Pavel Wlosok Quartet
Pavel Wlosok brings his quartet to the corner for an evening of contemporary jazz played by musicians who have all, in their own ways, arrived in Asheville by circuitous routes. Pavel himself came from Ostrava via Texas, a Czech pianist who landed at the University of North Texas in 1995 with one backpack and has spent the decades since building one of the more quietly remarkable careers in American jazz. He is joined by Jacob Rodriguez, a San Antonio-bred saxophonist whose credits run from Michael Bublé's Grammy stages to Ambrose Akinmusire's Brooklyn sessions, and drummer Ryan Ptasnik, whose road has wound from Wyoming high school band rooms to a stage built of two pickup trucks at the base of Pik Lenin in Kyrgyzstan.
Expect originals alongside deep-catalog interpretations, the lyricism of Pavel's writing anchoring music that moves with the unhurried authority of players who trust one another and the form. These are serious musicians in a room that encourages seriousness to loosen up, the creature watching from its corner, the weird art doing its weird art thing on the walls.
Part of Little Jumbo's curated jazz series. Free to attend.
Featuring
A Czech pianist who arrived in Texas in 1995 with one backpack and fifteen hundred dollars in savings, Pavel Wlosok has spent the decades since building one of the more quietly remarkable careers in American jazz. He was sixteen when the Velvet Revolution opened the borders of his country, and the music that had been rationed behind the Iron Curtain came flooding in all at once, classical and bebop and everything after. You can still hear that absorption in the way he plays, a pianist who...
From San Antonio street corners to Michael Bublé's Grammy-winning stages, Jacob Rodriguez has woven a musical tapestry that spans continents and genres. This Manhattan School of Music alumnus doesn't just play saxophone—he channels stories through reed and breath, whether he's painting midnight hues with Ambrose Akinmusire in Brooklyn's underground scene or igniting arena crowds alongside pop royalty. Now nestled in Asheville's Blue Ridge embrace, Jacob has become the valley's secret weapon,...
Ryan Ptasnik honed his drumming skills in Pinedale High School band classes in Wyoming, a foundation that would eventually carry him from garage bands to performing at the Opera and Ballet Theatre in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. This jazz-trained drummer has become a versatile force in multiple musical worlds, from his work with the experimental group Moyindau—where he performed Kazakh poetry settings at the base of Pik Lenin in southern Kyrgyzstan on a stage constructed from two pickup trucks—to...