Birdhouse Jazz Series: Jason Stein Trio w/ Kent Kessler, Hamid Drake

A leading voice in the Chicago scene as well as a player of international renown, Jason Stein is also one of the only jazz musicians today to focus solely on the bass clarinet.  All About Jazz has called Stein “exhilarating, a young master of his fiendishly difficult horn.”  As a player and bandleader his music blends the West Coast cool jazz of Lennie Tristano and Lee Konitz with the searching improvising of Eric Dolphy and John Coltrane, as well as the pathbreaking music of players he’s worked with like Peter Brötzmann, Ken Vandermark, and Mike Reed – who you might have caught in concert at EPL last October.

Since 2015, Stein’s group Locksmith Isadore has been blowing minds at a scale rarely reached in jazz history, as the opening act for his sister Amy Schumer’s national comedy tour at places like Madison Square Garden.  On 2/25, he’ll bring a trio to the comparatively intimate setting of EPL’s Community Meeting Room for an hour-long adventure in melody and improvisation.