Skylar Tang, trumpet.
Matt Clark, piano.
Essiet Okon Essiet, bass.
Sylvia Cuenca, drums.

$20 cover; byob.

Sylvia Cuenca splits her time between New York and the Bay Area, where she was born and raised, performing in a great variety of situations domestically and internationally. She shared the bandstand with saxophone legend Joe Henderson for four years and with trumpet legend Clark Terry for 17 years, and has led her own groups and freelanced continuously since.

During Sylvia’s tenure with the Joe Henderson Quartet, they toured extensively throughout Europe, in  Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Belgium, England, Switzerland, France, Italy, and Germany, and performed in venues across the U.S. In a trio setting, she performed with Henderson and Charlie Haden in 1989 and with Henderson and George Mraz in 1994. During her time with Clark Terry, Sylvia performed frequently with the Clark Terry Quintet and Big Band at the Village Vanguard, Birdland and the Blue Note in NYC, on Queen Elizabeth 2, Royal Viking and S.S. Norway jazz cruises, and in clubs, concerts,

and festivals throughout the U.S, Europe, the Caribbean, and South America. While working with the Clark Terry Quintet she had the opportunity to perform with guest artists Al Grey, Red Holloway, Jimmy Heath, Frank Wess, Marian McPartland, Dianne Reeves, Joe Williams, and Lou Donaldson to name a few. Along the way, she has also performed and recorded with a raft of jazz luminaries including Billy Taylor, Frank Foster, in Foster’s Loud Minority Big Band, Houston Person, Etta Jones, Helen Merrill, John Hicks, Valery Ponomarov, Lew Soloff, James Spaulding, Kenny Barron, Ray Drummond, Rufus Reid, Michael Brecker, Randy Brecker, Mike Vax, George Cables, Hilton Ruiz, Jon Faddis, Eddie Henderson, John Handy, Kenny Drew Jr., Emily Remler, Richie Cole, Dave Stryker, Craig Handy, Gregory Porter, Jessie Davis, Sean Jones, John Clayton, Ralph Bowen, Vincent Herring, Paul Bollenback, Geoffrey Keezer, Mark Whitfield, Ralph Moore, Paula West, Catherine Russell, Dianne Reeves, Dianne Schuur, Denise Donatelli, Ernestine Anderson, Lea Delaria, the Vienna Art Orchestra, and many others. In 2007 she performed in a live taping of the Black Girls Rock concert in New York City with pop star Alicia Keys. In 2015 she performed at Dizzy’s Jazz at Lincoln Center in NYC and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. with Albert “Tootie” Heath’s 4 drumset group called “The Whole Drum Truth,” which also included drummers Louis Hayes and Joe Saylor.

She was a guest clinician at the Sisters in Jazz Program at the IAJE Convention in NYC and the Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. She has been a long-time faculty member at the Jazz for Teens and Pre-Teen Program at NJPAC and the Stanford Jazz Workshop in California. Recently she has been on faculty at Roni Ben-Hur’s Summer Jazz Camp in Vermont. She was an artist-in-residence at various universities in the U.S. and Europe with the Clark Terry quintet, the Eddie Henderson quartet, and as a leader with her own groups.

In 1988 and 1991, she received jazz performance grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and in 1992 she was a semi-finalist in the Thelonious Monk International Drum Competition. In 2022 she received a San Jose Jazz New Works grant.

Sylvia received her B.A. degree in Jazz Performance from Empire State University in NYC in 2014. She has studied with jazz master drummers Adam Nussbaum, Victor Lewis, Keith Copeland and Brazilian drummer Portinho, and she endorses Canopus Drums, Zildjian Cymbals, Vic Firth sticks and brushes, and Remo Drumheads.

Pianist Matt Clark is a masterful artist who evolved from a child prodigy into a pillar of the San Francisco jazz scene. After his formal education at Oberlin Conservatory, he planted roots in the Bay Area and quickly became a first-call rhythm section player, working steadily with an impressive list of jazz heavyweights including Bobby Hutcherson, Marcus Shelby, and Joshua Redman. In addition to his sparkling résumé as a sideman, he’s led a pair of sessions for the Elixir label that focus on the work of composer/arranger Ron Ermini, both featuring esteemed bassist John Shifflet and veteran drummer David Rokeach.

Bassist Essiet Essiet joined the quartet of Chicago-based percussionist Famoudou Don Moye, founding member of the Art Ensemble of Chicago and The Leaders, in 1982; in the same year, he met Abdullah Ibrahim, the famed South African pianist, and toured the globe with him, splitting his time between Europe and the US during the period from 1982 to 1986. Eventually Essiet settled in NYC. Two years later, he joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and remained in the group until the famed drummer/teacher’s passing in 1990. In the ensuing three decades, Essiet has had an illustrious freelance career, playing with a raft of top flight jazz legends consistently throughout the years and leading his group IBO, a Nigerian jazz project mixing jazz harmonies and West African rhythms.

Sylvia’s stellar quartet tonight includes trumpeter Skylar Tang, a rising star skilled, wise and accomplished in the music beyond her years. Skylar can be caught around the Bay Area with her quartet and other outfits for the next few weeks, returning to Bird & Beckett on January 17th, with Sylvia on drums and the bassist Ruby Farmer, before she heads back east to continue her studies. Find her at skylartang.com. Please join us tonight!