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Archive
Press Release
October 16, 1997
DAVE ROGERS QUARTET
Dave Rogers; drummer, composer, educator, recording engineer, and producer; has found a perfect combination of outstanding jazz musicians to express his compositions. The Dave Rogers Quartet is bassist Joe Vick, saxophonist Buck Powell, pianist Chris Parker, and Dave. Following are short biographies of each member.
Bassist Joe Vick holds the BME from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the Master of Music from Memphis State University where he studied with John Chiego. He currently teaches in the Pulaski County Special School District and at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Joe is a longtime member of the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and has played numerous performances with just about every ensemble in central Arkansas including the Wildwood Opera Festival Orchestra and the Orpheus Ensemble. In addition to his "classical" playing, Joe is known as one of the finest jazz players having accompanied such internationally known recording artists as Pete Yellin, Eddie Harris, Randy Brecker, Herb Ellis, Barney Kessel, Calvin Newborn, John Hendricks, and Roseanna Vitro, as well as local artists Charles Thomas, Tom Cox, the late Art Porter, Tonk Edwards, Tom Richeson, John Puckett, Chuck Dodson, Shelly Martin, Lee Tomboulian, and the Little Rock Jazz Machine. Along with his exceptional playing ability, Joe is one of the nicest people on the planet.
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Buck Powell is the first graduate of the Jazz Studies program at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Majoring on saxophone, Buck began to earn many of his playing credits during his student days. However, realizing the low demand for high performance saxophonists in Little Rock, he began to play more commonly used instruments like drums, bass and piano. After graduation, on the bandstands and concert stages, at outdoor music festivals and state parks, in recording studios and other gigs too numerous to mention, Buck perfected his use of non-reed instruments to an uncommonly high level. So much so that more people now know him as a pianist or bassist than as a saxophonist. Buck is not a doubler. Rather, he is a true multi-instrumentalist, playing each instrument with equal degrees of skill and musical wisdom. Buck has played with a variety of nationally known artists, entertainers, and groups including Nat Adderley, Jack DeJohnette, Jimmy Witherspoon, Eddie Harris, Pharoah Sanders, James Williams, Mel Rhyne, Herb Ellis, Jack Morgan, Bob Hope, Rich Little, Steve Lawrence and Edye Gorme, Rosemary Clooney, Al Hibbler, the Four Tops, the Fifth Dimension, Temptations, Charles Thomas & Artistry, Richard Boone, and Ringling Brothers. In 1995, Buck Powell was inducted into the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame becoming the youngest musician to hold that honor. In addition to his playing, Buck currently teaches saxophone and directs several ensembles at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
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Pianist Chris Parker is the youngest member of the quartet having graduated from the University of Memphis only last year ('96). Dave considers Chris to be one of his most accomplished former students: "The first time I met Chris he was in the 10th grade. I had him in music class at a summer program for gifted and talented students. The first thing he said to me was, 'I just want to be a jazz pianist.' So I put him in touch with Lee Tomboulian and Charles Thomas and the rest is history." Since that summer Chris has studied with Dr. Gene Rush, James Williams, Art Lande, Harold Danko, Sonelius Smith, Robert Talley, Bill Mobley, Ed Finney, Calvin Newborn and Herman Green. He has performed with internationally known recording artists Warren Smith, Steve Neal, J.R. Mitchell, Frank Lowe, George Cartwright, Marvin Stamm and Toshiko Akiyoshi. Chris also works with a dance company in New York and is musical consultant for the Dance Department at the University of Memphis.
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Leader Dave Rogers graduated from Arkansas Tech University where he studied life with the late Gene Witherspoon, composition/arranging and percussion with James T. Perry, and voice with Dr. Rolland Shaw. Moving to Little Rock, he taught in the public schools and (after hours) developed a performance career playing with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre, Repertory Theatre, Arts Center Children's Theatre, and numerous other ensembles. In 1980, he began playing with Sir Charles Thomas and began studying drumset with Ted Seibs. Dave's performance career escalated. He became a part time instructor at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock where he helped develop the Jazz Studies program and directed Salsa Picante, a latin jazz ensemble. His performance credits include booking, promoting and performing with internationally acclaimed recording artists Mose Allison, Eddie Harris, Dennis Rowland, the late Emily Remler, John Hendricks, Randy and Eliane Elias-Brecker, John Abercrombie, Mark Murphy, Nat Adderley, Larry Coryell, Jack DeJohnette, and Airto Moriera, as well as Arkansas' own Pharoah Sanders, Walter Norris, the late Jimmy Witherspoon, Al Hibbler, Tonk Edwards, Ken Walker and Roseanna Vitro. As a sideman, Dave has appeared with Barney Kessel, Mal Waldron, Gene Bertoncini, Micheal Moore, Pete Yellin, Branford Marsalis, James Leary, Steve Bach, Calvin Newborn, James Williams, Alvin Baptiste, the late Ella Fitzgerald, Robert Goulet, Sammy Davis, Jr., Mitzi Gaynor, Steve Lawrence and Edie Gorme, Mickey Rooney and Ann Miller, Phyllis Diller, Steve Allen, Jo Anne Castle, the Ink Spots, Bill Haley's Comets, Fabian, the Sammy Kaye Orchestra, and 'Governor' Bill Clinton. That's not all! Dave also developed a career as a recording engineer and in 1988 became chief engineer/arranger/composer in residence at Trimble Productions. There his compositions won numerous awards and his recordings for film, television, and live theatre have been distributed worldwide. The recording studio environment expanded Dave's compositional skills to include many new styles ranging from African traditional to contemporary gospel to rap, country, rock, and symphonic scores. However, jazz has always been his favorite idiom, as his compositions "To Monk", "Sounds Backwards", "Too Much Miles (Nefer)", demonstrate.
Dave is currently playing and living in Little Rock and is chief engineer/resident composer/arranger/percussionist/producer at Capitol Keyboard Recording and teaches percussion at Hendrix College. He is a board member of the Arkansas Jazz Heritage Foundation and performs frequently in the Monday Jazz Project series.
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