Dear Friends and Jazz Lovers...

Nick Mancini is back in his most recent incarnation! It's a project he's been working on - The Next Step. Come take the journey with us.

Thank you for supposince we've had rting jazz!

Thursday, May 30, 2024 7:30 pm

JAZZ AT THE MERC

presents the

Nick Mancini Quartet

featuring

Josh Nelson, Ed Leckie

and

Kevin van den Elzen

Vibraphonist/Marimbist and Composer Nick Mancini began his professional career as a drummer, at the age of 15. His undergrad studies earned him an A.S. from Schenectady County Community College and a B.M. (with honors) from The Crane School of Music at SUNY Potsdam. By the age of 23, he was a heavily called upon drummer in upstate NY but was feeling the tug of pursuing jazz more avidly. That was when he moved to NYC to attend Manhattan School of Music. His audition won him the prestigious President's Award scholarship and he graduated with a masters degree in jazz performance.

For the following 8 or so years, Mancini continued honing his craft while cutting his teeth at live gigs all around NYC, earning him a much-deserved reputation as a trusted sideman and kick-ass band leader until a gig took him out west and he found his true home in LA. In 2006 he relocated and was immediately inducted into the, then burgeoning but now codified, LA creative music scene. Since his arrival, Mancini has truly made an indelible mark. He was celebrated as the Honoree at the 18th annual Los Angeles Jazz Vibes Summit and earlier that same year his face graced the cover of Ventana Monthly, the popular Ventura county arts magazine, which also featured him in a story about the beach community’s thriving arts scene. DRUM Magazine’s Reader’s Poll named him “Best Jazz Percussionist” (on vibes).

Nick has performed and recorded with such diverse luminaries as Arturo Sandoval, Peter Erskine, Poncho Sanchez, Solange, Kenny Werner, Amos Lee, and Jennifer Holliday; and with the greatest young and emerging stars such as Kamasi Washington, Miguel Atwood-Fergusson, and Ben Wendel. As both a band leader and side man, Nick has appeared at some of New York’s most notable venues such as The World Famous Apollo Theater; Showtime at the Apollo, Birdland, and Joe’s Pub. In LA he performs at The Blue Whale, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Friday Night Jazz series, ACE Theater, Catalina Jazz Club, Vibrato, Zipper Hall, Vitello’s, Karen Carpenter Performing Arts Center and virtually every jazz venue in Los Angeles. His festival appearances include Santa Barbara Music Festival, Aspen Music Festival, Nortelje Jazz Festival (Sweden), Alandia Jazz Festival (Scandinavia), Angel City Jazz Festival (LA), and Catalina Jazz Festival, to name a few. Abroad, he’s graced the stage in Tahiti, Australia, Scandinavia, and Canada.

Not only is Nick widely recognized by his peers and audiences as a dynamic, and important performer and composer, but is also known as a curator of high quality, creative music events and series. At LA’s West-side based WitZend Live, he led a monthly jazz series featuring prominent LA Jazz groups. In 2010 he conjured and co-produced ‘Feed the Blue Whale’ an all day jazz festival designed to bring awareness to the Blue Whale, LA’s finest, creative listening space. He personally curated, MC’d and sometimes performed at ‘elastic hour’ @ Curve Line Space; a weekly live concert series which, over the course of 5 seasons featured 150+ artists from around the globe. LA Weekly gave it high praise in their annual “Best of” issue.

A victim of some dysfunctional learning scenarios, Mancini has become passionate about education. In 2011 he was invited to join the jazz and percussion faculty at the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at CSU Long Beach, and is a Jazz faculty member at CSU Northridge (CSUN). He serves a recurring faculty post for the Thelonious Monk Institute, a highly competitive post-graduate program for up and coming Jazz musicians, all the while, maintaining a busy, home-based teaching studio for one on one study of the art of Jazz.

read about Nick's move to Tulsa!

listen...

Pianist, composer and recording artist Josh Nelson maintains an active and creative schedule. He has

performed with some of the most respected names in jazz, including Natalie Cole, Anthony Wilson, George Mraz, Jeff Hamilton, Walter Smith III, Dayna Stephens, Eddie Daniels, Richard Galliano, Michael Buble, Benny Golson, Sheila Jordan, Greg Hutchinson, John Clayton, John Pizzarelli, and Lewis Nash.

Josh has performed around the world and contributed to numerous recordings, films and television shows. He made an impressive debut with his first two albums, Anticipation (2004) and Let it Go (2007, Native Language Music), both of which garnered international critical acclaim. Josh’s third album, I Hear a Rhapsody (2009), featured his original compositions, interpretations of standards, and the re-imagining of some popular repertoire. Discoveries (2011), introduced a pairing of classic science fiction film footage

with new compositions for a brass and wind ensemble. Live performances of this music feature a video projection and art installation component as well, called The Discovery Project. Exploring Mars (2015) delved into musical themes about the Red Planet, augmented by spectacular NASA/JPL Martian video

footage. Dream in the Blue (2016) featured Josh in an intimate duo setting with his longtime collaborator, vocalist Sara Gazarek. The Sky Remains (2017) delved into musical stories and themes originating from his hometown of Los Angeles. A pair of live albums followed, The Discovery Project Live in Japan (2020) and live at blue whale | volume 1 (2021).

