The Helen Sung Quartet will perform as part of the Lost Jazz Shrines series at Tribeca Performing Arts Center on Satuday, February 18. The performance will recall the Greenwich Village jazz club Boomer’s, as well as hard bop jazz pianist Cedar Walton.
The Lost Jazz Shrines series is dedicated to bringing legendary NYC jazz clubs back into the consciousness of the world with a thorough remembrance and celebration. Boomer’s was a jazz club in Greenwich Village during the 1970s and a venue for bebop musicians, with artists Barry Harris and Kenny Barron playing there.
At the club, Cedar Walton recorded the albums A Night at Boomers, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2. Cedar Walton was an American hard bop jazz pianist who came to prominence as a member of drummer Art Blakey’s band before establishing a long career as a bandleader and composer. Several of his compositions have become jazz standards, including “Mosaic”, “Bolivia”, “Holy Land”, “Mode for Joe” and “Fantasy in D.”
The Helen Sung Quartet is comprised of Sung (piano), Jaleel Shaw (alto saxophone), Reuben Rogers (bass) and Kendrick Scott (drums). Pianist/composer Sung is a graduate of the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Performance and won the Kennedy Center’s Mary Lou Williams Jazz Piano Competition. Her newest album Quartet+ garnered a 4.5 star DownBeat review and inclusion in its “Best of 2021 Albums” list, and a JazzTimes cover story (January 2022 issue). In addition to her own band, Helen has performed with such luminaries as the late Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis, Regina Carter, Terri Lyne Carrington, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and more.
Helen’s 2021 Guggenheim Fellowship is being applied toward a multi-movement composition for big band; one of the movements, “Wayne’s World,” won the 2022 BMI Charlie Parker Jazz Composition Prize.
Tribeca Performing Arts Center is located at 199 Chambers Street. For performances in Theatre 1, enter the West. St. Gate, on 190 West St., north of Chambers St. and south of Harrison Street.
Before the concert, join for a free Conversation With Helen Sung at 7PM, with Artistic Director of Jazz Programming Willard Jenkins interviewing Helen Sung. Tickets are available here.
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