Join us for this brand new band, The Basket Case Quartet! Tickets for tonight are $20 each.

Featuring:

Garrett Folger - Trumpet
AJ Kluth - Sax
Tim Lekan - Bass
Anthony Taddeo - Drums

This event will also be livestreamed on BOP STOP's Youtube Channel at showtime. Accessing the stream is free but donations are encouraged and directly support the band.

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Named after Max Roach's impassioned plea for awakening and action in an eponymous 1963 essay, The Basket Case Quartet transforms musical collaboration into resistance against our era's maddening divisiveness. Comprising bassist Tim Lekan, trumpeter Garrett Folger, drummer Anthony Taddeo, and tenor saxophonist AJ Kluth, this ensemble approaches jazz as an art form and community practice long deployed to address and celebrate difference. The Basket Case Quartet recognizes that in our moment of patriarchal, racialized, and nationalist upheaval, the act of coming together to create art is itself a form of resistance. Their sound reflects the urgency of our times and the timeless power of music to bring people together, honoring jazz's legacy as a force for social change while forging their own path toward collective understanding.

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Bassist, composer and educator Tim Lekan began his musical journey touring the United States playing electric bass in R&B bands.A native of Cleveland, Tim lived and worked in New Jersey from June, 1986 through April, 2016. As a free-lance bassist he had the opportunity to work with and accompany many artists including Oscar Brown Jr., Paul Jost, Barry Miles, Rebecca Paris, Jim Ridl, Gina Roche, Steve Ash, and Ron Thomas. During this time he was also a member of The George Mesterhazy Trio, The Antfarm Quartet and Trio Music (with drummer Bob Shomo and pianist Jim Ridl).
Many of Tim’s original compositions can be heard on 2 self-produced CDs - ‘P.M. - The Tim Lekan Trio with special guest Gina Roche' on Encounter Records (1997), and The Tim Lekan Quintet - 'Short Stories' (2014). As an organizer and supporter of the local music scene in South Jersey, Tim collaborated with Dan and Sandi Anderson at Sandi Point Coastal Bistro, and presented The Tuesday Night Jazz Series, a weekly summer jam session and Young Musicians Night. He was also the recipient of the 2016 South Jersey Jazz Society Jazz Master Award.

Tim returned to the Cleveland area in May, 2016 and currently resides in North Olmsted, Ohio, where he maintains a busy schedule writing music, working as a freelance bassist, leading his own quintet, and working as a special education aide in the North Olmsted City Schools.

Anthony Taddeo is a percussionist and composer currently residing in Cleveland, OH. He has studied with world renown percussionists such as Jamey Haddad, Kendrick Scott and Jimmy Cobb. Anthony has a bachelor’s degree in music performance from The School for Jazz at The Newschool in NYC and a master’s in composition from Youngstown State University. Anthony has toured North America and Europe extensively and his versatility as a musician has led him to be featured on over 30 albums with a diverse array of musicians and genres. Amongst film score work, his most recent compositions can be heard in his group - Alla Boara which seeks to bring recognition to Italy’s richly, diverse folk music. He is endorsed by Out of the Drawer Percussion and Byrne Cymbals as a performing artist.

AJ Kluth, PhD, is a musicologist and saxophonist interested in popular music and experimentalisms after 1950. As a full-time lecturer in the musicology program at Case Western Reserve University he teaches lower- and upper-level courses related to popular music, global contexts, social justice, and (post)postmodernity. Dr. Kluth’s greatest long-term concern as a scholar and teacher is the re-visioning of music discourse toward a more global understanding of music study that forefronts inclusion and accessibility.

Since arriving in Cleveland in 2019, Kluth has organized study groups related to music and decolonization and continues to facilitate public-facing discussions about music, class, and race. His ongoing public initiatives work to challenge academic gatekeeping, making space for under-represented musics, artists, and communities in inclusive communities. In 2023 he organized Toward a Different Kind of Horizon at the Cleveland Museum of Art that comprised several days of class visits, panel discussions, and a collaborative concert with Moor Mother, Lonnie Holley, Lee Bains, and Mourning [A] BLKstar. This event fostered interdepartmental collaboration (CWRU’s Department of Music, English, and African and African American Studies concentration) and fostered engagement with more than six hundred students and community members.
Apart from his own releases on OA2 records, recent collaborations with Cleveland artists include In Search of Our Father’s Gardens (Astral Spirits), and Soothsayer (American Dreams)

Garrett Folger is a composer, educator, and performer based in Cleveland, Ohio. He has performed across the country including at the Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Notable musical collaborations at home include performances with Sammy DeLeon y su Orquesta, the Cleveland Jazz Orchestra, Jazzworks and his own group Horizon Trio co-led by Carmen Castaldi and Anthony Fuoco which released their debut recording in April 2025.