Brian Culbertson
Colorfully coiffed pianist Brian Culbertson is a student of the Yellowjackets/Hiroshima/David Sanborn school of homogenized FM jazz, but with a bumpy R&B groove. He hasn’t exactly set the charts on fire, despite having recorded over a dozen studio full-lengths and even a 20th Anniversary Tour live album, but he’s a staple of jazz fests and lights-out-style radio stations and playlists. The R&B flavor of his most recent albums earned him a 2012 NAACP Image Award nomination for Best Jazz Album and a 2012 Soul Train Award nomination for Best Contemporary Jazz Artist, and those organizations don’t usually nominate guys whose hair looks inspired by Dragon Ball Z cartoons. Culbertson’s newest, Funk!, is a welcome followup to Bringing Back the Funk (2008), which spent two weeks topping Billboard’s Top Contemporary Jazz Albums Chart. General admission seating begins one hour before concert start.