The Manor House Restaurant at Pleasant Beach Village presents the Native Jazz Quartet of New Orleans and native artist Toma Villa at 8 p.m. Sunday, April 19.
The Native Jazz Quartet is a hard-swinging and high energy performance act based on the swing/bebop tradition, using only native/folk melodies in their arrangements. The goal of this new quartet is to grow the Native Jazz movement. Each artist in the band is a heavy-weight musician in his own right and brings different heritage input to the music: Ed Littlefield is Alaska Native/Tlingit, Reuel Lubag is Filipino, Jason Marsalis is African American/New Orleans and Christian Fabian is of Swedish/German origin.
Joining the Native Jazz Quartet is Toma Villa, a Columbia River Yakama Nation artist, who will paint in response to the music.
Villa’s inspiration draws from his culture and much of his work is fueled by his passion for the river and his time fishing the Columbia River with family. His powerful talent spans airbrushing, printmaking, sculpture and iron casting, and has strong roots in graffiti art.
Toma’s painted response to the Native Jazz Quartet performance will be auctioned off at the end of the evening. All proceeds will benefit Jazz Canvas. Tickets are $40 (with tapas) at jazzcanvas.org.