Event Info

Admission is only $10 (FREE for members!)

About

Paul Krassen, a jazz pianist, is a graduate of William Paterson College School of Jazz where he studied with such jazz luminaries as Rufus Reid, Norman Simmons, Harold Mabern, Rob Schneiderman, Pete Malinverni and many others. He also studied classically with the late Gary Kirkpatrick. Paul currently leads his Smoking Section Quintet and plays jazz gigs as a sideman throughout the Philadelphia area. He has released 2 CDs under his own name with Larry Mckenna and Tony DeSantis.

Saxophonist Victor North moved to Philadelphia from Girdwood, Alaska, after a year at Mason Gross School Of The Arts at Rutgers University and has been a staple on the Philadelphia Jazz Scene for 25 plus years, leading his own groups and working as a sideman. Currently a member of Joey DeFrancesco’s “Philly Trio”, since August of 2018, Victor has performed and/or recorded with Orrin Evans’ Captain Black Big Band, Elio Villafranca, Charles Fambrough, John Swana, Terell Stafford, Mickey Roker, Duane Eubanks, among others, and recently performed at New York City’s famed, Blue Note Jazz Club, as a  new member of Odean Pope’s Saxophone Choir. Victor can also be heard on Lucas Brown’s recently released CD, Skyviews.

Doug Drewes has been performing professionally and teaching music for over 20 years. He has a Bachelors of Music in Jazz Performance from the State University of New York at Purchase College. Doug is currently a Teaching Artist at Trenton Music Makers and a Faculty member at THe New York Jazz Academy. He has previously taught at Settlement Music School and Camp Encore/Coda. In addition he also maintains a busy performing schedule including performances at Carnegie Hall, The Kennedy Center for Performing Arts, New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and can be heard regularly at local Philadelphia venues. Doug's playing has been featured on recordings of hundreds of songs and can be heard on television shows for NBC, MTV, USA, and IFC. He has performed/recorded with Robert Randolph, Alexis Cole, Greg Hopkins, John Colianni, as well as many indie rock bands and hip hop producers. Doug studied bass with Dennis Irwin, Madison Rast, and Todd Coolman.

Byron Landham, known as "Wookie," was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on November 16th, 1969. He took an interest in drums at the age of 7 and studied classical percussion and jazz drumming at the Settlement Music School. He became a top call on the Philly jazz scene and has recorded on at least fifty CDs and played with many renowned musicians such as Betty Carter, George Coleman, Bobby Hutcherson, Joey DeFrencesco, Frank Wes, Pat Martino, Cyrus Chestnut, Russell Malone, Ruth Naomi Floyd, Hannibal Lokumbe and the Liberation Orchestra, and Dave Sanborn. He's currently on faculty at Temple University, Philadelphia (PA) as an adjunct Professor of Jazz Studies for Drumming and teaches drums and Jazz combo at the "We Love Jazz" summer music camp and jazz festival in Isola Del Cantone (Italy).

Elliot Bild, trumpeter, educator, and composer got his undergraduate degree from Western Michigan University where he studied with Scott Cowan, Andrew Rathbun and Edward Simon. Shortly after, he completed his Masters Degree from Temple University where he studied with Terell Stafford, John Swana and Dick Oatts. In August 2017, Elliot was selected along with 14 other fellows to participate in the Ravinia Steins Music Institute, a week-long workshop focusing on composition where he worked with Rufus Reid, Nathan Davis and Billy Childs. Later that summer, Elliot attended the Banff Workshop for Jazz and Creative Music, where he had the chance to work with Gary Bartz, Jeremy Pelt, Vijay Iyer, Tyshawn Sorey, Robin Eubanks and Tia Fuller, among others. In the Summer of 2018, Elliot was a sub trumpeter for the touring Big Apple Circus and became faculty of the Litchfield Jazz Camp. In April of 2019, Elliot was commissioned to write a big band piece for the Philadelphia Clef Club big band featuring Jaleel Shaw. Recently, he has performed with the great Philadelphia Bassist Mike Boone at Smalls Jazz Club in NYC as well as the 2019 Philadelphia Center City Jazz Festival, as part of his new working Quintet. He has also performed with such people as Orrin Evans and the Captain Black Big Band, Don Braden, John Swana, Duane Eubanks, Tim Warfield Jr., Bill Jolly, Norman David and the Eleventet, Randy Brecker, Dave Ballou, Avery Sharpe, Mike DiRubbo, Zaccai and Luques Curtis, Behn Gillece, Conrad Herwig, Nestor Torres, and Pablo Batista. Elliot is currently one of the top freelance trumpeters of the Philadelphia area, performing at such venues as Chris’s Jazz Cafe, South Jazz Kitchen, Smalls Jazz Club, Time, The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Fat Cat, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola, The Litchfield Jazz Festival, among others. Recently, Elliot and John Swana released “Car Licks Volume 1”, the first in a series of transcription books. Elliot Bild & The Zone’s first record was released November 25th 2020, and received 4 1/2 stars from All About Jazz.  He currently teaches at The Philadelphia Orchestra School Ensemble Program, DeLuca Music, as well as The Gwynedd Mercy Academy.