Tobin's Run on 51: Village Vibes & Chasin’ the Trane

Tim Armacost has gathered knowledge and experience around the globe, which forms the foundation of his passionate brand of jazz. After landing in New York in 1993, Armacost quickly established his presence as a leader, releasing his first two albums, Fire (Concord) and Live at Smalls (Double Time) to critical acclaim. His hard hitting third release, The Wishing Well, (Double Time) announced the arrival of Armacost's working unit, featuring Bruce Barth, Ray Drummond, and Billy Hart. The group has completed six successful tours in Europe and Asia, and followed up with an inspired second recording, Brightly Dark. (Satchmo Records). Armacost's current release, Rhythm and Transformation, (ArtistShare 0064) features the quartet augmented by Ray Spiegel playing Tabla, and the great Eddie Henderson on trumpet. He describes his early upbringing as a pendulum swing between his hometown of Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Washington D.C.

Armacost began his musical training on clarinet in Tokyo at the age of eight. By sixteen he had switched to tenor saxophone, and was working in big bands around Washington. The turning point into a jazz career came back in LA at eighteen, where Armacost met his two primary teachers, Bobby Bradford and Charlie Shoemake. Through them he learned the fundamentals of melody and harmony, and was exposed to the giants of modern jazz, who would give shape to Armacost's early development. Among them were: Sonny Rollins, Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, Ornette Coleman, Freddie Hubbard, Tom Harrell, Sonny Stitt, Pete Christlieb, Harold Land, and Clifford Brown. After gaining seven years worth of extensive performing, teaching, and recording experience in Europe, Armacost raised his stakes once again and headed for India. Having studied melody and harmony for twelve years, Armacost arrived in New Delhi with the goal of concentrating on rhythm. He had the good fortune to become a student of the tabla master Vijay Ateet. Under Mr. Ateet's guidance, Armacost explored the rich rhythmic tradition of Hindustani classical music.

Throughout twenty-five years of frequent traveling to Japan, Tim Armacost has developed a deep and special relationship with its people. He is a fluent speaker of Japanese, which he studied as an exchange student at Waseda University, and is an active student of Japanese culture and religion. His performances there have included such great musicians as Terumasa and Motohiko Hino, Fumio Karashima, Nobuyoshi Ino, Fumio Itabashi, Shingo Okudaira,Benisuke Sakai, Kiyoto Fujiwara, and Yutaka Shiina

Bassist Peter Brendler grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. He began his musical studies on electric bass, but soon gravitated towards the upright bass. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in 2001 from Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee, Peter was selected by the bass faculty to receive the John Neves Scholarship: a merit based scholarship awarded to an upright bassist who shows outstanding promise and commitment. During that time, he performed extensively throughout the Boston area, after which he relocated to NYC where he is now one of the most in demand bassists on the scene.

Returning to school from 2002 he earned his Masters in Music from Manhattan School of Music. He’s since worked with artists such as John Abercrombie, Rich Perry, Victor Lewis, Jon Irabagon & many more. In addition, Peter has also recorded three albums as a leader/co-leader the latest of which "Message in Motion" (Posi-Tone) was released in 2016.

Born in Vancouver and raised in Nanaimo, British Columbia, Ingrid Jensen has been hailed as one of the most gifted trumpeters of her generation. After graduating from Berklee College of Music in 1989, she went on to record three highly acclaimed CDs for the ENJA record label, soon becoming one of the most in-demand trumpet players on the global jazz scene. After a teaching stint in Europe in her early twenties – as the youngest professor in the history of the Bruckner Conservatory in Linz, Austria - Ingrid settled in New York City in the mid-1990s where she joined the innovative jazz orchestras of Maria Schneider (1994-2012) and Darcy James Argue. More recently, Ingrid has been performing with the Grammy-winning Terri-Lyne Carrington and her Mosaic Project. Ingrid is a featured soloist on the Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra’s Juno-award-winning album, Treelines (2011), and its successor, Habitat (2013). She has performed with a multi-generational cast of jazz legends ranging from Clark Terry to Esperanza Spalding; Ingrid has also performed alongside British R&B artist Corrine Bailey Rae on Saturday Night Live, and recorded with Canadian pop icon Sarah McLachlan. In addition to her busy sideman and featured soloist schedule, Jensen leads her own quintet, quartet and organ trio. Her own bands have garnered glowing reviews and a loyal fan base in Australia, South Africa, almost every country in Europe, across Canada, the US, South America (including Brazil, Peru and Chile), Japan and Mexico.

Jensen is also a dedicated jazz educator, having taught trumpet at the University of Michigan and Peabody Conservatory, performing and lecturing as a guest artist with the Thelonious Monk Institute High School group featuring Herbie Hancock, and performing and teaching at the Centrum Jazz Workshop, The Dave Brubeck Institute, the Banff Centre Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music and the Stanford Jazz Camp and the Geri Allen Jazz Camp for young women. She is currently on faculty at both Purchase College and at the New School in New York. Since her victory at the Carmine Caruso Trumpet Competition in 1995, Jensen has since sat on the judges’ panel twice for said competition. 

