Sunday, January 11, 2026, 4:00 PM – 8:00 PM
A special celebration of the Erik Satie Project which will open with a short performance from classical pianist Jae Kyo Han who will play the original versions of Gnossiennes 1 and 3, and Gymnopedies 1, 2 and 3. This will be followed by the Tessa Souter Quartet, performing their arrangements of Satie and other music from the album Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project - a DownBeat Best Jazz Album of 2025 and the German audiophile magazine Audio-StereoPlay's pick as 2025's Best Jazz Vocal Album. The concert will be followed by a party with WHITE drinks and vittels in honor of the eccentric French composer's claim that he ate only white foods - eggs, sugar, white cheese, rice, turnips, shredded bones and animal fat. Our menu will be an adaptation - white cheeses, white baguettes, white grapes and other palateable white foods (no animal fats or shredded bones) and a selection of fine French white wines.
4:00PM Jae Kyo Han
4:30PM Tessa Souter Quartet
6:00-8:00PM Party
Mentored by jazz legends Mark Murphy, who called her “an extraordinary talent, remarkable and very moving,” and NEA Jazz Master Sheila Jordan, who puts her “at the top of my list of great talent,” vocalist Tessa Souter‘s critically-acclaimed voice and penchant for exploring music mostly untouched by other vocalists, has “set her apart as one of the few exceptional standouts in the crowded field of female jazz singers.” (Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times) Praised for her “butterscotch timbres” (★★★★ DownBeat), hauntingly evocative lyrics, and genre-defying artistry, her new album Shadows and Silence: The Erik Satie Project (2025, Noanara), features the talents of her long-time core band, Luis Perdomo, Yasushi Nakamura and Billy Drummond, with special guests Steve Wilson and Nadje Noordhuis. Bringing fresh narratives to Erik Satie’s iconic Gnossiennes and Gymnopédies with her original lyrics, and bold new jazz arrangements by GRAMMY-winner Luis Perdomo, it has been acclaimed as “a work of true brilliance” (UK Jazz News), “a masterpiece” (Audio Stereoplay) and “outstanding”(★★★★ Jazzwise). “Like the late Abbey Lincoln, Souter’s wordsmithery concerns big, even existential topics, such as the nature of beauty and the essence of existence . . . Moving, engaging, and highly emotional … this is something I actually want to listen to.” (New York Sun).
Tessa Souter is a 2025 Artistic Projects Program grantee from Chamber Music America funded through the generosity of the Howard Gilman Charitable Foundation
Luis Perdomo Grammy® Award winning pianist Luis Perdomo has released nine critically acclaimed recordings as a leader, and has appeared on over 200 recordings as a sideman. Perdomo holds a bachelor's degree from the Manhattan School of Music, where he was a student of Harold Danko, and a master's degree from Queens College, where he studied with Sir Roland Hanna. In addition, he studied with Gerry Weil, his first teacher at age 10, Martha Pestalozzi, and Jaki Byard.
Perdomo has performed and recorded with a wide variety of artists, such as Ravi Coltrane, David Gilmore, Jerry Bergonzi, Tom Harrell, Brian Lynch, Ray Barretto, Henry Threadgill, Ralph Irizarry, David Sanchez, George Garzone, Jerry Gonzalez, the Fort Apache Band, and The Vanguard Orchestra amongst others—a list that is as notable both by its high standard as well as its diversity.
Billy Drummond Acclaimed by Downbeat as “one of the hippest bandleaders now at work,” Billy Drummond’s thrilling, powerful and highly musical playing has also made him one of the most called-for sidemen of his generation. Mentored in the bands of jazz legends Horace Silver, Joe Henderson, Bobby Hutcherson, J J Johnson and Sonny Rollins, Drummond is now widely acknowledged as one of today’s most versatile drummers, hired by a veritable who’s who of jazz greats and appearing on over 350 albums. He has made four albums as a leader—including Dubai, which was a New York Times Number 1 Jazz Album of the Year, and was recently honored by Modern Drummer magazine as “one of the 50 Crucial Jazz Drumming Recordings of the Past 100 Years.” His latest release, Valse Sinistre (Cellar Live), was named, among other accolades, Number 3 on the Top 40 Albums of 2022 by JazzTimes, and was a Downbeat Best Album of 2022.
Yasushi Nakamura Grammy-nominated bassist Yasushi Nakamura is praised for imaginative, quicksilver bass lines that deepen the groove. His blend of guitar-like precision and gut-level blues has sparked collaborations with artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Wycliffe Gordon, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Hank Jones, Dave Douglas, Steve Miller, etc. With his charismatic stage presence and artful, hard swinging melodic touch, Nakamura is a first-call performer capturing new audiences and fans around the world.
Born in Tokyo, Nakamura moved to the United States at age 9, and considers both places home. He began with clarinet and tenor saxophone, but his older brother’s study of guitar and drums drove him to pick up the bass. His love of rock and funk aside, the music of Charlie Parker, Ray Brown, Miles Davis were a potent influence on him. Nakamura received a BA in Jazz Performance from Berklee School of Music in 2000, and was awarded a full scholarship to The Juilliard School for his Artist Diploma in 2006. He credits Myron Walden as an early champion, and keeps close ties to Juilliard mentors Victor Goines, Wycliffe Gordon, and Carl Allen, Ben Wolfe all of whom maintain him in their bands.
Nakamura’s career is flourishing, with consistent engagements at premier jazz festivals including Tokyo, North Sea, Monterey, Ravinia, and venues such as Birdland, Village Vanguard, the Blue Note, the Kennedy Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, and Carnegie Hall. In 2014, he was honored to play the “NEA Jazz Masters Concert: Celebrating Jamey Abersold, Anthony Braxton, Richard Davis, and Keith Jarrett,” sharing the stage with Joe Lovano and Dave Liebman. A wide array of projects permits him to explore musical styles and collaborations.
Jae Kyo Han Jae Kyo Han grew up listening to his sisters play the piano, and started taking lessons when he was 4. Early on he began to compete, receiving top prizes in several competitions such as NEPTA, MMTA and was a finalist in the 14th Chiang Wen-Yeh International Young Artist Piano Competition. He was also twice selected to perform in Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, both times as a winner of the American Fine Arts Festival. Jae has also participated in piano festivals in New York City (The Beethoven Institute, IKIF), Austria (Mozarteum International Summer Academy), and England (Oxford Philomusica). He will open the program with the original classical versions of Erik Satie's Gymnopedies (1 and 3) and Gnossiennes (1, 2 and 3).
