Event Calendar
Ben Rosenblum
Friday, October 25, 2024, 7:30 pm
Spend a splendid evening in the grandeur of Miller Symphony Hall’s intimate Rodale Room. The perfect spot to take in an evening of jazz, drink in hand, with the sparkling city lights beyond the arched windows. Now choose your table and seats when you purchase your tickets!
Ben Rosenblum brings his award-winning, genre-bending compositional style to the Nebula Project, a six-piece ensemble featuring a diverse cast of New York City’s most in-demand jazz musicians. With the Nebula Project, the pianist/accordionist digs deeply into his cosmopolitan roots in NYC to create a truly global music, drawing from influences as diverse as Brazilian forró, Irish reels and jigs, Bulgarian folkloric songs, Dominican merengue and Middle Eastern traditional rhythms, and combining them with an extensive rooting in American jazz and traditional music. Rosenblum leans on personal experiences working with master musicians from these and other areas of the world in order to write explorative, emotional, narrative-driven compositions that have garnered awards from ASCAP, Downbeat and beyond.
Ben Rosenblum Nebula Project is celebrating their February 2023 release, A Thousand Pebbles. Since the Nebula Project's first album release in 2020, Kites and Strings, The Nebula Project was voted runner-up for Best New Artist in JazzTimes' 2020 Readers' Poll, and the album received positive reviews from over twenty publications, including All About Jazz, NYC Jazz Record, JazzTimes, JazzLife (Japan) and more. Since the 2023 release, the group was featured in an article in Downbeat Magazine’s May 2023 issue, “Worldly Jazz Adventuring” which highlights the adventurous spirit of this ensemble.
JASPER DUTZ - saxophone & bass clarinet, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California and is currently based in New York City. He began playing music at the age of seven after receiving his father’s $20 yard-sale purchased clarinet. He began playing jazz in middle school after trying the baritone saxophone in band class. He currently co-leads Harlem-Based jazz ensemble "Three Hunters Trio" as well as his own quartet, and is a full-time member of the Grammy-winning Afro Latin Jazz Orchestra under the direction of Arturo O'Farrill. He has recorded or performed with artists such as Nels Cline, Lenny Pickett, Jon Batiste and Ron Carter.
MARTY JAFFE – bass, hails from Conway, Massachusetts. After completing his studies at Columbia and Juilliard, Marty quickly became one of New York City’s most active bassists. He has performed with jazz icons Ingrid Jensen, Karrin Allyson, Harold Mabern, Sullivan Fortner, Sergio Mendes, and Steve Wilson. He has also performed in interdisciplinary productions directed by choreographers Bill T. Jones and Debbie Allen through the national YoungArts foundation. Marty tours throughout the U.S. and the world with numerous groups, especially with vocalist Karrin Allyson, and pianist Ben Rosenblum. He was named a 2012 Presidential Scholar in the Arts and won the International Society of Bassists’ jazz competition in 2013. Marty’s original compositions and arrangements have been performed at the Kennedy Center, The New World Center for the Arts, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marty has also recorded widely and can be heard on albums by Jen Allen, Miro Sprague, Ben Rosenblum, Chris Pattishall, Andy Jaffe, Kristin Berardi, and Jonathan Ragonese.
RAFAEL ROSA – guitar, has performed at renowned venues such as the Blue Note Jazz Club, Dizzy’s Coca Cola Club, The 55 Bar, The Edison Ballroom and Bowery Electric. He has received rave reviews on his playing as a sideman with Tony Award-winning singer Luba Mason and her project Mixtura, The Prince Of Bollywood Jeffrey Iqbal & Unity Through Music, Cody Geil’s Bon Musique, Night Of The Living Funk, Steven Frieder Group, Ben Rosenblum’s Nebula Project and others. Rafael is an accomplished composer. Born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Rafael taught himself the guitar at age 14. In 2013 he graduated from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Music with a Masters of Music in Jazz Performance. During his time there he studied and performed with Kenny Werner, Jean Michel Pilc, John Scofield, Stefon Harris, Alan Ferber, Wayne Krantz, Peter Bernstein, Brad Shepik, Bruce Arnold, Tony Moreno, Mike Rodriguez, Alan Ferber, and Miguel Zenon. While at NYU he taught undergraduate students as part of the faculty. He was also invited to perform with the Afro-Peruvian Group Karachacha and guest artist Dave Pietro as part of the 2013 Jazz Educators Network Annual Conference (JEN) in Atlanta, Georgia in addition to playing with Kenny Werner’s Group at The Blue Note Jazz Club.
