Aurora Jazz Project

January 28, 2010 2:00 AM
OGUNQUIT — The exciting Aurora Jazz Project that has been setting new standards for jazz performances in Northern Maine and the Bangor area will be coming to Ogunquit for a one-night gig that will feature this sonically, sonorically brilliant quintet playing an evening of music by Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk.

The Aurora Jazz Project will present "From Miles to Monk" at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 6, at the Great Hall of the Dunaway Center, 23 School St.

Miles Davis and Thelonius Monk were two influential jazz musicians in the latter half of the 20th century and both extended the jazz idiom in new directions with subtlety and superb technical skills.

The Aurora Jazz Project features Mark Tasker on trumpet/flugelhorn, Brady Harris on guitar, Colin Graebert on piano, Gaylen Smith on bass, and Tom Bennett on drums, and provides a 21st-century interpretation of these two giants of the modern jazz scene.

This evening of "From Miles to Monk" is an opportunity for jazz officianodos and music lovers alike to experience a virtuosic performance.

Tickets are $12 and are available at the Dunaway Center, Ogunquit Camera Shop, Ogunquit Welcome Center, and at the door the evening of the performance.

The Aurora Jazz Project's "From Miles to Monk" concert is Ogunquit Performing Arts' second event celebrating Black History Month.
- seacoastonline.com

It’s not that anyone ever discouraged Colin Graebert from trying to make it as a professional musician in Bangor — it’s just that no one ever held out hope that anyone could really do it.

“Everyone told me it would never work and that I had to go to Portland at least, if not Boston or New York, to make a living as a musician,” said Graebert, 25, a Brewer resident. “I spent a couple years not really playing and just working, because I never thought I could work it out.”

Fortunately, Graebert proved everyone wrong. He’s currently in not one, but three bands, and works as a piano accompanist for just about anyone who needs him. He’s just as happy playing hot jazz in a bar as he is accompanying jazz and classical vocalists or theatrical productions on the piano. He’s making a living doing it — one of a handful of dedicated, talented professional musicians in eastern Maine.

His jazz group, the Colin Graebert Trio, performs twice monthly at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor’s Thursday jazz nights, the next of which is set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 27, featuring vocalist Allison Bankson. He’ll also play piano on June 9 for the Penobscot Theatre’s Songs and Scenes showcase, previewing next year’s season. On top of the school and community choirs he backs up, and the baby he and his wife are expecting at the end of the month, he’s a busy dude.

First things first, though. How did a guy who largely had given up on making a living as a musician, and was making the retail slog instead, get back into the fray? Well, you have to go way back, before he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, and later the music program at the University of Maine. Back to when the then 12-year-old Graebert, also a talented violinist, played fiddle for 19th century re-enactment events at Leonard’s Mills in Bradley. Gaylen Smith, a sometimes freelance photographer, snapped his picture. Little did he know that 13 years later, Smith and he would be in a band together.

“Flash forward like 10 years, and we met at the Bangor Mall. Gaylen hired me as the night manager at Prints Plus,” said Graebert. “I found out he was a bass player. We really got along. A year later, we met again when we were both taking classes at [Eastern Maine Community College.] I asked him to join the Galley Rats and play bass.”

The Galley Rats, Graebert’s on-and-off Maritime folk band, has been seen at St. Patrick’s Day celebrations at Paddy Murphy’s and the Sea Dog in Bangor every year. But what Graebert really wanted to do was play jazz, his lifelong passion. Graebert, Smith and Chris Viner, a versatile drummer whom Graebert has known since high school, jammed a few times in 2008.

Band mind meld set in early — it was as easy as remembering how to ride a bicycle. And in a happy coincidence, it turns out that Smith’s longtime partner, Allison Bankston, is one heck of a jazz vocalist, singing standards and contemporary songs with laid back ease.

“Yeah, that was a nice surprise,” said Grabert. “Allison performs with us all the time.”

The band has done a bit of everything — from playing fundraisers and weddings to a three-week gig as the backing band for Penobscot Theatre’s popular musical “Forever Plaid.”

Meanwhile, all three musicians were jamming with another area jazz group, the Aurora Jazz Project, a band Smith is a regular member of. Trumpet player Mark Tasker plays with the Colin Graebert Trio regularly. The line between the two bands is pretty fluid.

