The Free Library of Philadelphia and the Philadelphia Jazz Project invite you to a third season of free concerts: Mysterious Travelers 3 : Internal Investigations. This time we’re turning inward to explore, through sound, the collections that constitute the Parkway Central Library. Every third Monday from September 2016 through May 2017, emerging and veteran musicians, all calling Philadelphia home, will debut new works. This season, our librarians sat in on the compositions: musicians met with librarians just like our city’s students do, except not with term papers as the goal, but new artistic expression. Librarians steered musicians toward inspiration within the Library’s world class collections, band leaders responded, and these reference jam sessions surged to life. We’re thrilled for you to hear the results of these shared intellectual and musical improvisations. Join us this season for librarian jazz!

Featuring: Chris Oatts
Featured Department: Education, Philosophy, and Religion

Hailed by saxophone icon Bobby Watson as “one of the top young saxophonists of his generation,” Chris Oatts has a forward-thinking sound on the saxophone. With deep roots in jazz and bebop, Chris’s original compositions embrace influences of rock, funk, classical, and New Orleans. Chris’s quartet performs regularly around the Philadelphia area, playing a wide collection of original songs and new arrangements of jazz classics. Chris is also the founder and musical director of the South Philly Big Band, a group steeped in the tradition of Thad Jones and Mel Lewis that commissions new works from Philadelphia composers. Chris has played with Terell Stafford’s Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia as well as the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and is an original member of Chelsea Reed and the Fair Weather Five, a Philadelphia swing-era band that consistently records and tours the country.

Get your FREE tickets on Eventbrite, here. Tickets are never mandatory for our concerts, but just a way of letting us know how many people are coming.

All events in this series are free. All concerts start at 7:00 p.m. and will be held in the Montgomery Auditorium.

The Philadelphia Jazz Project (PJP) works to inspire a network to support, promote, archive, and celebrate the diverse elements within the Philadelphia jazz community, with the larger goal of connecting to the global community. www.philajazzproject.org

Parkway Central Library | Montgomery Auditorium
1901 Vine Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103

Accessibility: A wheelchair ramp is located at the Library’s Wood Street entrance, and an elevator for the public is located next to the building’s northeast courtyard.

For more information, full biographies, and the most up-to-date details, visit freelibrary.org or call 215-686-5316.