The Kerry Politzer Quartet features:
Kerry Politzer, piano
George Colligan, drums
Eric Gruber, bass
Tim Wilcox, saxophone
Kerry Politzer is a Portland-based jazz pianist, composer, and educator. She is on the music faculty of Portland State University, and she has taught at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University, the University of Portland, and the Oregon Jazz Workshop. Kerry received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano from the New England Conservatory of Music, where she studied improvisation and composition with the late jazz guru Charlie Banacos. In May 2023, she earned a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from Rowan University. Kerry is an alumna of the 2003 and 2005 Banff Jazz Workshops.
Prior to moving to Portland, Kerry lived in New York for many years, where she studied Brazilian music and performed original compositions at clubs. She also toured with DIVA No Man’s Band, playing with Diane Schuur, Slide Hampton, and Larry Coryell. In 1996, Kerry was one of six finalists in the American Pianists Association’s 3rd Biennial Jazz Piano Competition.
Kerry has released seven jazz CDs as a leader, including Blue in Blue, which featured saxophonist Donny McCaslin. She has also been a featured sideman on albums of George Colligan, Laura Dreyer, and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and was featured on Sax And The City: Musical Contributions From New York’s Best Women Jazz Instrumentalists (Apria Records, 2004). The pianist’s latest CD is In a Heartbeat (PJCE Records, 2022).
Kerry leads Bossa PDX, a samba-jazz and bossa nova group for which she has transcribed dozens of classic arrangements from the original recordings. With this music, she has performed around the country at venues such as Jazz Forum Arts, the Black Dolphin, the Oregon Coast Jazz Party, Ellenburg’s Jazz in the Valley, and the Florence Wine & Jazz Festival, among other venues.
Kerry has also headlined the Montavilla Jazz Festival and was a featured performer at the 25th Annual Gene Harris Jazz Festival. In addition to DIVA No Man’s Band, she has also performed with the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, and the 1905 Orchestra. She is now at work on a project that pays homage to the great multi-instrumentalist and composer Jimmy Giuffre, with whom she studied at New England Conservatory.
George Colligan is not only one of the great jazz pianists of his generation, but he has earned an international reputation as a multi-instrumentalist (drums, trumpet, organ, keyboards), composer, accompanist, teacher, and bandleader, as well as popular blogger(jazztruth.blogspot.com). Winner of the 2015 DownBeat magazine Critics Poll (Keyboard), he has had a long association with living jazz legend Jack DeJohnette; recent touring took Colligan around the U.S. with “An Evening with Jack DeJohnette and Savion Glover.” He has also recently toured the U.S. and Canada as a leader with his trio featuring legends Buster Williams and Lenny White. With over 130 albums to date as an accompanist, Colligan has worked with a long list of jazz greats, including John Scofield, Buster Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Don Byron, Ravi Coltrane, Chris Botti, and many others. His latest album, “King’s Dream” (PJCE Records 2022) is his 36th as a bandleader, and features PSU faculty and alumni. Colligan, a New York resident for 15 years, now resides in Portland, Oregon where he is a Full Professor at Portland State University. He has recently won two Region Arts and Culture Council grants, A South Arts Jazz Road grant, and a PSU Faculty Development grant. Colligan recently won the PSU College of The Arts Dean’s Council Award for Research, Scholarship and Creativity(2020), and also won the Researcher of the Year Award from the PSU College Of The Arts(2021).
George Colligan has toured, recorded ,and/or performed as a sideman with Lonnie Plaxico, Gary Bartz, Benny Golson, Gary Thomas, Miguel Zenon, Tom Harrell, Steve Coleman, Eddie Henderson, Ralph Peterson, Vanessa Rubin, Steve Wilson, Dave Weckl, Richard Bona, Jane Monheit, Ravi Coltrane, Lenny White, Michael Brecker, Mike Clark, Nicholas Payton, Sheila Jordan, Janis Siegel, Christian McBride, Billy Hart, Charles Fambrough, Mingus Big Band, Al Foster, Mark Turner, Don Braden, Lew Soloff, Gunther Schuller, Larry Coryell, Victor Bailey, Carl Allen, Rodney Whitaker, Lee Konitz, Jamie Baum, Michal Urbaniak, Ron McClure,DJ Logic, Randy Brecker and Stefon Harris, among others.
Kerry Politzer Quartet feat. George Colligan
