DON BYRON has been a singular voice in an astounding range of musical contexts. As clarinetist, saxophonist, composer, arranger, and social critic, he redefines every genre of music he plays, be it classical, salsa, hip-hop, funk, rhythm & blues, klezmer, or any jazz style from swing and bop to cutting-edge improvisation. In 2007, he was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship and a United States Artists Prudential Fellowship. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in composition for his “7 Etudes for Piano” in 2009. And, as the recipient of “The Samuel Barber Rome Prize for Composition,” he recently concluded a one-year residency at the American Academy in Rome where he began work on the score for his first opera. The Don Byron New Gospel Quintet was launched in the spring of 2009 and had its world premiere at the Jazz Standard in New York. The band has since toured Europe, receiving enthusiastic responses from audiences and critics alike. Don will bring together his New Gospel Quintet in a jazz context to celebrate the music of Thomas Dorsey, the father of black gospel music. The quintet consists of DON BYRON, clarinet, tenor saxophone, background vocals; DK DYSON, vocals; XAVIER DAVIS, piano; BRAD JONES, bass, background vocal; and PHEEROAN akLAFF, drums.
Website: http://www.donbyron.com/2_proj.html
