(HUDSON, N.Y.) — Brooklyn-based jazz pianist David Caldwell-Mason will bring his trio to Hudson Opera House on Saturday, October 19, 2013, at 8pm, for a program of jazz standards, Bulgarian folk music, and original compositions. Joining him will be two Chilean jazz phenoms – bassist Pablo Menares and drummer Felix Lecaros.
After a decade on the New York jazz scene, pianist David Caldwell-Mason has cultivated a unique sound with his trio. The group fuses elements of the jazz, classical, and gospel traditions to create a sound that is both lyrical and rhythmically compelling. Caldwell- Mason has performed abroad and in the US, including NYC’s Harvard Club, Tea Lounge, the Greenwich Village Bistro, and the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.
David Caldwell-Mason began playing classical piano at the age of five under the direction of the renowned Berkshire piano instructor Hilda Shapiro. After discovering an affinity for jazz and improvised music in his teens, he received instruction from John Sauer and Dan Dobek. After receiving his Associate of Arts degree from Simon’s Rock College in Great Barrington, Mass., he continued his education in the jazz program at William Paterson University, under the tutelage of Armen Donelian.
Over the course of a decade on the New York jazz scene, Caldwell-Mason has released two albums as a leader. He also appears on the North Carolina based Trachy/Lacey Collective’s debut offering “Lanky” and is featured on veteran tenor saxophonist Brian Patneaude’s most recent release, “All Around Us.”
Pablo Menares is one of the most highly regarded bass players in Chile. His playing, firmly rooted in swing and polyrhythmic concepts, is elegant, musical and lyrical. He has performed and recorded with the leading jazz musicians of Chile and has performed at major jazz festivals all over South America. Since moving to New York City in 2009, he has worked widely in both jazz and Latin music. He has performed in many of New York’s notable jazz venues, including Lincoln Center, Jazz Gallery, Smoke, Smalls Jazz Club, Fat Cat, 55 Bar and Carnegie Hall. Among the luminaries with whom he has performed are Sam Yahel, Arturo O’Farrill, Randy Brecker, Aaron Goldberg, Claudia Acuña and Francisco Mela.
Felix Lecaros is one of the most sought after drummers in Chile and a member of a dozen jazz projects simultaneously. A long-standing presence in Chilean music his father, Roberto, better known as Maestro Lecaros, is a renowned musician and indefatigable educato and a pioneer of jazz education in Chile. Popular Music Workshop), A strong family lineage that is hailed as responsible (to a great extent), to the development of new musicians, which has strongly influenced the local scene as songwriters, musicians and educators in Chile. Lecaros has has jammed and played with musical greats such as Wynton Marsalis, Danilo Pérez, Bruce Barth, Mike Stern, Yellowjackets, Seamus Blake, Perico Sambeat, Bill Stewart and Kevin Hays, among many others. In 2007 he was invited to a drums clinic during Zildjan Day, along with Cindy Blackman and Oscar Giunta.
The Hudson Opera House offers a year-round schedule of arts and cultural programming in the former Hudson City Hall, which houses New York State’s oldest surviving theatre. Since opening the first restored “West” room in December 1997, five additional rooms on the first floor have been rehabilitated, within which thousands of cultural and educational programs have been presented, Over 1000 in the last year alone. The Hudson Opera House provides free or low-cost cultural offerings every week of the year. Ongoing programs include concerts, readings, lectures, exhibitions, theatre and dance presentations, after-school programs, workshops, classes and community arts events like the annual Winter Walk on Warren Street produced by the Hudson Opera House.