Harvey Wainapel – saxophone
Larry Ham – keys
Rich Syracuse – bass
Jeff Siegel – drums
Wainapel joins forces with three of the region’s top musicians: pianist Larry Ham; bassist Rich Syracuse; and drummer Jeff Siegel. Harvey says, “We’ll present a few of my compositions, some tunes we believe should be considered ‘standards,’ and we’ll throw in some Brazilian spice.”
Saxophonist Harvey Wainapel grew up in Ellenville, then moved to Philadelphia, Boston, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, New York City, and has lived in the San Francisco areasince 1982. Over the years Harvey has toured internationally with Ray Charles, Airto Moreira & Flora Purim, and Joe Lovano. Wainapel (pronounced “wine-apple”) hasalso performed and/or recorded with pianists Kenny Barron, Dave Brubeck, andMcCoy Tyner; drummers Billy Hart and Mike Clark; the hr-Bigband (German Radio Big Band in Frankfurt); Holland’s Metropole Orchestra; and he has presented his own work in 17 countries.
Pianist, composer, and arranger Larry Ham is a veteran New York sideman, performing, touring, and recording with many great jazz artists.
Larry began his professional career in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra in the late ’80’s. He was pianist in the Illinois Jacquet Big Band 1990-95 and has worked extensively with countless other jazz legends, including the late Junior Cook and Dakota Staton. He has appeared at jazz festivals, concerts and nightclubs throughout the United States, Europe, West Africa, and Japan. His New York appearances include Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, Carnegie Hall, Iridium, The Village Vanguard, Birdland, Small’s, Mezzrow, and Harlem’s historic Lenox Lounge.
RICH SYRACUSE STRING BASSIST, ELECTRIC BASSIST, COMPOSER Rich Syracuse has been a mainstay on the New York area scene for more than three decades. While performing at an early age in New York City he was the winner of the prestigious Congress Of Strings Award. He went on to receive a Bachelor of Music degree from Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Rich performed with The Group For Contemporary Music under the Conductor Charles Wournin and Harvey Solberger, The Hartford Ballet and the New Jersey Lyric Opera Co. During the early part of his career he performed in Jazz groups featuring pianists John Mehegan, Joey Calderazzo and Ted Rosenthal. After moving to New York State’s Hudson Valley in the mid 1980’s he began a long-standing stint in the Nick Brignola Quartet playing clubs, festivals, and recording sessions. Besides his years with Brignola, he has performed with Mose Allison, Kurt Elling, Dave Liebman, Brubeck Brothers, Warren Bernhardt, SumiTonoka, David Torn, Mike DeMicco, Peter Levin, Sam Morrison, Bernard Purdy, Vic Juris, Dave Stryker, Chuck Lamb, Jeff “Siege” Siegel, Dena DeRose, John Medeski, Michael Musilliami and Ali Demogli, Rich had been the bassist for Jazz pianist Lee Shaw for over 25 years until her passing.
Drummer/Composer Jeff “Siege” Siegel is a veteran of the New York Jazz scene and has worked with a virtual “who’s who” of artists. A member of the Sir Roland Hanna Trio from 1994-’99, Siegel’s diverse career has also led him to perform and/or record with legends such as Ron Carter, Kenny Burrell, Jack DeJohnette, Benny Golson, Sheila Jordan, Helen Merrill, Mose Allison, John Medeski, Arthur Rhames, Dave Douglas, Stefon Harris, Pat Metheny, Kurt Elling, Ravi Coltrane, Ryan Kisor, Lee Shaw, Levin Brothers, John Medeski, Dena DeRose, Lee Shaw and many others. He has worked in the avant garde world as well with Wadada Leo Smith, Baikida Carroll. He’s performed over 30 European tours including four as leader of the Jeff “Siege” Siegel Quartet and several others as co-leader. The Jeff “Siege” Siegel Sextet performed a 3 week tour of Africa in the summer of 2019.
harvjazz.com larryham.com
