$20 MEMBERS / $25 ADVANCE / $30 DAY OF
SEATED SHOW / ALL AGES

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ABOUT HOLIDAY JAZZ

Genre: Jazz/Holiday

Join us for an evening of Holiday Jazz with the Josefina Mendez Quintet as they present whimsical and poignant takes of well-loved holiday classics.

The Josefina Mendez Quintet is:

Josefina Mendez (Vocalist)

Josefina Mendez started studying music and training her voice at the age of 15 in her home town of Buenos Aires Argentina. Even though her voice lessons were Italian Opera, her passion and practice was jazz. At the age of 18 she was the youngest person to perform with the Argentine National Jazz Orchestra. She moved to the U.S. in 2001 and for the last 16 years she has been performing in the Roaring Fork Valley with Tim Fox, Mark Johnson, Chris Bank and Walter Gorra, among others. She is continuing her studies after receiving a certification of Voice Technique, Ear Training and Musicianship at Berklee School of Music.

The music performed by Josefina combines rhythms, melodies, and different performance traditions that surpass the boundaries between language and culture.

Mark Johnson (saxophonist)

Multi-instrumentalist, recording artist with JVC records, producer and arranger for noted contemporary jazz performers Special EFX, Larry Coryell, Nelson Rangell, The Fantasy Band, Walter Beasley, Mark Whitfield, Alex Bugnon, Gerald Veasley, Bryan Savage, Roseanna Vitro, George Jinda’s World News, Dave Valentine, Hiram Bullock, Chuck Loeb, NYC Percussionwerks, Cheili Minnuci, and the Smooth Players.

Walter Gorra (pianist)

Walter Gorra is an award-winning pianist, composer and arranger based out of the New York/New Jersey metro area. Currently 28 years old, Walter graduated from the University of Colorado at Boulder Magna Cum Laude and High Honors in May 2017 with the following three degrees – MS Structural engineering, BM Jazz Piano and BS Civil Engineering. He then pursued a master’s degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging at William Paterson University in New Jersey, graduating in May 2019.

In 2016, Walter led his Colorado quartet in a two-month residency at the Denver jazz club – Nocturne Jazz and Supper Club; performing his original music and arrangements. After completing this residency, he and his group, the Walter Gorra Quartet, dove into the studio to record Walter’s debut album “In Due Time” which was released August 1, 2018. “In Due Time” was nominated for the 17th annual Independent Music Awards (The IMAs) as “Best Jazz Instrumental Album” and in September of 2018 was selected as CD of the month by KUVO Jazz in Denver, CO. In Walter’s own words “music is a way to express oneself in a way that is often more powerful than words. Through my compositions and my playing I can describe people, places and experiences in the best way that I can. My debut album, ‘In Due Time,’ is really a snapshot of many of the events and people that have influenced me as a musician and as a person.”

Walter has worked with Billy Childs, Rufus Reid, Pete McGuinness, Ingrid Jensen, Dave Douglas, Bill Charlap, and Harold Mabern, to name a few. Walter has performed with various ensembles at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola-Jazz at Lincoln Center, Ravinia Festival, Monterey Jazz Festival, the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Festival, the Puerto Rico Heineken Jazz Festival, the Telluride Jazz Festival with the Telluride All-Stars and at the Five Points Festival in Denver. His compositions have won first rate awards. “Jazongo,” the third cut on “In Due Time’ earned a 2014 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer’s Award. In 2018 his original composition “Bandwidth” was the Downbeat Student Music Awards Graduate Winner. In the performance category, he collaborated with the Mariela Versola Quartet winning the Latin Group – Graduate College 2019 Downbeat Student Music Award.

Tim Emmons (Bassist)

Timothy Emmons, a native of West Hollywood California, worked extensively as a freelance musician in Los Angeles. He is a veteran of over two hundred and eighty film and television scores including the movies Up, The Incredibles, Ratouille, Jurassic World, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Mission Impossible 3 and 4, Super 8, Cars 2, John Carter, Star Trek XI and X and Star Trek;Into Darkness, The Tale of Desperaux, Collateral Damage, The Negotiator, The Day After Tomorrow, Miss Congeniality, Something’s Gotta Give, and The Wedding Planner. Television work includes Lost, The Simpsons, Family Guy, Battlestar Gallactica, the 2010 Winter Olympics, American Music Awards, and the Muppet Family Christmas. He also worked in the pit for musical theater productions in LA’s best theaters including the Schubert Theater, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion and Disney Hall.

He received his M.M. in Jazz Studies from the University of Southern California and studied Arranging and Film and Television composition for two years at the premier modern music school of Dick Grove. He also earned a B.A. from the University of California Santa Barbara.

Tim has decades of teaching and playing experience and is the author of “Odd Meter Bass”, a book/CD Bass method published by Alfred Music. He is co-author, along with Fred Sokolow, of “Fretboard Roadmaps for Bass Guitar” published by Hal Leonard Music. He is a contributor to the book “The Funkmasters; The Rhythm Sections of James Brown” for Alfred Music and has written numerous articles for Bass Player magazine.

Tim Fox

Tim Fox graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Music Education. He has played trumpet and/or piano in the Chicago area, around Colorado’s Western Slope, and on the road, with the likes of “The Tommy Dorsey Orchestra,” under the direction of Buddy Morrow, “The Temptations” and “The Four Tops,” Eric Alexander, Ed Soph, Ernie Watts, Red Skelton, Barbara Eden, Connie Francis, Mitzi Gaynor, and with many more. Tim facilitated, with the generous support of Jazz Aspen Snowmass (JAS,) the Roaring Fork Jazz Workshop, and worked closely with the JAS’s education initiatives. He is currently a freelance musician, living near the southern Door County, Wisconsin, but still  collaborates with musicians from Denver to Grand Junction, and  considers himself a member of the Josefina Mendez Jazz trio and Elements Jazz.  

Chris Goplerud

Drummer Chris Goplerud has been hittin’ things since he was eight years old. Began playing professionally when he was sixteen. At home in many genres of music, he loves the spontaneity in jazz. The freedom and responsibility of knowing when to cut loose, when to lay back. Playing the songs from the best seat in the house. A lucky guy!

Learn more: Website

DETAILS

• SHOW @ 8:00 pm / DOORS @ 7:00 pm
• SEATED SHOW / ALL AGES
• All ticket sales are final.

Presented By: The Arts Campus At Willits