Marcus Strickland w/ vocalist Christie Dashiell

Seating times: 7:00pm & 8:30pm. Doors open 30 minutes early.

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JAZZ@theEDGE! Marcus Strickland

Christie Dashiell – voice
Marcus Strickland – saxophone
Mitch Henry – keys
Kyle Miles – bass
Charles Haynes – drums

Growing up in Miami, Strickland always thought of music “in a very mixed up way.” He heard Haitian sounds, Afro-Cuban rhythms, and southern rap in the streets, while at home his dad would jump from Stevie to Coltrane to P-Funk on his
reel-to-reel deck. Meanwhile, his mom put Marcus and his twin brother E.J. into art school so they’d be
surrounded by proper “music nerds.” The talent they nurtured there on saxophone and drums (respectively)
propelled the pair on to The New School at just the right time: college was basically one wild jam session with likeminded upstarts like Robert Glasper, Keyon Harrold, and Bilal Oliver—guys who’d go on to remake jazz (and more) in their own post-modern musical image. “Something was brewing,” recalls Strickland. “All I knew was whatever I was into, it was there. I was in the right place.”

Shortly after his fiery 2001 LP debut At Last, Strickland took third place in the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition for saxophone. Rather than invest in better brass, he spent his winnings on: a) software that would help him emulate J Dilla’s beats, and b) a busted bass clarinet inspired by Madlib’s low reed sounds. He kept those interests quiet as he honed his approach, but with 2006’s double-album Twi-Life it became evident that Strickland was playing in two worlds: the old one that belonged to his jazz heroes, and the new one that wove disparate genres into one technicolor tapestry. He continued exploring—with spoken word on Open Reel Deck (2007), classic ballads on Of Song (2009) and left-field songwriting on Idiosyncracies (2009), where Strickland interpreted everyone from Björk to André 3000—until he was able to meld it all into a sound and feel that is undeniably his own.

Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Greenville, North Carolina, Christie Dashiell is a graduate of Howard University and the Manhattan School of Music. As a member of Afro-Blue, Howard’s premier vocal jazz ensemble, Dashiell appeared on NBC’s “The Sing Off.” She has twice received recognition in DownBeat Magazine’s Student Music Awards as Outstanding Soloist and Best Vocalist in the Graduate College division. Dashiell tours with her own quartet, and has performed with Nancy Wilson, Geri Allen, Smokey Robinson, Esperanza Spalding and Fred Hammond. She has appeared at the Atlanta Jazz Festival, Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, DC Jazz Festival and Winter Jazziest in New York City.