The Yosvany Terry Quartet will perform at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in the Solley Theater, Paul Robeson Center for the Arts, 102 Witherspoon Street in Princeton. The performance — which takes place in conjunction with the Princeton University course "Cultures of the Afro-Diaspora," taught by Alexandra Vazquez, assistant professor of English and African American studies — is free and open to the public.
Since his arrival in New York in 1999, saxophonist/percussionist/composer Terry has "helped reframe the sound of Afro-Cuban jazz in New York, reaching for a flexibly cerebral, harmonically advanced and culturally resonant kind of fusion," according to the New York Times jazz critic Nate Chinen.
Born into a musical family in Camaguey, Cuba, Terry received his earliest training from his father, Eladio "Don Pancho" Terry, a violinist and Cuba's leading player of the chekeré. After mastering this Afro-Cuban percussion instrument, the younger Terry went on to classical music training in Havana at the prestigious National Arts Schools and the Amadeo Roldan Conservatory.
Terry has worked with major figures in every realm of Cuban music, as well as American jazz greats including Branford Marsalis, Dave Douglas, Cassandra Wilson, Eddie Palmieri and Roy Hargrove.
The performance is co-sponsored by the Center for African American Studies, the Lee Fund, the Program in Jazz Studies and the 250th Anniversary Fund.
[To obtain a high-res image, contact Michele Tuck-Ponder, Center for African American Studies, 609-258-8159, mtuck@princeton.edu.]
