What's Up With Jazz Bridge?

Saxophonist Chelsea Baratz will be appearing at our new concert series at the Mt. Airy Presbyterian Church, 13 E. Mt. Pleasant Ave, in Philadelphia on Thursday November 11th, 7:30-9 p.m. Still in her 20s, Chelsea Baratz has already made a huge splash and her soulful sound is a fiery combination of be-bop swing and hip hop hooks. As a teenager, Baratz became a regular on the Pittsburgh jazz circuit, playing with the likes of legendary hard-bop drummer Roger Humphries, bassist Dwayne Dolphin and trumpet giant Sean Jones. She honed her craft with the guidance from the best of the Iron City's local musicians and then went on to a few stints with Branford Marsalis. Baratz moved to New York at 19 to attend the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music on a scholarship. Since then, she has recorded with trumpet virtuoso and producer Maurice Brown and joined him in the studio to record Mobetta & Soul'd U Out: The Official Mixtape, Brown's stellar 2007 release. Chelsea has played on Aretha Franklin's album Jewels in the Crown and performed at the Sisters in Jazz collegiate all-stars IAJE conference in New York, the Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and the Costa Rica International Jazz Festival in San Jose, Costa Rica.

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Grammy-award-winning pianist Hal Galper will be appearing at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 145 W. Rose Tree Road in Media, PA, on November 17th with bassist Tony Marino and drummer Billy Mintz for the first concert of our piano series. One Show: 7:30-9 p.m. Hal Galper is internationally known as an improviser, composer, and educator. His theoretical and practical articles have appeared in six Down Beat magazine editions and his scholarly article on the "Psychology of Stage Fright," in the Jazz Educators Journal, was highly influential. Galper has won a Grammy nomination and a Grammy for his recordings with the Phil Woods Quartet and Quintet, was awarded a Distinguished Alumni Award from the Berklee College of Music and been a grant recipient from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Lila Wallace-Readers Digest Foundation and the New School of New York. Hal is on the faculty of Purchase Conservatory and the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.

All Jazz Bridge Neighborhood Concerts start at 7:30 p.m. and are just $10/$5 for students. Free refreshments and free on site parking.