PETER BERNSTEIN QUARTET/SPECIAL GUEST AL FOSTER
W/ Peter Bernstein, guitar, Adam Birnbaum, piano, Doug Weiss, AL Foster, drums
5:15 PM Saturday, July 29
Guitarist Peter Bernstein has been part of the New York Jazz scene since 1989. He played at the inaugural Litchfield Jazz Festival in 1996 with Larry Goldings’s Organ Trio and again the next year with Rufus Reid & Friends. Since then, he has appeared with Sonny Rollins, Bobby Hutcherson, George Coleman, Lou Donaldson, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau, Diana Krall and many more. His latest release as a leader, What Comes Next, is on the Smoke Sessions label.
Peter first performed as a leader for Litchfield during the pandemic. He shared the bill with guitarist Steve Cardenas in a live-streamed tribute to Monk under the Litchfield Jazz Presents banner. That performance had our largest live stream audience to date. This year marks Peter’s first appearance as a leader in person at Litchfield Jazz Festival, and he has assembled a stellar group. He appears with Doug Weiss on bass, Adam Birnbaum on piano and NEA Jazz Master Al Foster, his special guest, on drums.
Doug Weiss has had a 30-year career backing Al Foster, Eddie Henderson, George Coleman, Lee Konitz, Clifford Jordan, and a host of others. He is a professor at SUNY Purchase College and the New School.
When Juilliard inaugurated its Jazz Studies program in 2001, Adam Birnbaum was one of two pianists selected to participate. By 2004 he had won the American Jazz Piano Competition and the American Pianists Association’s Cole Porter Fellowship. Now one of the busiest pianists in New York, he has played the Vanguard, Blue Note, Birdland, and Dizzy’s and major international festivals. He has four albums as a leader and 25 as a sideman. His recent Downbeat Editor’s Pick and 4-star-reviewed album, Three Of A Mind (Daedalous Records), has Al Foster on drums. His other collaborators include Greg Osby, Wynton Marsalis, Darcy James Argue, Regina Carter, and Cecile McLorin Salvant. Adam is Assistant Professor of Jazz at SUNY Purchase College and a Steinway Artist.
Al Foster is a jazz legend, and we are delighted and honored to have him. Born Aloysius Tyrone Foster, Al began playing drums professionally at 13 and made his first record with Blue Mitchell at 20. He has worked as a sideman with Kenny Barron, Sonny Rollins, Joe Henderson, Dexter Gordon, McCoy Tyner, Horace Silver, and many more.
Foster joined Miles Davis in 1972 and played with him until 1985. He then toured and recorded with Herbie Hancock, Sonny Rollins, and Joe Henderson. He began composing in the 70s and has toured with his own band, with Adam Birnbaum and saxophonist Dayna Stephens. Foster has recorded with almost every great player you can name. He has 8 records as a leader and 90+ as a sideman.
Al turned 80 in January and did a Downbeat interview with Joe Farnsworth. “I’m getting old,” he told Farnsworth, “and I am not as fast as I used to be… (but) I’m always coming up with new stuff when I practice. …I have two (drum) sets in my living room. I just sit there for a few minutes, you know, almost like, “Whatcha gonna show me today?” … Show me something I don’t know. I want something different.”
I expect we will all be on the edge of our seats at this concert being treated to that “something different.”