Amherst College jazz piano instructor, Eugene Uman, performs at The Drake. This concert is FREE. Doors open at 6 PM.

Eugene Uman’s Acoustic Convergence Quartet

This quartet performs the compositions of Eugene Uman, many of which are based on the indigenous rhythms of Colombia, South America. All four of its members have distinguished careers as recording and performing artists. Listeners can expect to hear a diverse program that features original music based on Colombian rhythms such as cumbia, currulao, passillo, bambuco as well as Cuban rhythms including rumba and bembe.

Eugene Uman, piano and compositions

Eugene Uman is the Artistic/Executive Director at the Vermont Jazz Center (VJC) where, for twenty-six years, he has produced over three hundred concerts and overseen educational programming, including their Summer Jazz Workshop. While under Uman’s direction, the VJC received a CMAcclaim award from Chamber Music America, and a resolution of praise from the State of Vermont, honoring its impact on the community and jazz-music.

Uman received an MA from Queens College in Jazz Performance where he was a recipient of a Eubie Blake Scholarship. He has served as a Fellow in composition at the MacDowell Colony and at the Marble House Project. Uman lived for 4 years in Medellín Colombia where he initiated and designed the curriculum for the Jazz Studies Program at La Universidad de EAFIT and taught at El Colegio de Música and La Universidad de Antioquia. He continues to visit Colombia annually to perform and teach. Uman is the recipient of the 2022 Vermont Arts Council, Ellen McCulloch-Lovell Arts Education Award. He has taught at the 3rd Street Music Settlement House in NYC, Marlboro College, UMass Amherst, Greenfield Community College and the Governor’s Institute of Vermont, offering classes and workshops in piano, composition, theory and harmony, improvisation, pedagogy, and jazz history and appreciation.

Over the years, Eugene has performed with George Garzone, Donald Byrd, Howard Brofsky, Nat Reeves, Freddie Bryant, Jerry Bergonzi, Sheila Jordan, Nancy Stagnitta, Marvin Stamm, Eguie Castrillo, Wanda Houston, Dave Stryker, Kevin Mahogany, Jay Clayton, Carlos Averhoff, Francisco Mela, Stacy Dillard and many others. He has released two albums of original music with his group, The Convergence Project, which features compositions influenced by the rhythms of Colombia. Uman has also appeared as a sideman and producer on numerous recordings; three of his compositions were included on Sammy Figueroa’s Grammy nominated album, In Walked Sammy. Eugene’s work has been commissioned by the Big Band de Medellin, the Windham Orchestra, Juno Orchestra and 10x10 Upstreet Arts Festival.

Mimi Jones – double bass

New York-based Mimi Jones attended the famed LaGuardia High School of Music and Art and then the Manhattan School of Music on a full scholarship. She studied bass with Lisle Atkinson, Ron Carter, Milton Hinton and was mentored by Charles Davis, Barry Harris, Dr. Billy Taylor, Yusef Latif and Max Roach. As a Jazz Ambassador, Jones toured Africa, Europe, Russia, China, South and Central America, and the Caribbean for the U.S. State Department. Her work as a side woman includes gigs with Kenny Barron, Beyonce, Frank Ocean, Dianne Reeves, Ingrid Jensen, Roy Hargrove, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Nona Hendricks, Kevin Mahogany, Marc Cary, Toshi Reagon, Rachel Z, Sean Jones, Cyrille Aimee, Allan Harris, Ravi Coltrane and Ralph Peterson. Jones has released three albums as a leader and appears on recordings with Terri Lyne Carrington’s Mosaic Project, Rudy Royston, Lizz Wright, Tia Fuller. Luís Perdomo, Camille Thurman and others.

Brian Shankar Adler - drums and percussion

Brian Shankar Adler is a multidisciplinary percussionist and composer. He was once described by JazzTimes Magazine as "a polyrhythmic force… still somehow capable of evoking the delicacy of a summer breeze.” Adler has performed in caves, forests and glacial ice fields as well as Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center and other prestigious venues. He appears on over 40 recordings, including several as a leader. His music video, Mantra, won best music video at the Transcinema International Film Festival in Peru and was an official selection at the Quiet City Film Festival in Brooklyn.

Shankar Adler has been featured in Jason Bivins' book Spirits Rejoice, Newsweek, NPR, Downbeat, and Modern Drummer Magazine. He has recorded and/or toured with Ballet Hispánico's Doña Perón, Chelsea Clinton's film Of Many, Kamala Sankaram's operas Thumbprint, A Rose and The Jungle Book, and Elizabeth Swados's latest theater productions, The Nomad and The Golem .

In 2013, Adler was a guest soloist with La Bomba de Tiempo in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Adler traveled to Germany to perform with singer Sunny Kim and to Kuwait to perform with oudist Ahmed Alshaiba. He was composer-in-residence at Antenna Cloud Farm and was commissioned by Palaver Strings. Shankar Adler is a winner of the 2021 Lifetime Arts/National Guild Fellowship, and is published in A World of Percussion, a book that connects rhythm, language, mathematics, and the environment. He has worked professionally with: Sheila Jordan, Jay Clayton, Guillermo Klein, Michael Leonhart Orchestra, Kate McGarry, Ray Vega and many others. He currently teaches at Bates College, Bowdoin College, University of Maine and the Vermont Jazz Center.

Jhair Sala, Percussion:

Jhair Sala is known for his deep roots in Afro-Peruvian and Afro-Cuban traditions, blending them with a fresh, contemporary edge. He has performed and recorded with legends including Ruben Blades, Pedrito Martinez, Eric Clapton, and Steve Gadd, and was twice named Rising Star Percussionist of the Year by Drum Magazine. Jhair will primarily be playing cajon and congas, but he’s equally at home on bongos, timbales, and a wide range of traditional Latin percussion instruments.