Michelle Tucker is a Boston based percussionist and music educator. As a performer, Michelle has found several comfortable niches in Boston’s music world, freelancing in regional theaters, jazz clubs and orchestras. In addition to composing and arranging music for her own quintet, Michelle founded The Luna Collective in 2015 to play a weekly residency at Lowell’s Luna Theater. Over many Thursday evening performances The Luna Collective developed a mission of preserving and performing the music of Art Blakey’s many Jazz Messengers ultimately transcribing or arranging over 50 pieces of music originally performed by The Messengers and featuring more than 75 of the Boston area’s best jazz musicians. 

The Michelle Tucker Quintet was established in the Fall of 2019 for a feature performance of her original music at The Luna Theater as part of the inaugural Town & City Festival and is the natural progression of the work Michelle did with The Luna Collective. Her compositions contain notes of Blakey’s 1961 Jazz Messengers on A Night In Tunisia, the soulful sounds of Horace Silver’s work in the early 60’s and the straight ahead hard bop of Clifford Brown’s tragically short but furtive partnership with Max Roach. The Michelle Tucker Quintet, like The Luna Collective, features a revolving cast of Michelle’s favorite musicians with an emphasis on friendship, equity, and musicianship. Recent performances have included Mark Zaleski and Sam Spear on Alto, Mike Caudill on tenor and Kathy Olson on baritone sax, Devon Gates and Sahil Warsi on bass and Miguel Landestoy on piano or Amanda Monaco on guitar.

Michelle is a transgender woman, and while that does not have any direct bearing on her ability to play the drums, she feels it is important to be visible as a trans woman with the hope that her leading a life in music will contribute to the normalization of trans identities.

www.michelletuckermusic.com

https://www.instagram.com/michelletuckerquintet/

This program is supported in part by a grant from the Pepperell Cultural Council, a local agency which is supported by the Mass Cultural Council, a state agency.

Our music events are held in the intimate, smoke-free environment of the Art Gallery. Fantastic acoustics draw musicians and listeners from throughout New England. All of our music programs are free and open to the public. Light refreshments are available; coffee provided by Starbucks Coffee, Nashua, NH.