Performers & Schedule
Schedule
Friday, August 14
Inside
- 7:00-7:45pm — Vertigo Trio+
- 8:00-9:00pm — Reese Pike Trio
Saturday, August 15
Outside, weather permitting
- 1:00–2:00pm — Farayi Malek Quintet
- 2:15–3:15pm — Mina Cho Quartet
Sunday, August 16
Outside, weather permitting
- 2:00-2:45pm — Nicko Guerrero Trio
- 3:00-3:45pm — Berklee’s Institute of Jazz and Gender Justice
- 4:00-5:00pm — The Ally Project
Program
Download the 2026 program (PDF)
Performer Bios
Vertigo Trio+
Tim Blackman (piano), Doug Toland (drums), Ethan Focht (bass), plus Debbie Lane (vocals)
Born out of a shared fascination with the Bill Evans Trio, Vertigo brings that legendary ensemble’s spirit of democratic improvisation, where every voice carries equal weight, into fresh, intimate territory. Based in Arlington, the quartet has grown beyond its roots to embrace the broader Great American Songbook, with a particular love for the Golden Age of Hollywood (1929–1959), when composers and lyricists gave the world some of its most enduring melodies. Joining the group is vocalist Debbie Lane, whose experience and versatility make her a natural guide through this rich repertoire — songs that were made for smoky rooms, late nights, and close listening.
Reese Pike Trio
Reese Pike (piano), Seba Ramírez (drums), Jan Portisch (bass)
The Reese Pike Trio is made up of musicians who came together at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute. Bringing influences from their home countries of the United States, Paraguay, and Germany, the group is interested in exploring influences on jazz from around the world and examining the intersections of social activism, storytelling, and music. They are currently performing a project based on the life of Mexican-American composer María Grever and Pike’s own family history.
Reese Pike is a jazz and classical pianist/composer originally from Omaha, Nebraska. Currently based in Boston, Reese received a full scholarship to attend the masters program at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute under the direction of Danilo Pérez and graduated in June of 2026. She regularly performs in a wide variety of styles, including bringing her jazz trio to the 2024 Iowa City Jazz Festival. She was especially excited to return home to perform with the Omaha Symphony in 2025. Reese is passionate about expanding representation within the jazz world and most recently collaborated on a musical retelling of Hansel and Gretel.
Farayi Malek Quintet
Farayi Malek (vocals, acoustic guitar), Greyson Hillin (vocals, electric guitar), Jacob Means (vocals, mandolin), Max Ridley (vocals, upright bass), Héctor Falu Guzmán (drums)
Farayi Malek is a jazz and contemporary vocalist, composer, and educator. She received her bachelor’s degree in Contemporary Improvisation from New England Conservatory of Music in 2017, where she studied with vocalist and composer Dominique Eade. Upon completion, she went on to receive a master’s degree in Contemporary Performance at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in 2018, under the tutelage of world-renowned pianist and composer, Danilo Pérez. Since 2018, Malek has been a member of Danilo Pérez’s Global Messengers. Their 2022 album Crisálida was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Latin Jazz Album. In addition to her performance ventures, Malek is a passionate music educator. In January 2020, she founded Allegro Virtual Preparatory Instruction, an online learning platform that strives to provide students with access to the highest possible level of preparation for the study of music in higher education, in order to maximize the chance of admittance and scholarship funding and to build foundational skills for success and heightened creativity. Malek now teaches at both Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory in multiple capacities.
Mina Cho Quartet
Mina Cho (piano, Korean traditional percussion), George Lernis (drums, percussion), Youngchae Jeong (bass), Matthew Ryu (guitar)
The Mina Cho Quartet brings the bold, joyful sound of Gugak Jazz — where Korea’s centuries-old rhythms, folk melodies, and ritual traditions meet the improvisational fire of modern jazz. Led by pianist and composer Dr. Mina Cho, whose music has been celebrated from Boston and Montreal to Montpellier and Busan, the quartet creates a vivid cross-cultural soundscape.
Dr. Mina Cho is a Boston-based jazz pianist, composer, and scholar as well as the founder and director of the Gugak Jazz Society and the International Gugak Jazz Institute. She holds doctorates from Brandeis University (PhD, Musicology) and New England Conservatory (DMA, Jazz Composition) and has performed across the U.S., Canada, Korea, and Europe. She serves on the faculty of Emerson College.
Nicko Guerrero Trio
Nicko Guerrero (drums), Samuel Cerra (vibraphone), Greg Loughman (bass)
Nicko Guerrero is a Bogotá-born drummer, composer, educator, and researcher based in Boston. He has spent more than a decade building a body of work that treats the rhythmic heritage of the Colombian Caribbean as a living, contemporary idiom. His sound sits at the confluence of bullerengue, lumbalú, porro and jazz: rigorous, lyrical, unmistakably his own. He was the first Colombian admitted to the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, where he earned a Master’s degree and a Post-Masters Fellowship. A versatile performer, he has collaborated with Grammy-winning jazz vocalist Luciana Souza and toured across the US, Latin America, and Europe. He currently serves as a Professional Accompanist at Berklee College of Music. Guerrero is the creator of Pura Bulla, a project rooted in fieldwork in San Basilio de Palenque (UNESCO) that brings Colombian heritage into dialogue with contemporary jazz.
The Ally Project
Terry E. Carter (poetry), Jonathan Fagan (piano), Greg Toro (bass), Gordon Engelgau (drums)
The Ally Project was conceived in 2020 by Medford poet Terry E. Carter and Arlington pianist Jonathan Fagan, after Fagan heard Carter’s original work for the first time. After a brief meeting, they decided to mesh Fagan’s dynamic composing and playing with Carter’s expressive lyricism at the intersection of jazz and social justice. Several years into the project, the duo has morphed into a quartet with a debut CD (2023), an avid local following and several different players forming a tight lyrical quartet. They’ve played at a number of different venues, jazz concerts, and special events. They have a sense of mission and musicality that are both unique and artistically engaging.