About this Event
Yardwork Presents x Diabolical Records x KUAA 99.9fm present:
an intimate evening with jazz legend and pioneer Caroline Davis followed by a performance from Salt Lake based Solid Air Ensemble ft. Alan Braufman.
Diabolical Records
238 s Edison St.
Salt Lake City, UT
Doors @ 7pm
Suggested 15$ donations.
all ages
Caroline Davis
https://www.carolinedavis.org
Alive with nurturing visions of simple sonic offerings to morph our present situation, Caroline Davis’ main reason for playing music is to connect with others, beckoning new vistas among curious listeners. Her musical journey began in Singapore, in a humid climate, hearing sounds underwater that she would recreate by singing to her German shepherd dogs, who treated her as their own. Her family moved to the United States, Atlanta, Georgia, around age 6, where she encountered R&B and gospel music rife with horns that called her to choose the saxophone 6 years later.
Today, Caroline’s music covers a wide range of styles, owed to this shifting environment. As a leader, she has released nine albums: Live Work & Play (2012), Doors: Chicago Storylines (2015), Heart Tonic (2018), Alula (2019), Anthems (2019), Portals, Vol. 1: Mourning (2021), Alula: Captivity (2023), Portals, Vol.2: Returning (2024), and Fallows (2026). Her active projects include jazz-leaning Portals, experimental R&B My Tree, and protest band Alula. She has won Downbeat’s Critic’s Poll Rising Star Alto-Saxophonist (2018) and has been included in numerous Reader and Critics Polls. Her work has garnered much praise from NPR, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Wire, DownBeat, and many international publications.
Davis is active as both a side-person and a leader in a diverse set of expressions. Davis has shared the stage with Lee Konitz, Rajna Swaminathan, Allison Miller, Michelle Boulé, Angelica Sanchez, Nicole Mitchell, John Zorn, Bari Kim, Wendy Eisenberg, The Femme Jam, Matt Mitchell, Terry Riley, Miles Okazaki, and Billy Kaye.
Caroline’s awards and recognitions are plentiful. She has been involved with various mentorship communities: IAJE’s Sisters in Jazz (2006), the Kennedy Center’s Betty Carter Jazz Ahead Program (2011), and Jen Shyu/Sara Serpa’s Mutual Mentorship Program (2020). Davis was the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship (2025), CMA's Performance Plus Grant (2021), NYFA's City Artist Corps Grant (2021), Jerome Hill Artist Fellowship (2019-20); and she was a fellow-in-residence at Civitella (2025), Ucross (2025), The Jazz Gallery (2022) and composer-in-residence at MacDowell (2019), Avaloch Farm Music Institute (2023-24, 26), BringAbout (2024-25) and Civitella (2025). Some of her compositional practice integrates music with cognitive science influenced by her Ph.D in Music Cognition. As a teaching artist, Caroline brings her unique knowledge of music and psychology to her teaching. She offers a yearly Jazz & Gender course at The New School, co-taught with Sarah Elizabeth Charles, and private lessons at Manhattan School of Music, and has been invited to institutions of all levels as a guest educator.
Caroline is an advocate for social justice in the realms of gender (This Is a Movement) and in the movement for carceral justice (Musicambia, Freer Records, Justice for Keith Lamar). She is organizing community events as “Creative Beyond Incarceration”, showcasing the intersectionality between liberation and art of all forms.
Solid Air Ensemble ft. Alan Braufman
Fronted by Salt Lake musician, artist and curator Chaz Prymek (of the bands Lake Mary & Fuubutsushi) puts together a ensemble of some of Salt Lake's most exploratory, educated, free and prolific artists. Jacob Porter on drums, originally from the LA jazz and experimental music scene, Jacob relocated to Salt Lake a few years back and has near single handedly elevated the jazz and experimental scenes here since his arrival, Chris Kuakali on guitar, a professor of music at UVU, an accomplished guitarist, playing around the world with his own unique style with influneces from Jim Hall, Pat Metheny, Sonny Sharrock, etc. Jonny Arturo on keys, Jonny is similarly hailing from the Los Angeles jazz and experimental music scenes, relocated to Provo, UT and has been making massive waves in the music scenes in Utah. Fresh off his residency at Driftlounge, Jonny plays with deep grooves and knowledge, studied and free. They will be joined by legendary saxaphonist Alan Braufman. Coming up in the New York loft scenes in the 70's and 80's Alan has played with and written with the who's who of the jazz world. Everyone from William Parker, Chad Taylor, Luke Stewart, Patricia Brennan, James Brandon Lewis, Cooper Moore, the list goes on and on. Alan is coming out with a barrage of new material and releases with an all star cast on the label Valley of Fire.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Diabolical Records, 238 South Edison Street, Salt Lake City, United States
USD 0.00
