(HUDSON, N.Y.) – The Quartet, a local jazz ensemble led by flutist Stuart Quimby, will perform a tribute to jazz composer-musicians Mal Waldron and Bill Evans at Spotty Dog Books & Ale on Friday, August 19, at 8pm. The two composers also shared a birthday – August 16.  Joining Quimby are drummer Otto Hauser and special guests Tyler Wood on piano and Otto Gardner on bass.

Mal Waldron and Bill Evans were two of the giants of modern jazz.  Waldron led his own bands and played for those led by Charles Mingus, Jackie McLean, John Coltrane, and Eric Dolphy, among others as well as being a regular accompanist for Billie Holiday.

Bill Evans was the pianist for the Miles Davis Sextet in the late 1950s, playing on “Kind of Blue,” – the best-selling jazz album of all time – and later formed his own seminal trio with Scott LaFaro and Paul Motian.

Both Evans and Waldron wrote many compositions that have become standards in the jazz repertoire.

The event will be an exploration of their compositions and many of the tunes in which where their performances are considered iconic.

 

Otto Hauser is a musician, composer, and educator best known for his work as a drummer. In addition to solo performances, Hauser leads the ensemble Expectations and co-leads the trio Late Regulars. Over the past twenty years, he has performed on dozens of studio albums and hundreds of live shows across North America, South America, Europe, and Asia, working with diverse artists such as folk legends Kath Bloom, Vashti Bunyan, Mike Heron, Michael Hurley, and Bert Jansch; rockers the Black Crowes, Gary Louris, Jeff Tweedy, and Tony Visconti; drum legends Steve Gadd and Bobby Previte; the unclassifiable Meshell Ndegeocello; and many contemporary indie and folk acts, including Nat Baldwin, Devendra Banhart, Richard Buckner, Espers, Josephine Foster, Fruit Bats, Cass McCombs, Juana Molina, Elvis Perkins, Sharon Van Etten, Vetiver, and Jonathan Wilson.

 

Stuart Quimby has at any one time been a classical and jazz composer, and professional musician (flute, vocals, most of the baroque wind instruments, the Balinese gamelan instruments suling bali, saron, and reong, the blues harp and chromatic harmonica, the trumpet, various keyboards – especially early synths – and several experimental instruments of his own design). In addition he’s been a music educator, network analyst and designer, security consultant, geometer, lecturer on childhood education, applied mathematician, toy manufacturer and designer, chef, programmer, restaurateur, and mechanical engineer.

Quimby has studied with Richard Davis, Paul Robeson, Les Thimmig, Roscoe Mitchell, Robert Dick, Doc Cheatham, Jean-Pierre Rampal, and Frans Brüggen among many others.  An abbreviated list of his credits include stints with Luther Allison and the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and performances with Paquito D’Rivera, Ben Sidran, Vassar Clements, Jimmy Schwall, Gordon Lightfoot, the Brüggen Quartet, several chamber groups and classical ensembles, as well as the jazz quartet M.2.Q, which he co-founded. He has recorded on numerous albums over the years in multiple genres.

 

Tyler Wood was born and raised in the northeast corner of the U.S. Although Presque Isle, Maine, is known more for its potatoes and skidoos, he had a rich musical upbringing and nurturing teachers. His first instruments were piano, trumpet, and cardboard-box drums.

When Wood went off to college, his plan to study astrophysics was virtually eclipsed by the purchase of a real drum-set and a newfound love for hip-hop and recording. The campus had a dingy basement studio, where he encountered his first reel-to-reel tape machine and his first sampler. He began playing, recording, and mixing music of all kinds. Upon arriving in Brooklyn in 2006, Wood was greeted by a bed-bug infestation and a furniture moving job. Not to be thwarted, he soon began to tour and record with acts such as Luke Temple, Glass Ghost, Chester French, and Joan as Police Woman. During this time, he also built a studio and a parallel career producing, recording, and mixing records.

In 2009, Wood reconnected with an old acquaintance. Immediately recognizing her brilliance, Wood teamed up with fellow Mainer and fellow “T.W.” Therese Workman to form Oh My Goodness. Their debut album is nearly complete.

 

Bassist Otto Gardner is a resident of Chatham, N.Y., and is currently on the music teaching faculty at Bard College.

 

The Spotty Dog Books & Ale is at 440 Warren St., in Hudson, N.Y. The phone number is 518-671-6006.