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SummerMusic: Jazz Improvisation with Composers Now
Bronx Arts Ensemble and Composers Now present an afternoon of contemporary jazz and conversation, highlighting the artistry of improvisation in jazz composition.
Renowned artists Elio Villafranca, Mary Ann McSweeney, and Alfredo Colón will share original works shaped by spontaneous creation, following a Dialogue session that explores their creative processes and the role of improvisation in modern composition.
This event will be held outdoors. Please bring a blanket or a chair.
PERFORMERS
Elio Villafranca
Mary Ann McSweeney
Alfredo Colón
Ryan Easter
Connor Parks
Steve Williams
Freddie Bryant
Stanley Runinov
Dion Parson
ELIO VILLAFRANCA, born in the Pinar del Río province of Cuba, Steinway Artist, Grammy Nominated, and 2014 Jalc Millennium Swing Award! recipient pianist and composer Elio Villafranca was classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba.
Since his arrival in the U.S. in mid 1995, Elio Villafranca is at the forefront of the latest generation of remarkable pianists, composers and bandleaders. His concert Letters to Mother Africa was selected by NYC Jazz Record as Best Concerts in 2016. In 2015, Mr. Villafranca was among the 5 pianists hand picked by Chick Corea to perform at the first Chick Corea Jazz Festival, curated by Chick him self at JALC. Elio Villafranca’s new album Caribbean Tinge (Motema), received a 2014 Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik Nomination by the German Records Critics Award, as well has been selected by JazzTimes and DownBeat magazines for a feature on their very competitive section Editor’s Pick. He also received a 2010 Grammy Nomination in the Best Latin Jazz Album of the Year category. In 2008 The Jazz Corner nominated Elio Villafranca as pianist of the year. That year, Mr. Villafranca was also honored by BMI with the BMI Jazz Guaranty Award and received the first NFA/Heineken Green Ribbon Master Artist Music Grant for the creation of his Concerto for Mariachi, for Afro-Cuban Percussion and Symphony Orchestra. Finally, his first album, Incantations/ Encantaciones, featuring Pat Martino, Terell Stafford, and Dafnis Prieto was ranked amongst the 50 best jazz albums of the year by JazzTimes magazine in 2003.
Over the years Elio Villafranca has recorded and performed nationally and internationally as a leader, featuring jazz master artists such as Pat Martino, Terell Stafford, Billy Hart, Paquito D’Rivera, Eric Alexander, and Lewis Nash, David Murray, and Wynton Marsalis among other. As a sideman Elio Villafranca has collaborated with leading jazz and Latin jazz artists including: Chick Corea, Jon Faddis, Billy Harper, Sonny Fortune, Giovanni Hidalgo, Miguel Zenón, and Johnny Pacheco among others.
This year, 2017 Elio Villafranca received The Sunshine Award, founded in 1989 to recognize excellence in the performing arts, education, science and sports of the various Caribbean countries, South America, Centro America, and Africa. He is based in New York City and he is a faculty member of Temple University, Philadelphia, The Juilliard School of Music, New York University, and Manhattan School of Music in NYC.
Born in Aptos, California, MARY ANN MCSWEENEY started playing piano at the age of 5, and began to study violin at age 8. In high school, she fell in love with the acoustic bass while watching Ray Brown perform at the Concord Jazz Festival. At age 16, she was chosen to play at the Monterey Jazz Festival with the All-Star band fronted by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis.
McSweeney has played with jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie, Joanne Brackeen, Lee Konitz, Gil Goldstein, and Bucky Pizzarelli. She has also played for renowned conductors, Leonard Bernstein, Lalo Schifrin, and John Williams. McSweeney has performed with Renee Rosnes, Vic Juris, Ken Peplowski, Dennis Mackrel, Lewis Nash, and Larry Goldings. Big Band performances include Maiden Voyage and Diva, and she has performed with her own quintet at the Seixal Jazz Festival in Portugal, and with the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center. She has arranged for and recorded with Warner Brothers artist, Lea Delaria. Recent engagements include the Berkshire Jazz Festival, backing up Veronica Swift, and traveling to the Roswell Jazz Festival in New Mexico to perform with Ken Peplowski, Randy Sandke, Holly Hoffman, Chuck Redd and Mike Wofford. McSweeney has toured Europe and has performed with David Krakauer’s Klezmer Madness and five-time Tony award winning vocalist Audra McDonald. Her orchestrations can be heard on Chita Rivera’s CD entitled “Now I Swing” and her version of “Avenue Q Swings” is available on iTunes. McSweeney performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival with Claire Daly and the Baritone Monk Band, which was rated in the top ten on jazz radio in the USA.
