Camille Thurman & the Darrell Green Quartet

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Thurman will be performing with her husband and long-time musical partner, drummer Darrell Green. 

Camille Thurman has been called a rising star by Downbeat Magazine and a “first class saxophonist that blows the proverbial roof off the place” by All About Jazz, Thurman will be accompanied by her touring ensemble, the Darrell Green Quartet, which includes Wallace Roney, Jr., trumpet; Jordan Williams, piano; Paul Beaudry, bass; and Darrell Green, drums.

Thurman is a modern player who both honors the past and looks towards the future. Her sound on tenor evokes Dexter Gordon and her mentor George Coleman, and her vocals are suggestive of Ella Fitzgerald and Betty Carter, yet Thurman’s concepts are fresh and modern, drawing from the advanced vocabulary of modern inspirations like Joshua Redman or Ben Wendel.

She can play melodically and precisely, or “stretch out” in dialogue with the rhythm section. Her ballad playing is lush and sensitive, but on rhythmically charged up-tempo tunes she can burn with the best.

As a vocalist, Thurman was a runner up in the 2013 Sarah Vaughan Jazz Vocal Competition. You can hear her intimate familiarity with Sassy’s singing on her album Inside the Moment, where she draws on Vaughan’s classic phrasing in her performance of “Cherokee.”

As in her saxophone playing, Thurman’s vocal work looks both to the past and future, demonstrating an undeniable kinship with and love for the jazz legacy, but with a strong current of more contemporary influences like Dianne Reeves and Dee Dee Bridgewater as well.

As a performer, Thurman recently toured four continents as saxophonist with the world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. She is the first woman in thirty years to tour and perform as a full-time member of the ensemble. She was also JALC’s featured artist during its 2021 presentation of John Coltrane’s “A Love Supreme,” where her appearance was lauded on NPR by Christian McBride.

Thurman was a member of the All-Star Band in BET’s Black Girls Rock, and is a recipient of the Lincoln Center Award for Outstanding Young Artist. She toured Nicaragua and Paraguay as a State Department Fulbright Scholar/Cultural Ambassador and was selected along with Darrell Green to travel and perform in Cameroon, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal and Mauritania.

Perhaps the most telling barometer of Thurman’s success is the number of all-stars who have hired her to perform in their band as a featured artist. She has worked with Louis Hayes, George Coleman, Roy Haynes, Dianne Reeves, Wynton Marsalis & the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Terri Lyne Carrington, Jon Hendricks, Pattie LaBelle, Gladys Knight, Chaka Khan, Louis Hayes, Russell Malone, Nicholas Payton, Jacky Terrasson, Alicia Keys, Lalah Hathaway, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu, Harry Connick Jr., Audra MacDonald, Diana Krall, Cecile McLorin Salvant, Renee Fleming, Roberta Gambarini and Kenny Washington, among others.

In the winter and spring of 2024, Thurman is scheduled to perform throughout the U.S., England, Italy, Sweden and Austria.

For her concert on January 20th at the VJC, Thurman will be performing with her husband and long-time musical partner, drummer Darrell Green. Green has toured with Cassandra Wilson, Pharoah Sanders, Dr. Lonnie Smith, Antoine Roney, Charles Toliver, Sherman Irby, Steve Turre, Wallace Roney, Faye Carol, Amina Figarova, The Black Arts Collective, and Jeremy Pelt. He regularly performs in New York, Europe, and Japan. He has appeared on recordings with Thurman as well as Lakecia Benjamin, Teodross Avery, Lawrence Clark, Wallace Roney, Sherman Irby and others.

The trumpeter with the Darrell Green Quartet is Wallace Roney, Jr., the scion of two jazz legends, both who sadly passed away well before their time: Wallace Roney and Geri Allen. At the age of ten, Roney’s father, a trumpeter who was a stand-in for Miles Davis during his last years, gifted him his very own horn.Since then, the younger Roney has shared the bandstand and garnered the approval of other jazz legends, including Chick Corea, Jimmy Heath, Charles Tolliver, Lenny White, Buster Williams, Jack DeJohnette, Emmet Cohen and Ornette Coleman. Roney Jr. is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. He now travels and performs in festivals and venues throughout the globe.

The pianist of the group is Jordan Williams. Originally from Philadelphia, he is a recent graduate of George Washington University where he received dual degrees in Jazz Studies and Engineering and was recognized as a Presidential Scholar for the Arts. Williams is a two-time National Young Arts winner and is an alumni of the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Residency program. He will soon be releasing his first album as a leader.

Bassist Paul Beaudry has performed and recorded throughout the United States and Europe with Clark Terry, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess, Cecil Bridgewater, Roy Hargrove, Eddie Henderson, Steve Turre, and Wycliffe Gordon. Along with his work with Thurman, he currently tours with the Bennie Wallace Quartet, Allan Harris, Eric Lewis Trio, and the Fabulous Soul Shakers.

Camille Thurman is a creative force, a gifted musician who emulates, respects and learns from the past while fearlessly navigating a clear, innovative pathway to the future.

-Eugene Uman, VJC Director