Nasheet Waits / Hannah Marks / Miles Okazaki Trio

Ars Nova Workshop, in collaboration with The Jazz Gallery’s Mentorship Program (NYC), presents a trio performance led by Nasheet Waits, featuring Hannah Marks and joined by Miles Okazaki, at Solar Myth on Thursday, December 15.

About the Artists

Nasheet Waits, drummer and music educator, is a New York native. His interest in playing the drums was encouraged by his father, legendary percussionist, Frederick Waits. Following his music studies at the University of Long Island, Waits was invited by drum legend Max Roach to join him in M’Boom, a one-of-a-kind band that consisted of drummers and percussionists only. After M’Boom he toured with alto saxophonist Antonio Hart. In the new millennium, Waits became a regular in Andrew Hill’s group and also was part of pianist Jason Moran’s Bandwagon.

Hannah Marks is a bassist, bandleader, composer, and educator living in New York City. She is a frequent sideman for members of the NYC contemporary jazz scene and has performed at heralded venues like the Birdland Jazz Club, The 55 Bar, The Stone, and The Jazz Gallery. Marks is an alum of the Stanford Jazz Workshop Mentor Fellow program (2022), the Woodshed Network (2021), Betty Carter Jazz Ahead (2019), the Banff International Workshop in Jazz and Creative Music (2018), and the Brubeck Summer Jazz Colony (2014).

Miles Okazaki’s experience as a sideman over the last two decades covers a broad spectrum, from standards to experimental music—with an approach described by the New York Times as “utterly contemporary, free from the expectations of what it means to play guitar in a group setting—not just in jazz, but any kind.” Okazaki was a member of Steve Coleman and Five Elements from 2009-2017 while releasing five albums of original compositions along with a six-album recording of the complete compositions of Thelonious Monk for solo guitar.

The Jazz Gallery

Founded in 1995 in New York City, The Jazz Gallery serves as an international cultural center where the youngest generation of emerging professional jazz musicians are nurtured with opportunities to collaborate with their peers, discover and refine their creativity, and perform in front of eager audiences. Through residencies, workshops, and exhibitions, the organization provides a platform for artists to discover their unique voices and a home for established musicians to continue to experiment and grow.

Mentorship Program

Mentorship has always been a key theme in jazz history. Most of today’s great jazz musicians were raised through informal channels and gained invaluable experience working alongside their heroes. Future generations of great jazz will depend on the continuation of this community-minded mentoring tradition that is, unfortunately, becoming less common as jazz education has become more formalized in conservatory and university settings.

The Jazz Gallery developed its Mentorship Program to cultivate a group of established jazz musicians as mentors and to provide aspiring musicians with the opportunity to learn the music and business of jazz under the guidance of their contemporary heroes.