Along with being a full-time professional bassist in New York City, McSweeney was on the faculty for the Middle School Jazz Academy at Lincoln Center for 12 years. She performed at the White House with the Eli Yamin Quintet and the Kennedy Center Gala with the Clayton/Hamilton Orchestra. She was musical director/arranger for three shows at NYC’s Birdland Jazz Club featuring Jane Monheit, in a program that included selections from Irving Berlin and the Cole Porter musical, “Anything Goes.” McSweeney has played more than 45 Broadway shows, including Tony award-winning “A Gentleman’s Guide to Love and Murder.” Her original music can be heard on the documentary “From Allegiance to Broadway. She can be seen on Broadway playing bass for the “Girl From the North Country” which re-opened in October 2021. She performed in Greece and Berlin with her Urban Fado Project and performed a live recording at the Shapeshifter Lab in Brooklyn New York, featuring new compositions played by Grammy Nominated Violinist Sara Caswell.
Dominican-American saxophonist and composer ALFREDO COLÓN is a proud New York City native. His playing has been described as authoritative and fiery yet mournful and melodic. Drawing on his interest in Dominican folklore and the works of visionary saxophonists Albert Ayler and Ornette Coleman, Colon creates a musical atmosphere that highlights beauty by framing it in disarray.
Alfredo Colon has performed with artists such as Amirtha Kidambi, Moses Sumney, Cautious Clay, Arturo O’Farrill, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Harish Raghavan, Aaron Parks, William Parker and Henry Threadgill. He has presented works at spaces such as NYC Winter Jazz Fest, The Jazz Gallery, Bronx Arts Space, and Roulette Intermedium. In 2020, Colon was awarded the Jazz Coalition Commission Fund Grant and he was awarded Roulette Intermedium’s Van Lier Fellowship in 2022. Alfredo is currently a Roulette resident artist for their 2023-24 season. Colon has been commissioned by the Association of Dominican Classical Artists in 2016 and Metropolis Ensemble in 2023.
Steve Williams is a musician, composer, and interdisciplinary researcher based in Brooklyn, New York. Steve’s work draws on his extensive experience as a performer and his anthropological background, combining experiments in ethnography and composition to create music that explores the possibilities of rhythmic intricacy while capturing wonder, texture, and humor. Deftly shifting among chamber ensembles, free improvisation, and re-imaginings of Jazz history through the music of SpongeBob SquarePants, Steve draws on a wide variety of musical traditions, internet subcultures, lived experience, and collaborations. Growing up in Dallas, Texas, Steve played bass from an early age, both in local bands and through formal jazz training at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. At The New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, Steve continued to expand his musical practice with Harish Rhaghavan, Michael Formanek, and Ben Street, while beginning to study at The New School for Social Research as an interdisciplinary scholar in the social sciences, focusing on the intersection of anthropology, sound studies, and internet studies. Steve graduated with a BFA in Jazz Performance and a BA and MA in Anthropology.
Steve can be seen on stage with Goldbloom, Alfredo Colon Quartet, Tiny Tree, Secret Mall, Retumbra, and various other groups in and around New York City. Maintaining an active research practice, Steve continues to explore the relationship between affect, sound, and human experience through ethnographic investigation, literary analysis, and composition.
“Nice Boots” – Matt Penman
“Steve is like a Thunder-Blanket but a person” – Spencer Kenney
https://www.stevewilliamsbass.com/about
Ryan Easter decided to leave Richmond, VA to find his footing as a trumpet player after seeing Christian Scott wearing a pair of Jordans on an album cover. Keen on remaining studious, while embracing the dynamic ranges of influences throughout Black culture, he’s performed alongside Jennifer Holiday, Talib Kweli, Giorgi Mikadze, EPMD, Donald Harrison, and many more. Now residing in Brooklyn, Easter continues his fascination with decrypting style, substance, and the occasional omakase.
