BY JENNA HARRIS,��MAR 28, 2017

Herlin-Riley_235-71475d0145Happy “TUNES”day!

We’re focusing on jazz this week, specifically jazz from the Charlotte Jazz Festival. Kicking off the first night of the��Jazz Festival is the��Herlin Riley Quintet.

Herlin Riley is a jazz drummer originally from New Orleans who began drumming at the young age of three!��He is also a��member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra led by Wynton Marsalis.

He has made recordings with Marcus Roberts, Dr. John, Harry Connick, Jr., George Benson, Bennie Wallace, and Mark Whitfield. Riley has also played in theatrical performances, including One Mo’ Time and Satchmo: America’s Musical Legend.

Riley is a regularly featured musician at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and played a large part in developing the drum parts for Wynton Marsalis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Blood on the Fields. He is a lecturer in percussion for the jazz studies program at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL.

Check out��The Herlin Riley Quintet play earlier this year in the video below. Get tickets to see them at the Charlotte Jazz Festival, Thursday, April 20, at Romare Bearden park here.