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Merrimans' Playhouse Jazz Performance Series presents Matt Ulery's In the Ivory

Merrimans' Playhouse
South Bend, IN

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Merrimans' Playhouse Jazz Performance Series presents Matt Ulery's In the Ivory

Greenleaf Music Album Release Concert Tour -
Matt Ulery's "In the Ivory" feat.

Expanding upon the artistic and critical success of his 2012 double album By a Little Light, Chicago bassist-composer Matt Ulery returns with In the Ivory on Dave Douglas' acclaimed independent label Greenleaf Music eighty minutes of resplendent, lyrical, transportive, and impeccably performed chamber-jazz music. Inspired and motivated by the musical and personal relationships developed while recording and performing By a Little Light Ulery's most ambitious project to date In the Ivory explores the idea of consciousness through patient, lyrical composition.

Matt Ulery - double bass
Rob Clearfield - piano
Jon Deitemyer - drums
Grazyna Auguscik - voice

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9q8pSsIAGIg

More about the artists:

Matt Ulery is an American, Chicago based bassist and composer performing since the age of 14 years. Ulery's music is informed by the entire spectrum of jazz, classical, rock, pop, and folk-- specifically American, South American, Balkan, and other European folk styles. He performs not only on upright and electric bass, but doubles on tuba. Ulery is the leader of his own group, Loom, and a member, among others, of Eastern Blok, and the Grazyna Auguscik Group. Ulery has released four albums of all original music under his name and is releasing a double album on Dave Douglas's Greenleaf Music record label in June, 2012.

Ulery earn his bachelors degree in music composition at The Chicago College of Performing at Roosevelt University and has played in bands with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Phil Markowitz, Jarek Bester, Fareed Haque, Howard Levy, Patricia Barber, Ron Perrillo, Goran Ivanovic, Jeff Parker, Zach Brock, and many others. When not touring parts of the U.S. and Europe with his groups, Matt appears regularly in the Chicago area music venues and has played performed at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Chicago Orchestra Hall, Millenium Park Pritzker Pavillion, and countless other fine music listening rooms.

Grazyna Auguscik (born 17 August 1955) is a Polish jazz vocalist, composer and arranger. In her individualistic and international in character singing repertoire she frequently utilizes Polish folk music, Latin American music and Klezmer music.

In 1988, Grazyna moved to the United States, where she has performed with Michal Urbaniak and Urszula Dudziak, and many other leading jazz musicians, including Jim Hall, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, John Medeski, Patricia Barber, Paul Wertico, Bobby Enriquez, Terry Callier, John McLean, Kurt Rosenwinkel and Robert Irving III. Auguscik lives and frequently performs in Chicago since 1994. She has participated in the programs of the Jazz Institute of Chicago, bringing "traditional Eastern European music into the jazz idiom, providing a new link to the universality of the language of jazz". In 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006, she was declared Best Jazz Vocal by the European Jazz Forum Magazine. Auguscik has toured all over the world. Some of her albums have been highly acclaimed and popular with jazz audiences, and have consistently placed in Top 10 Charts (e.g. by the College Music Journal). Grazyna has recorded 15 albums, including two with Urszula Dudziak, her fellow top-ranking Polish female jazz vocalist.

From an early age, Rob Clearfield has shown a fascination in all types of music. From his humble beginnings playing grunge rock in his friends' basements and accompanying choirs at his mother's church, Clearfield has become a fixture on the Chicago music scene. In December 2009, Rob Clearfield released his first solo album "A Thousand Words," a collection of improvised piano works. Following this release, he has begun performing completely improvised piano concerts. In addition to his solo work, Rob has performed with such artists as Fareed Haque, Rakalam Bob Moses, Grazyna Auguscik, Juma Santos, Steve Gorn, Zach Brock, and John Wojciechowski, among others. Rob Clearfield is also a member of the groups District 97, Hood Smoke, Matt Ulery's Loom and Greg Ward's Fitted Shards, as well as his own band Information Superhighway, whose latest recording "This is Not the Ending" was released in November 2010. As a composer, Clearfield's work with the Superhighway is only the beginning. For four years running, he has been commissioned by Purdue University to score productions for the stage, and he is also currently the music director and composer-in-residence at the emergent church Wicker Park Grace in Chicago.

Jon Deitemyer has quickly earned his place among a new breed of creative, expressive jazz drummers. Grammy-winning singer Patricia Barber raves: "Jon Deitemyer is the drummer everybody wants right now" and Chicagojazz.com says: "Jon Deitemyer has earned a reputation as a must-hear drummer and doesn't disappoint." He graduated summa cum laude from the esteemed University of North Texas and spent substantial time at the Banff Centre for the Arts. In only a short professional career, Jon has performed and recorded with Patricia Barber, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Matt Ulery's Loom, Grazyna Auguscik, Zach Brock, Ben Paterson, and countless others. Jon released his debut album "Collected Shorts" in 2010. In addition, Jon's role in music education has grown rapidly: he has earned an Illinois Arts Council grant for education through the Plato School and is currently a faculty member of both DePaul University's Community Music program and the Chicago Academy for the Arts.