Jimmy Macbride is a drummer/composer based in New York City. He has performed with a wide variety of artists including Herbie Hancock, Terence Blanchard, Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Barron, Jimmy Greene, and Adam Rogers. Coming from an artistic family (his father is a composer and mother is a visual artist), Jimmy began playing drums at age 3 and gravitated toward jazz music at an equally young age. Jimmy is a recent graduate of The Juilliard School, where he studied privately with Carl Allen, Billy Drummond and Kenny Washington. He is a regular performer throughout New York City, performing at such venues as Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, Smalls, The Jazz Gallery, and The Blue Note. His musical talents have also taken him worldwide, touring across Europe, Asia, and North America. Jimmy has also appeared at some of the world’s most famous venues, including the Monterey Jazz Festival, North Sea Jazz Festival, and Newport Jazz Festival, among others.  He performs regularly with different groups including Nir Felder, Samora Pinderhughes’ Transformations Suite, Lucas Pino’s Nonet, Nick Finzer's Hear & Now, and the Roxy Coss Quintet. In addition, he can be seen playing with many of New York’s most creative and forward-thinking artists, including Lage Lund, Melissa Aldana, Ben Street, Kevin Hays, Fabian Almazan, Matt Brewer, Michael Rodriguez, and Dayna Stephens, among many others. He is also an active recording artist, appearing on over 20 albums to date.

Irish born David O’Rourke was introduced to the US jazz scene in 1982 via Bucky Pizzarelli and Les Paul.  Influenced by Pat Martino (with whom he has studied and now collaborates), David has performed with jazz legends Tommy Flanagan, Cedar Walton, Jackie McLean, Billy Higgins, Curtis Fuller, Kenny Davern, Jack McDuff and many more.  His arrangements have been recorded and performed by many jazz legends, as well as the RTE Concert Orchestra (Ireland) which he guest conducts.  David leads his own 20 piece Big Band (The O’Rourkestra), co-founded and directs NYC’s Jazz Standard Youth Orchestra and the Jazz Standard Discovery Program.  For several years he held a 6 night a week guitar gig at The Jazz Standard in NYC, where he continues to perform with his big band and as a first call guitarist.

Phil Robson is a multi-award-winning, internationally-acclaimed guitarist, composer and bandleader. Originally from the UK, he relocated to NYC at the end of 2015 and is rapidly becoming one of the major figures on the music scene. He's worked with many of the greats, including David Liebman, Charles Earland, Steve Lacy, Maceo Parker, Barbra Streisand and BBC big band, and has also led his own bands featuring US stars such as Mark Turner, Billy Hart, Donny McCaslin, James Genus, Adam Nussbaum and many more. He and partner Christine Tobin have co-led the seminal UK band Partisans for more than 20 years.

Christine Tobin is based between New York City and London. The Irish born vocalist and composer is renowned for her unique rich voice and original compositional style. With eleven highly acclaimed CDs under her own name, and four major awards under her belt, Christine is treasured in the UK and beyond as one of the leading lights on the contemporary scene. Her authentic sound was described by The Guardian as “Tobin’s 24 carat voice” while praising her both for the poetry of her compositions and the warmth of her golden voice. 

Her style, although rooted in jazz, is eclectic and draws on a broad range of influences. The Irish Times called it “music that veers from grungy, post-industrial grooves to wispy romanticism to abstracted contemporary classical.” MOJO Music Magazine wrote “Christine Tobin really transcends glib genre-fication. Her expressive range acknowledges finely acquired folk, jazz and 20th-century classical influences, which already sets her apart. And everything is shot through with an unmistakable refinement, free-spirited earthiness and giddy romanticism, this singer-songwriter is in a field of one.”
She has led various projects, and in 2012 “Sailing to Byzantium,” her take on WB Yeats’ poems, won a British Composer Award. The following year she won a Herald Angel Award at the Edinburgh Festival for her show “A Thousand Kisses Deep,” filled with her imaginative interpretations of some of Leonard Cohen’s classics. And in 2014 she won Jazz Vocalist of the Year at the Parliamentary Jazz Awards. Earlier in her career Christine won Best Vocalist at the 2008 BBC Jazz Awards. 
Her versatility and musical integrity has ensured that she is a much in demand guest with other bands. She has performed and recorded with a list of diverse creative artists, including musicians Kenny Wheeler, Billy Hart, Mark Turner, James Genus, Gary Versace, Leo Genovese, Joe Locke, Harvie S, Mike Gibbs, Nigel Kennedy, Django Bates, Billy Childs, Julian Joseph, BBC Big Band, Carleen Anderson, Tim Garland, Cleveland Watkiss, Gary Husband, actor Gabriel Byrne and Pulitzer Prize winning poet Paul Muldoon.
Christine works regularly on the international scene. Her 2016 shows in the US included Xerox Rochester Jazz Festival, Edmonton and Vancouver Jazz Festivals and in NYC she played at Symphony Space, The Irish Arts Center, National Sawdust, Kitano, Club Bonafide and Bar Next Door. UK and London performances include Ronnie Scott's, The Pizza Express Jazz Club Soho, Vortex, The Sage Gateshead and many reputed festivals including the London Jazz Festival, Brecon, Cheltenham and Hull Jazz Festival. Previously she has played at many renowned jazz festivals worldwide, including Kongsberg, Shanghai, Varna, Kalisz, Berlin, Rainforest Music Festival Borneo, Sons di Hiver Paris, Molde, Baku, Syria, Haarlem Jazz, Frankfurt and Cork International Jazz Festival. Club appearances on the international scene include Joe’s Pub NYC, A-Trane Berlin, a week’s residency at the Half Note, Athens and residencies at the Jamboree, Barcelona.
Her vivid interpretations of Bessie Smith were featured in “Martin Scorsese Presents the Red, White and Blues,” a docu/film series by director Mike Figgis. These films were commissioned by the PSB channel in the U.S. and screened at cinemas worldwide. Christine has also presented special features for BBC Radio 3’s cutting edge program “Jazz on 3” and appeared regularly on Alyn Shipton’s “Jazz Library” also for BBC Radio 3. She has contributed to programs about Billie Holiday, Bessie Smith, Abbey Lincoln, Betty Carter, Joni Mitchell and Carmen McRae. The special documentary program she presented for RTE Lyric FM “Out with Paganism,” was a Silver Radio Winner at the New York Festivals - 2013 World’s Best Radio Programs.