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Sunday, February 8, 2026
John Howard’s Starlight Quartet
John Howard, piano
Brad Linde, alto sax
Jason Walker, drums
Zoë Jorgenson, acoustic bass
Do Do That Voodoo –
Songs of Longing and Love
A selection of classic and lesser known Jazz standards about love; remembered, anticipated, new, old, lost, and found — by composers Hoagy Carmichael, Irving Berlin, Jimmy Van Heusen, Cole Porter, Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Lowe. Harry Warren. Jerry Bock, Victor Young, and others.
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.
Brad Linde-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-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) .
Zoë Jorgenson-Las Vegas native, Zoë Jorgenson, had an eagerness to pursue the bass from a young age. Being studious about the instrument and its capabilities throughout her formative years, she ultimately decided to focus her collegiate studies on the bass with one of the premier clinicians and pedagogues in the world, Eric Hansen. During her undergraduate studies, Zoë immersed herself in the local music scene, delving deep into jazz, classical, indie and folk music, as well as exploring her abilities as a vocalist in her own compositions. Upon completion of her bachelor’s degree, Zoë relocated to the Washington D.C. metro area in pursuit of a master’s degree in jazz studies studying under the tutelage of Army Blues bassist, Regan Brough. She is also a prominent string pedagogue teaching violin, viola, cello and bass in the Northern Virginia area. Zoë is an Artist in Residence (2023-2024) at the prestigious Music Center at Strathmore.
Equally at home as band leader and side musician, Zoë brings a fresh perspective to sounds both classic and creative. She has collaborated and recorded with many different projects including Goldmyth, a prominent indie/pop band, The Salt City Seven, a traditional jazz group, Emmanuel Trifilio, Argentine tango composer, Nataly Merezhuk, gypsy jazz violinist, Nathalie Braux, klezmer and jazz clarinetist, to name a few. She has performed in various festivals and venues around the world including the Kennedy Center, Blues Alley, the Saulkrasti Jazz Festival in Latvia, the Manila Symphony Orchestra Hall with Lea Solanga in the Philippines, and the Sociedad Filarmonica in Cochabamba, Bolivia.
ALSO
John, Eric, and Brad 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, Brad, and Jason will be joined by singer drummer extraordinaire Ruby Laks for the annual GDS Jazz Festival Saturday March 7, 2026 and a performance at the Little Beast Bistro in Chevy Chase, DC Thursday March 5, 2026 from 6-9 pm.
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