The Jazz Room at the Stage Door Theater

Overview

After much-acclaim and sold-out performances, Charlotte’s Jazz Arts Initiative’s (JAI) monthly series—The Jazz Room @ The Stage Door Theater – is swinging through the summer on August 17 & 18, with renowned tenor saxophonist Brice Winston making his debut at the Jazz Room with a tribute to jazz icon DEXTER GORDON. The Stage Door Theater is part of Blumenthal Performing Arts Center, at the corner of 5th and College in Uptown Charlotte.

Dexter Gordon is widely regarded as the first musician to translate the language of mid-20th century modern jazz - "bebop" - to the tenor saxophone. Born in Los Angeles, he left high school early to travel with the Lionel Hampton Band. After returning to California, he joined Louis Armstrong’s orchestra—a highlight of his career. In 1944, Gordon joined the Billy Eckstine band, the source of many of the Bebop innovators of the time, and was surrounded nightly by such greats as Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Fats Navarro and Sonny Stitt. Gordon’s sound and his style would influence many of the younger tenor players of that day, including Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane. By the late 1940s, Gordon appeared on the famed 52nd Street in New York City with the day’s leading bebop musicians including Charlie Parker, Fats Navarro, Miles Davis and Max Roach. In 1960 Gordon signed with Blue Note, recording numerous classics with many notable musicians including Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Hutcherson, Bud Powell, and Billy Higgins. Gordon also travelled and worked extensively in Europe until his return to the US in 1976. Gordon continued performing and recording and in 1986 moved into his new career, acting, in the motion picture Round Midnight for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Leading Actor. Dexter Gordon died in 1990 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Saxophonist and composer Brice Winston is a native of Tucson, Arizona. He studied music at the University of New Orleans, where he spent more than 16 years performing with world-class musicians including such notables as Brian Blade, Ellis Marsalis and Nicholas Payton. After touring with Payton’s band for a year, his acquaintance with band leader and composer Terence Blanchard led to a close musical relationship that continues to this day. Brice has been touring with Blanchard for over ten years, affording him the opportunity to perform and record with some of the greatest musicians in the world including Herbie Hancock and Dave Holland, as well as record for movies scored by Blanchard for film director Spike Lee. Brice currently runs the Tucson Jazz Institute Community Music School and continues to record and perform in jazz clubs and music festivals all over the world.