Winard Harper & Jeli Posse | FRI JAN 30 & SAT JAN 31 | 7:00pM & 9:30PM

Winard Harper was born in Baltimore in 1962, a child prodigy. Harper's first major gig was with Dexter Gordon in 1982, and shortly thereafter with Johnny Griffin. It wasn't long before his drumming skills captured the attention of Betty Carter. He spent four years as drummer with Ms. Carter's band, also working as a sideman to such jazz legends as Ray Bryant, Abdullah Ibrahim, Pharoah Sanders and Clifford Jordan, yet still keeping his own band working on his days off . This was the early days of The Harper Brothers.

At 27 Winard was already playing like a veteran, a virtuoso on the cymbals as well as the drums. "The Harper Brothers" was one of the hottest groups of the post-bop era of the late '80s, early '90s.  If you were lucky enough to see The Harper Brothers live, you might have thought you'd been transported back in time, when bebop wizards were the toast of the town.  

Constantly in reverence of his predecessors while remaining innovative in his own right, Harper has been among the celebrated drummers in jazz for many years. He is a virtuoso on the drum set and the balafon, the West African equivalent of the marimba, he is a sought after collaborator at home and abroad, a band leader of his quartet, his quintet and his exciting band the Jeli Posse.

"I always summarize Jeli Posse's swing savvy, world spiced flavor by saying "everything builds on everything as the values and traditions are passed down. From the African roots to today, many ingredients have been thrown into the pot. The band continues to expand on the the ground laid by the medicine men and messengers before us". - Winard Harper

"an evening of fireworks with a sustained display of percussive pyrotechnics by Harper so rapid fire, so mind bogglingly dexterous, and so expressively diverse, as to be truly awe-inspiring" Franz Matzner - All About Jazz