Piano/Keyboard Masters Bob James, Orrin Evans, P.J. Morton,
Nigel Hall, Kevin Howard and Howie Alexander Perform at
the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival Presented by Citizens
September 14-17 at Highmark Stadium
and August Wilson African American Cultural Center
PJ Morton
PITTSBURGH, PA, September 07, 2023 – The late, great Pittsburgh pianist Ahmad Jamal said, “I think Pittsburghers are stylists. They all have their approach…” Mr. Jamal was speaking of the many jazz musicians who came from the city, including piano players Earl “Fatha” Hines, Mary Lou Williams and Erroll Garner. And like those aforementioned masters, an accomplished potpourri of pianists/keyboardists – Bob James, Orrin Evans, P.J. Morton, Nigel Hall, Kevin Howard and Howie Alexander – will display their myriad styles and approaches at the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival (PIJF) presented by Citizens September 14 – 17 at Highmark Stadium, Station Square, 510 W Station Square Dr., and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center (AWAACC), 980 Liberty Ave.
Nigel Hall | Uhuru Jazz Sessions, Thursday, September 14, AWAACC, 9:00 pm
If you want a template for a modern musician, look no further than vocalist/keyboardist/composer Nigel Hall. Born in Washington, DC in 1981 and a resident of New Orleans, he’s fluent in the musical languages of funk, soul and R&B, as a member of the Afro-psychedelic jam band Lettuce, a sideman with Jon Cleary, the Soul Rebels, Questlove and as a leader in his own right. The New Orleans Times-Picayune compared Hall to Art Neville of the Neville Brothers, and the Pittsburgh City Paper proclaimed that Hall was the “artist to carry the music forward.” Hall’s six recordings include: Ladies and Gentlemen…, Wake Me, Gotta Go To Work, The Sun, Spiritual and his 2022 release, Nigel Hall Live! Nigel Hall will warm your heart and make your toes tap, from the congregation to the cookout.
Kevin Howard | Taste of Jazz Party, Friday, September 15, AWAACC, 9:00 pm
Pittsburgh-born, Maryland-based, keyboardist Kevin Howard is as multifaceted as they come. He served as music director for Debra and Ronnie Laws, and gigged with a number of jazz and contemporary jazz stars including Marion Meadows, Lonnie Liston Smith, Pittsburgh’s George Benson, and he opened for Cameo, Pieces of a Dream and John Legend. Howard’s four CDs include Random Groove, Collage, Special Edition and Travels. His awards include three Best Jazz Performer Awards from station WAMO, WQED’s Harry Schwab Excellence in the Arts Award, and the Pittsburgh City Paper cited him as one of the city’s Top Three Jazz Performers. Howard’s homecoming will no doubt provide the right mix of dance and trance.
Howie Alexander | Saturday, September 16, Highmark Stadium 1:00 pm
A native of Wilkinsburg, PA, keyboardist Howie Alexander grew up in a home full of R&B, funk, blues and jazz and is a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School and Duquesne University. Alexander was mentored by jazz guitarist Jimmy Ponder, who gave him his first gig at 17, former Count Basie trombonist Dr. Nelson Harrison and Dr. James Johnson, Jr. of the Afro-American Music Institute (where Alexander serves as Artistic Director). Alexander’s work as a sideman includes gigs with drummer Poogie Bell, The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh’s legendary tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. An ebullient performer, Alexander comes home to the Highmark stage to deliver his soulful sonic survey of mainstream, fusion and contemporary jazz.
