Manning & Witkowski: Double Delight @ The Jazz Gallery August 4, 2007

The Jazz Gallery offers a rare and exciting double bill this Saturday night featuring the remarkably brilliant NYC-based Jazz pianist Deanna Witkowski and her world-class bandmates, plus the compelling West coast Jazz saxophonist Sarah Manning, who will be debuting her on-a-mission-group "Shatter the Glass". Both of these women have established themselves as true musical visionaries and to catch them both in one night is nothing short of a delight.

"If there is to be jazz in our future, it'll be because of musicians like saxophonist and composer Sarah Manning. She's a player to listen to, starting right now." -Jazz Pianist/Composer, two-time Grammy Nominee and Guggenheim Recipient, Jessica Williams

"Witkowski is not far from jazz stardom with her keyboard techniques, her imaginative composing and arranging, and her wordless vocalizing. Remember her name." -Harvey Siders, JazzTimes

Pianist Deanna Witkowski studied in Chicago and settled in New York in 1997. She's become a vital presence on the scene: leading her own groups (often with sax star Donny McCaslin), composing sacred music in the spirit of Ellington and Mary Lou Williams, appearing here at the Gallery in a duo with the great Fred Hersch, even being featured on Marian McPartland's famed "Piano Jazz" program. Deanna's fiery, harmonically complex playing and subtle vocal work can be heard on two fine CDs, Wide Open Window and Length of Days.

Alto saxophonist Sarah Manning received her training on the East Coast from such masters as Rufus Reid and Yusef Lateef. But she is refining her voice as a leader in the Bay Area, where she has lived since 2002. Nat Hentoff has said that Sarah "can swing as naturally as she breathes," and two solid recordings bear that out: House on Eddy Street and Live at Yoshi's: Two Rooms Same Door. Heading back east for a short tour, Sarah has recruited some of New York's top talent for a new quartet she calls Shatter the Glass.

$15 cover charge. For more info, please visit: www.sarahmanningmusic.com or www.deannawitkowski.com, as well as, www.jazzgallery.org

Official Website: http://www.jazzgallery.org