JazzReach's Metta Quintet Featured Among Jazz World's Best and Brightest at New York's Prestigious Winter Jazz Fest 2010!

NEW YORK CITY: On a cold and blustery January night - Saturday January 9 to be exact - JazzReach's resident ensemble, Metta Quintet took the stage at the world famous Bitter End in Greenwich Village as part of New York's prestigious Winter Jazz Festival performing selections from JazzReach's all new "Big Drum / Small World" program to a packed house and rousing applause.

The New York Times' Nate Chinen wrote of the festival, " A lot of people at the Winter Jazzfest will be ticking off names on a mental checklist, or filing them away for later. This two-day festival, now in its sixth year, is expressly made for them: the prowlers and perusers, many seeking talent for hire. But tickets are also available to the public, at $25 a night or $30 for both, which gives the Winter Jazzfest another, more fascinating purpose. It is for the moment the only real mainstream jazz festival in New York, and its lineup amounts to a temperature reading of the scene at ground level, where it’s most vibrant and volatile.

What then does the festival’s roster say about jazz at the start of this new decade? Mostly that the aesthetic center of the music has broadened and loosened, yielding to many different strategies of rhythm, harmony and texture. A dozen years ago it might have made sense to call this a cross-genre approach, but that very notion now feels quaint."

JazzReach Founder and Metta Quintet member, Hans Schuman says of the experience, "It was an honor and privilege to be included amongst such a distinguished roster of artists. We really had a great time, the band members played beautifully and the audience was so warm and receptive. It was a great way to kick off the new year and can only hope that it leads more exciting things to come!"