Sylvia Cuenca, drums with:
Rico Jones, saxes
Manuel Valera, piano
Essiet Okon Essiet, bass

For tickets check JazzFC website at https://jazzfc.org/events/.   For dinner reservations email JazzAtThePost@gmail.com.

Based in New York City but originally from northern California, Sylvia Cuenca is a skillful, hard-swinging post-bop/hard bop drummer who is best known for her associations with veteran trumpeter/flügelhornist Clark Terry (who she played with extensively in the ’90s and early 2000s) and the late tenor saxophonist Joe Henderson (who she toured Europe and the United States with on more than one occasion). Cuenca has been employed on several of Terry‘s CDs (including The Hymn on Candid, Top and Bottom Brass on Chiaroscuro, and Herr Ober: Live at Birdland Neuburg on Nagel-Heyer), and the other major artists who have used her on their albums range from veteran tenor saxophonist/Count Basie alumni Frank Foster (as in “Shiny Stockings”) to trumpeter Eddie Henderson. Cuenca has also played with the Vienna Art Orchestra, a big band based in Vienna, Austria.

Alma Micic – vocals

Eric Alexander – tenor saxophone

Rale Micic – guitar

Peter Slavov – bass

Jason Tiemann – drums

Alma Micic was born and raised in Belgrade, Serbia. At the age of 16 she started performing with a local quartet at a time when jazz was making a big comeback in Belgrade. Soon she became a frequent guest vocalist with the Radio Belgrade Big Band and began touring and appearing at many local jazz festivals as well as television and radio broadcasts. In 1995, she received a scholarship to attend the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. Alma graduated in 1999 with a BM in Jazz Performance. Alma has been a resident of New York City since 2000. She has appeared at prominent venues such as the Jazz Standard, Scullers, as well as various international festivals and concert halls.

Her first album “Introducing Alma”, hailed as “a striking debut” by Jazz Review, received radio airplay throughout the US, including Voice of America, XM Satellite Radio and international radio stations in South America, Japan and Europe. Alma Micic was also featured in a one hour NPR/WGBH Radio special “The Jazz Songbook”. Alma’s singing has been described as “confident, soulful, vulnerable, rhythmically savvy, with the most sensual vibrato you’re likely to hear” (All About Jazz). Featured articles include Swing Journal (Japan), Concerto Magazine (Austria), Jazzman and Citizen Jazz (France). She has received numerous awards such as the Cleo Laine Award for Outstanding Musicianship and BRIO Award from the NY Arts Council. Alma’s highly anticipated new album “The Hours” beautifully displays her songwriting and arranging talents in addition to her exquisite singing.

For tickets check JazzFC website at https://jazzfc.org/events/.   For dinner reservations email JazzAtThePost@gmail.com.