May 21st, 1 pm. The Helen Sung Trio presents PUSH – Celebrating Women in Jazz
Simply put, Helen Sung is the most innovative, jaw-dropping new artist on the planet we have heard in years. She melds influences from jazz, classical, and Latin into astounding expeditions into new territories. Her latest album Quartet+ is breathtaking with incredibly tasteful, surprising, and dramatic new workings of some jazz standards, and inspiring original material. Currently residing in New York and touring major venues internationally, we are incredibly fortunate to have her make a stop in Newton on May 21st.

Helen is a 2021 Guggenheim Fellow. A native of Houston, Texas, and graduate of its High School for the Performing and Visual Arts (HSPVA), she went on to become part of the inaugural class of the Thelonious Monk Institute (now the Herbie Hancock Institute) at the New England Conservatory of Music. Her recent releases Sung With Words (Stricker Street), a collaborative project with renowned poet Dana Gioia, and Anthem For A New Day (Concord Jazz) topped the jazz charts. Quartet+ (Sunnyside Records), her latest release, followed suit, garnering a 4.5-star DownBeat review and inclusion in its “Best of 2021 Albums” list and a JazzTimes cover story (January 2022 issue). Helen and her band have at performed at Newport, Monterey, Disney Hall, SFJAZZ, and Carnegie Hall. Internationally, her “NuGenerations” Project toured southern Africa as a U.S. State Department Jazz Ambassador, and recent engagements include debuts at the London Jazz Festival, Jazz at Lincoln Center Shanghai, Blue Note Beijing, and the Sydney International Women’s Jazz Festival. She has performed with such luminaries as the late Clark Terry, Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis (who named her as one of his “Who’s Got Next: Jazz Musicians to Watch!”), MacArthur Fellow Regina Carter, and Grammy-winning artists including Terri Lyne Carrington, Cecile McLorin Salvant, and the Mingus Big Band. Helen is a Steinway Artist and has served on the jazz faculties at Berklee College of Music, the Juilliard School, and Columbia University.

Her trio includes David Wong, bass and Kendrick Scott, drums

david wongDavid Wong was born and raised in New York City and is a graduate of the LaGuardia High School for Music and Art and the Performing Arts. In 2004, he graduated from the Juilliard School in classical music. He has studied classical bass with Orin O’Brien of the New York Philharmonic, and jazz bass with legends Ron Carter, Ben Wolfe, and John Clayton. From 2003 to 2004, as part of the Eric Reed Trio, he performed in Europse and the United States, and with Jazz at Lincoln Center. He is currently a member of Roy Haynes’ Fountain of Youth band as well as bassist with the Heath Brothers quartet, led by jazz legends Jimmy and Albert “Tootie” Heath. David has also beeen performing with singer Sachal Vasandani, and pianists Jeb Patton. and Dan Nimmer, among others.

Since graduating from Berklee in 2002, Kendrick Scott has performed with a variety of name artists including the Jazz Crusaders, guitarist Pat Metheny, saxophonists Joe Lovano and Kenny Garrett, vocalists Dianne Reeves, Lizz Wright, Gretchen Parlato and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, to name a few. Scott’s debut recording with his group Oracle recorded The Source in 2006, including pianists Aaron Parks and Robert Glasper, guitarist Lionel Loueke, vocalist Gretchen Parlato, and others. Scott also performed with the Terence Blanchard Quintet on the album A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) (2007), which was nominated for two Grammy Awards for 2008. Kendrick was a member of the band that accompanied Terence Blanchard to the Monterey Jazz Festival’s 50th anniversary in 2007, and Scott embarked on the 22-state tour, starting in January, 2008 with the 50th Anniversary MJF All-Star Band. It featured the leaders of the past, present and future with Terence Blanchard on trumpet, James Moody on saxophone, Benny Green on piano, Derrick Hodge on bass, and jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon. Scott also currently plays with the Charles Lloyd Quartet, featuring alongside Reuben Rogers on bass, and Gerald Clayton on piano.