As his first order of business, Burrage is producing a musical memorial service on Tuesday, July 20 for his cousin Kendra Mahr, who passed away earlier this year. The service will be held from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at the Gloria Rogers Pavilion in Tilles Park in Ladue.
Then on Wednesday, July 21, he'll join bassist Bob DeBoo as a host musician for the weekly jam session at the "Open Air" tent on the grounds of the Grandel Theater.
Burrage (pictured) will wrap up his hometown visit with gigs at BB's on Thursday, July 22 and Friday, July 23 with a band that includes alto saxophonist and fellow St. Louis native Greg Osby as special guest. Showtime is at 7:00 p.m. both nights, and tickets, which start at $40 for a table for two on Thursday or $30 on Friday, can be reserved via BB's website.
A graduate of University City High School, Burrage emerged on the national jazz scene in the 1980s as a drumming phenom, touring with famed pianist McCoy Tyner before he was old enough to legally buy a post-gig beer. He has gone on to work with a long list of notable musicians, including Wayne Shorter, Archie Shepp, Sonny Rollins, Jackie McLean, Woody Shaw, Michael Brecker, David Murray, Jaco Pastorius, Joe Zawinul, Dianne Reeves, Wallace Roney, Gary Bartz, Jamalaadeen Tacuma, Olu Onabulé, World Saxophone Quartet, and more.
Now living in Brooklyn, NY, Burrage teaches at CUNY Brooklyn Conservatory of Music and SUNY Old Westbury Long Island in addition to recording and performing live. He released Dance of the Great Spirit, his most recent recording and the first from his trio Holographic Principle, early in 2019, earning a nomination for a Grammy Award as "Best Jazz Instrumental Album."
He's been working on the follow-up, tentatively titled Moving on as One, with pianist Alex Collins and longtime bassist Nimrod Speaks, plus an array of guest musicians including keyboardists Michal Wierba, Geffrey Keezer and Marc Cary, saxophonists Antoine Roney and Kendrick Smith, trumpeter Antoine Drye, trombonist Corey Wallace, and Camille Thurman and Terrol Jones on vocals. Basic tracks have been recorded, but "I still have to add strings, choir and surprise rappers to a couple of my compositions also," Burrage said.
(You can see a complete Holographic Principle show, recorded in February of this year at Keystone Korner in Baltimore with Collins, Speaks, and Thurman, here.)
Other recent recording activity has included Been Down This Road Before, an album with trombonist Clifton Anderson, nephew of Sonny Rollins and a veteran of Rollins' band, that came out last December; and more recently, sessions for a forthcoming tribute to Tyner, led by bassist Avery Sharpe and featuring Helen Sung on piano, Joe Ford on saxophone, and Steve Turre on trombone.
This all comes after more than a year of uncertainty caused by the pandemic. "The summer of COVID's height last year I had tour dates lined up in Europe for my band Holographic Principle, it was the first time in about 16 years I would've taken my band out as a leader," Burrage said in an email to StLJN. "I was ecstatic, but then it all went away... At incredible losses (covid and other illnesses) as well from very close friends and mentors and colleagues, this has just been a traumatic season. The (loss of) of greats I've played with, like Henry Grimes, Wallace Roney, Stanley Cowell and so many others during this period, is heartbreaking."
There were some positives, though - Burrage said he was able to use the time off to obtain a small business loan and do repairs on his mother's home, enabling her to resettle in St. Louis, and the involuntary hiatus also allowed him to compose new music.
Although Brooklyn will remain his home base, Burrage is looking forward to spending more time in St. Louis in the near future and establishing a local branch of his not-for-profit organization World Rhythm Academy. "I love the city where I grew up," he said. "My family, children, grandchildren and great grandson are there, not to mention people and friends that really love me," he said. "I'm coming back home and will thrive."
