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Sarah Hanahan
Sarah Hanahan is an up-and-coming jazz saxophonist in New York City. Sarah is a graduate of the Jackie McLean Institute of Jazz at the Hartt School of Music where she received her Bachelors degree in 2019, as well as The Juilliard School where she received her Masters degree in 2022. She has had the privilege of studying with well-known performers Abraham Burton, Nat Reeves, Steve Davis, Billy Drummond, and Marc Cary.
Recently, Sarah has worked with many renowned musicians including Jeff “Tain” Watts, Nat Reeves, Peter Martin, Joe Farnsworth, Steve Davis, Billy Hart, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Marc Cary and many others. Sarah tours both nationwide and internationally with her own band, and plays regularly in renowned venues around NYC such as Dizzy’s, Smoke Jazz Club, Smalls, and more. She also recently had the opportunity to play for the 2023 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at the Kennedy Center honoring Sue Mingus with the Mingus Dynasty Band. Sarah has toured nationwide and around the world with Joe Farnsworth, Peter Martin, Ulysses Owens Jr. and Generation Y, Sherrie Miracle and the Diva Orchestra, and the Grammy award-winning Mingus Big Band.
Sarah was recently featured in the first-ever class of NPR Jazz Night in America’s Youngbloods alongside Samara Joy, Immanuel Wilkins, Isaiah J. Thompson, and Sean Mason. The series features “five up-and-coming jazz geniuses who are revolutionizing their genre” - all of whom are under the age of 30. She is a generational talent on the rise. Her debut album, Among Giants, featuring Marc Cary, Nat Reeves, and Jeff “Tain” Watts is out now on all platforms!
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The Boys Are Back! (On the Same Continent)
by Patrick Burnette
Never mind what your podcast feed may seem to imply--the bastards haven't recorded a podcast together in two months, and this one got completed by the skin of their teeth. In this episode we look at two alto sax players from two very different generations (and degrees of reverence for the tradition") and a pianist few have heard of and fewer still can understand. Pop matters covers the gamut from Dylan to the Blue Man Group with a few hobbits ...
Continue ReadingUlysses Owens, Jr. and Generation Y: A New Beat
by Jack Bowers
The rhythms presented on award-winning drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.'s latest album are not exactly A New Beat, as they have been heard in various configurations for at least eighty years or more, but they do provide a plausible indication of the path that Art Blakey's legendary Jazz Messengers would presumably have followed had Blakey lived into the twenty-first century. Owens, who teaches at the Juilliard School in New York City, has a knack for spotting and encouraging ...
Continue ReadingUlysses Owens, Jr. and Generation Y: A New Beat
by Glenn Astarita
A New Beat, crafted by the multi-Grammy award-winning drummer Ulysses Owens Jr. and his Generation Y outfit, materializes as a vivid emblem of jazz's evolving dynamics. This album, an amalgamation of nine tracks, epitomizes the fusion of classic jazz standards with inventive perspectives. Among its highlights, Bird Lives" notably shines for its technical brilliance and tribute to jazz icons, striking a harmonious balance between honoring the past and embracing the new. This track, alongside the production's repertoire, demonstrates the ensemble's ...
Continue ReadingGrace Fox Big Band: Eleven O'Seven
by Jack Bowers
In the long history of jazz, it is rare for a teenage musician to establish a big band, let alone lead one. In fact (historians will have to verify this), it may never have happened. One thing is certainno teenage woman has ever formed a big band and become its leader. Until now. Meet trumpeter Grace Fox, a nineteen-year-old student at the Manhattan School of Music, founder and leader of the seventeen-member, all-female Grace Fox Big Band, which has recorded ...
Continue Reading“Saxophonist Sarah Hanahan plays with an intense and driving conviction. Her statements contain memorable themes that remain with the listener well after a song's ending. Her sound is both melodic and muscular.” - Greg Bryant, WBGO
“Sarah’s playing I enjoy very much, and I know people enjoy it because it’s sincere. She has a wonderful collection of musical influences brewing in her pot. It’s inspiring, really, hearing Sarah.” - Abraham Burton, Tenor Saxophonist, on NPR Jazz Night in America