Photo Anna Yatskevich
Dave Douglas Gifts Trio
Dave Douglas – trumpet
Rafiq Bhatia – guitar & electronics
Ian Chang – drums & electronics
Dave Douglas (East Orange, New Jersey, 1963) is one of the most creative jazz artists of the modern era. He recorded over seventy-five albums as a leader and dozens as a sideman. He was first voted the best trumpeter in DownBeat magazine's critics' poll in 2000 and has repeated the same success twelve times since then. He has triumphed several times as a composer, and is the holder of several Jazz Journalists Association titles, Guggenheim scholarships, the Doris Duke and Aaron Copland awards, as well as two Grammy nominations. He shows interest in traditional and contemporary jazz, avant-garde and electronics, classical, spiritual music, American folk, klezmer, and even the music of the Balkans.
He is a full member of the Acoustic Masada quartet and has also participated in numerous other John Zorn projects. He also wrote music for modern ballet (Tricia Brown's troupe) and film (the Keystone band, Roscoe Fetty Arbuckle's silent film score, and a project with Bill Morrison for the centenary of the first Frankenstein). In 2005, he launched the Greenleaf Music production, releasing his own and albums by close colleagues with a similar artistic sensibility. For eleven years, he was the artistic director of the International Workshop in Jazz & Creative Music at the Banff Center (Canada), and in 2002, he founded the Festival of New Trumpet Music in New York, which he still runs today. He teaches at the Mannes School of Music and The New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music.
Douglas performed twice at the Belgrade Jazz Festival, with his quintet in 2006 and as a collider (with Joe Lovano) of the Sound Prints band in 2012. Inspired by the life and artistic work of Charles Lloyd, the current Gifts trio reflects the wisdom, vision and positivity of the legendary saxophonist and composer, particularly exploring Lloyd's fascination with the music of Billy Strayhorn.