MUSIC

Da Camera of Houston presents Stefon Harris and Blackout, Saturday, January 22, 2010; at 8:00 PM, in the Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center.

Vibraphonist Stefon Harris is heralded as “one of the most important young artists in jazz” by The Los Angeles Times. Harris’ passionate artistry, energetic stage presence and astonishing virtuosity have propelled him into the forefront of the current jazz scene.

Harris' latest CD Urbanus features Blackout, a scintillating ensemble as versed in modern jazz as it is in the rhythms, melodies and soundscapes of R&B, pop, hip-hop and funk.

“Blackout is a band of serious practitioners of the benevolent dark arts, and it’s reintroducing urban culture into the jazz tradition. Jazz needs more signifiers of streetwise indirection like this.” – NPR Music

“His music needs no labels like ‘postmodern’ or ‘cutting edge’. It is Stefon Harris music, as Charles Mingus, he insisted, was Mingus music.” - Nat Hentoff, Jazz Times Magazine

The jazz series also includes Tierney Sutton Band, Stefon Harris and Blackout, Lionel Loueke, Geri Allen and the supergroup WATTS featuring Jeff "Tain" Watts, Nicholas Payton, David Sanchez and Christian McBride.