Jazz to take center stage at Filene

The Filene Concert Series at Skidmore College, which regularly provides audiences with the chance to hear live performances by top artists representing a wide array of musical genres and styles, turns its focus to jazz in November with performances by guitarist Adam Rogers and his quartet and pianist Lewis Porter.

Since 1982 the series has brought to the Skidmore campus major international artists to teach and perform. The series was established through the generosity of the Lincoln and Therese Filene Foundation.

Adam Rogers will lead a jazz quartet at Skidmore on Thursday, Nov. 12. The 8 p.m. event will feature Rogers with Ed Simon on piano; James Genus, bass; and Adam Cruz, drums. General admission for the performance is $5, or $2 for students and seniors.

On Wednesday, Nov. 11, Rogers will coach Skidmore?s small jazz ensembles at 4 p.m. in Filene Recital Hall, and he and his quartet?s musicians will present individual master classes for Skidmore students on drums, bass, guitar and piano at 8 p.m., in a location to be announced.

The classes are free and the public is invited to observe.

The residency is Rogers? second visit to Skidmore this year; he performed in March with Chris Potter?s Underground. He has been the guitarist of choice for many of the greatest names in jazz, rock and world music, including Michael and Randy Brecker, Cassandra Wilson, Lizz Wright, Walker Becker (of Steely Dan), John Zorn, and Norah Jones. He also co-led the critically acclaimed Lost Tribe, which released three albums.

Rogers has released four albums as a leader since 2002, with his most recent being Time and the Infinite, with Scott Colley and Bill Stewart. Since the beginning of his professional career he has played on more than 150 commercially released recordings.

Rogers was the 2008 recipient of the prestigious North Sea Jazz Festival's Paul Acket Award, in the category of ?Artist Deserving Wider Recognition.?

Born and raised in New York, he studied jazz guitar with Barry Galbraith, Howard Collins, and John Scofield. During four years at the Mannes College New School of Music he studied classical guitar with Frederic Hand.

Jazz pianist, educator, and jazz history expert Lewis Porter will share insights and sounds of the late jazz greats Miles Davis and John Coltrane during his Skidmore visit at 7 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 15.

Labeled "a helluva piano player" by Jazz Times, Porter will perform a solo jazz program dedicated to Coltrane and his music in Filene Recital Hall.

The event is open to the public, and general admission is $5, or $2 for students and seniors.

The following day, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. Monday, Nov. 16, Porter will give a presentation on Davis and Coltrane in Emerson Auditorium at Palamountain Hall, incorporating rare video and audio materials.

A renowned jazz scholar, Porter has authored and edited numerous books, including the acclaimed study, John Coltrane: His Life and Music (1998, University of Michigan Press). The book won the 1999 Jazz Research Award from the Association of Recorded Sound Collections.

He is a frequent guest on public radio, often quoted in print (and occasionally appears on TV and film (BET, BBC). He made numerous media appearances in 2005 about his role in researching and releasing the Monk/Coltrane Carnegie Hall recording.

In 1996 Porter was nominated for a Grammy in the category "Best Historical Reissue," for his role in producing a boxed set of Coltrane?s Atlantic Recordings.

He completed a jazz encyclopedia which is available online.

Porter earned his doctorate at Brandeis University, and is a professor of music at Rutgers University, where he founded and directs the master?s program in jazz history and research. While full-time at Rutgers, he has also taught at the New School, Manhattan School of Music, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and as a guest at colleges in the U.S. and Europe.

"I've never heard anything from Lewis that wasn't interesting, by which I mean stimulating, provocative, and funny. I've always appreciated the way that he tucks nuggets of deep thinking into his self-described 'rambling' manner," wrote another music professor, Bill Bauer, about Porter.