Global Jazz Forum: Adam Cruz and Ben Street
Renowned drummer and composer Adam Cruz
Image courtesy of the artist
Ben Street
Image courtesy of Oliver Abels
One of the leading figures in jazz today, Adam Cruz, and Ben Street, a creative force in the international jazz scene, come together to share their knowledge as a drummer and a bassist in this forum.
Drummer and composer Adam Cruz is a member of the Danilo Pérez Trio who also has worked with Chick Corea ’97H, Paquito D’Rivera ’03H, Ray Barretto, David Sánchez, and Charlie Hunter. His debut recording as a composer and bandleader, Milestone, was released on Sunnyside Records in 2011.
Watch Adam Cruz perform at an open rehearsal with Jazz 100:
Ben Street is an in-demand bassist who has worked extensively with Pérez, Kurt Rosenwinkel, Billy Hart, Lage Lund, and David Sanchez. This year, Street appeared (with Hart) on Aaron Parks’s Find the Way, which follows up his work in 2016 on the Andrew Cyrille Quartet’s The Declaration of Musical Independence, on which Street worked with Cyrille, Bill Frisell ’77 ’17H, and Richard Teitelbaum. Street studied with Miroslav Vitous, the renowned Weather Report bassist, and Dave Holland in Boston before moving to New York City in 1991. He is a guest artist with the Berklee Global Jazz Institute.
The Berklee Global Jazz Institute is an honors performance program designed to foster creativity and musicianship through various musical disciplines, with pianist and composer Danilo Pérez as its artistic director. The BGJI provides a comprehensive contemporary music environment where students are given opportunities to explore their creativity to the highest level possible, advance the power of music as a tool for the betterment of society, and connect musical/creative thinking with the natural environment.