This is kind of a big deal, everyone…OPENING WEDNESDAY FOR THIS SPECIAL SPECIAL!

Thank you to Terri with Tidal Breeze and to the folks with Pikes Peak Jazz for bringing this Guitar Summit to Armadillo Ranch!

Joel Harrison, the renowned New York City jazz guitarist, performs for 1 night only at The
Armadillo Ranch as part of the Pike Peak Jazz Guitar Summit along with his accomplished
band members Gary Versace on piano, Gregory Tardy on bass, and EJ Strickland on
drums.

The Pikes Peak Jazz Guitar Summit will also feature top regional guitarists including Wayne
Wilkinson, Colin McAllister,Steve Langemo, bassist Jason Crowe and more.
The Pikes Peak Jazz Guitar Summit featuring Joel Harrison is presented by Tidal Breeze Jazz
Arts in cooperation with “Operation Jazz”, a Pikes Peak Jazz & Swing Society
initiative, and The Armadillo Ranch.

Joel Harrison:
Guitarist, composer, arranger, lyricist, writer, educator, and vocalist, has “created a new
blueprint for jazz” (New Orleans Times-Picayune). A Guggenheim Fellow (2010) whose
compositions have been commissioned by Chamber Music America, Meet the Composer, New
Music USA, the Jerome Foundation, NYSCA, and the Mary Flagler Cary Trust., he has released
23 CDs as a leader on seven different labels. Harrison’s music may be founded on jazz but veers
into classical, rock, country, and all manner of American roots music. Succinctly described by
the New York Times as “protean… brilliant,” he is also an active film composer, having worked
on the Oscar-nominated Traffic Stop and the Sundance awardee Southern Comfort. Harrison is
the founder and director of the Alternative Guitar Summit, a yearly festival devoted to new and
unusual guitar music. Pat Metheny has called the Summit “one of the most interesting and
distinguished forums for guitar on the planet. Harrison is the author of “Guitar Talk:
conversations with visionary players” as well as “Modern Jazz Standards for Guitar.”

Gary Versace is one of the world’s premier jazz keyboardists, boasting performances
and recordings with John Scofield, John Abercrombie, Kurt Elling, Maria Schneider, and
Al Foster. Versace is equally skilled at piano, organ, and accordion. Gary teaches at
Eastman School of Music.

New Orleans native Greg Tardy played with Elvin Jones in the early 90s and has gone
on to appear with a whose’s who of jazz greats such as Bill Frisell, Andrew Hill, Joshua
Redman, and Betty Carter. He teaches at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

For over 16 years drummer, composer, and bandleader E.J. Strickland has toured,
performed, & recorded with The Ravi Coltrane Quartet, The Marcus Strickland Quartet &
Trio, The Russell Malone Quartet, & countless other world renown artists. He currently
leads his own bands; The E.J. Strickland Quintet & The E.J. Strickland Project. His
playing has been described as emitting “fields of cumulative energy, clouds of feather-
touch and heavy-handed syncopations, latent with power like an oncoming storm” His
style is one of versatility, drawing from many different genres: Jazz, World Music, Hip-
Hop, Afro-Cuban Music, etc.