“Sixty percent of the Colin Grabert Trio is the Aurora Jazz Project,” said Graebert. “We can all kind of mix and mingle pretty easily. We all have that level of playing skill where we can just sit down and jump in.”

Graebert has lots of plans for his musical career. He sees the Colin Graebert Trio as a regularly available backing band for any hibernating jazz musicians in the area who want to dust off an instrument and give playing live a chance again.

“I know they’re out there,” said Graebert. “We’ll play with anybody if their chops are good.”

He and Viner also daydream regularly about opening a music venue in downtown Bangor that would focus on blues and jazz — but that’s much further down the line. For now, the trio just want to play, play, play. For Graebert, he’s not sure what he likes better: being an accompanist, or being in a band.

“I really couldn’t pick,” he said. “On the one hand, working with organizations and schools allows you to work with great musicians and great kids and have your nights free. But jazz is so much fun too. I couldn’t pick. I’m just happy to be making music.”

To contact Colin Graebert about his trio or his piano backing skills, e-mailcolinonpiano@gmail.com.

Emily Burnham may be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.com. You also can check out her blog at www.community.bangordailynews.com.




Maine’s freshest entry into the jazz scene is a quartet with a deliberately enigmatic name. “Aurora Jazz Project” began gi - Bangor Daily News

It’s not that anyone ever discouraged Colin Graebert from trying to make it as a professional musician in Bangor — it’s just that no one ever held out hope that anyone could really do it.

“Everyone told me it would never work and that I had to go to Portland at least, if not Boston or New York, to make a living as a musician,” said Graebert, 25, a Brewer resident. “I spent a couple years not really playing and just working, because I never thought I could work it out.”

Fortunately, Graebert proved everyone wrong. He’s currently in not one, but three bands, and works as a piano accompanist for just about anyone who needs him. He’s just as happy playing hot jazz in a bar as he is accompanying jazz and classical vocalists or theatrical productions on the piano. He’s making a living doing it — one of a handful of dedicated, talented professional musicians in eastern Maine.

His jazz group, the Colin Graebert Trio, performs twice monthly at the Hilton Garden Inn in Bangor’s Thursday jazz nights, the next of which is set for 6:30-8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 27, featuring vocalist Allison Bankson. He’ll also play piano on June 9 for the Penobscot Theatre’s Songs and Scenes showcase, previewing next year’s season. On top of the school and community choirs he backs up, and the baby he and his wife are expecting at the end of the month, he’s a busy dude.

First things first, though. How did a guy who largely had given up on making a living as a musician, and was making the retail slog instead, get back into the fray? Well, you have to go way back, before he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, and later the music program at the University of Maine. Back to when the then 12-year-old Graebert, also a talented violinist, played fiddle for 19th century re-enactment events at Leonard’s Mills in Bradley. Gaylen Smith, a sometimes freelance photographer, snapped his picture. Little did he know that 13 years later, Smith and he would be in a band together.

“Flash forward like 10 years, and we met at the Bangor Mall. Gaylen hired me as the night manager at Prints Plus,” said Graebert. “I found out he was a bass player. We really got along. A year later, we met again when we were both taking classes at [Eastern Maine Community College.] I asked him to join the Galley Rats and play bass.”

The Galley Rats, Graebert’s on-and-off Maritime folk band, has been seen at St. Patrick’s Day celebrations at Paddy Murphy’s and the Sea Dog in Bangor every year. But what Graebert really wanted to do was play jazz, his lifelong passion. Graebert, Smith and Chris Viner, a versatile drummer whom Graebert has known since high school, jammed a few times in 2008.

Band mind meld set in early — it was as easy as remembering how to ride a bicycle. And in a happy coincidence, it turns out that Smith’s longtime partner, Allison Bankston, is one heck of a jazz vocalist, singing standards and contemporary songs with laid back ease.

“Yeah, that was a nice surprise,” said Grabert. “Allison performs with us all the time.”

The band has done a bit of everything — from playing fundraisers and weddings to a three-week gig as the backing band for Penobscot Theatre’s popular musical “Forever Plaid.”

