ETHAN PHILION QUARTET

The Ethan Philion Quartet will perform two sets of original music featuring sparkling group improvisation and daring compositions. The quartet features Milwaukee guitarist Ben Dameron (a frequent Bar Centro bandleader himself) as well as renowned Chicagoans Millie Ahearn and Jayden Richardson. The group will perform new works as well as Philion’s compositions from his 2023 quartet album, Gnosis, which has been met with critical praise including from Michael Chacona at All About Jazz who awarded it 4 Stars and described it as “burning with ardor.” Downbeat Magazine gave Gnosis 4 stars and praised the group’s “deep listening” and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung praised the group for offering “the best of jazz to come.” 

Philion’s debut album, Meditations on Mingus, received widespread praise from Downbeat, JAZZIZ, Jazzwise, and the project was featured as a headlining act for the 2022 Chicago Jazz Festival. Philion was one of the 2022 Jazz Institute of Chicago’s New Works Fresh Voices Fellowship recipients and has won fellowships with Luminarts and Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead. He was also the winner of the 2019 International Society of Bassists Jazz Competition.

Ben Dameron is a sought after performer, composer and pedagogue based in Milwaukee, WI. He currently performs in his group Badland as well as Heirloom, Match Stick and Cream City Hotclub, and resides on the guitar faculty at the Wisconsin Conservatory of Music.

Millie Ahearn is a creative and forward-thinking musician in the Chicago music scene. She blends her dynamic bandleading and compositional flair with a commitment to mentorship and community building, directing her musical voice in all channels towards social change. Her music houses the experiences of a transgender musician navigating expressions of queerness through jazz, focusing largely on transformation and the coming of the self into new life. As a sidewoman, Millie has had the fortune to perform with various high-profile musicians, including Martha & the Vandellas and members of The Temptations, The Four Tops, and The Platters.

Drummer Jayden Richardson has appeared at esteemed venues and festivals worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, the Harris Theatre, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Le Duc des Lombards in Paris. His festival credits include the Atlanta, Detroit, and Chicago Jazz Festivals, among others. He has shared the stage with some of the defining voices in modern music, including Marcus Roberts, Rufus Reid, Isaiah Collier, Etienne Charles, and Steve Wilson.