Up Next! Dan Hanrahan

On Monday, January 12 at 7:00 p.m., audiences at the Montgomery Auditorium at the Parkway Central Library will have an opportunity to welcome jazz guitarist Dan Hanrahan and his band to the stage. Dan is a Philadelphian who has played with musicians such as Larry McKenna, Terell Stafford, Tim Warfield, and Pat Bianchi. He has played at myriad venues all along the east coast—including Chris’s Jazz Café, Twins Jazz, and The Deer Head Inn—and regularly performs with his trio and as a sideman for many musicians in Philadelphia.

To reserve your spot at this concert, you can get FREE tickets here.

To see the lineup for the entire series, past and future, please take a look at our program guide.

To hear recordings, both live originals from Montgomery Auditorium or previously released recordings [from our streaming music services] of established jazz classics that these musicians are re-imagining, check out previous blog posts announcing concerts in September, October, November, and December.

Recapping Wayne Smith Jr's Quintet

If you missed Wayne Smith, Jr.’s concert earlier this month, check out this video playlist of concert highlights:

Wayne’s Quintet played all original compositions at this December’s library gig. I am certain I was not alone among the 150 or so audience members in feeling that his set captured well the sombre national mood here at the end of 2014. Many of our neighbors are struggling to breathe, while others remind us by lying in defiant repose that the status quo cannot continue as long as there’s a structural failure to accept the truth that Black Lives Matter. Recently, Questlove called on musicians to write more protest songs. With a tune like “Hear My Cry” we can immediately tell that Wayne Smith Jr. is already far ahead in heeding that call in a most sublime and sophisticated way.

In fact his whole setlist implies an almost novelistic arc with chapters unfolding sequentially from “Ephesus” into “Release” then a journey “From Here to There” where he finally can ask us to “Hear My Cry” before we are to “Be Still”. Wayne’s occasional composition partner and trombonist Brent White performed brilliantly with saxophonist Chris Hemingway. The two horn voices worked so well together with the trombone coloring all the spaces between the sax’s cries while the saxophone in turn defined a wide and compelling scope of feeling. With smart use of a delay pedal, guitarist (and organist with Wayne in Three Blind Mice) Lucas Brown built a striking ambient space for the band to explore. Finally, Brian Howell on bass is always a great pleasure to listen to. We last saw him in the Montgomery Auditorium with the Tahl Shtuhl Trio. His bass line opening the set tonight felt like an invocation. His solos deftly plumb the depths that songs such as these require.

To hear more from Wayne, read this interview with the Philadelphia Jazz Project.

None of these concerts would be possible without the Philadelphia Jazz Project (PJP), which works to inspire a network to support, promote, archive, and celebrate the diverse elements within the Philadelphia jazz community, with the larger goal of connecting to the global community. PJP is a sponsored project of the Painted Bride Art Center, with funding provided by the Wyncote Foundation. Nor could we do it without The Producer’s Guild, which has the mission to ensure that the appreciation and enthusiasm for the rich cultural heritage of African American Arts continues to thrive in Philadelphia, especially Black Classical Music, commonly known as JAZZ.

Come join us on this journey at the Free Library of Improvisation!