Ethan Iverson, Herman Burney, and Nasar Abadey

Pianist, composer, and writer Ethan Iverson was a founding member of The Bad Plus, a game-changing collective with Reid Anderson and David King. The New York Times called TBP “Better than anyone at melding the sensibilities of post-60’s jazz and indie rock.” During his 17-year tenure, TBP performed in venues as diverse as the Village Vanguard, Carnegie Hall, and Bonnaroo; collaborated with Joshua Redman, Bill Frisell, and the Mark Morris Dance Group; and created a faithful arrangement of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and a radical reinvention of Ornette Coleman’s Science Fiction.

Since leaving TBP, Iverson has kept busy. 2017: Co-curated a major centennial celebration of Thelonious Monk at Duke University and premiered the evening-length Pepperland with the Mark Morris Dance Group. 2018: premiered an original piano concerto with the American Composers Orchestra and released a duo album of new compositions with Mark Turner on ECM. 2019: Common Practice with Tom Harrell (ECM), standards tracked live at the Village Vanguard. 2021: Bud Powell in the 21st Century, a vigorous reconsideration of the bebop master, is featured on the March cover of DownBeat. 2022: The current release is Every Note is True on Blue Note records, an album of original work in trio with Larry Grenadier and Jack DeJohnette.

Iverson also has been in the critically-acclaimed Billy Hart quartet for well over a decade and occasionally performs with elder statesmen like Albert “Tootie” Heath or Ron Carter or collaborates with noted classical musicians like Miranda Cuckson and Mark Padmore. For almost 20 years, Iverson’s website Do the Math has been a repository of musician-to-musician interviews and analysis. Time Out New York selected Iverson as one of 25 essential New York jazz icons: “Perhaps NYC’s most thoughtful and passionate student of jazz tradition—the most admirable sort of artist-scholar.” Iverson has also published articles about music in the New Yorker, NPR, The Nation, and JazzTimes. Iverson resides in Park Slope with his wife Sarah Deming.

Drummer and Composer Nasar Abadey is the founder, leader and driving force of SUPERNOVA®. This band performs music from the threshold of Jazz to beyond space and time, while having an artistic license to express their compositions through traditional African rhythms, bebop, fusion, Afro-Cuban, Afro Brazilian, modal and free form. The band’s musical inspirations include, but are not limited to, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and many more.  Based in Washington, DC Abadey has also built a solid reputation as a sideman with several groups, and has performed with many national artists throughout his career. Abadey began playing drums at age five, drawing influences from powerhouse drummers such as Tony Williams, Max Roach, Roy Haynes, Elvin Jones, Art Blakey and cousin Frankie Dunlop, to name a few. Nasar Abadey creates music which he refers to as Multi-D: multi-dimensional, multi-directional.

Nasar Abadey’s band SUPERNOVA’s® debut CD, Mirage was released on Amosaya Records, and his sophomore CD Diamond In The Rough was released on DPC Records.  SUPERNOVA® was selected by the US State Department and the Lincoln Center as Ambassadors to tour with the American Music Abroad Rhythm Road. This one month tour took them to five (5) countries in East Africa; Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Mozambique.  Abadey has performed with many jazz greats, and has appeared in various music festivals internationally. His credits include: Amiri Baraka, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Rouse, Gary Bartz, David Sanchez, Cyrus Chestnut, Gregory Porter, Sonny Fortune, Ella Fitzgerald, Eartha Kitt, Kenny Kirkland, Gary Thomas, Stanley Turrentine, Sun Ra, Frank Morgan, Bobby Hutchinson, Pharaoh Sanders, Russell Malone, Malachi Thompson, Andrew White, and others. 

Mr. Abadey’s Eleven Piece (11) piece SUPERNOVA® Chamber Orchestra, which includes strings, was invited by Jason Moran to the Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage to perform in recognition of International Jazz Appreciation Day.  The Washington Renaissance Orchestra, Abadey’s sixteen piece (16) big band premiered a concert at the historic Lincoln Theatre in Washington, DC as a tribute to African American Music Month (June).  Abadey often includes vocals with these ensembles, and is the founder and artistic director of both.

On two separate occasions the Strathmore Mansion in Rockville, MD honored Mr. Abadey as the Artist in Resident (AIR) Mentor first for vocalist, Integrity Reeves, and drummer, Isabelle DeLeon; and the following year to mentor soul vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, Dante Pope; and  alto saxophonist, Trey Sorrells.

Additionally, he has appeared in various festivals including the San Remo (Italy), Montreal (Canada), Cap City (DC), Virgin Island (Caribbean), JVC (NYC), Morocco (Africa), Chicago Jazz Festival, Iowa City Jazz Festival, D.C. Loft Jazz Festival, Atlanta Jazz Festival, Mellon Bank Jazz Festival, (Philadelphia), The East Coast Jazz Festival, the Free World Jazz Festival (DC), International Children’s Festival (Seattle), Guatemala City Jazz Festival, Duke Ellington Festival, DC Jazz Festival, and the Mid Atlantic Jazz Festival among others.

Mr. Abadey is currently a Professor of Jazz Percussion in the Jazz Studies Department at the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD.

