By WKTV Staff
ken@wktv.org
Local jazz pianist and singer Robin Connell’s new trio, with Rob Hartman on bass and Keith Hall on drums, will debut at Grand Rapids One Trick Pony on Thursday, Oct. 3, from 8-11 p.m.
Connell, the Artprize 2016 jazz music award recipient and the West Michigan Jazz Society’s 2017 Musician of the Year, is no stranger to the local jazz and music education scenes.
Originally from Detroit, Connell spent more than a decade in New York City, at places such as The Waldorf-Astoria and The Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Center, and performs regularly as bandleader or sidewoman throughout Michigan and the region, according to supplied material. She is also a music educator, having taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp for 20 years (did-you-know fact: Norah Jones studied with Robin for two summers) and she currently hosts a jazz piano concert series, Jazz in the Sanctuary at Fountain Street Church, and co-directs the St Cecilia Music Center’s Youth Jazz Ensembles.
Hall, when he is not playing professionally, is the director of the Keith Hall Summer Drum Intensive and is the Jazz Drum Set Professor at Western Michigan University, according to supplied material. He is the author of Jazz Drums Now! Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, and is the radio host for Jazz Currents on WMUK. As a musician, he has toured with singer Curtis Stigers (for 12 Years) and leading his New York trio TRI-FI (for 15 years). He also spent 8 years in New York City where he played drums on Broadway’s “Lion King” and has performed with Betty Carter, Wycliffe Gordon, Sir Roland Hanna, Joe Lovano and Wynton Marsalis.
Hartman performs regularly all around west Michigan with a variety of jazz trios and bands.
One Trick Pony is located at 136 Fulton St E. There is no cover charge on jazz nights. For more information visit onetrick.biz or call 616-235-7669.
