Jacám Manricks, saxophone and composer
Ben Thomas, bass
Joe Gilman, piano
Ari Hoenig, drums
with guest Sam Griffith, trombone

$10 Students & Children, $20 Adults | Jazz Cabaret Seating

Jacám Manricks creates sophisticated pieces, some with multiple sections providing different contexts for improvisation, often obliging players to contribute in specific ways to a composition’s shape, rather than just blowing over chord changes. Much more than clever, these pieces take the listener on unfolding journeys….Such juxtapositions were another hallmark of his multi-dimensional composing, whether it was layering tension on lyricism or melodic angularity on a straight groove….If sometimes his sound veered from austere to thin and even shrill, he was still capable of exceptional playing, as on New Bolero, where he daubed coarse-grained, anguished streaks against (Barney) McAll’s pretty arpeggios …”

—John Shand (“The Sydney Morning Herald,” 2008) 

Ben Thomas, bass, moved to New York City in 2012 where he jumped into the creative/contemporary music, modern jazz, gypsy jazz, rock, and bossa nova scenes with the likes of Nick Grinder, Ethan Helm, Owen Broder, Dave Chisholm, Jon Crowley, Amos Rose and Everything Forever, Hot Club of Bushwick, Vincent Lebrun, John Blevins, and was a member of the new music group Ensemble Mise-en. Ben graduated from the Eastman School of Music with two degrees, studying with Jeff Campbell and James VanDemark.

Joe Gilman, piano, is a full-time professor of music at American River College in Sacramento, an adjunct professor of jazz studies at CSU Sacramento, and a longtime associate of the Brubeck Institute and the Stanford Jazz Workshop. Joe was the music director of Capital Jazz Project from 1997 to 2011. He has received bachelor’s degrees in classical piano and jazz studies at Indiana University, a master’s degree in jazz and the contemporary media from the Eastman School of Music, and a doctoral degree in education from the University of Sarasota.

Ari Hoenig, drums, attended the prestigious University of North Texas for three years, where he studied with Ed Soph while playing with the “One O’Clock” Lab Band. Wanting to be closer to New York City, in 1995 Ari transferred to William Patterson College in northern New Jersey and soon found himself playing for legendary Philadelphia organist Shirley Scott and working regularly in New York City. After Hoenig moved to Brooklyn he began playing extensively with a variety of groups, including Jean Michel Pilc Trio, Kenny Werner Trio, Chris Potter Underground, Kurt Rosenwinkel Group, Joshua Redman Elastic Band, Jazz Mandolin Project and bands led by Wayne Krantz, Mike Stern, Richard Bona, Pat Martino, Dave Leibman and Bojan Z. He has also shared the stage with Herbie Hancock, Ivan Linz, Wynton Marsalis, Toots Theilmans, Dave Holland, Joe Lovano, Pat Metheny, and others.