A crowd-pleasing pianist and brilliant jazz improviser steeped in gospel and blues, Cyrus Chestnut arrives at Stanford riding the success of his latest Telarc release, Genuine Chestnut. The genial Baltimore native possesses consummate virtuosity, swings hard, and takes seriously his mission to entertain an audience. Trained at Peabody and Berklee, Chestnut has played alongside all the greats of contemporary jazz, including Wynton Marsalis, Betty Carter, Russell Malone, James Carter, Billy Higgins, and Joe Lovano.
Chestnut will be joined by his longtime friend and Berklee classmate, Donald Harrison, and acclaimed trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, a longtime member of Wynton Marsalis' Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. A talented post-bop altoist who rose to fame with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, Harrison's New Orleans roots are never absent from his music. The Chicago Tribune declared: "To many listeners, the brilliant jazz saxophonist and New Orleans native Donald Harrison embodies the spirit of the city."
Praised by audiences and critics alike, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon enjoys an extraordinary career as a performer of hard-swinging, straight-ahead jazz. His trombone playing—which mixes powerful, intricate runs with sweet notes extended over clean melodies—has been featured on eight CDs as a leader, as well as on recordings by Wynton Marsalis, Marcus Roberts, Branford Marsalis, Rodney Whitaker, and Joe Temperly.