TWO CONCERTS NIGHTLY ~ 6:30 PM and 9:00 PM
Pianist, composer and arranger, Martin Lesch takes you on a “Journey Through Jazz” featuring guitarist Jackson Evans, bassist Delbert Felix and percussionist Chris Russell.
Martin Lesch spent most of his young life growing up in New York City where he was raised in a musical family. He was exposed to a wide array of musical influences from a young age but always harbored a deep affection for jazz. After studying with Richard Sorce at NYU through his teens, he graduated high school early to study at Berklee College of Music before settling back down in New York.
Lured by a ripe music scene for working players, he transplanted to the Southeast where he currently resides on Hilton Head Island, SC. After touring and releasing Cd’s with his own band for five years, he took to producing, musical directing and accompanying various regional and national acts including a long stint with singer/songwriter Angie Aparo, for whom his work was widely acclaimed.
After an encounter with one of the southeast’s iconic jazz figures, Bob Masteller, Lesch was hired to become a regular player at his club, The Jazz Corner, which has now become one of the most regarded venues for jazz musicians in the world. While doing this, Lesch has still found time to be a featured player on various cruise lines and tours, including a residency in China with guitarist Jackson Evans where they played their exciting brand of jazz to sold out audiences for 90 straight days.
He performs regularly at The Jazz Corner, including his popular weekly Journey Through Jazz series where Lesch performs a history of jazz retrospective featuring everything from stride to modern piano technique. He also is an active member of the non-profit Junior Jazz Foundation, which carries out a mission to preserve America’s great art form of jazz by educating children and supplying them with the resources to pursue their talents while also promoting the art form to a larger audience.
Alto saxophonist Wessell “Warmdaddy” Anderson grew up in the tough Bedford Stuyvesent and Crown Heights neighborhoods of Brooklyn, NY. By the time Anderson was 14 years old, he was deeply involved in the local jazz scene (thanks in part to his father, a drummer) and attending jam sessions at then-active Brooklyn and Queens jazz clubs like the Blue Coronet, Pumpkin’s, and the Turbo Village.
Anderson later studied at Harlem’s famed Jazzmobile workshops with the likes of Frank Wess, Charles Davis, and Frank Foster. Wess Anderson also met Wynton and Branford Marsalis, who were both playing with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers at the time. At Branford’s urging, Anderson soon departed New York to study with famed clarinetist Alvin Batiste at Southern University in Baton Rouge, LA.
Wess’ first big break in the Jazz scene was with singer, Bettye Carter. In 1987 Wynton Marsalis asked Anderson to tour with the Wynton Marsalis Septet. As a premiere alto saxophonist, Wess toured hundreds of jazz venues, concerts, and colleges for nearly 25 years. Simultaneously, Anderson was the principal alto saxophonist for the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City for nearly 10 years.
It was during his time with Marsalis’ group that Anderson began to develop his own sound: a mix of traditional New Orleans jazz (likely Batiste’s influence) and a sweeping blues style similar to that of Cannonball Adderly. Anderson’s 1994 debut album, Warmdaddy In the Garden of Swing (Atlantic Records), featured Anderson playing a set of all original compositions with big-name sidemen like pianist Eric Reed and bassist Ben Wolfe. Anderson truly came into his own, however, with 1998’s Live at the Village Vanguard in New York City. In 2009 Wessell Anderson released the critically acclaimed album ” Warm It Up, Warmdaddy!” on Nu Jazz Records.
From 1999 to present Wess also taught countless students at Juilliard School of Music, Michigan State University College of Music and Loyola University in New Orleans. Many students have continue to pass on the teachings of Warmdaddy.
Trumpeter, composer, arranger and bandleader Mark Rapp is the founder of ColaJazz.com, a jazz initiative to grow and support jazz in and around Columbia, SC through events, education, recordings, and advocacy. In 2019, ColaJazz was 1 of 15 jazz organizations in the country chosen to beta-test the new Jazz at Lincoln Center After-School Content. ColaJazz brings jazz to the Children Hospital, retirement communities, schools and communities in need. In partnership with the Koger Center, Rapp presented a “Jazz for Young People” concert to 700 kids in the Boys & Girls Clubs and shortly after, Rapp presented a “SC Jazz Culture” concert for 2000 Richland One 3rd graders. He is also the co-creator and Artistic Director of the “Live in the Lobby: Koger Jazz” series.
Mark Rapp created and launched an all-ages, all-levels summer jazz camp now entering its 4th year and has featured jazz luminaries such as Delfeayo Marsalis, NEA Jazz Master Dave Liebman and Sullivan Fortner. Rapp also created and launched an annual ColaJazz Festival now entering its 3rd year featuring Chris Potter, longtime Wynton Marsalis sideman Wess “Warmdddy” Anderson, Count Basie Musical Director Scotty Barnhart, Brazilian vocalist Liz Rosa, saxophonists Tia Fuller, Don Braden and Alexa Tarantino. In 2018, Rapp was named an Ambassador of Jazz for the State of South Carolina by the SC House of Representatives. Rapp is a 2020 Experience Columbia Ambassador and serves on the McKissick Museum advisory council.
Rapp has released 8 diverse recordings and appears as a sideman on a myriad of projects including Disney’s “Everybody Wants to be a Cat” alongside Roy Hargrove, Dave Brubeck, Esperanza Spalding, The Bad Plus, Joshua Redman and more. Rapp’s celebrated 2009 debut release “Token Tales” earned him a spot as a “Top Emerging Trumpeter” in Downbeat Magazine, sold out the Blue Note (NYC) and debuted at the famed Newport Jazz Festival. Rapp is a featured artist in Mellen Press’ “How Jazz Trumpeters Understand Their Music” among a prestigious list including Terence Blanchard, Lew Soloff, Freddie Hubbard, Tim Hagans, Dave Douglas and more. Rapp also composed and produced a jazz ballet “Woven: Life in Notes and Steps” (wovenballet.com). He has performed in jazz clubs and festivals around the world from Croatia, Brasil, Austria, Switzerland and USA including back-to-back appearances at the 2017 & 2018 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
MUSIC CHARGE: $20.00
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