Larry Willis, Piano
Eric Kennedy, Drums, Percussion & Vocals
Birthday cake will be served -- Come help us celebrate Eric's birthday!!
Pianist Larry Willis has had an important and distinguished 40-year career in jazz. Since making his recording debut on Jackie McLean’s landmark 1965 album “Right Now!,” the New York-born Willis has played everything from free jazz to fusion to rock while performing as a valued sideman with such jazz titans as Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey and Woody Shaw. Larry has played on more than 300 records with almost every great jazz musician of the modern era....
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Larry Willis, Piano
Eric Kennedy, Drums, Percussion & Vocals
Birthday cake will be served -- Come help us celebrate Eric's birthday!!
Pianist Larry Willis has had an important and distinguished 40-year career in jazz. Since making his recording debut on Jackie McLean’s landmark 1965 album “Right Now!,” the New York-born Willis has played everything from free jazz to fusion to rock while performing as a valued sideman with such jazz titans as Dizzy Gillespie, Lee Morgan, Cannonball Adderley, Art Blakey and Woody Shaw. Larry has played on more than 300 records with almost every great jazz musician of the modern era.
Larry Willis is a three-time Grammy nominee with Fort Apache as well as pianist on two of their New York Jazz Critics Award-winning CDs. He’s was also on Roy Hargrove’s Grammy-winning “Crisol Band” CD and toured for three years with Roy.
Eric Kennedy,a Baltimore native, is a drummer, vocalist, percussionist, educator and composer. Eric’s introduction to all styles of music and early music training was initiated by his musical relatives, who also cultivated his love of jazz.
Eric continued his arts education at the Baltimore School for the Arts studying classical percussion and voice with Baltimore Symphony Orchestra percussionist John Locke, Donna Di Stefano and the late Dr. Nathan Carter and Ms. Jewel Churn of Frederick Douglass HIgh School. Eric has studied percussion and technique with legendary drummers Edgar Bateman, Johnny Polite, Billy Hart, Leroy Williams, Jamal Wilson and Clayton Cameron, voice with Timothy Shepherd and Odell Wilson and harmony/theory with Dr. Barry Harris.
Eric has performed, toured and recorded with Curtis Fuller, Phil Woods, Fred Wesley (James Brown’s music director), Nnena Freelon, John Hicks, Richard Wyands, TK Blue, Eddie Henderson, Curtis Lundy, Joe Bonner, Carl Grubbs and others. He is a bandleader and a member of the Bobby Watson Quartet/Quintet, Inside Out w Lafayette Gilchrist, Todd Marcus Quartet, Jeff Reed Trio and co founder of Dreamworld, Kinetic Sounds and Simply Eric with Eric Byrd and Eric Wheeler.
Eric has given music clinics, workshops, concerts and lessons worldwide. He taught in the Baltimore City Public School system and was faculty in the Peabody Conservatory of Music Jazz Department from 1998-2001. Eric has received numerous awards and grants for performance and composition. He was also the 2004 runner up in the Billie Holiday Vocal Competition and first place band member in the Chick Webb Jazz Combo Competition in 2008 and 2009.
Tickets: $20 in advance/$23 at door/$10 full-time student with ID
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