Lewis Porter and Freddie Bryant: Piano and Guitar duets

Freddie Bryant, guitar
The great guitarist Kenny Burrell wrote, “Freddie Bryant is a brilliant young guitarist and composer.” He is a versatile musician skilled both in jazz and classical music receiving his Master’s degree in classical guitar from the Yale School of Music and currently teaches at Williams College in Massachusetts in the Africana and Music departments and the Prins Claus Conservatory in Groningen, Holland. He is currently in demand in the New York jazz scene where he works with Ben Riley’s Monk Legacy Septet, the Mingus Orchestra and as well as his own groups, Trio del Sol and Kaleidoscope. He has recorded and performed with Tom Harrell, D.D. Jackson, Steve Wilson, Kevin Hays and many others. He is also on the first call list of many singers and Brazilian musicians because of his sensitive accompanying and his knowledge of Brazilian guitar and has worked with the pianist/singer Eliane Elias. His most recent CD is with the group Trio del Sol (Twinz Records). He has four others as a leader: Brazilian Rosewood, Boogaloo Brasileiro, Live at Smoke (Fresh Sound Records)and Take Your Dance into Battle (Jazz City Spirit). Over the years he has toured in 42 countries and has had the opportunity of collaborating with musicians from a wide variety of backgrounds including Salif Keita (known as the King of Afro-Pop), the Indian sitarist, Shubhendra Rao, the Kenyan singers—Achien’g Abura and Suzanna Owiyo, the Taarab master oud player Zein L’abdin, traditional groups in Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E and Israeli klezmer clarinetist, Giora Feidman. In 2006 he performed in Cuba as a solo artist and spent a week of musical exchange with Cuban musicians. He has toured as a cultural ambassador for The U.S. Department of State four times and recently performed at the Kennedy Center with the Billy Taylor Trio, broadcast on the National Public Radio Show, “Live at the Kennedy Center.” Education has always been a large part of his musical life. He has taught all ages from young children to university students and has lectured about jazz to audiences around the world. In 2004 he was chosen to be a Copeland Fellow—composer in residence at Amherst College.

Lewis Porter, PhD, is a jazz pianist and Professor of Music at Rutgers University in Newark, where he directs the Master's program in jazz history. He is known worldwide for his teaching and for his many books and articles, especially John Coltrane: His Life and Music (published in English in 1998; published in French and Italian editions in 2007). He edited the John Coltrane Reference which appeared in January 2008. He has also published books on jazz history and on Lester Young, and many articles. As a pianist and keyboardist, he is known for a free and open attitude, and an ability to contribute to any type of musical situation. For example, he has performed recently with such artists as Bela Fleck, Wycliffe Gordon, Ravi Coltrane, Don Byron, Joe Morris, Badal Roy, and Jane Ira Bloom; he performed in Europe in November 2007 with Dave Liebman and others and has toured Europe many other times, including 2009 performances in Israel, Italy, Germany and Spain. His CD Italian Encounter, recorded live at Siena Jazz,  received only rave reviews. Jazz Times says that Porter is "a helluva piano player," and other critics have written that Dr. Porter "is a deep thinker" whose music is "founded upon depth and cunning use of space." His new CD, Transformation, presents duets with fellow pianist and Berklee professor Marc Rossi. His performance schedule and extended audio and video clips are at Lewisporter.com