Downbeat Magazine award-winning violinist & U.S. Department of State Musical Ambassador leads all-star trio in BLU debut! Featuring bassist Matt Ulery and drummer Jon Deitemyer.

Heralded as “the pre-eminent improvising violinist of his generation,” Zach Brock is an award-winning jazz violinist and composer whose music draws on the traditions of jazz, classical, world, and popular music. The Chicago Tribune recognized Zach’s latest recording “Perpetuity” as one of it’s “top ten jazz recordings of 2014” and Downbeat Magazine’s 61st Annual Critics Poll named Zach it’s “Rising Star” Violinist of 2013. Zach’s acclaim as a bandleader has grown through appearances at venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York City and festivals like “Tudo é Jazz” in Ouro Preto, Brazil, while his reputation as a sideman has spread through collaborations with legendary bassist Stanley Clarke, Grammy-award-winning super-group Snarky Puppy, and contemporary jazz masters Phil Markowitz and Dave Liebman. In 2012 Zach became the first violinist ever to record for Criss Cross Records in it’s 32-year history and 2015 will see his third release for the acclaimed Dutch label.

“I called the great French violinist, Jean-Luc Ponty, and I said ‘So, who’s the new cat? Who’s got the stuff?’ And he said ‘Zach Brock’…”
– STANLEY CLARKE

In addition to touring and recording, Zach has represented the U.S. Department of State as a Musical Ambassador in the Solomon Islands, has been a featured soloist for two Sundance Festival feature film scores, and is currently “Artist In Residence” at Temple University’s Boyer College of Music and Dance in Philadelphia, PA.

Join us at BLU Jazz+ as three of the biggest rising stars in the jazz world converge upon Akron in a showcase of incredible musicianship & live performance – get your tickets today!

ABOUT MATT ULERY

Chicago-based bassist/composer and bandleader Matt Ulery has developed an instantly recognizable sound. Known for his sweeping lyricism, unconventional phrase structures, expressionistic emotionalism, 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 has produced and released 6 albums of all original music under his name including his three most recent releases of critical acclaim, “By a Little Light,” “Wake an Echo,” and “In the Ivory,” on Dave Douglas’s Greenleaf Music record label in 2012-2014. Ulery has played in bands with Kurt Rosenwinkel, Phil Markowitz, Jimmy Chamberlin, Fareed Haque, Howard Levy, Patricia Barber, Goran Ivanovic, Jeff Parker and many others.

“This is music of brisk intelligence and an almost off-putting abundance of composure… with frictionless access to great chunks of classical post-minimalism, atmospheric indie-rock and harmonically astute post-bop…”
– NEW YORK TIMES

As a composer, Ulery has collaborated with ensembles such as eighth blackbird and the New Millennium Orchestra of Chicago. When not touring parts of the U.S. and Europe, Matt appears regularly in the Chicago area music venues and has performed with his groups at prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Chicago Orchestra Hall, Millennium Park Pritzker Pavillion, Chicago Cultural Center, The Krannert Center, Blues Alley, Jazz Showcase, The Metro and countless other fine music listening rooms.

ABOUT JON DEITEMYER

Jon Deitemyer has quickly earned his place among a new breed of creative, expressive jazz drummers. Mr. Deitemyer 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, he has collaborated with Patricia Barber, Matt Ulery, Zach Brock, Grazyna Auguscik, Phil Markowitz, Ben Paterson, and countless others. Mr. Deitemyer’s performances have taken him all over the United States, as well as South Korea, Brazil, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, and Canada.

“Jon Deitemyer is the drummer everybody wants right now…”
– PATRICIA BARBER

Recordings of his drumming can be heard on the Concord, Greenleaf, Origin, and MaxJazz labels. He is also an active educator, with teaching positions at Loyola University Chicago and the Chicago Academy for the Arts.