“Almost 50 years separate us, but we communicate with our music totally.”

Clarinet-piano jazz duet to appear at Bates College

LEWISTON – Maine-based jazz clarinetist and whistler Brad Terry and Polish pianist Mateusz Kolakowski will perform at 8 p.m. Friday, Sept. 14, at Bates College. Admission is free.

An audience favorite in Maine and abroad, Terry, of Bath, is a self-taught musician who has worked with such players as Lenny Breau, Buddy Tate and Doc Cheatham. Jazz historian and lyricist Gene Lees called Terry “a wonderfully warm, fluid and sensitive player – far and away the most attractive clarinetist I’ve heard in years, and the best jazz whistler I’ve ever heard.”

Only 21, Kolakowski studies classical piano at the Academy of Katowice in Poland. He won third prize at the 1996 International Chopin Competition in Antonin, Poland, and at the 1997 Padereweski Competition.At 16, he placed fifth in the Martial Solal jazz piano competition in Paris, and the following year placed fifth in the solo piano competition at the prestigious Montreux Jazz Festival.

Kolakowski toured the United States annually from 1998 to 2005, playing such notable venues as New York City’s Knitting Factory, the Jazz Bakery in Los Angeles and Andy’s in Chicago.

Terry met the 11-year-old Kolakowski at a jazz clinic the clarinetist held in Kolokowski’s native Poland. “His extraordinary talent was obvious from the start,” Terry said. “Almost 50 years separate us, but we communicate with our music totally and I’m honored to call him a very close friend.”

The concert will be in the Olin Arts Center Concert Hall, 75 Russell St. For more information, call 786-6135.