than 20 years as a member of the McCoy Tyner Trio. Working with the great pianist starting in 1980, he played hundreds of concerts worldwide and made more than 20 recordings. He has also recorded with jazz greats such as Dizzy Gillespie, Wynton Marsalis, Yusef Lateef, Freddie Hubbard and Bobby Hutcherson. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the Springfield (Mass.) Symphony and various chamber groups. He has recorded 12 albums as a leader for his own JKNM label, including his most recent “I Am My Neighbor’s Keeper” featuring a string quartet. His Friday night radio program, “Jazz a la Mode” out of WFCR in western Massachusetts, is heard weekly on WETF.

Yoron Israel (drums) has been one of the most in-demand drummers of his generation.  He has appeared on over 300 recordings; toured and recorded with musicians such as Abbey Lincoln, Ahmad Jamal, Kenny Burrell, Horace Silver, Art Farmer, Sonny Rollins, James Williams, Joe Lovano, David “Fathead” Newman and Pharoah Sanders; and recorded six CDs as a leader, featuring his original compositions. He has a master’s degree from Rutgers University and is currently chair of the percussion department at the Berklee School of Music.  He is also currently Pastor of Music and Art at Destiny Life Center International Church in Brockton, Mass.

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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