Dan Dowling Solo
Patty Stephens-Mark Dankert Project

Guitarist Dan Dowling is best known to New Mexico audiences as a member of the jazz group Alma and the R&B group Cadillac Bob & The Rhinestones. From 1993 to 2003 he resided in Nashville, Tennessee where he was busy performing, touring, teaching, and recording. Since his return to Albuquerque in the summer of 2003 he has resumed performing both with old friends and new, teaching guitar privately at Encore Music, and teaching classes through the New Mexico Jazz Workshop. Throughout his career Dowling has performed regularly as a solo guitarist and since 1995, has been using a guitar with seven strings (the “lap piano” pioneered by guitarist George Van Eps). For this evening’s performance, Dan has chosen tunes by Bill Evans, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, Don Raye/Gene de Paul, and others as well as some original compositions. Dan was a finalist in the Heritage International Jazz Guitar Competition of 1996, and was named “Best Unsigned Blues Artist” in 1995 by the Nashville Music City Blues Society.

Vocalist Patty Stephens has been a stalwart of the Albuquerque jazz scene for over 20 years and a public performer for nearly her entire life. Her voice has been featured on collaborations ranging from duets to big bands, in projects ranging from children’s music to Brazilian sounds, while always maintaining a strong jazz sensibility. Known for her positive and uplifting attitude, Patty has nurtured the voices and musical hearts of innumerable students and fans of all ages and abilities throughout northern New Mexico. One of those students is Mark Dankert who began singing and studying with Stephens some 20 years ago. Hours of wordless, improvisational duets on a mesa near Placitas formed the ground in which Dankert’s voice has grown. A love for heartfelt singing on a framework of R&B and jazz has been nurtured by working, over the past 3 years, with the fine Albuquerque guitarist, Lewis Winn. Stephens and Dankert will be singing individually and in duets backed by a band comprising some of Albuquerque’s finest jazz musicians: Glenn Kostur, saxophone; Lewis Winn, guitar; Steve Figueroa, piano; Rob “Milo” Jaramillo, bass; and John Bartlit, drums.

$12/$7 Members & Students. Available in advance, by phone or in person, at the Outpost Performance Space (268-0044)