The Bowdoin Orient

February 9, 2001
Volume CXXXII, Number 15

Jazz trio performs Saturday

by MARSHALL ESCAMILLA - CONTRIBUTOR

   This weekend treat yourself to a fairly infrequent occurrence here at Bowdoin: the appearance on campus of a professional jazz trio, led by Steve Grover.
   Jazz fans all over campus, as well as those of you who are not presently jazz fans but have enjoyed the past performances of Joshua Redman, Natraj, and the handful of others that have come here in the past few years, will be wonderfully pleased to hear that Steve Grover will be bringing his acoustic piano trio to campus. Grover, adjunct instructor of drums here at the College, will perform in Gibson Hall Room 101 this Saturday night at 7:30. The trio is made up of Grover on drums, Chris Van Voorst Van Beest on bass, and Frank Carlberg on piano.
   Their music is deeply rooted in the age- old (i.e. going back at least to the fifties or sixties) jazz piano tradition, and they include among their principle influences Thelonius Monk, Bud Powell, Bill Evans, and Paul Bley. Each of these musicians, according to the press release, anyway, imbues "the music with a conceptual and formal variety that lends a uniqueness to its expression." Saturday's performance will probably be made up of some of these old time standards as well as some original compositions.
   The trio itself is made up of terrifically accomplished musicians. Grover himself has been leading bands since the mid-80s and won the Thelonius Monk Jazz Composition Competition in 1994 as well as JAZZIS magazine's "Percussion on Fire" talent search. Frank Carlberg got his master's degree from the New England Conservatory of music where he teaches now.
   In 1992 he won the Cognac Hennesey Jazz Search. Finally, Chris Van Voorst Van Beest is one of jazz's up-and-comers and is quickly becoming the most sought-after bassist in New England. Given Gibson Hall's rather intimate setting, this show should certainly be something to see. Any jazzers and jazz-curious students on campus have no real excuse for not coming.