Grammy-nominated musician, producer and world-renowned drummer Quentin E. Baxter presents another amazing three-concert series at Turtle Point Clubhouse on Kiawah Island. Each concert is $20 General Admission, 7:30pm. Tickets are available at www.baxtermusic.com or 843-766-8814. The concert series is sponsored by the Town of Kiawah Island Cultural Events Fund.  

HOUSTON PERSON QUARTET SUNDAY, JANUARY 8, 2017 at 7:30pm

The first artist on the agenda is legendary tenor saxophonist Houston Person. The show will feature Lafayette Harris, Jr. on piano, Matthew Parrish on bass and Quentin E. Baxter on drums.

Person has more than 75 albums recorded as a bandleader. Those albums have appeared on many record labels, including Prestige, Westbound, Mercury, Savoy, Muse, and HighNote Records.

Person knows the music business well - he books his own tours and produces his own albums. As eclectic as he is talented, Person has recorded everything from disco, gospel, pop and R&B to his trademark soulful hard bob. After years as producer and house tenor for HighNote Records (including touring with the late Etta Jones), Person is now known as a master of popular songs played in a relaxed, highly accessible style reminiscent of the great Ben Webster.

A native of Florence, SC, Person remembers his parents listening to a lot of music at home, including jazz. He started out on piano before switching to the tenor sax at age 17. Person went on to study music at South Carolina State College (where was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 1999) and later pursued advanced studies at Hartt College of Music in Hartford, CT. As a member of the United States Air Force band stationed in Germany, he played with Eddie Harris, Cedar Walton, and Don Ellis, later working as a sideman for organist Johnny “Hammond” Smith in the mid ’60s.

Person built his reputation as a leader with a series of soulful recordings for Prestige in the ’60s. For a large part of his career he was best known for his legendary partnership with the great vocalist Etta Jones, which lasted more 30 years until her death in 2001. Recently he performed with vocalist Barbara Morrison, the great Ernie Andrews, and legendary vocalist/pianist Freddy Cole. He’s also worked with Ernestine Anderson, Della Griffin, and Dakota Staton.

Person’s appearances as sideman are also legendary. He can be heard on recordings with Etta Jones, Lena Horne, Lou Rawls, Dakota Staton, Horace Silver, Charles Earland, Joey DeFrancesco and many others. As a record producer, he’s worked with many artists, including Etta Jones, Freddy Cole, Charles Brown, David ‘Fathead’ Newman, Dakota Staton, and Ernie Andrews.

In 1990, his recording with Ron Carter, Something in Common, won the Independent Jazz Record of the Year Award. That same year, received an Indie Award for his album Why Not?

Other awards have included the prestigious Eubie Blake Jazz Award (1982) and the Fred Hampton Scholarship Fund Image Award (1993). He was honored with "Houston Person/Etta Jones Day" in Hartford County, MD in 1982 and Washington, DC in 1983.

What the press has to say about Person:

“I have always admired Houston Person for his huge tone, bluff humor, and pointed obbligato ... Person lucidly rides the beat with figures you think you've heard but haven't. These are not recycled licks or clichés; they simply seem familiar, like family ... gray hair aside, Person is unchanged, an unmoved mover of certain jazz essentials.” – Gary Giddens, Village Voice

Ask him what’s important in his music, and Person said, “It's important that it's relaxing ... Relaxes you and makes you feel good ... I'm going to always play the things that I think contributes to good jazz, such as the blues and swinging.”

“He’s one of the best...He’s got bull chops!” – Dizzy Gillespie

“...one of the most soulful jazz players on the scene today. A musician who pays close attention to melody and has a deep sense of the blues, PERSON extends the tradition of Gene Ammons and Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis and keeps the soul-jazz flames alive.” – NPR

REGINA CARTER: SIMPLY ELLA MONDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 2017 at 7:30pm

The second artist to perform in the concert series is jazz violinist Regina Carter. Carter’s show features Xavier Davis on piano & keyboards, Marvin Sewell on acoustic & electric guitars, Chris Lightcap on acoustic & electric bass, and Alvester Garnett on drums.

Carter, a Sony Masterworks recording artits, is the foremost jazz violinist of her generation. Her quest for beauty combined with her passion for excellence did not escape the attention of the MacArthur Foundation, who awarded Carter its prestigious fellowship “genius grant.”

Carter’s upcoming album and touring program, Simply Ella, marks the 100th birthday of a musical legend. The program celebrates the incomparable Ella Fitzgerald – the source of Carter’s musical inspiration. An influence she has cherished throughout her life, Carter describes her visceral connection to Ella’s music:

“Growing up in Detroit, there was always music playing in our home. While there was a variety of music I enjoyed, there were few recordings and artists I found consistently captivating. Ella Fitzgerald was one of these exceptions. To this very day, whenever I hear an Ella recording it grabs me at my core. I’m entranced by her voice, her melodic improvisations and the passion and artfulness with which Ella sings a song. She helps me understand a song by providing a window to its essence. In a word, Ella is sublime, and she is at the top of my go-to list when learning a jazz tune. Perhaps Jimmy Rowles said it best, ‘Music comes out of her. When [Ella] walks down the street ... she leaves notes.’ I’m so excited to celebrate Ella Fitzgerald, an artist who has meant so much to all the notes in my musical life.”

