Tom Harrell Quintet October 13, 2010

CD Release for "Roman Nights" "One of the top trumpeters in jazz for the past two decades and one of the music's most prolific and gifted composers." - Joe Cooper, New York Observer

Tom Harrell trumpet
Wayne Escoffery tenor
Danny Grissett piano and fender rhodes
Ugonna Okegwo bass
Rudy Royston drums

Praised by Newsweek for his pure melodic genius, Tom Harrell is widely recognized as one of the most creative and uncompromising jazz instrumentalists and composers of our time. He is a frequent winner in Down Beat and Jazz Times magazines' Critics and Readers Polls and a Grammy nominee. Harrell is also a Trumpeter of the Year nominee for the 2010 Jazz Journalists Association Awards. Each of Harrell’s 24 albums has found its way onto various critics "Top Ten" lists worldwide. His warm, burnished sound on trumpet and flugelhorn, and the unparalleled harmonic and rhythmic sophistication in his playing and writing, have earned Harrell his place as a jazz icon to aspiring musicians and devoted fans alike.

ROMAN NIGHTS (2010) is the third album and the latest Harrell offering that features the current members of his quintet. The remarkably cohesive unit includes tenor saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, pianist Danny Grissett, drummer Johnathan Blake, and his bassist of 12 years, Ugonna Okegwo.

In 2006, Harrell was awarded a Chamber Music America grant with which he composed and performed new pieces for trumpet and piano. He also wrote symphony orchestra arrangements for the French Orchestre National de Lorraine and the vocalist Elisabeth Kontomanou for a live recording album released in 2009, SIREN SONG.

For more information, visit www.tomharrell.com

Official Website: http://www.yoshis.com/sanfrancisco/jazzclub/artist/show/1499