Meanwhile, all three musicians were jamming with another area jazz group, the Aurora Jazz Project, a band Smith is a regular member of. Trumpet player Mark Tasker plays with the Colin Graebert Trio regularly. The line between the two bands is pretty fluid.

“Sixty percent of the Colin Grabert Trio is the Aurora Jazz Project,” said Graebert. “We can all kind of mix and mingle pretty easily. We all have that level of playing skill where we can just sit down and jump in.”

Graebert has lots of plans for his musical career. He sees the Colin Graebert Trio as a regularly available backing band for any hibernating jazz musicians in the area who want to dust off an instrument and give playing live a chance again.

“I know they’re out there,” said Graebert. “We’ll play with anybody if their chops are good.”

He and Viner also daydream regularly about opening a music venue in downtown Bangor that would focus on blues and jazz — but that’s much further down the line. For now, the trio just want to play, play, play. For Graebert, he’s not sure what he likes better: being an accompanist, or being in a band.

“I really couldn’t pick,” he said. “On the one hand, working with organizations and schools allows you to work with great musicians and great kids and have your nights free. But jazz is so much fun too. I couldn’t pick. I’m just happy to be making music.”

To contact Colin Graebert about his trio or his piano backing skills, e-mailcolinonpiano@gmail.com.

Emily Burnham may be reached at eburnham@bangordailynews.com. You also can check out her blog at www.community.bangordailynews.com.




Maine’s freshest entry into the jazz scene is a quartet with a deliberately enigmatic name. “Aurora Jazz Project” began gi - Bangor Daily News

You can understand how passionate Mark Tasker is about jazz just by talking to him. When he’s not teaching social studies at John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, he’s living and breathing jazz — especially when he’s playing with his quartet, the Aurora Jazz Project.

Never interested in staying rooted in just one style, Tasker and his cohorts in Aurora — guitarist Brady Harris, bassist Galen Smith and drummers Austin Hodges and Dan Colageo, who switch off — are both purists and rebels when it comes to the music they love.

“The focus of Aurora has always been to pay due homage to the roots of jazz, but to take it in a new direction,” said Tasker. “We try to make it relevant to today. Jazz gets into trouble when it becomes a museum piece. It never was before. It was rebel music. If you want Glenn Miller, you might want to try a different band than us.”

Aurora Jazz Project will kick off Schoodic Arts For All’s 2009 Jazz and Classical Concert Series with a show tonight at 7 p.m. at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor. Over the years, the group has played outdoor festival all over the state, like Bangor’s Cool Sounds concert series and WERU-FM’s Full Circle Fair in Blue Hill (which, sadly, is canceled this year — we’ll get to that in a later column).

Whether it’s cool, traditional swingin’ jazz or their more adventurous, progressive music, Aurora Jazz Project runs the gamut of influences. They’re more akin to groups such as Soulive, Medeski Martin & Wood and the Bad Plus, and when the band lets loose and starts experimenting, anything goes.

“We do a song called ‘Afro Blue,’ which is a jazz waltz. It’s not one of the more famous ones,” said Tasker. “Anyway, leading into it we do the intro from the Allman Brothers Band’s ‘Whipping Post.’ It fits like a glove. How many other jazz bands do that? I think the Allman Brothers are some of the baddest cats to ever play. I’ll steal from anyone. That’s the beautiful thing about jazz — everything is fair game.”

Along with all the other members of Aurora Jazz Project, Tasker, a graduate of Berklee College of Music, is an accomplished musician. He returned to Maine in 2002, after years spent out West. Shortly after returning, he met guitarist Harris. The rest of the pieces fell into place soon after, and Aurora Jazz Project was born.

In keeping with his adventurous spirit, Tasker’s biggest inspiration is the man himself — Miles.

“As a trumpet player, naturally I am inspired by Miles Davis. He covered so much ground musically,” said Tasker. “He started off with swing, then bop, post bop, to all the wild stuff with Gil Evans. And then he winds up playing really beautiful versions of Cyndi Lauper tunes. That’s the spirit that guides me.”

Of course, Tasker is also a teacher, and can’t help but hope to educate people about the music that’s been with him his whole life. He’ll get a chance to do that on Friday, thanks to a special gig Aurora Jazz Project is playing before the evening show.

