COMING APRIL 28:  THE GRAHAM DECHTER QUARTET

Topeka Jazz Workshop Inc. members and guests will be treated to a blockbuster end-of-season concert on Sunday April 28 when they listen to the Graham Dechter Quartet. Dechter is a 26 year old rising star guitarist from the L.A. area who will be backed by world-famous drummer Jeff Hamilton, bassist Christoph Luty, and pianist Josh Nelson.

Admission to the concert, from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday in the Regency Ballroom at the Downtown Ramada, 420 SE 6th, will be $50 per adult and $25 for a student 21 or younger, payable at the door.

Graham Dechter has been a member of the famous Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra since he was 19. He is an accomplished guitarist, composer and arranger, and plays with the kind of swinging authority and seasoned maturity that belies his young age. His guitar heroes are Wes Montgomery, Barney Kessell and Grant Green, as well as instrumentalists Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown and Ben Webster. Bassist John Clayton says "Graham is exciting to play with and he's still so young...There's just no telling what wonderful places he will take us."

Dechter has toured world-wide with the Clayton-Dechter Jazz Orchestra and has played with singers Michael Buble', Nancy Wilson, Kurt Elling Jon Hendricks, John and Bucky Pizzarelli, Mundell Lowe, and Russell Malone, pianists Billy Taylor, Freddie Cole, Benny Green, and Bill Charlap, trombonist Wycliffe Gordon, and trumpeters Clark Terry, Snooky Young, and Wynton Marsalis.

Marcene Grimes, Executive Director of TJW Inc. ,points out that probably the very best testament to Graham Dechter's young success, is the fact that he is using one of the best groups of "sidemen" in the business. "All three are familiar to our audience and have entertained us many times in the last decade or so...Hamilton's earliest appearance with us was in 1995 with Diana Krall and John Clayton.

This is the last concert of TJW Inc's 44th season and it is appropriate that it is occurring in April, official Jazz Appreciation month wordwide. TJW Inc is looking forward to its 45th consecutive season of keeping jazz alive ,starting August 2013.