LANCE BRYANT, PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER DRUKKER
Tenor saxophonist, arranger, and educator Lance Bryant moved to New York City in the mid-1980s after studying at Berklee College of Music in Boston. In 1990, Bryant began a decade-long relationship with the Lionel Hampton Orchestra, eventually becoming the band's Musical Director and Principal Arranger.
During his career, Bryant has performed with vocalists Phyllis Hyman and Jon Hendricks and pianist James Williams, among many others. He has been an onstage musician for such Broadway shows as Swing!, After Midnight, and Shuffle Along, and one Monday night a month, he leads his own big band at Newark's Clements Place.
On Sunday afternoon, February 4, Bryant, now a resident of Cedar Grove, NJ, will bring a trio to the New Jersey Jazz Society's Jersey Jazz LIVE! concert at the Madison (NJ) Community Arts Center. He will be joined by his daughter, bassist Caylen Bryant (aka "The Bass Chica"), and pianist James Austin, Jr.
In celebration of Black History Month, the trio, according to Bryant, will be playing "some classic pieces that defined some jazz styles throughout the decades of the music. We'll also perform pieces showing how some of the iconic artists musically dealt with social justice." Selections could include Lil Hardin Armstrong's "Struttin With Some Barbeque", John Coltrane's "Alabama", and Abel Meeropol's "Strange Fruit", recorded by Billie Holiday in 1939.
In addition to his performing and arranging activities, Bryant serves on the faculty of three New Jersey jazz education programs -- Jazz House Kids, the New Jersey Performing Arts Center's Jazz for Teens, and the New Jersey Youth Symphony's jazz curricula. He will be participating in two additional Black History concerts at the Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, NJ, next month. On February 22, he will be playing with the Bob DeVos Quartet and on February 25, he will be a special guest at the NJ Youth Symphony's Black History Month Celebration.
Caylen Bryant is currently studying for her Master's Degree at Juilliard. She earned a Jazz Bass Performance degree from Oberlin College & Conservatory in Oberlin, Ohio. Bryant has performed with the Lionel Hampton and Christian McBride big bands. She has toured with Blue Note pianist/vocalist Kandace Springs and was the bassist on vocalist/songwriter Joanie Leeds' Grammy Award-winning 2020 Limbostar children's music album, All The Ladies.
Austin, Jr., originally from Chicago and now a resident of Cliffside Park, NJ, studied under jazz legend Barry Harris. He currently directs NJPAC' s Jazz Jam series at Clements Place. When AllAboutJazz's Geannine Reid reviewed his JCA Records album, Songs in the Key of Wonder, she described him as "an accomplished pianist and bandleader who honed his craft under the tutelage of a number of legendary musicians."
The Lance Bryant Trio will be preceded by a Rising Stars opening act led by trumpeter Jacob Tolentino, who was the Rising Star in the November 2023 issue of Jersey Jazz Magazine. Tolentino, a resident of Roselle Park, NJ, was a member of the 2023 All-State Jazz Ensemble that performed at the TD James Moody Jazz Festival. In the spring of 2022, he was part of the Newark Academy band that competed as a finalist in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington competition. And, in February 2023, Tolentino was named an Outstanding Soloist at the Charles Mingus High School Competition & Festival, held at The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York. Last summer, he was selected as one of 10 trumpet players in a nationwide audition process to be invited to Jazz at Lincoln Center’s prestigious Summer Jazz Academy.
JACOB TOLENTINO
The Madison Community Arts Center is located at 10 Kings Road in Madison, NJ. The Jersey Jazz LIVE! concerts will begin at 3:00pm. Admission will be $10 for NJJS members and $15 for non-members. Student admission is $5 with valid ID. There will be light refreshments for purchase. To order tickets in advance, click here.
Funding for Jersey Jazz Live! has been made possible, in part, by funds from Morris Arts through the New Jersey State Council on the Arts/Department of State, a partner agency of The National Endowment for the Arts.
