JOIN US FOR THE DEBUT OF NEW COMMISSIONS CELEBRATING ARTISTS, ATHLETES, AND CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS FOR OUR FREE FEBRUARY CONCERT, RISE IN LOVE, DURING THE FESTIVAL.

Portland Jazz Festival and PJCE are proud to present five newly commissioned pieces of jazz inspired by singular Black leaders and communities performed by our signature 12-member ensemble at Portland State University’s Lincoln Recital Hall. The original works draw on the poetry of Alice Dunbar-Nelson, the legacies of tennis greats Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson, the revolutionary term of president of Burkina Faso Thomas Sankara, and Reverend James Lawson’s conception of nonviolent resistance. The performance will also include a premiere of a new arrangement of Ezra Weiss and Dr. S. Renee Mitchell’s “Vanport’s Siren Song” for the full ensemble. The concert is free to attend. RSVPs are recommended. 

“For our February concert, I wanted to honor the rich cultural heritage, artistic contributions, and historical narratives of Black communities,” says PJCE Artistic Director Ryan Meagher. “We had a robust response to our call for proposals and are excited to share new music from composers representing a broad swath of sounds and experiences.”

In addition to Weiss, the concert features works by Oregon Governors Arts Awardee Darrell Grant, Oregon Music Teachers Association Composer of the Year Todd Marston and Emmy Award-winner  Steven Golliday, “Irresistable” (San Fransicso Chronicle) electronics-meets-contemporary classical composer Kirsten Volness, and rising star composer/trombonist James Powers. Special thanks to the Music Performance Trust Fund for making this concert free to attend!

Tickets are FREE. RSVP recommended.

About the Artists:

Since the release of his debut album Black Art, one of the New York Times’ top jazz CDs of 1994, Darrell Granthas built a reputation as a pianist, composer, and educator who channels the power of music to make change. Dedicated to themes of hope, community, and place, Grant’s compositions include Step by Step: The Ruby Bridges Suite, honoring the civil rights icon; The Territory, which explores Oregon’s landscape and history; and Sanctuaries, a jazz chamber opera exploring gentrification. He is a Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Fame Inductee and Professor of Music at Portland State University, where he directs the one-of-a-kind Social Justice & the Arts degree program.

Todd Marston received a bachelor’s degree at Berklee College of Music (jazz piano performance, 2004) and a master’s degree at PSU (jazz studies & wellness for musicians, 2017). Todd’s composition, ‘Above Water,’ was a finalist in the 2013 Indie International Songwriting Contest as well as the 2020 Great American Songwriting Contest. He recently won the Oregon Music Teachers Association Composer of the Year award (2023). Todd has multiple albums under his name and teaches a weekly composition workshop in SE Portland called the Marston Composition Collective.

Steven Golliday is a musician and producer whose compositions interweave elements of soul, jazz, funk and experimental music. Steven is also an Emmy Award-winning documentary film editor whose work has explored broad aspects of African American experience and history..

Renee Mitchell, a 2019-20 Spirit of Portland winner, is best described as a Creative Revolutionist™, which includes being a published author, lyricist, playwright, spoken word poet, curriculum designer, multi-media ARTivist, and visionary behind I Am M.O.R.E. (Making Ourselves Resilient Everyday), a heART-focused, nationally ward-winning youth development initiative that supports youth of color to move from trauma to empowered resilience.

Trombonist James Powers has been connected to creative music his whole life. A third generation musician who’s made his home in many styles of music, he’s always sought to meld disparate influences together. With this new release , he hopes to create various evocative improvisational soundscapes sharing a funk based rhythms and a punk rock ethos. James is largely self taught, and his unique artistic voice reflects this, though that’s not to say he’s uneducated, having been mentored by and shared the bandstand with a number of world-class musicians.

Smart, transcendent, and immersive, Kirsten Volness’ emotive soundscapes integrate electronics and modern composition techniques with jazz and pop influences. “Irresistible” (San Francisco Chronicle) and “nothing short of gorgeous.” (New York Arts), each of her compositions reveals “an exquisite sound world” (New Classic LA) inspired by nature, myth, spirituality, and environmental and sociopolitical issues. She received commissions from New Music USA, BMI Foundation, Metropolis Ensemble, The American Opera Project, and MacColl Johnson and RISCA Fellowships. Kirsten holds composition degrees from the Universities of Michigan and Minnesota and has taught at Portland State University, Lewis & Clark, Reed College, and the University of Rhode Island.

Composer/pianist Ezra Weiss is “a bold, inspired figure in the contemporary jazz arranging scene.” (DownBeat) He has released eight albums as a bandleader to international acclaim from both press and radio. Ezra currently leads his own big band and sextet, performing at major venues throughout the U.S., including several week-long engagements at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Dizzy’s Club. He further served as arranger for drumming legend Billy Hart and co-led the Courtney Bryan/Ezra Weiss Jazz Orchestra in NYC. Ezra has won the ASCAP Young Jazz Composer Award three times and has been listed in DownBeat Critics Polls.

Featured vocalist, Marilyn Keller, is a 2016 Jazz Society of Oregon Hall of Fame Inductee, and a 44-year veteran of music and stage performance in Jazz, Gospel, R&B, Pop, Blues, and theater, nationally and internationally. Her musical roots are diverse. Marilyn has built a career that has taken her as a feature artist to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, The Netherlands, Spain, Australia, Russia and the UK for concerts, festivals, nightclubs and recording work. Her voice can be heard on multiple recordings, movie sound tracks, commercials and documentaries. Marilyn’s formative jazz training was as a member of the Mt. Hood Community College Vocal Jazz Ensemble and as the vocalist fronting the award-winning MHCC Jazz Lab Band. She can be seen frequently at clubs, restaurants, festivals and holiday events throughout the Pacific Northwest.