Sounds of the Circle: Premiere

Pew Fellow and pioneering jazz saxophonist Odean Pope presents Sounds of the Circle, a composing, performance, mentoring, and archival project honoring some of North Philadelphia’s jazz innovators of the mid-twentieth century: John Coltrane, McCoy Tyner, Benny Golson, and Pope himself. The project translates for today’s audiences the propulsive musical ideas and strategies that inspired Pope when he was coming of musical age in North Philadelphia in the 1940s to early 1970s––ideas and strategies that inspire the artist to this day, and that provide enduring fuel for Philadelphia’s singular and evolving jazz legacy.

The work is performed by an ensemble of notable Philadelphia musicians, including Pope on tenor saxophone, Gloria Galante (harp), Craig McIver (drums), Tom Lawton (piano), Lee Smith (bass), and Pew Fellows Diane Monroe (violin) and Bobby Zankel (alto saxophone).