Park Ave Trio plays Portland State

The Park Ave Trio will play Portland State’s Lincoln Recital Hall Thursday, Feb. 16.

Just another jazz show, you say? Wrong for two reasons. One: A Portland State professor will be on hand to tickle the ivories. Two: This professor happens to be a world-class jazz pianist.

Already a mainstay in the minds of PSU music students, George Colligan, playing piano and trumpet, will join trio John Lakey on bass, Cordero Kingsley on drums and Nicole Glover on tenor sax, plus a special guest.

A former Julliard faculty member, Colligan’s chops are unquestionably refined. After attracting a following in Washington, D.C., it wasn’t long before Colligan found himself in New York playing among the city’s contemporary jazz greats. Just how great? He played with Ravi Coltrane (son of jazz legend John Coltrane), Grammy Award winner Cassandra Wilson and Jack DeJohnette, one of the best drummers alive.

Those in the know have been paying respects to Colligan’s craft for quite some time—just recently at Ivories, a relatively new piano bar in the Pearl District, where Colligan and his bandmates played to a full house. News of their performance spread, and Colligan isn’t stopping there.

Your chance to see Colligan isn’t limited to this one PSU performance. You can also catch him playing at Ivories late into the night, as part of the Portland Jazz Festival Feb. 17, 18, 24 and 25.

As a seasoned and highly innovative showman, you are sure to love Colligan’s performances. Our beloved university is a place to catch him for free, and you don’t have to be of drinking age to do it.