Description

Curated by Stefany Calembert

JAMMIN’COLORS

Stefany was born in 1978 in Brussels. She started listening to music with the radio in the kitchen at home. Her father was a fan of Jazz and her mom in love with Rock & Soul. As a teenager, she spent most of her time in the streets, learning about life but also dancing and listening to Funk, Rap, Pop, Reggae & World Music. She was 17 years old when she began traveling, attending concerts and meeting musicians who explained to her the difficulties of managing themselves as artists. Music has always been her destination. In 2004 she started managing Belgian artists (saxophonist Erwin Vann & percussionist Chris Joris). The next year she took a trip to New York to discover all the jazz clubs and learn more about the music business. In Harlem she met bassist Reggie Washington who was touring with Steve Coleman and Roy Hargrove. She quickly learned about his musical world, then created Jammin’colorS and booked Reggie’s first European tour with Ravi Coltrane and Gene Lake in 2006. It marked the beginning of a long and beautiful musical adventure. She has booked more than 2000 concerts in famous clubs/venues/festivals all over the world (mainly in Europe) and she has created her own label (Jammin’colorS Records). Today she promotes and works with Reggie Washington, E.J. Strickland, Manuel Valera, Paul Jost, Jason Miles, Gene Lake, Hadar Noiberg & Laurent de Wilde. Over the past 15 years, she has collaborated with artists such as Ravi Coltrane, Lakecia Benjamin, The Headhunters, Screaming Headless Torsos, David Gilmore, Bob James, Oliver Lake, Matthew Garrison, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, Grégoire Maret, Federico Gonzalez Pena, Brandon Ross, Melvin Gibbs, JT Lewis, Bob Stewart, Poogie Bell, Jozef Dumoulin, Nelson Veras, Stéphane Galland and many more. Stefany believes more than ever that MUSIC is the answer to many troubles and wants to continue her work in mixing her 3 passions: music, nature and children.

Reggie Washington

Bassist Reggie Washington was a key participant in the Modern Jazz revolution of the ’80s and ’90s. He became known touring, recording, and performing with Steve Coleman, Branford Marsalis, Roy Hargrove, Chico Hamilton, Oliver Lake, Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron, Jean-Paul Bourelly, Lester Bowie and Ronald Shannon Jackson.

In 2005, Reggie began successfully touring with his own bands. They were a mix of American & European musicians such as Ravi Coltrane, Gene Lake, Stéphane Galland, Jef Lee Johnson, Erwin Vann, Jacques Schwarz-Bart, E.J Strickland, Jozef Dumoulin, Skoota Warner, Matthew Garrison, Marcus Strickland, Jason Lindner, Poogie Bell, and Ronny Drayton.

Paul Jost

Paul Jost is an eclectic artist from Philadelphia with great skills as a drummer, arranger and composer but it’s his voice that truly makes him a standout. Both critics and contemporaries alike say he is one of the best male jazz vocalists since Mark Murphy.  When describing this unique vocalist, two words come to mind, “passionate storyteller”. To Paul, each lyric offers a message and story which he conveys by his interpretation framed by his arrangements and in the honesty of his performance.

Manuel Valera

Born and raised in Havana, Grammy nominated, Guggenheim Fellow, pianist and composer Manuel Valera since arriving in NYC h as become well known in the modern jazz scene, garnering national reviews and lending his talents as a pianist and composer to such notable artists as Arturo Sandoval, Paquito D’Rivera, Brian Lynch, Dafnis Prieto, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Jeff “Tain” Watts, John Benitez, Samuel Torres, Joel Frahm, Yosvany Terry and classical violin virtuoso Joshua Bell among many others.

E.J. Strickland

Drummer E.J. Strickland (Enoch Jamal Strickland) was born in Gainesville and raised in Miami, Florida. His sound on the instrument has been described as “fields of cumulative energy, clouds of feather-touch and heavy-handed syncopations, latent with power like an oncoming storm” by Thomas Conrad of Downbeat Magazine. Some of his early influences include drummers like Elvin Jones, “Philly” Joe Jones, Tony Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Roy Haynes, Art Blakey, & Jeff “Tain” Watts.