Trio of Bowdoin Faculty, Staff to Play First Concert on Campus

The group (which doesn't have a formal name yet) will play an "upbeat, improvisation-based" program of classic jazz and Latin music, with songs in both Spanish and English.

The evening event, "Two-Piano Jazz Duo Concert, with Scott Martin and Tom Porter, featuring vocalist Michele Reid-Vazquez and Special Guests, will be held Saturday, November 16, from 7:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m., in Studzinski Recital Hall's Kanbar Auditorium.

Audience members can expect to hear Cuban songs, including Celia Cruz's "La vida es un carnaval" and Beny Moré's "Cómo fue," as well as classic American jazz numbers, like Bobby Troup's "Route 66" and Shirley Horn's "Here's to Life."

Martin, who started a new job at Bowdoin in the music department last year, initially served as the adhesive for the group, drawing Porter and Reid-Vazquez from their respective corners of campus. "I think a lot of what I have done over the course of my career is organize and bring people together," he said. "I'm a band leader and producer, a champion and mentor. I feel that is my role."

At Bowdoin, Martin teaches jazz piano. Last year, he directed three student jazz ensembles and was the lab instructor for the courses Introduction to Music Theory and Songwriting and Song Analysis. Though he primarily describes himself as a jazz pianist and composer, he's also worked in music theater and pop, with stars like Mariah Carey and Carly Simon. His musical career has taken him to New York City, Washington, DC, Boston, and most recently Boulder, Colorado, where he lived for over thirty years before moving to Maine last year with his partner, Jennifer.

He first met Reid-Vazquez at an event for new faculty in the fall of 2023, where they connected over their jazz backgrounds.

Reid-Vazquez is Bowdoin's E. Frederic Morrow Associate Professor of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies and Africana Studies, with an endowed chair in race, racism, and racial justice. She primarily focuses her research and teaching on the African diaspora in the Caribbean, Latin America, and the Atlantic world, as well as Afro-Latinx history in the US with an emphasis on slavery and freedom, race and gender relations, politics, migration, identity, and digital humanities.

But before she devoted her scholarship to interdisciplinary history, Reid-Vazquez was an accomplished musician and musical scholar, and plays violin and piano. She majored in music at Emory University before earning a master's degree in ethnomusicology and jazz studies at the University of Maryland-College Park. She also studied jazz voice with the late Ronnie Wells and faculty at Howard University.

Prior to moving to Bowdoin and Maine last year from the University of Pittsburgh, Reid-Vazquez said she promised herself to make musical expression an active part of her life. She describes Martin and Porter as "wonderful musicians," and said the three all learn from one another.

Soon after meeting, Martin and Reid-Vazquez began practicing jazz standards. When Reid-Vazquez suggested they include Latin music as well, Martin was game. "I learned a few things from playing with salsa bands over the years, but I'm no expert, and it does require a a lot of background knowledge. What's fun in this format is covering all of the percussion and instrumentation of the original versions with just piano and voice."

Then, last spring, Martin heard someone playing jazz piano in one of the Gibson Hall practice rooms. When he poked his head in, he met Porter, a writer and multimedia producer for the College's communications office. Porter has a degree in history from University College London, and a master's degree in war studies from King's College London, and he has pursued a career in journalism and public relations. But he's played jazz piano "semi-professionally" since he was fourteen, after picking it up when he was seven.

Martin immediately suggested he and Porter play together, and "it was obvious from the first eight bars that this was going to be easy," Martin said. "We had a common approach to performing and we sounded good together right away."

When Martin invited Porter and Reid-Vazquez to play as a group this summer, the three quickly coalesced-and their sound is polished, captivating, and moving. Reid-Vazquez has a voice reminiscent of Sarah Vaughan and Betty Carter, Martin said, "a rich voice of experience and of someone really at home with the vocabulary of jazz." He also admires Porter's musicality, describing him as "very seasoned in classic jazz, with Bill Evans as a big influence on his playing."

Porter, who occasionally plays with his own band, Tom Porter and Friends, and also does a lot of solo performing around town, said collaborating with the two has "been a rewarding, creative musical journey, first playing with Martin, swapping ideas as we improvise, and then integrating the wonderful Michele, who has added another element to the music."

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