LUX QUARTET featuring Myra Melford, Dayna Stephens, Nick Dunston, Allison Miller

The first of three Bergamo Jazz 2025 evenings at Teatro Donizetti opens with a recently formed group conceived by two prominent figures in contemporary jazz with a female perspective: pianist Myra Melford and drummer Allison Miller. Alongside them are saxophonist Dayna Stephens and bassist Nick Dunston, other leading names in today’s music scene.
Immediately rising to musical prominence with the release of their album Tomorrowland in “August 2024”, which Down Beat awarded four stars, the Lux Quartet is inspired in name by light in all its manifestations, from the vitality of sunbeams to the bioluminescence of creatures in the deepest oceans, symbolizing all the heights and depths that the group intends to explore musically.
Myra Melford has been one of the brightest stars in the jazz piano firmament since the late 1980s. Among her main collaborative experiences are those with Henry Threadgill, Butch Morris, and Dave Douglas. In the late 1990s, she formed the trio Equal Interest with violinist Leroy Jenkins and Art Ensemble of Chicago saxophonist Joseph Jarman. As a leader, she has recorded numerous albums that attest to her compositional depth and the variety of expressive realms she frequents, from solo piano to quintet. For several years, Myra Melford has established a fruitful artistic partnership with drummer Allison Miller, known for her membership in the multi-award-winning all women quintet Artemis, as well as numerous collaborations in the singer-songwriter realm (Ani DiFranco, Natalie Merchant, Brandi Carlile).
Dayna Stephens is one of the leading saxophonists to emerge in recent decades. In addition to recording several albums under his own name, he has played with Kenny Barron, Ambrose Akinmusire, Julian Lage, Gerald Clayton, and many others. Bassist Nick Dunston also boasts an impressive resume: Marc Ribot, Vijay Iyer, Mary Halvorson, Tyshawn Sorey, Craig Taborn, and Dave Douglas are just some of the colleagues he has worked with so far.

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DANILO PÉREZ, JOHN PATITUCCI, BRIAN BLADE
“Legacy of Wayne Shorter”
special guest RAVI COLTRANE

Bergamo Jazz 2025 hosts a superquartet in the name of one of the greatest saxophonists and composers that jazz has ever produced in its entire history: Wayne Shorter. A legendary figure who traversed crucial phases of jazz, collaborating with Art Blakey and Miles Davis before creating, together with Joe Zawinul and Miroslav Vitous, the Weather Report, leaving behind a heritage of inestimable value both as a saxophonist and as a composer and leader.
Danilo Pérez, John Patitucci and Brian Blade were able to touch the stature, including human stature, of such a strong and charismatic personality. It goes without saying, therefore, that the three musicians are now the most entitled to pay tribute to Shorter, by virtue of nearly 25 years of artistic association. The not easy task of completing the group falls to Ravi Coltrane, a mature soloist who has managed to make both his father’s and Shorter’s musical influences his own, without, however, slavishly following his models.
Born in Panama, Danilo Pérez is one of the most prominent pianists in jazz today: influences from South America and Africa find an ideal meeting point in his music, filtered through a complete mastery of the keyboard.
John Patitucci was born in Brooklyn in 1959 and began playing electric bass at age 10, later trying his hand at double bass and piano. He first gained notoriety through his collaboration with Chick Corea, during the years of the Elektric Band and the Akoustic Band. Later, he frequented different stylistic realms, both acoustic and electric, recording numerous records under his own name, then joining Shorter’s quartet.
Brian Blade is among the most versatile drummers around: in addition to Wayne Shorter, he has played with Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Herbie Hancock, Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett and others. In 1997 he founded The Fellowship Band, with which he has recorded several albums.
Born in 1965, a little less than two years before the passing of his famous father, Ravi Coltrane, the second son of John and Alice Coltrane, has been a major player since the mid-1980s in a respectable musical career, first as a sideman and then as an increasingly influential leader. Today Ravi presides over the Coltrane Home, an organization that keeps alive the artistic memory and life lessons of both illustrious parents.

Playbill