Bob James | Saturday, 9/16, Highmark Stadium, 3:30 pm
Joining iconic musicians and previous honorees Ron Carter (2022) and Chaka Khan (2021), Bob James will receive the 2023 PIJF Luminary Award for his trailblazing work in jazz and jazz fusion and for being one of the most sampled jazz artists in the 50-year history of hip-hop. James’ music has caught the attention of Run DMC, Slick Rick, Naughty by Nature, Eric B. and Rakim, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest, to name just a few. James was a first-generation jazz fusionist in the early 70s, whose trademarked, crisp electric piano and sophisticated swinging arrangements created his classic, critically-acclaimed CTI albums that included One, Two Three and BJ4, which laid the foundation for contemporary and smooth jazz genres in the 80s and 90s. Other James highlights include “Angela,” his theme to the sitcom Taxi, his collaboration albums with Earl Klugh and David Sanborn and his co-founding of the smooth jazz supergroup Fourplay with drummer Harvey Mason, guitarist Larry Carlton and bassist Nathan East in 1990. James’ latest recording, Feel Like Making Live! showcases the keyboardist in an intimate trio setting that foreshadows the intense, infectious and ingenious music he’ll bring to Pittsburgh.
Orrin Evans | Saturday, 9/16, Highmark Stadium, 6:00 pm/ AWAACC, 10:30 pm
Philadelphia-based pianist, composer, bandleader Orrin Evans returns to the festival, bringing his City of Brotherly Love post-bop piano virtuosity with him, hot on the heels of his CD, The Red Door, which features an all-star roster including singer Jazzmeia Horn and trumpeter (and fellow PIJF performer) Nicholas Payton. With over 25 albums as a leader, and a first-place award in DownBeat magazine’s 2018 “Rising Star Pianist” category, Evans’ propulsive and poetic piano style is idiomatic to his own unique musical voice, and expansive enough to power his genre-challenging, small ensemble Tar Baby, and his Captain Black Big Band. Evans will be performing at the Highmark Stage, and like last year, he’ll be hosting the Jam sessions with the Imani Allstars. He also will be the host of the Inaugural Jazz Train to The Pittsburgh Jazz Festival, departing New York City, Newark, NJ and Philadelphia on Thursday, September 14, returning Monday, September 18.
P.J. Morton | Saturday, 9/16, Highmark Stadium, 7:15 pm
Literally the son of a preacher man, the New Orleans singer, songwriter and pianist, PJ Morton – who also played keyboards for Maroon 5, Erykah Badu and LL Cool J – knows how to blend French, Spanish, Creole, Caribbean and Afro-Latin cultures into a musical mix that makes the Crescent City swing, as evidenced by his 2017 CD masterpiece, Gumbo. His Big Easy pianism perfectly supports his Stevie Wonderful vocals on his 2021 CD, The Piano Album. Like his musical ancestor Jelly Roll Morton, P.J.’s piano style is a Big Easy bouillabaisse of jazz, Afro-Cuban, blues, gospel and R&B that Pittsburghers will aurally consume with gusto.
The 13th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival presented by Citizens (PIJF) and produced by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center returns to AWAACC and Highmark Stadium September 14 – 17, 2023. Featured artists include Gregory Porter, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Ledisi, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter, Nicholas Payton, Bob James, Orrin Evans, José James, PJ Morton, Keyon Harrold with special guests Pharoahe Monch and Mumu Fresh, Nigel Hall, Madison McFerrin, Christie Dashiell, Chelsea Baratz, Howie Alexander and more.
* * *
SPONSORS
Special thanks to Citizens, the Presenting Sponsor for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. Additional sponsorship support is provided by UPMC, UPMC Health Plan, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Doris Duke Foundation, Comcast NBC Universal and Xfinity and P&W BMW and Mini of Pittsburgh. Presenting Sponsor, Libation Station Tent, is Bacardi.
CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $226.7 billion in assets as of June 30, 2022. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a full-service customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,300 ATMs and more than 1,200 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 119,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today. www.awaacc.org.