Over the years Josh earned many awards, scholarships, and accolades including the Louis Armstrong Award and the John Philip Sousa Award. In 2006, Josh was one of the 12 semi-finalists in the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. Josh toured the world for six beautiful years with the legendary vocalist Natalie Cole. He continues to tour and arrange for artists such as Kenny Washington, Lorca Hart, Anton Schwartz, Allison Adams Tucker, Kathleen Grace, Sinne Eeg, Nicolas Bearde, Gaby Moreno, Alicia Olatuja, Tom Scott, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson and Christian Howes.

Jake Leckie, known for his “polyphonic openness to anything and everything,” is a bi-coastal bassist who has toured with Eli "Paperboy" Reed, Sixto "Sugarman" Rodriguez, and Cat Toren's “Human Kind.” This “Jazz Bass Wizard” has played the top venues and festivals internationally, including The Blue Note, The Blue Whale, The Apollo Theatre, Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Newport, Montreal, Washington DC, and Havana Jazz Festivals. Embracing a wide variety of music from around the world, he has shared the stage or the studio with Yo-Yo Ma, Marc Ribot, Matthew Whittaker, Jane Monheit, Nick Mancini, The Harlem Gospel Travelers, The Pacific Mambo Orchestra, Cesar Orozco, The Cris Jacobs Band, Lyn Taitt, Warren Wolf, Ran Blake, Matana Roberts, Ursula Rucker, Susan Alcorn, Christopher McBride and the Whole Proof, and The String Orchestra of Brooklyn. He released his debut album "The Abode" in January of 2019 to critical acclaim, including a 4.5/5 star review in All About Jazz. His compositions have been featured in several museums, films, and advertisements. He was born in Boston, MA, and studied with John Lockwood and Michael Formanek. Via Brookline, Barcelona, Banff, Montreal, Baltimore, San Francisco, and Brooklyn, Jake currently resides in Los Angeles and daylights as an audio-engineer and composer for film.

Listen and watch!

Kevin van den Elzen is an in-demand jazz drummer and bandleader originally from the Netherlands who works and resides in Los Angeles.

Kevin has worked with musicians such as John Clayton, Dick Oatts, Bob Mintzer, Larry Carlton, the New York Voices, Bob Sheppard, Dianne Reeves, Gerald Clayton, Anthony Wilson, Nick Mancini, Kim Richmond, Hubert Laws, John Beasley, Jasper Blom, Mary Stallings, Paquito d’Rivera, Josh Nelson, Jesse van Ruller, Ben van Gelder, Ack van Rooyen, Fay Claassen, Benjamin Herman and many others. He worked with big bands such as the Bill Holman Big Band, Clare Fischer Big Band, Dave Slonaker Big Band, Mike Barone Big Band, Teryn Re Big Band, Brussels Jazz Orchestra, Paradox Jazz Orchestra (NL), Orchestre de Jazz Luxembourg and the Millennium Jazz Orchestra.

He started playing the drums at the age of 3 and went on to take lessons at age 5. He played in local orchestra’s, jazz bands and big bands in his hometown of Oss, The Netherlands.

Kevin graduated in June 2014 from the Conservatorium van Amsterdam with excellent results and went to do his master studies at the Thornton School of Music, University of Southern California in 2017. He studied with Peter Erskine, Roy McCurdy, Ndugu Chancler and Aaron Serfaty. Other teachers were Russell Ferrante, Kathleen Grace and Bob Mintzer and he has had private lessons with Jeff Hamilton and Joe LaBarbera. He was fortunate to be awarded with 4 scholarships from the Netherlands (Van den Ende Foundation, Prins Bernard Culturefund, Heijkonijn Foundation and VSB Fund) to study at USC and was on a full scholarship through a teaching assistantship position in his 2nd year of is graduate studies. He graduated in 2017 with departmental honors.

Kevin started a new musical project in May 2020 with pianist Josh Nelson called the West Coast Jazz Hour. The WCJH is an online FB and YouTube show where West Coast musicians are interviewed who were a part or related to the scene of the 50’s and 60’s. This show turned into a live performance project with music from this era performed by a trio, quintet or 18-piece big band. Some of the members of the WCJH are Chuck Berghofer, Larry Koonse, Alan Kaplan, Sal Lozano, Alex Iles, Ron Stout and others. The late Gene “Cip” Cipriano and Carl Saunders are former members.

Kevin is currently on the jazz faculty of the Orange County High School for The Arts and on faculty of the Burbank High School.

June 6 - 

Jacques Lesure with Adam Ledbetter, Weldon Scott and Izaac Weatherwax

June 13 - 

Russell Bizzett with John Opferkuch, Ian Harland and Mackenzie Leighton

June 20 - 

Chuck Johnson Quintet

June 27 - 

Sharon Cline

July 4 - 

(Jazz In the Pines) Harry Pickens, Marshall Hawkins

July 11 - 

(Jazz In the Pines) Rose Colella Quartet

July 18 - 

Mackenzie Leighton Quartet featuring Danny Green, Ian Harland and Tyler Kreutel

August 1 -

Michael Wolff Quartet

August 8 -

Matt Gordy Sextet featuring Ron Stout, Jerry Pinter, Ido Meshulam, Adam Hersh and Chris Colangelo.

August 15 -

Alex Hahn Trio

August 22 -

Dave Tull Trio

August 29 -

Louis Van Taylor

September 5 -

Joey Sellers

September 12 -

Danny Janklow Quintet

September 19 -

Josh Nelson Trio

September 25 -

Chuck Redd Quartet

October 3 -

Benn Clatworthy

October 10 -

Michael Ragonese

October 31 -

Tomas Janzon