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Ibeam BrooklynSunday, November 22nd, 2026
Doors at 5:30 pm
Sets at 6 & 7 pm
$10-$20 Sliding Scale
6 pm
Tim Berne - sax
Eli Wallace - piano
Adam Shead - drums
7 pm - Paraphrase "Arrival" album release
Michael Eaton - sax
Nicki Adams - piano
Kenneth Salters - drums
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Paraphrase (pianist Nicki Adams and saxophonist Michael Eaton) performs new music from Arrival, their new release trio release with drummer Francisco Mela on J-Man Records. The trio’s music is adventurous and expansive, yet deeply rooted in the jazz tradition. Drawing on a broad rhythmic palette but often propelled by an irresistible swing, Arrival balances intricate composition with spontaneous interplay. With the addition of Francisco Mela, that conversation gains new depth, color, and expressive power, resulting in a trio with a singular voice and fresh vision for contemporary jazz. For their November 22 iBeam set, Adams and Eaton will be joined by drummer Kenneth Salters.
Nicki Adams is a New York–based composer and pianist. He has worked with renowned artists including Randy Brecker, Francisco Mela and Francois Moutin, and has appeared on NPR’s Soundcheck and at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Rose Theatre. A Steeplechase recording artist, he has released seven albums as a leader - three with his band GADADU and four in duo and trio settings with Michael Eaton and his brother, Patrick Adams. His first jazz album with Patrick Adams, Lynx (Sunnyside Records, 2021), was released to critical acclaim.
Nicki was a finalist in the inaugural Bob Ravenscroft International Jazz Piano Competition (2022), and his works have appeared in film and radio worldwide, earning nominations for international awards. He has scored several feature films, documentaries, and short films, most recently A Wonderful Way With Dragons, starring Violet McGraw. His ensembles, including GADADU, the Prism Trio and the Adams Quartet, have toured internationally.
Critical reception highlights both his individuality and command at the instrument. Writing in All About Jazz, Maurizio Zerbo noted that with Lynx, “the two New York musicians demonstrate that they are getting out of the cage (now in fashion) of the canonical jazz reinterpretation… destined to keep themselves out of the conventions in force.” In Jazz Views, Euan Dixon wrote that Adams “clearly has this music in his fingertips and it flows from them with brilliant virtuosity.”
Michael Eaton is a Brooklyn based saxophonist, composer, and educator active in contemporary jazz and free improvisation. He embraces a progressive and holistic vision of jazz and free improvised muusic, cognizant of the music's rich history, while he reaches for a personal outlook with an eye towards future possibilities.
Eaton's contemporary jazz and postminimalist group, Individuation, has three releases: The Phenomenal (2024, with Tim Hagans, Dave Scott, and Judi Silvano), Dialogical (2018, with Lionel Loueke), and Individuation (2014, with Dave Liebman). AllAboutJazz said "there is more than enough promising music on Dialogical to justify Eaton's status as a force to be reckoned with in today's jazz world." He also released the free jazz and groove-oriented Tenor Triage (2018, Ropeadope) with tenor saxophonists James Brandon Lewis along with Sean Sonderegger plus alumni of Ornette Coleman, Brad Jones and Calvin Weston.
In 2020, Eaton co-formed Paraphrase, a modern jazz plus Third Stream duo with pianist Nicki Adams, focused on modern jazz wedded with Third Stream. The duo recorded two recordings for Steeplechase, Paraphrase (2022) and The Transcendental (2024), with Arrival (2026, with Francisco Mela) now out on J-Man Records.
Kenneth Salters is a three-time Grammy nominated composer and international touring percussionist. He’s toured in Europe, Asia, Australia, and the UAE. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina with a percussion performance degree, is a professor at the Borough of Manhattan Community College and also teaches steel pan to elementary students for Arts Connection, a nonprofit organization.
His performance experiences include Rufus Reid, Tivon Pennicott, Andy Akiho, ArcoIris Sandoval, Don Byron, Chris Potter, Aretha Franklin, the Carolina Crown Drum and Bugle corps, the Phoenix Symphony, the Toledo Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, the Cincinnati Philharmonic, and with broadway stars Leslie Odom Jr. and Renée Elise Goldsberry. He has also performed in theater productions of “Little Girl Blue, the Nina Simone Musical,” “Old Hats,” “Dream Girls,” and “South Pacific.” Kenn was also the winner of the Zildjian “Drummer Love” competition in the Northeast region and a winner of the “Sixth String Theory” contest that included a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival.
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Event venue
IBeam Brooklyn, 168 7th St, Brooklyn, NY 11215-3147, United States
Tickets
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