If you want a template for a modern musician, look no further than vocalist/keyboardist/composer Nigel Hall. Born in Washington, DC in 1981 and a resident of New Orleans, he’s fluent in the musical languages of funk, soul and R&B, as a member of the Afro-psychedelic jam band Lettuce, a sideman with Jon Cleary, the Soul Rebels, Questlove and as a leader in his own right. The New Orleans Times-Picayune compared Hall to Art Neville of the Neville Brothers, and the Pittsburgh City Paper proclaimed that Hall was the “artist to carry the music forward.” Hall’s six recordings include: Ladies and Gentlemen…, Wake Me, Gotta Go To Work, The Sun, Spiritual and his 2022 release, Nigel Hall Live! Nigel Hall will warm your heart and make your toes tap, from the congregation to the cookout.
Kevin Howard | Taste of Jazz Party, Friday, September 15, AWAACC, 9:00 pm
Pittsburgh-born, Maryland-based, keyboardist Kevin Howard is as multifaceted as they come. He served as music director for Debra and Ronnie Laws, and gigged with a number of jazz and contemporary jazz stars including Marion Meadows, Lonnie Liston Smith, Pittsburgh’s George Benson, and he opened for Cameo, Pieces of a Dream and John Legend. Howard’s four CDs include Random Groove, Collage, Special Edition and Travels. His awards include three Best Jazz Performer Awards from station WAMO, WQED’s Harry Schwab Excellence in the Arts Award, and the Pittsburgh City Paper cited him as one of the city’s Top Three Jazz Performers. Howard’s homecoming will no doubt provide the right mix of dance and trance.
Howie Alexander | Saturday, September 16, Highmark Stadium 1:00 pm
A native of Wilkinsburg, PA, keyboardist Howie Alexander grew up in a home full of R&B, funk, blues and jazz and is a graduate of Taylor Allderdice High School and Duquesne University. Alexander was mentored by jazz guitarist Jimmy Ponder, who gave him his first gig at 17, former Count Basie trombonist Dr. Nelson Harrison and Dr. James Johnson, Jr. of the Afro-American Music Institute (where Alexander serves as Artistic Director). Alexander’s work as a sideman includes gigs with drummer Poogie Bell, The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Pittsburgh’s legendary tenor saxophonist Stanley Turrentine. An ebullient performer, Alexander comes home to the Highmark stage to deliver his soulful sonic survey of mainstream, fusion and contemporary jazz.
Bob James | Saturday, 9/16, Highmark Stadium, 3:30 pm
Joining iconic musicians and previous honorees Ron Carter (2022) and Chaka Khan (2021), Bob James will receive the 2023 PIJF Luminary Award for his trailblazing work in jazz and jazz fusion and for being one of the most sampled jazz artists in the 50-year history of hip-hop. James’ music has caught the attention of Run DMC, Slick Rick, Naughty by Nature, Eric B. and Rakim, Public Enemy and A Tribe Called Quest, to name just a few. James was a first-generation jazz fusionist in the early 70s, whose trademarked, crisp electric piano and sophisticated swinging arrangements created his classic, critically-acclaimed CTI albums that included One, Two Three and BJ4, which laid the foundation for contemporary and smooth jazz genres in the 80s and 90s. Other James highlights include “Angela,” his theme to the sitcom Taxi, his collaboration albums with Earl Klugh and David Sanborn and his co-founding of the smooth jazz supergroup Fourplay with drummer Harvey Mason, guitarist Larry Carlton and bassist Nathan East in 1990. James’ latest recording, Feel Like Making Live! showcases the keyboardist in an intimate trio setting that foreshadows the intense, infectious and ingenious music he’ll bring to Pittsburgh.
Orrin Evans | Saturday, 9/16, Highmark Stadium, 6:00 pm/ AWAACC, 10:30 pm
Philadelphia-based pianist, composer, bandleader Orrin Evans returns to the festival, bringing his City of Brotherly Love post-bop piano virtuosity with him, hot on the heels of his CD, The Red Door, which features an all-star roster including singer Jazzmeia Horn and trumpeter (and fellow PIJF performer) Nicholas Payton. With over 25 albums as a leader, and a first-place award in DownBeat magazine’s 2018 “Rising Star Pianist” category, Evans’ propulsive and poetic piano style is idiomatic to his own unique musical voice, and expansive enough to power his genre-challenging, small ensemble Tar Baby, and his Captain Black Big Band. Evans will be performing at the Highmark Stage, and like last year, he’ll be hosting the Jam sessions with the Imani Allstars. He also will be the host of the Inaugural Jazz Train to The Pittsburgh Jazz Festival, departing New York City, Newark, NJ and Philadelphia on Thursday, September 14, returning Monday, September 18.
