Join us for Date Night at Blue LLama! This evening is thoughtfully curated for you to enjoy company of loved ones while enjoying sensitive piano trio music and delicious cuisine.
THE PIANO TRIO:
Ellen Rowe - Piano
Dennis Carroll-Double Bass
Neil Hemphill-Drums
ABOUT ELLEN ROWE:
Ellen Rowe, jazz pianist and composer, is currently Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation at the University of Michigan. She is a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with Rayburn Wright and Bill Dobbins. Prior to her appointment in Michigan, she served as Director of Jazz Studies at the University of Connecticut.
Winner of the Hartford, CT Advocate Readers’ Poll for Best Acoustic Jazz, Ms. Rowe has performed at jazz clubs and on concert series throughout the U.S., as well as touring in Germany, Holland, Switzerland, Ireland, Poland, South Africa and Australia. CDs out under her own name include “Sylvan Way”, “Wishing Well”, “Denali Pass” and “Courage Music.” Her latest project, “Momentum – Portraits of Women In Motion”, featuring Ingrid Jensen, Tia Fuller, Marion Hayden and Allison Miller was released in January of 2019. Also active as a clinician, she has given workshops and master classes at the Melbourne Conservatory, Hochshule fur Musik in Cologne, Grieg Academy in Bergen and the Royal Academy of Music in London, in addition to many appearances as a guest artist at festivals and Universities around the country.
ABOUT DENNIS:
Dennis Carroll grew up in a musical family with a father who was a band director in their small farm town of Poplar Grove, Illinois. His father had an amazing jazz record collection, and this was where Dennis first discovered his love for the music. He was largely self-taught on the bass and piano and learned Jazz vocabulary and repertoire by listening to the masters of the art form.
Dennis moved to Chicago in 1986 quickly becoming a fixture on the Jazz scene there. In 1990 he joined the Bobby Broom Trio and has been a member ever since, performing all over the world and recording many records with the trio. Dennis has performed with Pharaoh Sanders, Von Freeman, Mary Stallings, Eric Reed, Bobby Hutcherson, John Scofield, and many others.
Mr. Carroll also teaches at DePaul University where he is the jazz bass professor, and at the Ravinia Festival’s Reach, Teach and Play program.
ABOUT NEIL:
Neil Hemphill is a professional Jazz drummer residing in Chicago, Illinois. Neil began his professional music career in Denver, Colorado where he performed and recorded regularly with the Greg Harris Quintet and shared the stage with Greg Gisbert, Shane Endsley, Ron Miles, Jeff Jenkins and many others. In 2015 Neil moved to Chicago where he has had the opportunity to perform with the Bobby Broom Trio, the Geof Bradfield Quartet, Clark Sommers Lens, Black Diamond, Ryan Cohen Quartet, Sharel Cassity Quartet, Richard Johnson Trio and many others.