Harvey Diamond Quartet with Lena Bloch, Joe Hunt and Jon Dreyer

Friday, December 15 2017, 7:30 pm. Jazz concert featuring Harvey Diamond, piano; Lena Bloch, tenor saxophone; Jon Dreyer, bass; Joe Hunt, drums. At the New School of Music, 25 Lowell St, Cambridge MA. Walk from Harvard Square, take the #71 or #73 bus, or park free in the lot behind the school. Doors open at 8:00.

The legendary jazz pianist Harvey Diamond has graced the Boston area for decades with his music which is at once both deeply intricate and deeply emotional to even the most casual listener. Over the years he has performed across the U.S. and in Europe. among Lennie Tristano's last students in the 1970's, and has done concert appearances with NEA Jazz Masters Sheila Jordan, Dave Liebman, and Art Farmer, and also with Charles Neville, Herb Pomeroy, Harvie S, Jay Clayton, Joe Hunt, Don Alias, Jason Palmer, Cameron Brown, Marc Johnson, Marcus McLaurine, and many others. After decades of patience by his fans, he has finally released his first CD as a leader, The Harvey Diamond Trio.

“In jazz”, muses Lena Bloch, “many things come together that are thought of as opposites: mind and feeling, responsibility and abandonment, looseness and precision, improvisation and composition. As a long-time disciple of Lee Konitz, Lena is an improviser, dedicated to spontaneity and precision. She has collaborated with former students of Lennie Tristano: Connie Crothers, Ted Brown, Harvey Diamond, Joe Solomon, Charles Sibirsky, as well as with younger players like herself, who are contributing to the development of the tradition of spontaneous improvising and open musical communication: Roberta Piket, Dan Tepfer, Brad Linde, Sarah Hughes and others. Lena’s own project came to life, when she met the nucleus of her recent quartet: bassist Cameron Brown and drummer Billy Mintz, both stellar musicians with tremendous experience and deep understanding of music. With these colleagues and a very talented young guitarist from Chicago, Dave Miller, Lena recorded her first album as a leader. The album “Feathery” was top-rated in Downbeat Magazine, Pop Culture Classics, Jazz Inside Magazine, New York City Jazz Record, France Musique, Canadian Audiophile, Music Charts Magazine – and was voted the best debut release of 2014 by Dan Morgenstern, as well as one of the top 10 Jazz Albums 2014 (Just Jazz, USA) and top 50 Jazz Albums 2014 (JazzLinks, Austria-Germany). After Miller’s departure from NYC, Lena’s quartet took a different turn, when in 2014 pianist and composer Russ Lossing joined the group. Lena Bloch Quartet, called Feathery, has been performing regularly since then, presenting original music, written by Lena and Russ. The quartet has performed in various New York City and Brooklyn concert spaces and jazz clubs, has released its album “Heart Knows” in 2017 (Fresh Sound Records) and was selected to perform at the showcase for the 40th National Chamber Music Conference in NYC (2018).

Speaking of legendary, drummer Joe Hunt combines complexity with relentless swing and sensitivity to what's happening around him. this is why Bill Evans invited him to join his trio, why Stan Getz invited him to join his quartet, and why almost the entire history of jazz has shared the stage with him, including George Russell, Chet Baker, Eric Dolphy, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, Bob Brookmeyer, and Herb Pomeroy. It's also why Harvey invited him to this performance.

Bassist Jon Dreyer is one of Harvey Diamond's closest collaborators. He also performs regularly with James Merenda, both as a member of his band TickleJuice and also in more mainstream jazz settings, and has performed with most of the Boston jazz community, including Jason Palmer, Adam Janjigian, Yoko Miwa, Frank Wilkins, Dominique Eade, Joe Hunt and Steve Langone.

There will be no set list and no charts. Anything can happen. Listen to what Warne Marsh called "the spontaneous creation of beauty."

Please like me! • Jon Dreyer • 781-696-2614 • 341 Red Acre Rd, Stow MA 01775-1185 • email