Jason Ennis Trio & Natalia Bernal

Sunday, September 8, 2019 at 4:00 pm

Jason Ennis Trio &
Natalia Bernal

Guitarist Jason Ennis is an exciting voice in the world of jazz guitar. His unique sound, deep groove and sensitive feel, along with a diverse background in jazz, blues, Brazilian music and classical music have made him highly in demand as a soloist, sideman, bandleader and musical director. A graduate of Middlebury College (BA in music), Jason attended Berklee College of Music (Boston) and The San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Ennis has performed and/or recorded with Tessa Souter (Motéma Music), Charles Neville (The Neville Brothers Band), Paul McCandless (Oregon, The Paul Winter Consort), The Sonya Kitchell Band (Velour Music, Starbucks Hear Music), Todd Reynolds (Bang on a Can, Steve Reich), The I/O Ensemble under the direction of percussionist Matthew Gold, actor and musician Joe Morton, Mary Ann McSweeney’s Urban Fado Project, The Ramón Ángel-Rey Trio, Samirah Evans and Her Handsome Devils, Choro da Manhá, The Julio Botti Quintet, Pablo Ziegler and others. In summer of 2016, he played in the world premier at the Williamstown Theater Festival of the musical Poster Boy, by Craig Carnelia and Joe Tracz. Ennis transcribed and edited a collection of solo guitar arrangements by his friend and mentor, Gene Bertoncini, which was published in 2012 by Hal Leonard Publishing.

Ennis leads his own instrumental group, Trio Jota Sete, and co-leads the world jazz trio, La Voz de Tres, which has toured extensively throughout the United States and Chile and has released two CDs: La Voz de Tres (2010) and Sueños y Delirios (2014). His searing blues style is a corner stone of the NYC-based jazz/blues powerhouse group, Opius Bliss, fronted by vocalist Michelle Walker. He is a member of The Thomas Bergeron Ensemble, whose May 2015 release, Sacred Feast, presents re-imaginings of selected works by French composer Olivier Messiaen, and is co-composer and musical director for En Diablada, an original music project by Chilean vocalist Natalia Bernal, inspired by Andean folkloric traditions.

Since Fall of 2015, Ennis has been a Lecturer in Music at Dartmouth College, where he teaches jazz, world and popular guitar styles. Currently residing in Pittsfield, MA, he teaches guitar privately and at the Berkshire Music School, is a faculty member at Interplay Jazz in Woodstock, Vermont and has given workshops at colleges and Universities throughout the US and Chile. Jason uses K and K pickup systems and DiGiacomo Custom Switches. For more information and a current listing of upcoming performances, please visit www.jasonennis.com.

Chilean born vocalist Natalia Bernal hails from Iquique, a city nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the Atacama Desert. Now based in New York City, her sound retains and embodies the drama and intensity of the natural surroundings of her homeland. Her early musical training was informal, yet rich; she learned Latin American folkloric songs from her father, great tangos from her Uruguayan mother and grandmother, and assimilated styles of “Música Popular” from Chile, Argentina, Cuba, Peru and Brazil. As her music evolved, she taught herself classics of the great American song book and modeled herself after singers like Barbara Streisand and Shirley Bassey to deepen an already broad vocal palette.

Natalia studied at Escuela Morderna de Música in Santiago before leaving Chile for Boston to continue her studies at Berklee College of Music. While at Berklee, Bernal spearheaded and co-produced the vibrant “Latin Culture Celebration” concert series and performed with some of the leading figures on the Jazz and Latin scene such as Danilo Perez, Israel “Cachao” Lopez, Juan Luis Guerra, Ruben Blades, Gloria Estefan, Paquito D’Rivera, Oscar Stagnaro, Mark Walker and Francisco Mela. Since moving to New York City, she has attracted the attention of musicians and fans alike with her rich, expressive voice as well as her strikingly lyrical songwriting. She performs regularly as a member of the Mary Ann McSweeney Group, The Layla Angulo Band, Los Chamanes and many others.

May of 2010 saw the release of La Voz de Tres, the debut CD of Bernal/Eckroth/ Ennis (www.bernaleckrothennis.com), a trio she co-leads with pianist Mike Eckroth and guitarist Jason Ennis. The recording includes four Bernal originals as well as songs from Brazil, Cuba, the Andes plains and the United States, seamlessly bridging styles between North and South America. For more information and a current listing of upcoming performances, please visit www.lavozdetres.com or www.facebook.com/nataliabernalmusic.