STAN KILLIAN QUARTET – 9PM & 11PM

Stan Killian Quartet

Musician Lineup Stan Killian, tenor sax; Benito Gonzalez, piano; Corcoran Holt, bass; McClenty Hunter, drums

“Stan Killian sounds a hopeful note for jazz’s future.  Killian is more precisely of the Dexter Gordon sound that carried through in Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Wayne Shorter. It’s great stuff that brings the past into the present, like any good jazz does.” 

Michael J. West, Washington City Paper, 

The New York–based tenor saxophonist and composer was born and raised in Texas and began performing professionally at age 16 with his father, JoeKillian, a jazz pianist and Hammond organist who worked in bands led by sax legends Sonny Stitt, Jimmy Ford, and Don Wilkerson. With a saxophone spirit reminiscent of Illinois Jacquet, Arnett Cobb, and James Clay, the twenty-first-century Texas Tenor seeks to modernize this rich lineage by developing a highly personalized compositional approach coupled with a consistent group sound steeped in simpatico and interplay.

In 2006, Killian left Texas and moved to Baltimore. He lived in a red brick row home on Chesterfield Ave in a diverse neighborhood, overlooking the tranquility of Herring Run Park.  There, he composed many of the compositions which would appear on his two critically acclaimed Sunnyside Record releases, Unified and Evoke.   While in Baltimore, he studied with Gary Thomas and Larry Willis and led Com Você, a group he co founded with vocalist Margret Grebowicz.  They performed regularly in Baltimore, Washington D.C and in New York as well.

Killian moved to New York in 2008 and soon began recording with great musicians like Antonio Sanchez, Scott Colley, Ben Monder.  He formed his New York Quartet and recorded Unified with special guests Roy Hargrove, David Binney and Jeremy Pelt.  In 2013, he released Evoke, which featured his working band with guitarist Mike Moreno.