Connor Parks is from Orlando, FL, where he began studying drums & percussion with Beth and Danny Gottlieb. He performed often in the Jazz and Improvised Music community, being mentored by local hero Benoit Glazer.
Connor received a BFA in Jazz Studies from the New School for Jazz & Contemporary Music in New York City, where he was instructed by Jane Ira Bloom, Reggie Workman, & Dave Douglas, and privately studied with Matt Wilson, Johnathan Blake, Aaron Parks, Matt Brewer, Harish Raghavan, Amir Ziv, Ben Street, Gilad Hekselman, and Dayna Stephens.
Connor has performed with Ali Sethi, Kandace Springs, Rodney Jones, Vic Juris, Darius Jones, Linda Briceño, Dave Glasser, JD Allen, Ingrid Jensen, Aaron Parks, Mcklopedia, among many others, and currently plays with the NYC band Cafuné. He has appeared at venues ranging from the Blue Note to Madison Square Garden, and often performs at Music Festivals both internationally and in the United States.
As a composer, Connor has written music for ensembles ranging from solo performers to nonets with strings, and has collaborated with Cameron McKinney (Kizuna Dance) & the Joffrey School of Ballet.
Parks is an endorsee of Innovative Percussion implements, and Paiste Cymbals.
MAP AND DIRECTIONS
Google Map Location
Driving
By Car:
You can park in Van Cortlandt Park’s free parking lot, which is a 5 minute walk on park trails from the museum (GPS Link) or you can pay for metered street-parking on Broadway (GPS Link).
To Van Cortlandt Golf Course Off-Street Free Parking Lot
From Queens and Long Island:
Take the Tri-Boro Bridge to the Major Deegan Expressway North (87). Take the 230th St. Exit. Make a right at the top of the exit, followed by a quick left onto Bailey Avenue. Take Bailey Avenue to the end. Follow the Major Deegan North/VanCortlandt Golf Course signs. Bear to your left and go underneath the overpass. After the overpass take a sharp left into the public parking lot.
From Manhattan:
East Side: Take FDR Drive to Willis Avenue Bridge. Go over bridge and bear left for the Major Deegan Expressway North (87). Get off at the 230th Street Exit. Make a right at the top of the exit, followed by a quick left onto Bailey Avenue. Take Bailey Avenue to the end. Follow the Major Deegan North/Van Cortlandt Golf Course signs. Bear to your left and go underneath the overpass. After the overpass take a sharp left into the public parking lot.
West Side: Take West Side Highway North to Cross Bronx Expressway East.
Take Cross Bronx Expressway to Major Deegan North (87). Take the 230th St. Exit. Make a right at the top of the exit, followed by a quick left onto Bailey Avenue. Take Bailey Avenue to the end. Follow the Major Deegan North/Van Cortlandt Golf Course signs. Bear to your left and go underneath the overpass. After the overpass take a sharp left into the public parking lot.
From New Jersey:
Take the G.W. Bridge to Major Deegan Expressway North (87). Take the 230th St. Exit. Make a right at the top of the exit, followed by a quick left onto Bailey Avenue. Take Bailey Avenue to the end. Follow the Major Deegan North/Van Cortlandt Golf Course signs. Bear to your left and go underneath the overpass. After the overpass take a sharp left into the public parking lot.
From Westchester County & Points North:
Take 87 South to Van Cortlandt Park South Exit. At top of the exit, make a left. At next light, make another left and follow the signs to golf course, bear to your left and go underneath the overpass. After the overpass take a sharp left into the public parking lot.
Public Transportation
Public Transportation:
Subway: #1 to 242nd Street Station, then walk north on Broadway to the tree-lined pedestrian path leading into the park.
Bus: Bx9 to West 246th Street and Broadway, then walk into the park on the tree-lined pedestrian path leading into the park.
BxM3 Express Bus to 246th Street and Broadway, then walk into the park on the tree-lined pedestrian path leading into the park.
Metro-North Hudson River Line to Marble Hill Station, transfer to the Bx9 bus or #1 subway as above.
This program is supported, in part, by public funds from the New York City Council and District 11 Councilmember Eric Dinowitz and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs’ FY2025 Cultural Development Fund (CDF).
Thank you to our supporters
