Joe Magnarelli Quartet

About this event

Member ticket only – £17.50

Non-members ticket only – £22.50

Students aged 14 to 21 ticket only - £5

Members dining + ticket – £52.50

Non-members dining + ticket – £57.50

Students aged 14 to 21 dining + ticket - £40

Hotel Deal - Dinner Bed & Breakfast plus tickets just £199 per couple

Doors Open 7pm

On Stage 8.15pm

Joe Magnarelli Quartet

Over the course of a 40+ year career, Joe Magnarelli has emerged as one of the premier trumpeters, improvisers, composers, and educators in jazz.

Initially training as a pianist who accompanied songs sung by his father, Magnarelli took up trumpet as a youth in his native Syracuse. He was inspired by lessons with noted trumpeter Sal Amico as well as performances with esteemed tenor saxophonist J. R. Montrose. He also studied briefly with distinguished trumpeter Louis Mucci at the Berklee School of Music in Boston, and others.

During his first two years as a student at the State University of New York-Fredonia, where he earned a Special Studies B.A. in 1982, Joe was the choir director and pianist for the Central Baptist Church in Syracuse, which he regards as a pivotal experience. He plays piano to this day, and considers it a key aspect of his creative journey.

Magnarelli, known to friends and fans as “Mags,” moved to New York City in 1986, with the goal of a fulfilling life devoted to music.

Things happened fairly swiftly. That year, he joined vibes innovator Lionel Hampton’s Orchestra. That association led to tenures with organist Brother Jack McDuff’s septet; pianist and composer Toshiko Akiyoshi’s Jazz Orchestra; jazz singer laureate Jon Hendricks’s group; pianist Harry Connick Jr.’s Orchestra; conga dynamo Ray Barretto’s New World Sextet; saxophonist Charles Davis’s quintet; pianist Harry Whitaker’s group; the N.Y. Hard Bop Quintet, a co-op band that also included pianist Keith Saunders and tenorman Jerry Weldon; composer/arranger Marty Sheller’s Nonet; tenor saxophonist/composer Walt Weiskopf’s groups; the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra; and many more. Among his appearances on over 125 recordings, many have been with these artists and ensembles.

Additionally, as a freelance trumpet player, Magnarelli has had the opportunity to play engagements in New York and around the world with Aretha Franklin, Rosemary Clooney, Joe Williams, Freddy Cole, Mel Torme, Johnny Mathis, John Pizzarelli, Jane Monheit, the Glenn Miller Orchestra, George Grunz’s European Orchestra, the Clayton/Hamilton Big Band, the Smalls Jazz All-Stars, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, Chico O’Farrill, Jimmy Cobb’s Mob, and Louis Hayes’s Cannonball Legacy Band.

The seven-piece band bristles with UK jazz greats, including reedsmen Alan Barnes and Tony Kofi and veteran bassist Dave Green. Great charts from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s – Main Stem, Cotton Tail, Chelsea Bridge, Such Sweet Thunder and others - are presented in Alex Webb’s clever new arrangements which evoke the period but also offer solo space to these top-flight musicians.  The repertoire also includes pieces from artists and arrangers who were influenced by the Duke – Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk and Gil Evans.  It’s a big sound from a pocket band.

Line up:

Joe Magnarelli - Trumpet

Sean Fyfe - Piano

Jeremy Brown - Bass

Mark Taylor - Drums