P.J. Morton | Saturday, 9/16, Highmark Stadium, 7:15 pm
Literally the son of a preacher man, the New Orleans singer, songwriter and pianist, PJ Morton – who also played keyboards for Maroon 5, Erykah Badu and LL Cool J – knows how to blend French, Spanish, Creole, Caribbean and Afro-Latin cultures into a musical mix that makes the Crescent City swing, as evidenced by his 2017 CD masterpiece, Gumbo. His Big Easy pianism perfectly supports his Stevie Wonderful vocals on his 2021 CD, The Piano Album. Like his musical ancestor Jelly Roll Morton, P.J.’s piano style is a Big Easy bouillabaisse of jazz, Afro-Cuban, blues, gospel and R&B that Pittsburghers will aurally consume with gusto.
The 13th Annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival presented by Citizens (PIJF) and produced by the August Wilson African American Cultural Center returns to AWAACC and Highmark Stadium September 14 – 17, 2023. Featured artists include Gregory Porter, Jimmy Jam & Terry Lewis, Ledisi, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, Kurt Elling & Charlie Hunter, Nicholas Payton, Bob James, Orrin Evans, José James, PJ Morton, Keyon Harrold with special guests Pharoahe Monch and Mumu Fresh, Nigel Hall, Madison McFerrin, Christie Dashiell, Chelsea Baratz, Howie Alexander and more.
* * *
SPONSORS
Special thanks to Citizens, the Presenting Sponsor for the Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival. Additional sponsorship support is provided by UPMC, UPMC Health Plan, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, Doris Duke Foundation, Comcast NBC Universal and Xfinity and P&W BMW and Mini of Pittsburgh. Presenting Sponsor, Libation Station Tent, is Bacardi.
CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
Citizens Financial Group, Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest financial institutions, with $226.7 billion in assets as of June 30, 2022. Headquartered in Providence, Rhode Island, Citizens offers a broad range of retail and commercial banking products and services to individuals, small businesses, middle-market companies, large corporations and institutions. Citizens helps its customers reach their potential by listening to them and by understanding their needs in order to offer tailored advice, ideas and solutions. In Consumer Banking, Citizens provides an integrated experience that includes mobile and online banking, a full-service customer contact center and the convenience of approximately 3,300 ATMs and more than 1,200 branches in 14 states and the District of Columbia. Consumer Banking products and services include a full range of banking, lending, savings, wealth management and small business offerings. In Commercial Banking, Citizens offers a broad complement of financial products and solutions, including lending and leasing, deposit and treasury management services, foreign exchange, interest rate and commodity risk management solutions, as well as loan syndication, corporate finance, merger and acquisition, and debt and equity capital markets capabilities. More information is available at www.citizensbank.com or visit on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
The August Wilson African American Cultural Center is a non-profit cultural organization located in Pittsburgh’s cultural district that generates artistic, educational, and community initiatives that advance the legacy of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright August Wilson. One of the largest cultural centers in the country focused exclusively on the African American experience and the celebration of Black culture and the African diaspora, the non-profit organization welcomes more than 119,000 visitors locally and nationally. Through year-round programming across multiple genres, such as the annual Pittsburgh International Jazz Festival, Black Bottom Film Festival, AWCommunity Days, TRUTHSayers speaker series, and rotating art exhibits in its galleries, the Center provides a platform for established and emerging artists of color whose work reflects the universal issues of identity that Wilson tackled, and which still resonate today. www.awaacc.org.
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