Acclaimed Pianist and Composer, Caili O’Doherty to Perform at the Vermont Jazz Center on October 1st
On Saturday, October 1st at 8:00 PM, the Vermont Jazz Center will present the Caili O’Doherty Quartet as part of their Emerging Artist Series. O’Doherty is a young, highly acclaimed pianist who hails from Portland, Oregon. She will be performing with her working Quartet, three of whom appeared on her recent recording “Padme,” which won NPR’s 2015 Jazz Critics’ Debut Album Award. Caili is a virtuosic talent as both a composer and pianist – she has received national awards for jazz piano performance and composition from Downbeat Magazine as well as an ACAP Foundation Young Jazz Composer Award.
Caili has participated in two tours as a State Department Jazz Ambassador to Colombia, Togo and Benin. She is an instructor at Berklee’s Global Jazz Institute and was a featured performer at the Mary Lou William’s Women in Jazz Festival at The Kennedy Center. O’Doherty has presented her music at the Monterey Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Kimmel Center, the Toronto Jazz Festival, the Panama Jazz Festival (opening for the Wayne Shorter Quartet), Mt. Hood Jazz Festival (as pianist for Terrell Stafford), Portland Jazz Festival, the Guinness Cork Festival (Ireland), Boston Beantown Jazz Festival, MICI International Film Festival in Mexico, Stanford Jazz Festival, San Jose Jazz Festival, and UNESCO First International Jazz Day in Paris.
O’Doherty will perform with her powerhouse quartet with Caroline Davis on alto saxophone, Jared Henderson on double bass and Cory Cox on drums. They will be performing material from their album “Padme” and will explore new material from a new group O’Doherty and saxophonist Davis will soon be touring.
One of the turning points in O’Doherty’s musical development was participating in the Berklee Global Jazz Institute where, under the tutelage of jazz stars Danilo Perez and Terri Lyne Carrington, she conducted workshops and master classes in the US and abroad performing at prisons, orphanages, women’s shelters, and other venues to bring jazz to a wider audience. Through this experience, she observed and learned the process of using music to “bring communities together and help people connect and cope in difficult circumstances.”
Through the Global Jazz Institute, O’Doherty traveled to Panama three times and worked with Perez’s Foundation in low-income neighborhoods in the old city. While reflecting on these experiences, she notes “I saw in Panama and West Africa that music can be a really healing thing for these kids that maybe don’t have food or clean water or shelter over their heads. [those experiences] shaped my desire to work with kids in those circumstances…I’ve seen how music can be a vehicle for social change and healing. I strive to incorporate those ideas in my daily life.” O’Doherty has worked or now works in several youth programs such as Harlem Children’s Zone, the Berklee City music program and the WeBop early education program at Lincoln Center. She also teaches at Litchfield and Standford Jazz Workshops.
O’Doherty’s experiences as a Jazz Ambassador and her work with the Global Jazz Initiative affected her greatly. She said “it changed the way that I worked, the way that I started writing music and the reasons why I compose. It gave me a reason for playing music—instead of not knowing exactly why…it gave me a direction and showed me what the future could look like. And it was that—community service and using music as a message of peace and community with other countries—that gave me a lot of purpose, which was really useful when I came to New York.” O’Doherty walks the walk – she is now attempting to live by her code, teaching youth in poor neighborhoods and reaching out to the disenfranchised. She has also had success in melding her humanist ideals into her own art and complementing her performance with concepts of social justice. In her review of “Padme,” Carol Banks Weber of AXS chose the tune “Tree of Return” to illuminate O’Doherty’s thoughtful integration of music and activism. In her review she states: “Tree of Return tells the story of people from Ouidah, Benin, West Africa, slated to board slavery ships long ago. These West Africans would circle an old tree three times with the hope of coming back to their roots one day. [O’Doherty] wrote the song after traveling to and learning about the Gate of No Return slave port in Benin. The song itself makes the listener feel what it must have been like for the Africans about to leave the only home they ever knew, somehow capturing the sights and sounds in a kind of quiet chaos, the panic inexorably rising to the surface in incredible waves, overlaying a dense sense of disquiet and strength.” In telling the story, O’Doherty cultivates an awareness in her audience; she is using art to educate us, to plant a hopeful seed with the goal of nurturing empathy and preventing history from repeating itself. She states: “When you’re very clear what you’re doing it all for, it gives everything a bigger purpose.”
Caili O’Doherty will be performing with Caroline Davis on alto saxophone. Davis arrived in New York in 2013 and has shared musical moments with Matt Wilson, Ellis Marsalis, Matt Mitchell, Randy Brecker, Bobby Broom, Ron Miles, Allison Miller and many others. Davis earned a Ph.D. in Music Cognition at Northwestern University in 2010. She has been a guest educator at Northwestern University, University of Colorado at Boulder, St. Xavier University, Columbia College, DePaul University, University of Texas at Arlington, Loyola University, Texas Tech and Jazz at Lincoln Center. She has also participated in several jazz mentorship programs, including IAJE’s Sisters in Jazz and The Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program.
Bassist Jared Henderson has performed with David Liebman, the Mike Bono Group, Hannah Read Band and the Jason Palmer Quintet. Drummer Cory Cox was selected to participate in the High School Grammy Jazz Ensemble which resulted in a scholarship from Blue Note recording artist Jason Moran to attend college. He was a 2006-08 Brubeck Institute Fellow receiving ensemble coaching from mentors including Dave Brubeck, Joe Gilman, Fred Hersch, Robert Glasper, Bob Hurst, Christian McBride, Jeff “Tain” Watts, Eric Harland, Freddie Hubbard, Nicholas Payton, Miguel Zenon and Joshua Redman. While Cox was drumming for the Brubeck Institute Quintet, it was selected as the 2007 Down Beat Magazine best college ensemble. He has performed and toured with the Dave Brubeck Quartet, Reggie Workman, the Ben Flocks Quartet, John Ellis, Joel Frahm, Marcus Strickland, Jimmy Owens and others.
The present and future of jazz is in good hands. Come see the newer generation demonstrate their integrity and superb musicianship. The Vermont Jazz Center presents The Caili O’Doherty Quartet on Saturday, October 1st at 8:00 PM. The VJC is especially grateful for sponsorship of this event by a “Friend of the Vermont Jazz Center’s Summer Workshop.” The “friend’s” contributions made this concert possible. The VJC is also grateful for the ongoing support from the Vermont Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. VJC publicity is underwritten by the Brattleboro Reformer, WVPR, WVEW, WFCR and Chris Lenois of WKVT’s Green Mountain Mornings.
Tickets for the Emerging Artist Series at the Vermont Jazz Center are $20+ general admission, $15 for students with I.D. (contact VJC about educational discounts); available at In the Moment in Brattleboro, or online at www.vtjazz.org, by email at ginger@vtjazz.org. Tickets can also be reserved by calling the Vermont Jazz Center ticket line at 802-254-9088, ext. 1. Handicapped access is available by calling the VJC at 802 254 9088.
Contact: Eugene Uman – eugene@vtjazz.org
O’Doherty Videos:
https://vimeo.com/126207649
Caili O’Doherty Quartet @ VJC
Concert Date – October 1st, 2016, Press Release date: September 23
Press Release
Contact Eugene Uman, Vermont Jazz Center, 802 254 9088, eugene@vtjazz.org
Short Summary
Who: Caili O’Doherty Quartet
What: Original Jazz Music
When: Saturday, October 1st, at 8:00 PM
Where: The Vermont Jazz Center, 72 Cotton Mill Hill, #222, Brattleboro, VT 05301
Tickets available: online at www.vtjazz.org, by email at ginger@vtjazz.org, by phone 802 254 9088, in person at In The Moment, Main St., Brattleboro, VT.
A plug for the radio show previews
Eugene almost always does an interview with jazz artists prior to their upcoming show, and last night on WVEW he had Caili on to discuss music, piano playing, her upcoming show, etc. We listeners also get a chance to hear some of each artist prior to the concert.
What makes this especially informative is that the host and guest are both musical, and topics often center around playing, listening, influences, etc.
I don’t have anything particular to say about this, other than it is a great local radio show that is useful if you are considering attending jazz center events. Caili sounded quite nice, too. : )
Listen in Tuesday nights on WVEW 107.7fm.