This month’s concert is led by drummer, pianist, and composer Kevin Ripley. Ripley hails from Philadelphia and can be heard performing daily at venues across our city and its countryside. He leads a trio at Deanna’s in the upriver artists’ village of Lambertville, NJ and performs frequently with ill Delta, Hot Bijouxx, Triage, and numerous jazz combos with such local scenesters as Madison Rast, Brian Howell, Timothy Brey, Chris Simonini, Dan Hanrahan, Najwa Parkins, and many others. A rising young talent, Ripley is known for a distinctively intense melodic approach to the drum set and draws inspiration from a vast array of musical idioms.

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets

This month’s concert is led by pianist and composer Bernard Samuel. Samuel's performance history runs deep in our local jazz history. He has played with local treasures such as Hank Mobley, Philly Joe Jones, Bootsie Barnes, Little Jimmy Oliver, and many more. With a compositional style influenced both by R&B vocal groups such as The Harptones and The Temptations as well as by the piano approach of Hank Jones, Red Garland, Tommy Flanagan, and Kenny Barron, Samuel has drawn praise from the Inquirer for his “hard speedy rhythmically punchy, yet metrically free” style.

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets

This month’s concert is led by guitarist Anthondy DeCarlo. Trenton made DeCarlo, and Philadelphia has taken him. A founder of South Philadelphia’s emergent musical hub Tasker House, DeCarlo stands at the center of a growing community of young musicians. He has worked with Kenny Lattimore, Dwele, Laurin Talese, Jeff Bradshaw, Tweet, Jason Nelson, and Matt McAndrew. With his guitar in hand, DeCarlo hopes to change the world with the positive force of music

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets

This month’s concert is led by bassist, composer, and Temple University faculty member Madison Rast. Rast migrated to Philadelphia at the turn of this century, after a long period of intensive study at several prestigious music schools to our south. He is among our city’s most in-demand sidemen, whose deeply grounded bass lines have supported Mickey Roker, Orrin Evans, Sean Jones, and Joanna Pascale. His debut album of his original compositions and a recording of the poetry of Walt Whitman, set to original music in collaboration with pianist Garry Dial and saxophonist Dick Oatts, are soon to be released.

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets

This month’s concert is led by globe-trotting musician, writer, and composer William “Wali” Bickley. Bickley came up in Philadelphia and blossomed in Spain and Gibraltar, where he formed his multinational group Inner Journey Bands. Another group he led, The Real Live Band, shared the stage with Roy Ayers. Wali has recorded and written songs for Khan Jamal. Recently, Wali has been scoring music for the theater and recording an album with Inner Journey.

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets

This month’s concert is led by Najwa Parkins. Parkins is a highly sought after trombonist, vocalist, educator, composer, lyricist, dancer, actress, and performing artist. She leads her own quartet, Najwa Parkins and the After Hours Trio, but is also a member of the Emmy-nominated Alex and the Kaleidoscope Band; collaborates with Phil Woods and the Festival Orchestra, Hot Bijouxx, and Bachelor Boys Band; and does her own solo projects. She has shared the stage with artists from Benny Golson to Branford Marsalis. In 2011 she released her debut album Not the Next Someone Else, and 2015 will see the release of the eagerly awaited Najwa Parkins Live at the Deer Head Inn.

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets

This month’s concert is led by saxophonist Victor North, who migrated south from Alaska to Philadelphia to immerse himself in our rich jazz culture. Since landing he’s worked with Mickey Roker, Charles Fambrough, John Swana, Terell Stafford, Jimmy Bruno, Duane Eubanks, and Jymie Merritt and spent five years playing with the Afro-Cuban jazz pianist Elio Villafranca. Most recently, North leads his own group, Three Blind Mice; works with Orrin Evans’s Captain Black Big Band; and holds court frequently at Chris’s Jazz Cafe.

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets

This month’s concert is led by drummer Kim Pedro, who is a visual and performance artist and a builder of community. With the Sun Ra Arkestra’s DM Hotep and under the mentorship of Robert Kenyatta, he founded the JazGuardian Musicians’ Organization. In addition to serving as a Performing Arts Instructor for the Department of Recreation, he’s the originator and prime mover for the Artists’ Collective, NU GRuV Network. Over his career he’s accompanied Monika Herzig, Raimundo Santos, Vanida Gail, Kaligata, King Sound Vibration, Melange, and even a President of the United States.

RSVP on Facebook or Reserve Free Tickets