Born in Washington, DC, Herman was raised in the arts-nuturing state of North Carolina, specifically Winston-Salem.  Herman grew up in Church listening to Mahalia Jackson, Aretha Franklin, and James Cleveland; during these years, he played clarinet, drums, and tuba.  “Music has always been an integral part of my life. Both my parents sing in their church choir, and my father sings bass in an all-male a Capella group.”  Herman’s next major influences were Soul, R&B, and hard-core funk during high school; he played the electric bass during that time.  “As a teenager, my friends and I started our own bands; we played in the garage, basement, or any place that we could.  I even snuck out of the house at night to hear groups like Ramsey Lewis, Cameo, Parliament/Funkadelic, the Brother’s Johnson, and Graham Central Station!”

Herman was initiated into "Jazz" by Bill Bright in Winston-Salem, whose musical legacy lives through the many people he helped during his physical life here on earth.  "Bill Bright personally took me under his wing, made me practice, allowed me (with my incredibly sad bass playing) to join the Bill Bright Quintet, gave me my first gigs on acoustic bass, taught me about chord changes, and loaned me Charles Mingus and Thelonius Monk albums to check out so we could play it together!!  Make no mistake ... Bill Bright single-handedly started me on my Jazz journey ... I'm still figuring out what he showed me!"

Then in 1987, after a chance meeting with George Duvivier, Herman finally settled on his beloved double bass.  “Until then, I had never heard music,  especially on a double bass, that required so much honesty and dedication.  George showed me that there is no room for pretense in American Classical music (commonly called “Jazz”); if you don’t give yourself completely, your music will show it and your audience will know it.”

A true student and fan of jazz music, Herman often gives his time and effort to the support of future jazz musicians.  “Milt Hinton, John Clayton, Bob Cranshaw, Ray Brown, Victor Gaskin, John Heard, Keter Betts, Freddy Cole, George Duvivier, Percy Heath, and Rufus Reid have shared so much with me that it is incumbent upon me to pass it along to others … I just can't keep this information to myself.”  To this end, and when his schedule permits, Herman enjoys working at music camps, presenting workshops, teaching private students, and educating audiences.  “Jazz audiences are generally well informed people who MUST be considered at all times; playing in Freddy Cole’s band for over 4yrs really taught me this lesson.  Cole taught me to assemble the musical presentation based on audience demographics, NOT necessarily what I want to play.  Therefore, as a musician, I am responsible for learning as much music as possible in order to choose songs carefully that positively impact an audience.”

Herman traveled all over the world to establish his impressive list of performance credentials as bassist with Nnenna Freelon, Marcus Roberts, Freddy Cole, Wynton Marsalis, Sonny Fortune, Harry Pickens, Eric Alexander, Wycliffe Gordon, Rene Marie, Monty Alexander, Etta Jones, Oscar Brown, Red Holloway, Natalie Cole, Cedar Walton, and Eric Reed.  Herman has also played with Hank Jones, Milt Hinton, Ellis Marsalis, Branford Marsalis, Terrell Stafford, Frank Wess, Carl Allen, and Etta Jones, and many, many others.

Herman has played jazz venues including the Blue Note, the Village Vanguard, Yoshi’s, Sweet Basil, Iridium, Smoke, Birdland, the Jazz Showcase, the Jazz Bistro, Jazz Alley, the Jazz Bakery, Vartan’s Jazz, the Kennedy Center, Alice Tully Hall, the Stanley Kaplan Penthouse at Lincoln Center, the Dakota, and countless others.  Internationally, Herman has toured South America, Australia, Europe, Canada, and the Far East.  Some festivals include the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival, the Cherry Hill Jazz Festival, Detroit Jazz Festival, the JVC Festival, the East Coast Jazz Festival, the Melbourne Arts Festival, the San Javier (Spain) Jazz Festival, the Atlanta Jazz Festival, and the Clearwater Jazz Holiday Festival where Herman’s image was featured on both the 2001 Festival poster and T-shirt.

Herman was an integral part of Freddy Cole’s band for nearly 5yrs and played on many of his recordings, including “Rio de Janiero Blue” and the Grammy nominated CD “Merry Go Round”; Most recently, Herman was Rene Marie's bassist for over 3yrs while free-lancing with various musicians around the US.

Herman created The BassMint in 1996 as an all-bass ensemble for documentation, performance, and education with specific emphasis on the double bass.  Herman says “The bass IS the backbone of all Western music … we are the foundation.”  Therefore, the BassMint focuses on the history of the double bass, its role in Western music, and its potential.  For example, The BassMint paid tribute to Percy Heath in 1997; members included John Heard, Carroll Dashiell, Reginald Veal, and Herman on bass and cello.  “We were well received by an enthusiastic audience who left with a different perception of the double bass!”  More recently, the DC Bass Choir (with James King and Michael Bowie) paid tribute to Papa Keter Betts as part of the first annual Duke Ellington Festival here in DC; it was a challenging and very worthwhile experience that we look forward to repeating this year, possibly with a guest!!

Herman performs regularly with his own group which ranges from duo to quartet; the group’s composition varies “as the music dictates” but regularly features pianists such as Vince Evans, Eric Reed, Tommy Gill, or Kevin Bales, drummers Eric Kennedy, Steve Williams, or Quentin Baxter, saxophonist Gary Thomas, trumpeters Lenny Foy or Terrell Stafford, trombonists Reginald Cyntje, Ronald Westray, or Wycliffe Gordon, and vocalists Melva Houston, Lavenia Nesmith, Imani, or Rene Marie.

When asked to describe Herman, bassist and educator Rufus Reid says that Herman is “one of the finest bassists on the music scene today.”