The Jeremy Pelt Quintet

Jeremy Pelt, trumpet; Jalen Baker, vibraphone; Misha Mendelenko, guitar; Leighton Harrell, double bass; Jared Spears, drums

After graduating from the prestigious Berklee College of Music, Jeremy Pelt decided to move from Los Angeles to New York City, where he soon established himself as a major player in the jazz landscape. It wasn’t long before he joined the Mingus Big Band, and started playing with the Roy Hargrove Big Band, The Village Vanguard Orchestra and the Duke Ellington Big Band. His collaborators included names as illustrious as Ravi Coltrane, Jimmy Heath, Vincent Herring, Charli Persip, Ralph Peterson and Cedar Walton. 

The group feel of his long-standing band, featuring saxophonist J.D. Allen, pianist Danny Grissett, bassist Dwayne Burno and drummer Gerald Cleaver, has elicited comparisons to the second Miles Davis Quintet, while Pelt’s playing style, emotional depth and impeccable technique have been likened to Freddie Hubbard’s and Lee Morgan’s. Pelt's music perfectly balances tradition with modernity, while exploring different dimensions in jazz, from the classic bop sound to more avant-garde projects. He has recorded over 25 albums, and contributed to Slovenian drummer Gašper Bertoncelj’s 2008 album Caution! Hard Hat Area!

During the pandemic, he self-published his first collection of interviews, Griot: Examining the Lives of Jazz's Great Storytellers, in which he explores the history of jazz through conversations with the genre's greatest musicians, including Wayne Shorter, Ron Carter, Wynton Marsalis... and discusses the challenges of musical life and the intergenerational transmission of knowledge with colleagues Ambrose Akinmusire, Terri Lyne Carrington, Robert Glasper, to name but a few names from a vast collection of interviews that now spans five published books. As an experienced trumpeter, composer, producer and educator, Pelt assumes the role of a modern griot – storyteller and guardian of cultural heritage.

He is playing the CD Club just a good month after launching his latest album, Woven. Pelt's new project fuses more traditional aspects of jazz with the myriad possibilities of electronic synthesized sound. This collection of nine, mostly original compositions showcases Pelt's instrumental artistry together with his commitment to composing works that explore new dimensions in jazz.


The Cankarjevi torki concerts are available at a discounted price as part of the AD HOC subscription series.