GRANTHAM, N.H. – Jazz on a Sunday Afternoon (JOSA) brings two popular Boston-area musicians – saxophonist Cerci Miller and vocalist Dominique Eade – together for a performance on March 11, followed by a performance by vocalist Amanda Carr, another favorite Boston-based jazz artist, on March 25, to the Center at Eastman in Grantham.
Miller has been a dynamic force in Boston’s jazz scene since 1986, when she founded the Cerci Miller Jazz Quartet, and later, the avant-garde jazz collective, Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet. She is a member of the MCM Trio and performs frequently with artists Deborah Henson-Conant and Rebecca Parris, as well as with the Lisa Thorson Quintet, Didi Stewart and Friends and the Patty Larkin Band.
The Boston Globe calls Miller a “direct and commanding” performer whose solos are “scorching.” The Boston Herald describes her as a “versatile stylist with a penchant for melody” and a “take no prisoners streak that shows itself in her slashing alto solos.”
A graduate of the New England Conservatory, where she was mentored by jazz sax legend Joseph Allard, Miller is also a composer and educator. She has released eight jazz recordings and teaches at Wesleyan College and the Berklee School of Music.
Eade has been a featured vocalist in the Boston Globe Jazz Festival, the Jazz in Toulon Festival in France and the What Is Jazz? Festival in New York. A recipient of the outstanding jazz vocalist award at the Boston Music Awards, Eade was also chosen as the “best jazz singer” by Entertainment Weekly’s Regional Raves.
Eade studied at the New England Conservatory, where she is a faculty member and a recipient of its Outstanding Alumni Award. Her recordings, including “When the Wind Was Cool,” “The Long Way Home” and “Open” have appeared in jazz critics’ top ten lists.
“With her clear and radiant but forcefully grounded voice, Eade investigates the songs like a diamond cutter,” Lloyd Sachs, of Jazz Press, wrote, “taking time to highlight their unique harmonic facets while never losing sight of their emotional meaning.”
Amanda Carr began her musical career as a teen-age vocalist and pianist in the rock and pop genre, performing in Boston night clubs, and later turned to jazz and big band, offering fresh interpretations of the Great American Songbook. Carr has been a guest vocalist with Keith Lockhart and The Boston Pops, and with such name big bands as The Artie Shaw Orchestra, Harry James Band and the Glenn Miller Orchestra, as well as a headline artist at EuroJazz Festival in Italy, along with James Moody and George Mraz.
Carr created and headlined a successful cross-country tour show, “A Tribute to Peggy Lee,” which sold out 30 dates. She has also composed and performed music for two PBS documentaries, “The Story of Golf,” which received an Emmy Nomination, and “Boston Red Sox: 100 Years of Baseball History.” Carr’s most ambitious project, a big band album called “Common Thread,” debuted on the top of multiple jazz best-seller charts and in the top 50 on Billboard. She was named Best Jazz Artist in 2010 by the Boston Music Awards and received the New England Music Awards’ Top Jazz Act prize in 2012
“No matter in what genre Amanda is performing, she brings and excitement and energy to the stage and a vibrant connection to her audience,” notes The Boston Herald. “She is an entertainer of the first degree.”
JOSA shows are held at the Center at Eastman in Grantham, N. H., from 4 to 7 p.m., with doors opening at 3 p.m. A bistro menu and full beverage selection is offered during all performances by Bistro Nouveau. For a full schedule of JOSA events, visit www.josajazz.com.
Tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for seniors (62+) and students (-17). Reservations are recommended. Call the Wightsteeple Box Office at 603.763.8732 or 603.381.1662 (cell); email bill.wightman@nullcomcast.net; or visit www.josajazz.com. For reservations after 2 p.m. on the day of the show, please call the venue at 603.863.8000.