HANNAH MARKS
Trio
Carnegie Hill Concerts presents Hannah Marks Trio, an intimate concert experience.
About The Show
Inspired by leader Hannah Marks’ time spent playing folk songs and hymns in a church band while growing up in Des Moines, IA, Salt of the Earth performs fully improvised renditions of timeless melodies like “Poor Wayfaring Stranger”, “Simple Gifts”, and “Turkey in the Straw”. Marks (who performs frequently with Miles Okazaki) is joined by avant-garde heavyweights Jacob Sacks (Paul Motian, David Binney, Dan Weiss) and Tom Rainey (Tim Berne, Nels Cline, Ingrid Laudbrock), creating an intergenerational partnership that is full of surprises.
Personnel
Pianist: Jacob Sacks
Drumer: Tom Rainey
About the artists
Hannah Marks
Hannah Marks is a bassist, composer, and educator living in New York City. She currently leads a risk-taking acoustic jazz quartet that features NYC’s most in-demand sidemen, and has showcased her musical projects at festivals like the Detroit Jazz Festival, Hyde Park Jazz Festival, 80-35 Music Festival, Mary Lou Williams Jazz Festival, Iowa City Jazz Festival and Indy Jazz Festival. Produced by Jason Moran, her second album, Feed the Fire, will be released in June 2026 on Endectomorph.
As a side-woman, Marks has been described as having “a fresh, modern, and original approach to playing the bass” by Marcus Printup. Marks tours internationally with NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater's project “We Exist!”, and has performed with Geoffrey Keezer, Nasheet Waits, Terri Lyne Carrington, Anna Webber, Miles Okazaki, Ingrid Jensen, Kalia Vandever, Matt Wilson, Ted Nash, Morgan Guerin, Marcus Printup, and Sasha Berliner. Marks’ discography includes playing on Geoffrey Keezer’s Grammy award winning composition “Refuge”, Amanda Ekery's Grammy nominated Arabé, Kristen Lee Sergeant’s Falling with saxophonist Ted Nash, and Heartland Trio’s debut album Year One.
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Jacob Sacks
Jacob Sacks is one of the most creative pianists on the NYC jazz scene today. For over 25 years both in NYC and beyond, his strong individual voice has been heard in a variety of settings ranging from the mainstream jazz traditions of the Mingus Big Band and Orchestra to the open approach of the Paul Motian Septet and Octet(+1) to the vamp based fusion of David Binney’s Balance.
Originally from Michigan, Jacob was a 1995 Presidential Scholar In The Arts before he moved to New York City to study with Garry Dial at the Manhattan School Of Music. After graduation in 1998, Jacob was a finalist in the 1999 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition.
Jacob has performed with musicians such as Lee Konitz, Clark Terry, Joe Maneri, Terumasa Hino, Charles Gayle, Eddie Henderson, Tim Berne, Michael Formanek, Tom Rainey, Ralph Alessi, Ben Monder, Rich Perry, Chris Potter, Mark Turner, Adam Rogers, and Matt Wilson, and has also done collaborations with artists such as Orlando Hernandez, Eric Wubbels, Ethan Iverson, Karen Ng, and Liz Kosack.
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Tom Rainey
Born in Los Angeles in 1957, drummer Tom Rainey grew up in Santa Barbara before moving to New York City in 1979. Rainey got his start playing straight-ahead jazz gigs in the Big Apple during the early ‘80s, often as part of a trio with pianist Kenny Werner and bassist Ratzo Harris. Subsequently, Rainey met Tim Berne, forming a working relationship with the maverick saxophonist that continues to this day. At the same time, Rainey was performing with luminaries such as Jane Ira Bloom, Fred Hersch, and Andy Laster – before recording dates and tours with Berne became the drummer’s primary gig, many of which also featured bassist Drew Gress. Rainey’s partnership with Berne was documented on numerous live and studio recordings made from the mid-‘90s through the turn of the millennium, in Berne’s groups Big Satan, Paraphrase, Hard Cell, and Science Friction. Berne’s ensembles allowed Rainey great improvisational freedom, with collective group interplay that balanced rhythmic drive and colorful textures.
Rainey also collaborated with other artists during this fertile time, playing with Mark Helias, Brad Shepik, and Angelica Sanchez, among many others. Despite Rainey’s unassailable credentials as a master improviser, the drummer had not led a recording date as a bandleader until the release of Pool School(Clean Feed), the debut of his trio with guitarist Mary Halvorson and saxophonist Ingrid Laubrock in 2010 (the same year that Rainey and Laubrock were married). The trio’s sophomore effort, Camino Cielo Echo(Intakt) followed two years later, with Rainey regularly appearing in Laubrock’s ensembles as well. In 2014 Rainey issued Obbligato, his third album as a bandleader, leading a quintet by the same name with Laubrock, Gress, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and pianist Kris Davis, which freely interpreted jazz standards.