Kerry Politzer Quartet

Join us for a live taping and listening-room concert for Kerry Politzer Quartet!

Kerry Politzer – Piano

Joel Frahm – Saxophone

James Suter – Bass

Daniel Dufour – Drums

Kerry Politzer is a Portland-based jazz pianist, composer, and educator who tours nationally with programs of Brazilian and original jazz compositions. She has served on the music faculty of Portland State University since 2013 and has also taught at Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Swing University, the University of Portland, and the Oregon Jazz Workshop. Kerry received a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Piano from the New England Conservatory of Music and a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from Rowan University. An active clinician, she has held workshops and master classes at the Reno Jazz Festival, Boise State University, the University of Kansas, and others.

Kerry has released nine albums as a leader, the most recent of which is Alternate Route (Whirlwind Recordings) featuring Kurt Rosenwinkel. Other recordings include Blue in Blue, which featured saxophonist Donny McCaslin and was termed a “first-rate jazz outing” by AllAboutJazz.com. Kerry has also been a featured sideman on albums of George Colligan, Laura Dreyer, and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble and was featured on Sax and The City: Musical Contributions From New York’s Best Women Jazz Instrumentalists (Apria Records, 2004).

In 2019, Kerry was awarded a Regional Arts and Culture Council Artistic Focus grant to explore the music of Brazilian composer Durval Ferreira. The project culminated in the August 2019 release of Diagonal: The Music of Durval Ferreira. In 2020, she received another RACC grant to produce the first edition of Music of Brazilian Piano Masters, which can be accessed at the Music of Brazilian Piano Masters YouTube page.

Kerry leads Bossa PDX, a Portland-based Brazilian jazz and bossa nova group for which she has transcribed dozens of classic arrangements from the original recordings. With this music, she has performed around the country at venues such as Jazz Forum Arts in New York, the Black Dolphin in Kansas City, Frankie’s Jazz Club in Vancouver, BC, Chez Hanny in San Francisco, the Cathedral Park Jazz Festival. the Oregon Coast Jazz Party, and Ellenburg’s Jazz in the Valley. Her group has a monthly residency at local club The 1905.

Kerry has also headlined the Montavilla Jazz Festival and was a featured performer at the 25th Annual Gene Harris Jazz Festival in Boise, ID. Some groups she has played with include DIVA No Man’s Band, the Chuck Israels Jazz Orchestra, and the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble.