Giacomo Gates
Sunday, October 6, 2024 at 3:00pm
Crowell Concert Hall
Free and open to the public
Wesleyan students, faculty, and staff can RSVP on WesNest, but reservations are not required.
Enjoy a rousing concert by Giacomo Gates, Jazz Vocal Instructor, who brings a masterful and fun approach to improvisation, entertaining as it is studied, and rooted in the bebop tradition of artists such as Jon Hendricks, Babs Gonzales, King Pleasure, and most of all Eddie Jefferson. A gifted educator, Gates has been teaching at Wesleyan University since 1999, where he places technique hand in hand with the passing down of oral traditions and exposure to the profound creators in the jazz legacy, a methodology he cites as a cornerstone of the jazz tradition.
Gates will be accompanied by pianist Tomoko Ohno and Phil Bowler on acoustic bass. The group will perform repertoire from the Great Amercian Songbook (including George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Morgan Lewis and Nancy Hamilton, and Johnny Mercer) along with compositions from jazz masters (including Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Gigi Gryce, Charlie Parker, and Jon Hendricks).
Gates does more than sing “a bunch of songs.” He is truly an entertainer, for all ages and styles. His sheer joy, exuberance, wit and unlimited creativity make him one of jazz’s most compelling artists. Over the past three decades, Gates has released ten albums on various labels, and has appeared frequently in DownBeat magazine's "Critics Poll" and in the Jazz Journalists Association’s "Jazz Awards." In addition to his own touring from Canada and Europe to Russia and Australia, Gates has performed and recorded with numerous other artists, including Kurt Elling, Lou Donaldson, Freddie Hubbard, Rufus Reid, Sheila Jordan, Jon Faddis, Peter Washington, Ben Riley, and Billy Taylor.