Join celebrated seven-string guitarist Howard Alden and master violinist Kit Eakle for an intimate and outstanding musical performance featuring the compositions of Thelonious Monk and Django Reinhardt. The concert will be in Throckmorton Theatre’s Tivoli Room.
In the San Jose Times, Andrew Gilbert poses the question: “What would have happened if legendary gypsy jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt wandered into Minton’s Playhouse . . . in 1946 and jammed with pianist/composer Thelonious Monk at the Harlem nightspot that served as the essential forum for the birth of modern jazz?” The resulting encounter might have sounded something like what Eakle and Alden deliver tonight.
Musician Bios
HOWARD ALDEN, Seven-String Guitar
“He may be the best of his generation”– Owen Cordle, JazzTimes
“The most impressive and creative member of a new generation of jazz guitarists.” – George Kanzler, Newark Star Ledger
“…one of the very finest young guitarists working today.” – Chip Deffaa, New York Post
Born in Newport Beach, California, Howard Alden began playing guitar at age 10, inspired by guitarists Barney Kessel, Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt and George Van Eps. Soon he was working professionally around Los Angeles playing in groups ranging from traditional to mainstream to modern jazz. Alden went east for a summer in Atlantic City with Red Norvo in 1979, and continued to perform with Norvo for several years. In 1982 Alden moved to New York City where his skills, both as soloist and accompanist, were quickly recognized and sought-out for appearances and recordings with such artists as Ruby Braff, Joe Williams, Warren Vaché, Woody Herman, Benny Carter, Flip Phillips, Mel Powell, Bud Freeman, Kenny Davern, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie and George Van Eps, as well as notable contemporaries Scott Hamilton and Ken Peplowski.
Howard Alden has been a Concord Jazz recording artist since the late ’80s where his prolific recorded output has captured an artist of consistently astonishing virtuosity and originality. One of the many highlights in Alden’s fruitful association with Concord Jazz came in 1991 when he recorded with one of his all-time heroes, seven-string guitar master George Van Eps on the album ‘Thirteen Strings.’ As a result of their collaboration, Alden has been playing the seven-string guitar ever since, imparting a greater range and harmonic richness to his already colorful tonal palette.
Howard Alden can be heard on the soundtrack to the 1999 Woody Allen movie “Sweet and Lowdown”, starring Sean Penn, who was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as a legendary jazz guitarist in the ’30s. Howard not only played all the guitar solos, but also coached Mr. Penn on playing the guitar for his role in the film. In 2004, Alden was the guitarist (and musical director) chosen for an all-star line-up commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival, touring 50 cities of the United States in addition to their appearance at the Newport Festival.
Howard Alden was voted “Best Emerging Talent-Guitar” in the first annual JazzTimes critics poll in 1990, and he was voted “Talent Deserving Wider Recognition” in Downbeat Magazine’s critics poll in 1992, ’93, ’95 and ’96. In February of 2009, Howard was recognized as a “Modern Maestro” and one of Downbeat Magazine’s ’75 Great Guitarists of All Time.’
KIT EAKLE, Violin
“Jazz violinist Kit Eakle delivers…” – Andrew Gilbert
The leader of DjangoSphere, Kit Eakle is known as one of the most original improvising jazz violinists on the West Coast. A native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Kit studied violin with Detlev Ohlshausen and attended the University of California at Davis, taking a course with great composer John Gage. Kit made the move to Canada and began touring with legendary Canadian rock bands, Blackfish Sound and Roadside Attraction. Splitting his time between Vancouver, British Columbia and the San Francisco Bay Area, Kit continues to garner accolades from critics and musicians alike. Kit is a internationally recognized jazz violinist, violin teacher, educator, and publisher of music education materials; he has a Masters in Music Education from the University of Victoria, Canada.
Kit Eakle has shared the stage with David Grisman, Dan Hicks, Martín Fierro, John Lee Hooker, Joe Craven, Mads Tolling, David LaFlame and Paul Mehling. In the SF Bay Area, he has performed as a member of the Hot Club of Marin, Django Obscura, The Sons of Emperor Norton, Sugar Moon, The Mark Holzinger Band, his own FiddleJazz, which performs “A Brief History of Jazz Violin,” and The Eakle Brothers with his brother, notable David Grisman flutist, Matt Eakle.
Currently Kit Eakle hosts a jazz violin concert series he established in the SF Bay Area that features many of the finest jazz violinists in the world, called Point Richmond Jazz. He is also listed on the faculty of the California Jazz Conservatory — teaching a course in the history of Jazz violin.
