BRATTLEBORO — Vermont Jazz Center director and pianist Eugene Uman will close out the Vermont Jazz Center’s season of concerts with a new version of the Convergence Project. For this June 15 performance, Uman will present a sextet with Haneef Nelson (trumpet), Jason Robinson (saxophone), Cameron Brown (acoustic bass), Brian Shankar Adler (drums) and Joel “Pibo” Márquez (percussion). Charlie Parker, the great architect of bebop, has been quoted as saying, “Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom.
If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn.” The Convergence Project is a window into Uman’s musical experiences, which were forged playing blues, R&B, funk and jazz as a youth in New York and central Vermont. He later moved to New York City and then Colombia, South America, where the pulse of rhythm and dance permeates everyday life.
Colombian rhythms serve as one of the foundational elements of Uman’s compositions. The melodies and chords are derived more from the language of blues, rock, fusion, gospel and jazz. This melding of sounds and cultures provides Uman with a multi-hued pallet to work from as a composer, and led to the formation of the Convergence Project, a group he put together 15 years ago to perform his original compositions.
The musicians that make up this mutable ensemble are hand-picked and empathetic to Uman’s vision; each player is well-versed in numerous styles and encouraged to weave the sounds of their own personal.