What the press has to say about Carter:

“A talented, charismatic player who is almost single-handedly reviving interest in the violin as a jazz instrument.”
– The Los Angeles Times

“Ms. Carter is enormously gifted, bringing a blues sensibility to her improvisations.” – The New York Times

“Regina Carter creates music that is wonderfully listenable, probingly intelligent and, at times, breathtakingly daring...taking the listener into the future of jazz.” – Time Magazine

“Her impeccable pitch, lovely grace notes and delicately bent pitches reminding listeners of why she practically has become a symbol of jazz violin in our times. Moreover, she reaffirms that music as wholly accessible and entertaining as this also can be smart and sophisticated.”

– The Chicago Tribune

ANNIE SELLICK QUARTET WEDNESDAY, MARCH 8, 2017 at 7:30pm

The third artist on the concert series is jazz vocalist Annie Sellick. Sellick’s show features Kevin Bales on piano, Billy Thornton on bass and Quentin E. Baxter on drums.

Sellick may be compared to the greats – “Ella’s playfulness, Carmen’s attitude, Betty’s instincts and Anita’s flair...” (Greg Lee, WMOT jazz radio), but she is unequivocally and undeniably an original. Don’t let her southern drawl, as sweet as biscuits n’ honey, cause you to make assumptions. There is nothing shy or demure about Sellick’s control of the stage, the music, her sound and her audience.

It’s quite obvious she is totally at home as a live performer, immediately engaging her audiences with an innate ability to make everyone in the room feel like she is performing just for them. These special gifts aside, however, it’s Sellick’s pure talent as a musician that is earning her rave reviews and a growing fan base around the world.

Sellick is a mainstay at the major jazz venues in her hometown Nashville, TN. She’s performed with all of Music City’s jazz artists, including Beegie Adair, Jeff Coffin, Rod McGaha and Bela Fleck. Sellick is the resident vocalist with the Nashville Jazz Orchestra, with whom she has recorded and gave a celebrated sold-out performance with the Nashville Symphony Pops Orchestra, “An Evening of Jazz.” Sellick has won a large and devoted following in her hometown that has garnered five consecutive “Best Jazz Artist” awards from the Nashville media and the best selling local artist for two years at Tower Records Nashville.

Sellick has toured extensively. She’s traveled to Europe, Japan, Canada, and throughout the United States establishing solid fan bases centered in Atlanta and Birmingham. She also has a following in cities such as Hilton Head Island, West Palm Beach, Cincinnati, Los Angeles and Montreal.

Her club appearances in Montreal resulted in an invitation to perform at the 2006 and 2008 Montreal Jazz Festivals. She has also made regular appearances at West

Coast Jazz Party, Newport Beach Jazz Party, Vail Jazz Festival and opened for Curtis Stigers at the Gene Harris Jazz Festival.

Sellick toured with Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing and made six Japan tours covering twenty cities both as soloist and featured vocalist with John DiMartino, David Hazeltine, Grant Stewart and the late Eddie Higgins.

Sellick has recorded four CDs on her own label, Chalice Music, Inc. Her 2002 release, No Greater Thrill, features Hammond B-3 royalty Joey DeFrancesco. Her 2004 release, A Little Piece of Heaven, is her first live recording captured at The Vic Jazz Club in Santa Monica, CA, features Gerald Clayton on piano, Dan Lutz on bass, Kevin Kanner on drums, with guest appearances from guitarist Bruce Forman and arrangements by stellar arranger/composer Shelly Berg.

Sellick’s most recent release, Street of Dreams, features two of Los Angeles’ most notable rhythm sections: “trio one” being the aforementioned trio with Clayton, Lutz, and Kanner; and “trio two” being the Jeff Hamilton Trio with Tamir Hendelman on piano, Christoph Luty on bass, and Hamilton on drums.

What the press has to say about Sellick:

“Annie Sellick is very much a jazz singer, who focuses on the music, but she is also a storyteller and her rendition of emotionally complex songs is masterful ... she is also a stunning visual performer. After seeing her perform twice, I see no reason why she shouldn’t be a star.”

– Critic Roger Crane, L.A. Jazz Scene

“Perky vocalist Annie Sellick, an original with her own way of phrasing that allows her tongue-in-cheek personality to emerge...she toys with time and takes risks playing catch-up, but never sacrifices enunciation, breaks up vowels a la Anita O’Day and boasts a remarkable range...keep your ears on Sellick.”

– Harvey Siders, Jazz Times

“She has gone far in the international jazz world since her days of working (Nashville) venues. As her fan base grew, she widened her field, appearing throughout the United States as well as in Germany, Japan and beyond. Performances and recordings with luminaries such as Jeff Hamilton, Joey DeFrancesco, Gerald Clayton, Mark O’Connor, and Eddie Higgins have attracted fans and critics, who take note of her strong feel for swing, her flair for improvisation, her pure but expressive tonality and phrasing, her broad range (covering all points from big bands through Parisian swing to bossa-nova sung in Portuguese) and compelling personality onstage – a mix of playfulness, warmth, and an ability to bond instantly with audiences.”

– Bob Noershuk, Nashville Arts Magazine