Jazz Is: Now – Markus Howell 5tet – Curated by Luther S. Allison

With his southern Floridian roots, Markus Howell Quintet brings an electrifying sound influenced by Cannonball Adderley, Charlie Parker, Johnny Hodges, and many others. His music is saturated with elements of swing, the blues, gospel, and R&B soul music. The Markus Howell Quintet brings an eclectic style of Black American music as you will journey through original compositions and fresh arrangements of Jazz standards that reflect a story connected to the artist. With every note, Markus strives to present integrity through his music with joy, love, spirituality and deep roots of the blues.

Personnel:

Markus Howell – alto saxophone
Camerahn Alforque – trumpet
Luther S. Allison – piano
Marty Jaffe – bass
Jerome Gillespie – drums

About the Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships

Since its founding, the National Jazz Museum in Harlem has provided young artists with opportunities to perform as well as curate concerts and events. NJMH Artistic Director Christian McBride started curating performances and presentations at the Museum in 2006, and Artistic Director Jon Batiste began in 2010 while a student at Juilliard. The excitement and energy those events brought to our community inform our current programming and creative vision. As Christian and Jon became globally recognized jazz ambassadors, the Museum continued to provide emerging artists with career-enhancing opportunities to curate events at the Museum. In 2022, we formalized this initiative as the Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellowships, with generous funding from the New York Community Trust’s Edward and Sally Van Lier Fellowship Program. Our third cohort of Jazz Is: Now Curatorial Fellows includes bassist Liany Mateo and pianist Luther Allison.

Liany and Luther will be performing and curating a variety of events at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem throughout 2024.