TUSTEN JAZZ launches with a dynamic double-bill evening performance at the Tusten Theatre featuring Kevin Hays and the Tivon Pennicott Quartet.
KEVIN HAYS
Getting things started will be Grammy Award-winning musician Kevin Hays. This special performance will showcase a captivating blend of Kevin’s songs, improvisations, and timeless classics, all played on both piano and multiple keyboards.
Additionally, audience members will be treated to surprise special guests joining Kevin onstage!
“There are plenty of talented pianists… but few have Hays’ melodic charms and sense of style.”
– The New Yorker ‘Best of the Year’ list
Grammy Award-winning jazz pianist/composer Kevin Hays is internationally recognized as one of the most original and compelling musicians of his generation. His many recordings have received critical acclaim from The New York Times, Downbeat Magazine and Jazz Times, as well as the “Coup de Coeur” award from the Académie Charles Cros (France).
Kevin has appeared on numerous albums as a guest artist, recording with Chris Potter, Bill Stewart, Joshua Redman, Jeff Ballard, Nicholas Payton, and Al Foster, among many others. Notable collaborations include a piano duo project with Brad Mehldau (Modern Music – Nonesuch), and world tours with James Taylor, Sonny Rollins, John Scofield, Joe Henderson, and Roy Haynes.
In addition to his celebrated work as pianist and composer, Kevin has be- come increasingly known as a gifted and expressive singer/songwriter. In 2015 he released the widely lauded recording New Day (Sunnyside), on which he performed his own songs along with a riveting performance of the Jimmy Webb classic ‘Highwayman’.
Hope, the highly anticipated 2019 collaboration with Beninese guitarist Li- onel Loueke, was released on Edition Records. The music on Hope seems to move effortlessly between melodic serenity and rhythmic interplay, high- lighting the beauty and intimacy of the piano/acoustic guitar format.
Hays co-wrote several compositions on Steve Gadd Band’s eponymous album which garnered the 2019 GRAMMY Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. The album also features Kevin’s own ‘Spring Song’, the sole vocal track.
In 2020 Kevin was given the Independent Music Award in the ‘Jazz with Vocals’ category for the track ‘Circles of the Mind’ from the album “Across the Sea”, which he recorded with the Italian vocalist, Chiara Izzi.
Kevin’s most recent trio recording ‘Bridges’ with bassist Ben Street and legendary drummer Billy Hart features new compositions and songs by Hart, Milton Nascimento, The Beatles, Wayne Shorter, and Bill Frisell.
TIVON PENNICOTT QUARTET
Fresh off of his debut European tour as a leader, Tivon Pennicott and the members of his quartet are set to embrace a New York homecoming where Tivon’s music continues to evolve into an atmosphere of honesty, love, and exploration.
“He’s a careful craftsman, a fearless improviser, one of the most fluent and engaging saxophonists on the scene today…”
– Joshua Redman
For years, Tivon Pennicott has been transporting audiences to a higher level of consciousness. His latest single releases are the beginning of a new foundation on a canvas for genuine expression.
The highly sought saxophone player, composer and multi-instrumentalist is a key contributor to three GRAMMY Award-winning albums, appearing on Esperanza Spalding’s disruptive recording Radio Music Society (Heads Up International, 2012), and Gregory Porter’s Liquid Spirit (Blue Note, 2013) and Take Me to the Alley (Blue Note, 2017). collaborated extensively with such visionaries as Jon Batiste, Roy Hargrove and Ari Hoenig, and performed at The Royal Albert Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie and Carnegie Hall.
On screen, Pennicott appeared on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” as a member of the Stay Human Band with Jon Batiste before recording on his GRAMMY Nominated records Chronology of a dream: Live At The Village Vanguard (Verve, 2019) & Anatomy of Angels (Verve, 2019) Live At The Village Vanguard. His evolving sound is the result of staying rooted in his Jamaican heritage, a soulful, sophisticated foundation for groove he honed in the church, and a penchant for unbound harmonic exploration.
DVAA’s programs are made possible thanks in part to the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency with support from the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; the Sullivan County Legislature; A Fair Game Fund, the Nancy Stevenson Memorial Fund; Business Sponsors; our members; and individuals like you.
