Graffiti Photographic
Miguel de la Cerna Quartet
Pianist Miguel de la Cerna has racked up some impressive credentials working with great singers. He was music director and arranger for Oscar Brown, Jr. in the years before that one-of-a-kind artist’s death in 2005. As music director for the incomparable Dee Alexander, he arranged her 2007 Millennium Park tribute to Nina Simone and Dinah Washington and also is music director for Bobby Wilsyn.
Increasingly, de la Cerna is making a name for himself as a distinctive artist in his own right – one who is equally comfortable playing Latin-tinged jazz in the updated mainstream style of Michel Camilo and Hilton Ruiz, and pushing boundaries to embrace free improvisation and serial technique. Today, he’ll show off the latter side of his talent with a quartet featuring his wife Sylvia de la Cerna on violin, Harrison Bankhead on bass and Kwame Steve Cobb on percussion. it’s a band that thrives on open space and intersecting lines.
De la Cerna is a third-generation Chicago pianist. His grandfather, General Morgan, accompanied such major artists as trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen and Billie Holiday during the ’40s. His aunt, Gloria Morgan, was a popular jazz performer known for her silky vocals and aggressive sound on piano. Their styles all find their way, somehow, into his musical makeup.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
Jazz and Heritage Stage
Miguel de la Cerna Quartet
12:30 – 1:30 pm
Miguel de la Cerna Quartet
Pianist Miguel de la Cerna has racked up some impressive credentials working with great singers. He was music director and arranger for Oscar Brown, Jr. in the years before that one-of-a-kind artist’s death in 2005. As music director for the incomparable Dee Alexander, he arranged her 2007 Millennium Park tribute to Nina Simone and Dinah Washington and also is music director for Bobby Wilsyn.
Increasingly, de la Cerna is making a name for himself as a distinctive artist in his own right – one who is equally comfortable playing Latin-tinged jazz in the updated mainstream style of Michel Camilo and Hilton Ruiz, and pushing boundaries to embrace free improvisation and serial technique. Today, he’ll show off the latter side of his talent with a quartet featuring his wife Sylvia de la Cerna on violin, Harrison Bankhead on bass and Kwame Steve Cobb on percussion. it’s a band that thrives on open space and intersecting lines.
De la Cerna is a third-generation Chicago pianist. His grandfather, General Morgan, accompanied such major artists as trumpeter Henry “Red” Allen and Billie Holiday during the ’40s. His aunt, Gloria Morgan, was a popular jazz performer known for her silky vocals and aggressive sound on piano. Their styles all find their way, somehow, into his musical makeup.
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 3
Jazz and Heritage Stage
Miguel de la Cerna Quartet
12:30 – 1:30 pm