See Mike Jones at Iris, October 26th.

For Immediate Release: September 20, 2011

Press Contact: Bruce Eaton (716) 807-6011

Jazz Piano Virtuoso Mike Jones from The Penn & Teller Show to Make Rare Solo Performance at Iris Restaurant on Friday, October 26th

Virtuoso jazz pianist and Buffalo native Mike Jones will take a night off from performing with The Penn & Teller Show in Las Vegas to make a rare solo appearance.  The performance will take place in the new Iris Restaurant, 4224 Maple Road (Maple Ridge Plaza located on the corner of Maple and Sweet Home Rd.), Amherst, NY on Friday, October 26, 2012 with two sets beginning at 7:30 p.m.  Tickets are $20 at the door.  For dinner reservations or more information contact Iris at (716) 831-3271 or visit www.irisrestaurantbuffalo.com.

Heralded for “the most remarkable pure technique of any piano player working in jazz today” by noted critic Neil Tesser, Mike Jones is “the great living Mainstream Monster of jazz piano” (Jeff Simon, The Buffalo News).  After attending the Berkee School of Music the 1980s and playing in some of the East Coast's most notable clubs, Jones headed west.  Since 2002 he has served as musical director and opening act (joined by recent Celebrity Apprentice star Penn Jillette on bass) for The Penn & Teller Show in Las Vegas, playing to nearly two million people in recent years and recording a series of highly-regarded CDs for Hank O’Neal’s Chiarascuro label.  His most recent release Chicago Trio 2010 documents performance at Chicago's legendary Green Mill Jazz Club and is available for free download at http://www.jonesjazz.com.  

With an outward appearance perhaps more appropriate for a heavy-metal musician than someone who has “quietly established himself as the successor to the stupefyingly virtuostic Oscar Peterson” (Neil Tesser), Mike Jones has always followed his own internal musical path, eschewing the latest jazz flavor-of-the-month for immersion in the jazz piano tradition stretching from Fats Waller and Art Tatum to the two-fisted wizardry of his mentor, the late Dave McKenna . As a jazz pianist, "Jones commands a lavish arsenal of formidable weapons: the rumbling bass lines of an Erroll Garner or Dave McKenna, the meteoric right-hand phrasings of an Art Tatum or Bud Powell, the awesome chops of an Oscar Peterson or McCoy Tyner, the natural rhythmic swing of a Hampton Hawes or Horace Silver, the unerring taste and sensitivity of a Kenny Barron, Hank Jones or Bill Evans" (Jack Bowers, Cadence).  Drawing on the Great American Songbook, his performances showcase his "colossal technique, enormous repertoire and heightened sense of style" (Howard Reich, The Chicago Tribune). 

Iris Restaurant is located in the Maple Entertainment Complex along with The Library, a pub featuring 50 craft beers and a great pub-style menu. Also in the complex is The Forvm, a concert venue/banquet facility with state of the art sound and lighting which is available for private parties and room rentals.