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Sunday, November 17, 2024
— a “hybrid” event —
John Howard Trio
John Howard, piano
Eugenio Ibarz, acoustic bass
Jason Walker, drums
With special guest Sean Felix, spoken word
An Evening of Originals
A selection of original compositions by the band composed over the last 4 decades and honed into trio format. Sean Felix joins us to present his powerful, timely, and deeply personal poetry set to improvised jazz accompaniment by the trio.
BIOGRAPHY
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. John’s trio performs weekly at the Little Beast Bistro in Chevy Chase, DC every Thursday from 6-8 pm.
Eugenio Ibarz was born in Barcelona (Spain), but grew up in Madrid and started playing classical guitar around the age of 10. Eugenio got his first electric guitar at 16 and started taking formal lessons right away. During his college years, he worked as a guitar teacher and played in pop and jazz bands. In the 90’s Eugenio worked as a freelance guitar player and teacher, giving private and group lessons and playing electric guitar and bass in different jazz ensembles. Later on, he started teaching Music History and Appreciation in the Madrid Public Schools system. Eugenio moved to the U.S. in 2002 and started giving private guitar and bass lessons with Travelling Teachers and at Alexandria Music Company. In 2005, he started taking upright bass lessons with Pepe González in Washington D.C. and has performed in different jazz and rock ensembles in the DMV area since then
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)
Sean Felix (He/Him) was born and raised in the transient government city of Washington, DC. He has performed poetry all over the city, in Maryland, and Virginia. He’s been writing for over 30 years, and is a middle school teacher, and adult arts and poetry educator at the National Gallery of Art. He’s been commissioned to write and read his ekphrastic poetry with several galleries in Washington, DC and Maryland, including the IA&A Hillyer and the Gateway Arts Center. His work is published in multiple poetry anthologies including with Sunday Mornings at the River and Beyond the Veil Press and has also published poems in Bloodroot Journal, with the Mid Atlantic Review Online, and with the Washington Writers Publishing House. He published his first poetry book, Did You Even Know I Was Here? in 2019. Sean is an award winning haiku writer, loves the natural world, and exploring small moments in time. He currently lives in Hyattsville, MD with his partner and 2 very silly, and very smart kids.
John, Eugenio, and Jason hone their arrangements every Thursday from 6-8 at the Little Beast Bistro in Chevy Chase, DC. All have classical backgrounds and are notable for their dynamic and subtle interplay. John, Eugenio, Jason, and Sean all teach at the Edmund Burke School in Washington, DC.
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