“Before the show that night, we’re playing a show for 100 kids in grades 5 through 8,” said Tasker. “I am so psyched for it. It’s a chance to show them some live jazz, and say ‘Here, this is our country’s greatest contribution to art.’ I feel pretty lucky to be able to do that.”

Aurora Jazz Project will play at 7 tonight at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor, as part of School Arts for All’s Jazz and Classical Concert Series. Admission is $15 for adults, $7 for students and free for kids 12 and under. For more information on Schoodic events, visit http://www.schoodicartsforall.org/.

More on Aurora Jazz Project can be found at http://www.aurorajazzproject.com/.

eburnham@bangordailynews.net - Bangor Daily News

You can understand how passionate Mark Tasker is about jazz just by talking to him. When he’s not teaching social studies at John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor, he’s living and breathing jazz — especially when he’s playing with his quartet, the Aurora Jazz Project.

Never interested in staying rooted in just one style, Tasker and his cohorts in Aurora — guitarist Brady Harris, bassist Galen Smith and drummers Austin Hodges and Dan Colageo, who switch off — are both purists and rebels when it comes to the music they love.

“The focus of Aurora has always been to pay due homage to the roots of jazz, but to take it in a new direction,” said Tasker. “We try to make it relevant to today. Jazz gets into trouble when it becomes a museum piece. It never was before. It was rebel music. If you want Glenn Miller, you might want to try a different band than us.”

Aurora Jazz Project will kick off Schoodic Arts For All’s 2009 Jazz and Classical Concert Series with a show tonight at 7 p.m. at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor. Over the years, the group has played outdoor festival all over the state, like Bangor’s Cool Sounds concert series and WERU-FM’s Full Circle Fair in Blue Hill (which, sadly, is canceled this year — we’ll get to that in a later column).

Whether it’s cool, traditional swingin’ jazz or their more adventurous, progressive music, Aurora Jazz Project runs the gamut of influences. They’re more akin to groups such as Soulive, Medeski Martin & Wood and the Bad Plus, and when the band lets loose and starts experimenting, anything goes.

“We do a song called ‘Afro Blue,’ which is a jazz waltz. It’s not one of the more famous ones,” said Tasker. “Anyway, leading into it we do the intro from the Allman Brothers Band’s ‘Whipping Post.’ It fits like a glove. How many other jazz bands do that? I think the Allman Brothers are some of the baddest cats to ever play. I’ll steal from anyone. That’s the beautiful thing about jazz — everything is fair game.”

Along with all the other members of Aurora Jazz Project, Tasker, a graduate of Berklee College of Music, is an accomplished musician. He returned to Maine in 2002, after years spent out West. Shortly after returning, he met guitarist Harris. The rest of the pieces fell into place soon after, and Aurora Jazz Project was born.

In keeping with his adventurous spirit, Tasker’s biggest inspiration is the man himself — Miles.

“As a trumpet player, naturally I am inspired by Miles Davis. He covered so much ground musically,” said Tasker. “He started off with swing, then bop, post bop, to all the wild stuff with Gil Evans. And then he winds up playing really beautiful versions of Cyndi Lauper tunes. That’s the spirit that guides me.”

Of course, Tasker is also a teacher, and can’t help but hope to educate people about the music that’s been with him his whole life. He’ll get a chance to do that on Friday, thanks to a special gig Aurora Jazz Project is playing before the evening show.

“Before the show that night, we’re playing a show for 100 kids in grades 5 through 8,” said Tasker. “I am so psyched for it. It’s a chance to show them some live jazz, and say ‘Here, this is our country’s greatest contribution to art.’ I feel pretty lucky to be able to do that.”

Aurora Jazz Project will play at 7 tonight at Hammond Hall in Winter Harbor, as part of School Arts for All’s Jazz and Classical Concert Series. Admission is $15 for adults, $7 for students and free for kids 12 and under. For more information on Schoodic events, visit http://www.schoodicartsforall.org/.

More on Aurora Jazz Project can be found at http://www.aurorajazzproject.com/.

eburnham@bangordailynews.net - Bangor Daily News