Don’t miss an unforgettable Night of Fourplay!

August 7 – 10

Seattle

Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley

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June Tour Dates

June 8 – Charlotte, NC @ 9:00 pm

Belk Theater @ Blumenthal PAC

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June 19 – Alexandria, VA @ 7:30 pm

Birchmere

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June 20 & 21 – Annapolis, MD @ 8:00 pm

Ram’s Head On Stage

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June 22 – Elkhart, IN @ 1:00 pm

Elkhart Jazz Festival

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June 24 – Rochester, NY @ 8:00 pm

Rochester International Jazz Festival

Kodak Hall @ Eastman Theatre

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June 25 – Glenside, PA @ 9:00 pm

Keswick Theatre

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June 27 & 28 – Boston, MA @ 8:00 pm & 10:00 pm

Scullers Jazz Club

In advance of Fourplay’s annual appearance in Philadelphia on June 25 at the Keswick Theater in Glenside, PA, I asked two of these world-class musicians, bassist Nathan East and drummer Harvey Mason, to reflect on their careers and their own recently releases solo projects.

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Chameleon, the scintillating Concord Records debut from multi-GRAMMY® nominated Harvey Mason, finds him drawing upon the rich jazz-funk legacy of the 1970s and recasting seven of that era’s most enduring classics with an early 21st-century sheen. A legendary session drummer, producer, composer and recording artist, Mason is among the most recorded and in-demand musicians of all-time.

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Harvey Mason, the GRAMMY-nominated drummer of Fourplay, was one of the cornerstones of Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters ensemble. Chameleon also features some of the brightest young jazz talents on the scene today, including several NEXT Collective alumni: trumpeter Christian Scott, bassist Ben Williams, pianist/keyboardist Kris Bowers, and guitarist Matthew Stevens.

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Hi Nathan, it’s very nice of you to participate in an interview with me. You are part of the Toto family so many fans would love to hear some more about this great bass-player who is playing for them now on the Toto stage. We’ll be talking about your Toto connection soon but first we all like to learn some more about you so an obvious but important question to start an interview with a musicians is, when did you start playing music, who taught you and which musicians inspired you to start playing music? And do you play more instruments besides the Bass-guitar?

As young children several members of our family took private piano lessons including me.  At about age 10 or 11 I can remember watching one of the Charlie Brown television specials listening to the music and being very drawn into the “cool piano” being played by Vince Guaraldi. This inspired me to inquire at my jr. high school about studying piano at school.  Piano wasn’t available but I was offered any of the stringed orchestra instruments to study, violin, viola, cello or contra bass.  I chose cello primarily because the violin and viola seemed too small and the upright bass was a bit too big. I then played cello in the school orchestra for the next three years.

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Fourplay rang in the holidays, with what has developed into a yearly closeout party each December, at the legendary Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. 

The entire Fourplay family would like to thank everyone who has contributed to an amazing year, and wishes everyone a wonderful 2014!

Fourplay would like to wish all of our fans a Happy Holiday. 

We have great fans, which has enabled us to be very blessed this year.  We would like to thank everyone for their support throughout the year.

Have a terrific holiday season, and stay tuned for some really exciting things in 2014!

Jazz band Fourplay played at Blue Note Jazz Club all of last week, and we had the pleasure of checking them out Sunday night for their last NYC show. The light and soulful Jazz sounds were just the thing we needed, especially on these cold winter nights like we’ve been having. For those of you who have not been, the Blue Note boasts compact seating for an intimate experience, we suggest red wine and their delicious New York Cheesecake for the full effect. 

 All four musicians were extremely talented and complimented each other well blending their styles and showing their versatility playing both up-tempo and low-tempo songs.  Nathan East started the night off with his whispery scatting and holiday themed melodies which progressed seamlessly into hypnotizing Jazz breakdowns. At several times during the set we were completely engulfed in the rambunctious chord progressions and percussions.  Bob James delighted the audience with smooth and calming piano riffs interspersed with high energy sounds from the band. The verve of the whole performance was one that made you think of nothing but its many shining moments. 

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