Newton Piano Summit
2017 Season
The second Summit at the Waban Library Center — from a New York Times–anointed jazz voice to Afro-Cuban piano bound for Carnegie Hall. Performances streaming below.
The season at a glance
| Performance |
|---|
| Dominique Eade & Tim Ray — “the Next Thing in jazz singing” meets a pianist to the legends |
| Alexei Tsiganov with vocalist Yoko Kawata — jazz piano and vibes |
| Dayramir Gonzalez — Afro-Cuban piano, Havana to Carnegie Hall |
| Alan Rowe — three decades of New England jazz mastery |
| Nina Ott & Chris Lopes Trio — Latin jazz via San Francisco |
Dominique Eade & Tim Ray
David Hajdu wrote in the New York Times Magazine, “I already knew who the Next Thing in jazz singing would be: Dominique Eade. An impossibly versatile vocalist, composer, lyricist and instrumental arranger…”
The daughter of an Air Force officer, Eade grew up across Europe and the U.S., started piano as a child, and decided in second grade she would be a singer. Her path ran from Vassar through Berklee to the New England Conservatory, where hearing pianist Ran Blake proved transformative — she joined NEC’s pioneering Third Stream department to study with him, became the first jazz performer awarded NEC’s Artist Diploma, and has taught on its faculty since 1984, shaping generations of singers. Named one of the top ten jazz vocalists in DownBeat’s 1999 Critics Poll, she has recorded with Dave Holland, Fred Hersch, Benny Golson, and Stanley Cowell, and collaborated with adventurers from Anthony Braxton to Bill Frisell; her RCA debut When the Wind Was Cool landed on year-end top-ten lists from the Boston Globe to JazzTimes. The year she played the Summit, Eade and Ran Blake released Town and Country (Sunnyside) — NPR critic Nate Chinen named their performance of it among the top ten jazz performances of 2017. Fred Hersch calls her “a fearless collaborator.” We simply call ourselves lucky.
Tim Ray
If you’ve heard a great pianist behind a legend, there’s a fair chance it was Tim Ray. He spent more than fifteen years touring as Lyle Lovett’s pianist, and went on to serve as pianist and music director for Tony Bennett until the singer’s retirement. Along the way he has appeared on more than a hundred recordings and performed with an astonishing range of artists — Aretha Franklin, Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Jane Siberry, and Soul Asylum on the pop side; Phil Woods, Esperanza Spalding, Dave Douglas, and Brian Blade in jazz; Gunther Schuller, the Boston Pops, and the Boston Modern Orchestra Project in the classical world. Versatility isn’t a sideline for Ray; it’s the whole story.
As a leader, his debut Ideas & Opinions appeared on Gunther Schuller’s GM Recordings with Lewis Nash and Rufus Reid, and his Tim Ray Trio — with two Summit family members, bassist John Lockwood and drummer Mark Walker — earned acclaim for Windows, a tribute to the great piano trio tradition of Hancock, Tyner, Silver, and Corea. When not on the road, he teaches in the Piano Department at Berklee College of Music.
Alexei Tsiganov
At 17, Alexei was working at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall and by 1991 he had arrived in the USA to begin a career that now spans genres and continents. His prowess has made him a first call among top names in jazz including Claudio Roditi, Antonio Sanchez, Chico Freeman, Esperanza Spalding, Bob Moses and Greg Osby. A Summit fixture from the very first season, Alexei would return again for the COVID Concerts in 2020 — and for the 2026 season finale alongside David Kikoski.
Joining Alexei was vocalist Yoko Kawata, whose warmth and elegant phrasing made their set one of the afternoon’s quiet treasures. Nearly a decade later, she too returned to the Summit stage for the 2026 finale with Alexei and David Kikoski — proof that some musical partnerships only deepen with time.
Dayramir Gonzalez
Born in Havana’s Cerro neighborhood, Dayramir Gonzalez grew up with Afro-Cuban jazz in the house — his father, trumpeter Fabian Gonzalez, played with some of Cuba’s top salsa bands, and their living room doubled as a rehearsal hall. Dayramir turned professional at 16, joining Diákara, the ensemble of former Irakere percussionist Oscar Valdés, and went on to win Havana’s JoJazz competition twice. His debut album earned three Cubadisco awards, Cuba’s top recording honor.
After composition studies at Havana’s Instituto Superior de Arte, he became the first Cuban national to win Berklee’s full Presidential Scholarship — and while still a student, Chucho Valdés personally selected him to represent the young generation of Afro-Cuban jazz at Carnegie Hall’s “Voices of Latin America” series. He graduated Summa Cum Laude and has since made New York his base, bridging Cuban rhythmic tradition and contemporary jazz harmony on stages from the Havana Jazz Festival to SFJAZZ. It’s the Summit’s good fortune that his road ran through Newton.
Alan Rowe
Some jazz masters build their legend on records; Alan Rowe built his in the room. For more than three decades he has been one of New England’s most trusted pianists, playing for Kennedys, Rockefellers, and Bushes, and sharing stages with the region’s A-list artists. His reputation rests on creative reinvention of the classics — standards you know, turned over until they catch new light — and this performance showed first hand why players across Boston speak his name with respect.
Alan was joined by John Turner, a veteran of the New England jazz scene who has performed and recorded with just about everybody — the Either/Orchestra, Charlie Kohlhase, Scott Hamilton, Roswell Rudd, Lee Konitz, the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra, members of Ornette Coleman’s band, and the White Heat Swing Orchestra, to name a few. That range — from swing-era repertory to Konitz’s cool school to the Ornette orbit — is exactly what makes him the kind of bassist a pianist can take chances with. A dedicated educator as well, John teaches jazz ensembles with an emphasis on straight-ahead jazz and bebop, in a style his students know as low-key, amiable, and full of instructive stories from a lifetime as a working musician.
Nina Ott and Chris Lopes Trio
A Detroit native, pianist and organist Nina Ott came up the hard, honest way: as house pianist for the fabled midnight sessions at Chicago’s Green Mill, gigging with players like guitarist Jeff Parker and drummer Ralph Peterson Jr., then leading a quartet residency in Singapore before immersing herself in the Afro-Cuban and salsa communities of San Francisco. Known for blending jazz with Afro-Caribbean sensibilities and a sprinkling of classical music, she taught at Berklee for six years before heading west — and her return to the East Coast ran right through the Summit stage.
Her stature as a composer was later confirmed in the best possible way: Terri Lyne Carrington selected one of Ott’s pieces for New Standards, the landmark collection of works by women jazz composers. She remains a dedicated educator, teaching at Berklee and leading workshops for the Stanford Jazz Workshop and SFJAZZ.
Bassist, multi-instrumentalist, and composer Chris Lopes — Nina’s husband and musical partner — has performed everywhere from small clubs to the Chicago Jazz Festival and San Francisco’s Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. His recording credits include the Jeff Parker Trio, and his compositions have been featured in the New York Times, Jazziz, and on NPR. Together, Ott and Lopes had just released their second album when they took the Summit stage.