The Montavilla Jazz festival will be presenting North Pole Studio’s second iteration of Rhythm and Hues. Rhythm & Hues is an annual collaboration in which North Pole commissions three local composer/musicians to compose a song in response to a North Pole Studio artist’s work. This year the project features John Niekrasz + Adam Richards, Kennedy Verrett + Joni Smith, and Maria E Olaya+ Davis Wohlford. These three songs will kick off the opening night of the festival, sharing the stage with PJCE’s presentation of Rebecca Sanborn's Shadow Work.
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John Niekrasz & Adam Richards
John Niekrasz is a composer, percussionist, writer, and dancer. John is committed to improvisation both in performance and as a compositional approach. He bridges the musico-poetic divide through text-based composition and syllabic musical notation and is excited to translate Adam Richards' intricate symbols into sound and rhythm. John composes for and performs in ensembles, creates sound for film and theater and dance and jumped at the chance to work with Adam's imagery.
Maria Olaya & Davis Wohlford
Maria Olaya is a Latin Classical guitarist who became captivated by the sound of a Spanish guitar as a child. She studied with the late Colombian Maestro, Ramiro Isaza Mejía. Maria was immediately drawn to Davis Wholford's immersive and layered animal paintings. She will bring the animal environments of Davis' artistic world to life with her strings. For Maria, music has always been a means for genuine connection with others, a means to experience transcendence and connect to our humanness.
Kennedy Verrett & Joni Smith
As a composer and musician whose music conveys beauty, he will use emotional melodies and captivating rhythms to bring to life the vibrant, gestural marks of Joni Smith. Kennedy's diverse skills allow him to work effortlessly in concert halls, outdoor environments, motion pictures, and TV soundtracks and he is excited to collaborate with Joni to create a unique composition that will allow the audience to feel layers and movement in Joni's expressive drawings.