PUTNEY — Next Stage Arts Project presents renowned jazz vocalist Kendra Shank with the Draa Hobbs Quartet, featuring special guest Rich Greenblatt at Next Stage on Saturday, Oct. 1, at 7:30 pm.
According to a news release, longtime regional guitarist Draa Hobbs has put together a stellar group to accompany Shank, including Greenblatt of Boston's Berklee College of Music; bassist Wayne Roberts; and drummer Claire Arenius.
Hobbs has been active throughout New England for many years, performing with regional and Internationally recognized musicians. He appears on a number of CDs, including most recently a track for the German label Enja, “Message To Attila,” a tribute to his former mentor, the late Attila Zoller.
Shank combines jazz originals, standards, world music, French songs, folk/pop tunes, and open improvisation in an adventurous, genre-bending style that inspired Gary Giddins, writing in Jazz Times, to call her “one of New York's most original performers.”
Greenblatt, a vibraphonist, is a professor of music at Berklee College. He has played in jazz and blues festivals in the U.S. and Europe and recorded with The Be-Bop Guitars, The Jazz Composers' Alliance, and the Barcelona Symphony Orchestra.
Roberts, a Juilliard-trained acoustic bassist, has been a mainstay on the New York jazz scene for many years, while Arenius, a drummer, composer, and educator, has been performing in jazz and improvisational music for more than 30 years.