June 5 to All Souls at Sundown:

Marcus Strickland, saxophone
Martin Bejeramo, piano • Vicente Archer, bass
and The Art of the Villanelle

“Still only in his mid-20's, the saxophonist Marcus Strickland has carved out a reputation for playing tight, gleeful jazz. Here's a musician who earns your trust, never blustering or throwing notes away, as he demonstrates a strong grounding in jazz's last 40 years…. One of the young players to keep an eye on.”

—Ben Ratliff,
The New York Times

A saxophonist of “daring and restless urgency,” Marcus Strickland “has started to turn heads in the most thriving but most competitive jazz scene on the planet… His improvisations come like a series of ascensions, releases of streaming ideas that accumulate until they plateau, gather themselves, then spout and spiral upward again to the next plateau. What is most immediately striking is his tone: liquid and luminous, yet forceful and exact.” (Jazz Times Magazine). Born in Miami, Marcus is a graduate of the New School University’s Jazz and Contemporary Music program. He has performed with The Carnegie Hall Big Band, The Mingus Band, The Village Vanguard Band, and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and currently plays with the Roy Haynes Quartet, the Lonnie Plaxico Group, and Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts.

Rooted in a 16th-century Italian harvest dance, the 19-line villanelle combines the exuberance of popular song with the stability of a recurring rhyme. The result is poetry that mirrors life: the challenge is to innovate when we can, while accepting what we must.