I am extremely excited to perform on April 30th at St Peter’s Church with Charles Persip Ensemble. I have been fortunate to study with Charles Persip during my stay at the New School. Not only Mr Persip is an excellent teacher but he has played with the greatest name in jazz.

Here is a program for this special night:

A tribute in honor of this legendary master drummer will be held at 7:30p.m. on Monday, April 30, 2012 at Saint Peter’s Church, corner of Lexington Avenue and 54th Street, New York, New York. Hosted by WBGO’s Rob Crocker, invited guests include musicians Ron Carter, Jimmy Cobb, Roy Haynes, Anthony Nelson, and Kenny Washington; writers Amiri Baraka and Nat Hentoff; and Martin Mueller, Director of the New School jazz program.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrnihGqumE&w=560&h=315] Charles Persip was the drummer on Sonny Side Up recorded in 1957. This historic session featured Dizzy Gillespie( trumpet), Sonny Rollins (tenor), Sonny Stitt (tenor), Ray Bryant( piano) and Tommy Bryant (bass).  It is one of the recordings that changed my life along with “Charlie Parker’s Now the Time”, Olivier Ker Ourio’s “Central Park North”, Miles Davis “Kind of Blue”, Jean-Jacques Milteau’s “Live” and John Coltrane “Crescent” among others. I worked for several months on Sonny Stitt’ solo. It is a beautiful swinging piece of art, check it out!