PJCE Records Presents pianist Kerry Politzer at The 1905 on Sunday, December 1 at 7:00 and 8:30 pm. Politzer performs two sets of old and new compositions with drummer Charlie Doggett, bassist Jon Lakey, trumpeter Tom Barber, saxophonist Joe Manis, and special guest Ryan Meagher on guitar. Music will include songs from Below the Surface, Politzer's 2014 album on PJCE Records, as well as brand-new explorations. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, Politzer has been teaching jazz piano improvisation and composition at Portland State University since 2013. She currently leads Bossa PDX, Portland's classic bossa nova and Brazilian jazz band.

Cover charge is $10 at the door of The 1905 at 830 N Shaver Street for 7:00 & 8:30 pm sets. Call 503-460-3333 or make a reservation online here.

Event links here (pjce.org) and here (facebook).

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ABOUT KERRY POLITZER

Kerry Politzer is a Portland-based jazz pianist, composer, and educator. Since 2013, she has served on the music faculty at Portland State University. Kerry received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied improvisation and composition with the late jazz guru Charlie Banacos. She continues to be inspired by his teachings.

Kerry lived in New York for many years, during which time she performed at Smalls and toured with DIVA No Man’s Band. DIVA performances included appearances at the Blue Note and on the QE2 with Dianne Schuur and Slide Hampton, and a quartet performance with Larry Coryell. In 1996, Kerry was one of six finalists in the American Pianists Association’s 3rd Biennial Jazz Piano Competition. Her composition Rhodes Rage won Third Prize, Jazz Category in the 2005 International Songwriting Competition. Another tune, Begin The Baiao, won Third Prize, Jazz Category in the 2000 Mid-Atlantic Song Competition and an Honorable Mention in the 2000 John Lennon Songwriting Competition.

Kerry has released six jazz CDs as a leader, including Blue in Blue, which featured saxophonist Donny McCaslin and was termed a “first-rate jazz outing” by AllAboutJazz.com. The pianist has also been a featured sideman on albums of George Colligan, Laura Dreyer, and Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble. Kerry’s 2005 CD Labyrinth was a finalist for Best Jazz Album in the 2007 Independent Music Awards. The title track from her first album, Yearning, was featured on Sax And The City: Musical Contributions From New York’s Best Women Jazz Instrumentalists (Apria Records, 2004). Kerry’s subsequent release, Below the Surface (2014), was released by PJCE Records.

In 2019, Kerry was awarded a Regional Arts and Culture Council Artistic Focus Grant to explore the music of Brazilian composer Durval Ferreira. The project culminated in the August 2019 release of Diagonal: The Music of Durval Ferreira.

One of Kerry’s newest projects is Bossa PDX for which she has transcribed dozens of classic bossa nova arrangements from the original recordings. Bossa PDX has performed at the Oregon Coast Jazz Party, Ellenburg’s Jazz in the Valley, the Florence Wine & Jazz Festival, the Lincoln City Cultural Center, and the Lan Su Garden, among other venues. Kerry has also headlined at Portland’s Montavilla Jazz Festival and performed with the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra.

ABOUT PJCE

Portland Jazz Composers’ Ensemble is a 12-piece jazz ensemble that commissions and performs original works by its members and other jazz composers in Portland and beyond. It is PJCE’s mission to act as a forum for the development and presentation of works for large ensemble by established and emerging jazz composers and to engage and enrich community awareness and appreciation of contemporary music. PJCE also runs the Grasshoppers Young Composers mentorship program, PJCE Records, and the PJCE Records Presents concerts every first Sunday at The 1905.

PJCE Records releases the most creative jazz from Portland, Oregon. With a deep affection for adventurous expression, we record and distribute jazz by Portland-based composers to audiences in our hometown and across the world with captivating graphic design and an artist-friendly business model.