The Wherewithal

saturday, september 28

TIME: 2:00pm-3:00pm

VENUE: dusable Black History museum and Education center. 740 east 56th pl.

The WHEREWITHAL

Raised in a close-knit community on the west side of Chicago, Justin Dillard attended both Vandercook College of Music and The Velvet Lounge as institutions of higher learning. He has performed with, recorded with, and/or received tutelage from the likes of Branford Marsalis, Ornette Coleman, Dionne Warwick, Fred Anderson, NEA jazz master Von Freeman, and Roscoe Mitchell. 

Of Dillard, the Chicago Tribune had this to say: “A new generation of jazz improvisers has emerged in Chicago in recent years, but few are more promising than pianist Justin Dillard. Musically, Dillard tends to be all over the keyboard, drawing upon the examples of virtuosos such as Gonzalo Rubalcaba, Oscar Peterson, and McCoy Tyner. But there’s something more to Dillard’s work as well—a quest for new ideas in music, in the manner of his AACM mentors.”

Dillard has been a Hammond Organ-endorsed artist for fifteen years. He has performed on national television with his organ trio, The DOT. He continues to transform his career by composing for and performing with his vast array of ensembles while continuing to accompany great musicians all over the world.

A native of St. Louis, Missouri, Jeremy Clemons attended North Carolina Central University, where he studied drums set, harmony, jazz theory, arranging, and composition under the guidance of Ira Wiggins, Arnold George, and Thomas Taylor, all of whom influenced his current concept and approach to music. With the NCCU Jazz Ensemble, he performed at venues including the Carolina, Grady Tate, Montreux, and Vienne Jazz Festivals.

After graduation, he returned to St. Louis, where he became Assistant Band Director at Normandy High School and worked the local music scene as both sideman and bandleader. He has taught at the International Summer Jazz Academy in Poland, been a member of the Betty Cater Jazz Ahead program, and performed in the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival. 

He is currently co-leading the band Soul Understated with award-winning vocalist/composer Mavis "Swan" Poole. The band features a diverse and eclectic mix of musical forces and allows Clemons to display his talents not only as a drummer but also as a bandleader, composer, and producer.

Jeff Parker is known to many fans as the longtime guitarist for the Chicago-based quintet Tortoise, one of the most critically revered, sonically adventurous groups to emerge from the American indie scene of the early 90s. The band’s often hypnotic, largely instrumental sound eludes easy definition, drawing freely from rock, jazz, electronic, and avant-garde music, and over the last nearly-thirty years, it has garnered a large following.

Aside from recording and touring with Tortoise, Parker has worked as a side man with many jazz greats, including Nonesuch labelmate Joshua Redman on his 2005 Momentum album; as a studio collaborator with other composer-musicians including Brian Blade, Meshell Ndegeocello, and fellow International Anthem artists Makaya McCraven and Rob Mazurek; and as a solo artist. Suite for Max Brown is informally a companion piece to The New Breed, Parker’s 2016 album on International Anthem, which London’s Observer honored as its Best Jazz Album of the Year, The New York Times and Los Angeles Times included on their Best Albums of 2016 lists; and recently, Aquarium Drunkard included as part of their Best Albums of the Decade (2010-2019) compendium.

“No other musician in the modern era has moved so seamlessly between rock and jazz like Jeff Parker,” says The Observer. “As guitarist for Chicago post-rock icons Tortoise, he’s taken the group in new and challenging directions that have kept them at the forefront of pop creativity for the last twenty years. As of late, however, Parker has established himself as one of the most formidable solo talents in modern jazz.”

The musicians:

Justin Dillard — Hammond B-3 organ
Jeff Parker — guitar
Jeremy Clemons — drums