Kendra Shank Quartet at 55 Bar

The Kendra Shank Quartet, featuring Kendra Shank (voice), Frank Kimbrough (fender rhodes), Dean Johnson (bass), and Tony Moreno (drums) reunites at New York's 55 Bar on Friday, June 29, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Performing selections from their 3 CD releases as a group, they'll include songs by Abbey Lincoln, Frank Kimbrough, Fred Hersch, Kirk Nurock, Carole King, plus re-imaginings of jazz standards with open improvisation. The KSQ has "spent a decade tightening their exemplary unit, and the triumph of their solidity is evident throughout this stunningly inventive pastiche of covers and originals" (Jazz Times). This group stretches the expectations one has about a jazz vocalist-led group. While the band gives her all the support one expects, half the fun of the KSQ show is seeing the myriad inventive ways they do so. At times it seems they can barely contain themselves - when the vocal section has ended and the solos begin, Tony, Frank and Dean sometimes explode into a joyous, sad, or otherwise intense musical conversation that is truly psychedelic. ...

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The Kendra Shank Quartet, featuring Kendra Shank (voice), Frank Kimbrough (fender rhodes), Dean Johnson (bass), and Tony Moreno (drums) reunites at New York's 55 Bar on Friday, June 29, from 6:00 PM to 9:00 PM. Performing selections from their 3 CD releases as a group, they'll include songs by Abbey Lincoln, Frank Kimbrough, Fred Hersch, Kirk Nurock, Carole King, plus re-imaginings of jazz standards with open improvisation. The KSQ has "spent a decade tightening their exemplary unit, and the triumph of their solidity is evident throughout this stunningly inventive pastiche of covers and originals" (Jazz Times). This group stretches the expectations one has about a jazz vocalist-led group. While the band gives her all the support one expects, half the fun of the KSQ show is seeing the myriad inventive ways they do so. At times it seems they can barely contain themselves - when the vocal section has ended and the solos begin, Tony, Frank and Dean sometimes explode into a joyous, sad, or otherwise intense musical conversation that is truly psychedelic.

“While hewing close to, and playing the hell out of, traditional jazz, Kendra and her band of renown can also enter the world of rich color and warm light of Weather Report’s first record, with Ms. Shank’s matching the sweet, searing intensity of Wayne Shorter’s soprano sax; at other times, the band evokes the Afro-jazz shamanism of Abbey Lincoln’s and Nina Simone’s best work from the sixties.” (Kirbylove)

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