The Jersey Jazz Trio to Perform at South Brunswick's Jazz Cafe Friday Night

The Jersey Jazz Trio will bring their high energy acoustic jazz – including originals and standards -- to South Brunswick’s Jazz Café on Friday night, April 1. The show starts at 8 p.m. in the Herb Eckert Auditorium at the South Brunswick Municipal Complex, 540 Ridge Road.

The Trio -- David Berends (piano), Lance Sulton (bass) and Mike Ipri (drums) --perform pieces by Jazz greats such asMiles Davis, Horace Silver, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington.

Pianist/composer Berends received his formal musical training at Peabody Conservatory, the University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, and the Westminster Choir College. He received his informal training though countless rock, jazz, classical and solo piano gigs with artists including Chuck Berry, Stanley Jordan, and the Jack Furlong Quartet. David has released two CDs of original piano compositions, Fifteen Exception for Piano (1991) and Rhapsody in Life (1999). He joined forces with Sulton in the summer of 2009 to create the Jersey Jazz Trio and to pursue his dream of an original jazz piano trio.

For the past 30 years, Sulton has been performing and recording on both acoustic and electric bass in a variety of settings and musical styles, most recently as bassist with the Monday Blues and Jazz Orchestra in Pennington, NJ. Lance studied jazz harmony, theory and performance with pianist Hal Galper and bassists Ron Carter, Rufus Reid and Peter Warren, and also served as an apprentice at the world-renowned Bass Shop in New York under master luthier Billy Merchant.

Playing drums has been a family business for Ipri, starting with lessons from his father, Al, and participating in percussion ensembles and big bands led by his musician father. Mike studied percussion with James Latimer and jazz with bassist Richard Davis at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He received his Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from the University of the Arts. Ipri’s performing career has taken him from the Las Vegas strip to Atlantic City showrooms and lounges. He’s played cruise ships and toured with the American Wind Symphony. Mike plays percussion, mallets and timpani, but playing the drum set is what he enjoys most and has been doing that in the Philadelphia area for the past 26 years.

Sponsored by the South Brunswick Arts Commission, the Jazz Café is a monthly series of Friday night concerts. Admission is $6; refreshments included. For more information, please contact the South Brunswick Arts Commission (732-329-4000, ext. 7635) or arts@sbtnj.net.