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Sunday, May 3 2026, 7:30 PM

John Howard Workin’ Quartet

John Howard, Brad Linde, Jason Walker, Pepe Gonzalez

Piano, Soprano & Tenor Sax, Drums, Acoustic Bass

Miles and Trane – Happy 100th!

A selection of classic and lesser known tunes by, or made famous by Miles Davis and John Coltrane

BIOGRAPHY

John Howard (Piano)
From a musical family, John Howard played many instruments before beginning piano study in his senior year of high school. He has a Bachelor of Music in Piano Performance from UNC-Chapel Hill, where he attended on an Andy Griffith Scholarship. While in Chapel Hill he also played in the jazz bands and performed with drummer Louis Bellson and trombonist Al Grey of the Count Basie Orchestra. John began teaching music at the Edmund Burke School in Washington, DC in 1989, where he founded the music department. John’s Burke bands have performed at Blues Alley annually for almost 20 years. They are also founding performers of the Big Band Jam on the Mall. Since 1995 they are annual participants in the Georgetown Day School Jazz Festival. This year they will perform at the Pearl Street Warehouse at the Wharf on Monday May 11, 6-8 pm. This performance is open to the public, all are welcome. John’s trio performs weekly at the Little Beast Bistro in Chevy Chase, DC every Thursday from 6-8 pm.

Brad Linde (Soprano and Alto Sax)
Hailed as “the capital city’s contemporary cool king” (Giovanni Russonello, Capitalbop), Brad Linde is a saxophonist, educator, bandleader, and impresario in the Washington DC metro area. He is the director of Jazz and Creative Music at Georgetown Day School and founder of the Bohemian Caverns Jazz Orchestra. Raised in North Carolina, he studied music at Elon University (BA), and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill before moving to attend graduate school at the University of Maryland, College Park (MM). He additionally studied privately with Lee Konitz and attended weekly workshops by Barry Harris in New York. In 2013 was a participant in the Banff International Jazz and Creative Music Workshop. Brad maintained a long performance relationship with the legendary hardbop pianist/composer Freddie Redd (2009-2013), worked with bassist Butch Warren, and recorded four albums with original Tristano School members, tenor saxophonist Ted Brown (2010-2020). Additionally, he has performed and/or recorded with Matt Wilson, Jeff Lederer, Caroline Davis, Sara Serpa, Allison Miller, Grachan Moncur III, Andrew Cyrille, Wadada Leo Smith, Fay Victor, Lee Konitz, among others. As an impresario, Brad has curated series for the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, the Atlas Performing Arts Center in Northeast Washington DC, the Drawing Room in Brooklyn, and others. He continues to present performances and collaborations in the Washington DC area, Baltimore, New York City, and in Durham and Chapel Hill, NC. Brad is a Rampone & Cazzani Handmade Italian Saxophones artist ambassador.

Jason Walker (Drums)
Jason Walker is a seasoned DMV drummer and percussionist whose wide range of interests have led to playing a diverse range of music including blues, Afro-Caribbean jazz, afro beat, and Americana. You can hear him throughout the DMV with the John Howard Trio, Hard Swimmin’ Fish (www.hardswimminfish.com ), Chopteeth Afro-Funk Big Band (www.chopteeth.com) , the Vibe Collective (on FB @vibecollective), and the Bumper Jacksons (www.bumperjacksons.com) . 

Pepe González (Acoustic and Electric Bass) 
Pepe started his music career playing the electric bass in his late teens, when he formed one of the first integrated band (between African Americans and Hispanics) in the Washington, DC area. The band, ZAPATA, opened for many great bands such as Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, and the Headhunters’ (first ever concert at Howard University’s Crampton Auditorium), Ramsey Lewis, Weather Report, Rahsaan Roland Kirk, Sly and the Family Stone, the Isley Brothers, Red Bone, Gil Scott Heron, the Blue Notes, and many more. ZAPATA became one of the top bands in the Mid-Atlantic region, receiving great acclaim from the media and audiences alike.
In his early twenties, Pepe became inspired by the virtuosic bass sounds of Paul Chambers and Charles Mingus. For the past 40 years, he has studied the jazz idioms along with the Afro Caribbean styles, while partly maintaining performances in classical music as well. Performing largely within the jazz idiom, Pepe has performed locally with Maria Rodriquez and her Latin Jazz Orchestra and at the Smithsonian Institute for Tito Puente. Pepe was featured with his own Latin Jazz band, Sonora Del Barrio at the Kennedy Center.  He performed Dave Brubeck’s “Pange Lingua Variations” under Donald McCullough at the Kennedy Center and “Schubert’s “TROUT” with senior players at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. 
Performing within the jazz idiom, Pepe has had the pleasure performing and sometimes recording with many national and international icons such as, Rashid Abdul Yayah, Pepper Adams, Clifford Jordan, Jeannie Bryson, Slide Hampton, Dave Valentin, Byron Morris, Hilton Ruiz, Paul Hawkins, Sheila Jordan, Dorothy Donegan, Clark Terry, Malachi Thompson, Bill Hardman and Junior Cook, Horacio Icasto, Carter Jefferson, Deepak Ram, IMANI, Chris Vadala, and others. Mr. Gonzalez has performed for U.S. Presidents George Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, the United Nation President Kufi Anan, and Vice President Al Gore. He has played at the (IAJE) International Association of Jazz Educators, the Blue Note and the Jazz Times Convention all in New York City. He has played the Carribean, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, and the Soviet Union. Festivals include Curacao Jazz Festival, San Remo Jazz Festival, East Coast Jazz Festival, Mid-Atlantic Jazz Festival,Madrid and Malaga Jazz Festival, Hartford Jazz Festival, Syracuse Jazz Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, San Antonio Jazz Festival, Harrisburg Jazz Festival, Delaware Jazz Festival, Clifford Brown Jazz Festival, Richmond Jazz Festival, and the Cape May Festival.
Pepe has been on over 30 recordings, and he recently recorded his first CD entitled, “Looking Back.” The CD includes nine original compositions dedicated to family, mentors, and heroes. Pepe was the Assistant Director of the Jazz Academy under the Director, Paul Carr for 20 years. He taught Jazz Bass and Jazz Studies at the Levine School of Music for 23 years. He is also a clinician around the Mid-Atlantic region and teaches privately.

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