Carmen Spada graduated Summa Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music, in Boston, MA, obtaining a dual major in Piano Performance and Jazz Composition. While at Berklee, he earned the Berklee Achievement Scholarship, was nominated for the Boston Jazz Society Scholarship, represented Berklee internationally as a Student Ambassador and was the recipient of the 2007 Herb Pomeroy Award for excellence in Jazz Composition.
Upon graduation, Carmen established firm roots in the New England area music scene in both jazz and world music, and to this day continues to balance networking and performance opportunities between Boston and his hometown of Toronto, ON. Though firmly rooted in jazz and world music, Carmen has enjoyed pursuing and establishing his solo career in a unique jazz crossover to pop niche, due to his success as a songwriter. He won the 2010 Rose Theatre Singer/Songwriter competition in Brampton, ON for best original song and lyrics with “Why You Make Me Fall In Love With You”, and was also awarded a creation grant from the Ontario Arts Council for his 2013 EP release, Buona Sera, featuring original songs and arrangements of Italian folk music for trio and sextet. His compositional style is currently focused on “contemporary standards”: songs featuring the commercial appeal of jazz standards through form and lyrics, but with a deeper and contemporary approach to harmony and melody.
In 2016, Carmen co-founded B-Jazzed, a non-for-profit organization curating performances, education series, and philanthropy of jazz music and its musicians, in the city of Brampton. Serving as its Artistic Director, Carmen has managed weekly performances in Brampton such as Joe’s Jazz Jam, Jazz @ J. Red & Co., and Sessions @ Studio 2, a monthly concert series featuring some of Canada’s best jazz musicians. Most importantly, however, Carmen created and programs the annual World of Jazz Festival in Downtown Brampton, a two-day festival boasting two stages and over 90 musicians highlighting the diversity and multicultural interpretations of jazz music. In May, 2018, the City of Brampton recognized Carmen’s work with B-Jazzed with an Arts Acclaim Citizens Award.
Internationally renowned veteran sax man Jerry Weldon, has been a player on the jazz scene for more than 35 years. With eight CD’s as a leader and more sideman sides than even he can count…or remember, this native New Yorker’s performance/recording résumé reflects his venerable tenor tenure and reads like a virtual “Who’s Who of Jazz.”
After graduating from Rutgers University Jazz Studies Program in 1981, Jerry joined the legendary Lionel Hampton Orchestra and continued his association with Hamp into the new millennium. Next came a long, rewarding stint with master organist Jack McDuff & his “Heatin’ System.” Additionally Jerry has worked with organists Jimmy McGriff, Joey DeFrancesco, Bobby Forrester, Dr. Lonnie Smith, and Mel Rhyne, trombone great Al Grey, piano giants George Cables and Cedar Walton, drum legends Roy Haynes and Jimmy Cobb as well as guitarist/singer George Benson, guitarist Earl Klugh, bassist Keter Betts, singer Mel Tormé and a host of other legendary musicians.
In 1990, Jerry became a charter member and featured soloist with Harry Connick Jr.’s newly formed big band. Since then Jerry has toured the U.S., Europe, Asia and Australia with Harry and was also part of Connick’s Broadway musical production, “Thou Shalt Not” and appeared on stage as well as in the orchestra. He was also part of the “house band” on HARRY, Connick’s daytime television variety show.
Jerry, a “musician’s musician,” who is also a first class showman in the truest sense of the word, blows his horn with his entire body and delights audiences with his all-in, soulful playing. Whether he’s walkin’ the crowded bar at Showmans in Harlem or wending his way through packed candlelit tables at Birdland in Midtown, Jerry Weldon is a tenor force that cannot be contained. He becomes the music and brings the audience with him on a communal tuneful journey. This mastery of the message, and the medium, has kept Weldon working steady for nearly four decades.
Carmen Spada – piano and vocals
Neil Swainson – bass
Terry Clarke – drums
Jerry Weldon – sax
Carmen singing and playing some Zydeco…
