Modern Masters: The Ben Markley & Michael Shults Quintet
Modern Masters: Ben Markley and Michael Shults Quintet
The Green Room at Crosstown Arts
Wednesday, April 9, 2026
Doors open at 7:00 PM | Show begins at 7:30 PM
$20 in advance (plus fees) | $25 at the door
The Ben Markley & Michael Shults Quintet brings together five exceptional musicians in a collaborative modern jazz ensemble that balances deep tradition with forward-thinking creativity. Pianist, composer, and bandleader Ben Markley joins forces with acclaimed saxophonist Michael Shults to present music that is both intellectually rich and viscerally engaging.
BEN MARKLEY:
Ben Markley is a pianist, composer, arranger, author, educator, and leader of the Ben Markley Big Band, a daring ensemble known for their creative takes on beloved modern and contemporary jazz classics. Fresh off the heels of Clockwise: The Music of Cedar Walton, Markley tackles his most ambitious project yet: Ari’s Funhouse, a big band album featuring the music of drummer Ari Hoenig, with Hoenig himself in the drum chair. The album received great critical acclaim and was selected as one of the best 4 star rated albums of 2022 by DownBeat magazine.
Markley is active as a composer and arranger with many big band and vocal jazz charts published through UNC Jazz Press as well as his own website. Recent arranging commissions include the Kansas City Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Orchestra of Philadelphia, and Wyoming Jazz Educators All-State Jazz Band.
In 2023 Markley published Cedar. The Life and Music of Cedar Walton (University of North Texas Press). Markley conducted more than seventy-five interviews with friends and family members, musicians who played with or were otherwise influenced by Walton, and industry figures such as club owners. Musicians interviewed include such stars as Jimmy Heath, Benny Golson, and Ron Carter. Walton’s wife Martha shared her extensive archives of photos, ephemera such as fliers and tour itineraries, and letters to inform Markley’s writing which is the definite biography on Walton.
Markley’s book A Practical Approach to Improvisation – The David Hazeltine Method was published by Jamey Aebersold Jazz in December of 2014. It documents David Hazeltine’s process of creating etudes from transcriptions.
Markley is an active performer in the Denver-metropolitan area and along the front range. He currently teaches jazz piano and serves as department chair of the music department for the University of Wyoming.
MICHAEL SHULTS:
Saxophonist Michael Shults has been praised for his “strong, imaginative” improvisations (Downbeat Magazine) and “fresh and intelligent musical ideas” (The Pitch). A first-call musician on the Kansas City jazz scene for nearly a decade, Shults remains an active performer in the Fountain City, Memphis, and beyond, and has twice appeared as a sideman on the Jazzweek National Radio Airplay Charts. As a graduate student at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Michael was a finalist in the 2012 North American Saxophone Alliance Jazz Artist Competition, and was the winner of the Graduate College Soloist category in the 2012 Downbeat Magazine Student Music Awards Issue. He has since performed by invitation as a featured soloist at the North American Saxophone Alliance biennial conference, the Jazz Education Network conference, the Midwest Clinic, the Wisconsin Music Educator’s Association conference, the Minnesota Music Educator’s Association conference, and the Fairbanks Summer Arts Festival. Michael has shared the stage professionally with many of the most significant jazz artists of our time, including Bobby Watson, Sean Jones, Nat Reeves, Pat Bianchi, Lynn Seaton, Curtis Lundy, John Hebert, and Bob McChesney. He is the Musical Director of the Memphis Jazz Orchestra, which has held a weekly residency on historic Beale Street for over three decades.
Dr. Shults is Associate Professor of Saxophone at the University of Memphis, and previously held the position of Assistant Professor of Saxophone for four years at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He is a Yamaha Artist and a Vandoren Artist-Clinician and performs on their instruments and reeds exclusively.