The Carr Center continues it’s highly popular free virtual performance series, “dUOS & dUETS,” streaming LIVE next Saturday night, December 12th at 7:30pm.

This time out the sensational pairings, curated by Artistic Director, Terri Lyne Carrington, will feature the gifted and rising jazz star, Ben Williams and multi-Grammy award winning drummer/composer, Marcus Gilmore. On this night the duo will be joined by Jean Baylor, soulful gospel/blues/jazz vocalist as their plus one.

For more than a decade, Ben Williams has steadily become one of the most acclaimed and versatile bassists in modern jazz. In 2009, he won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition. He has anchored ensembles led by such giants as Pat Metheny, Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard. As a leader, Williams has also revealed his talents as an avid composer and bandleader with three released albums. And… did we forget to mention, he can really sing?

A multi-Grammy award winner, Marcus Gilmore got his start on the drums as a child under the mentorship of his grandfather, the iconic Roy Haynes, “jazz’s most important living drummer” (The New York Times). He has performed and recorded with a diverse array of the finest musicians in the world including Chick Corea, Pharoah Sanders, Vijay Iyer and Cassandra Wilson, but he has also demonstrated his multifaceted talents and personality with critically applauded long term solo projects under his own leadership.

Joining the duo for the evening’s performance will be Jean Baylor, a soulful vocalist who first came to the public’s attention as one-half of the popular 90’s R&B duo Zhané. Gifted with an agile mezzo-soprano, Baylor scales songs with a sultry ease and demonstrates her versatility in R&B, Gospel and Jazz.. Baylor is also a composer, arranger and producer, whose last album,”The Journey” as a member of The Baylor Project, with husband Marcus Baylor, received two Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Vocal and Best Traditional R&B.