BEN ROSENBLUM – piano & accordion, has toured extensively with his trio and sextet throughout the United States, including multiple tours to the Northeast, Midwest, South and West Coast, as well as internationally in Canada, Europe and Japan. He was a featured soloist at Carnegie Hall's Stern-Perelman Auditorium – with Reona Ito's New York Harmonic Band – and has appeared at the Appel Room at Lincoln Center, Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Ravinia, Himawari-No-Sato Concert Hall in Yokohama, Bird's Eye in Basel and the Library of Congress. Rosenblum's second trio album in 2018, River City, featured the title track as part of their JAZZIZ Magazine’s Best of Fall 2018 CD. Most recently, Rosenblum released his third album, Kites and Strings, which is the first to feature him on both piano and accordion alongside his new sextet, the Nebula Project. In 2020, the Nebula Project was voted runner-up for Best New Artist in JazzTimes' Readers' Poll. Rosenblum has shared the stage with Curtis Lundy, Winard Harper, Deborah Davis and Chris Washburne, as well as appearances with Bobby Watson, Sean Jones, T.S. Monk, Warren Wolf, Eliot Zigmund, and many others. Rosenblum's musical interests also extend beyond jazz to include work in numerous world music scenes, including musical styles from Brazil, Peru, Croatia, Bulgaria, India, Ireland, Jewish traditions and more.
WAYNE TUCKER – trumpet is a trumpeter, composer, arranger, violinist, vocalist, actor and model based in New York City. He has released 5 albums under his name and performs regularly with his band, The Bad Mothas in New York City. Wayne has toured and recorded with a diverse array of notables such as jazz musicians Kurt Elling, Dee Dee Bridgewater and Cyrille Aimée; pop acts Taylor Swift, David Crosby, Elvis Costello; r&b singers Ne-Yo and Gabriel Garzon-Montano; hip hop artists Jidenna and Ryan Leslie; and with the rock band Brass Against. Wayne continues to maintain a dedicated presence in the small clubs of New York City alongside a career which makes occasional forays into venues like Madison Square Garden, The Hollywood Bowl, and The Tonight Show, to name a few. As an actor/model he has been featured in ads and commercials for companies like Dove, Mastercard, Bonobos and GMC, and appeared on television shows like Succession and Blacklist. Tucker wrote the soundtrack and co-stars in the short film Hotel Bleu.
BEN ZWEIG – drums, has performed in Japan, China, the Netherlands, Germany, Israel, Chile, Cameroon, and all across North America, including venues in his native NYC. Born in 1992, Zweig has shared the stage with Randy Weston, Johnny O’Neal, Jerry Dodgion, Harold Mabern, Larry Ridley, David Williams, Roy Hargrove, Deborah Davis, Grant Stewart, Joe Cohn, and Steve Nelson. His playing strives to reflect a passion for performing simple, heartfelt music. Beginning his musical journey on drum set at age 5, he later picked up trumpet and steel drums. His work draws from the American jazz tradition, West-African, Brazilian, Caribbean, and European classical music. In 2018, Zweig traveled to southeast Cameroon to work with Global Music Exchange and tour with master musicians of the Baka Gbiné pygmies. Ben’s fascination with rhythmic dance music from around the world led to the formation of the drum choir, Big Beet. Ben received his B.M. and a M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music. He has taught private lessons for over 10 years, primary school and university jazz and drum clinics, and runs a lesson studio in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.