PCMF @ SPACE:
Charles Overton and Friends
Friday, August 15, 2025 | 7:30 PM
SPACE Gallery
When harpist Charles Overton blew the roof off at his Maine debut with PCMF @ SPACE in 2023, one attendee declared it "perhaps the greatest, most intimate, jazz performance of my life! Including NYC shows!" PCMF is thrilled to welcome Charles and friends back for an evening of original compositions, jazz standards, and ingenious pop covers; in partnership with the multi-disciplinary arts center SPACE.
Equally at home in an orchestra, playing chamber music, or in a jazz club, Charles Overton explores his own multifaceted musical identity and the sonic versatility of the concert grand harp. Extraordinary virtuosity is just the tip of the iceberg: Charles's warmth, curiosity, and creativity infuse every performance with a joyfully contagious inspiration.
VENUE
SPACE
538 Congress Street, Portland ME
PARKING
Street parking is free after 6 PM. Click here for info about paid parking lots and public transportation.
Meet The Artists
Devon Gates
bass/vocals
Gregory Groover Jr.
saxophone
Kevin LaFleur
electric guitar
Lee Fish
drums
Charles Overton
harp
Raised with devotion for music, Gregory Groover, Jr. is a tenor saxophonist and educator from Roxbury, Massachusetts. As a performer, Gregory has had the honor to share the stage with musicians such as Terri Lyne Carrington, Danilo Perez, John Patitucci, Brian Blade, and Esperanza Spalding. As a bandleader and a sideman, he has performed in music festivals in the United States, Latin America, Europe, and Africa. Gregory serves as the co-chair of music at his alma mater, the Boston Arts Academy.
Virtuoso harpist Charles Overton creates a musical environment that is accessible, exciting, and can resonate deeply with any audience, regardless of the style or genre of music, exploring the seemingly disparate parts of his musical life — western classical music and improvised jazz/R&B — and finding the spaces where they overlap. A native of Glen Allen, Virginia, Charles was the first harpist to be accepted to the Berklee College of Music’s Global Jazz Institute, a prestigious and highly specialized program headed by world-renowned artistic director, pianist, and UNESCO Artist for Peace Danilo Perez. As a classical musician, Charles appears frequently with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and has performed with Boston-based ensembles the Walden Chamber Players, and Collage New Music, as well as at the Marlboro Music Festival.
Having earned his master’s degree on full scholarship at the Berklee Global Jazz Institute, drummer Lee Fish received his earliest musical education (starting at age 3) on the road, performing with his parents’ band Amante at venues across North America. Since then, he’s performed all over the world on nearly every continent, and is currently flexing his breadth as a leader in New York City’s jazz scene.
Based in Montreal, Kevin LaFleur is a guitarist, pianist, and composer. Interested in the ways that landforms and their organisms can guide music composition and improvisation, his practice draws on methods of observation and experimentation which are at home in natural spaces. Abstracting on his background in jazz and improvised music, he has developed an expansive sound gathered from his work in live electronics, free improvisation, contemporary dance, and Appalachian folk music. Equally comfortable in jazz, folk, and pop contexts, he has worked extensively in the Montreal music scene and maintains an ambitious schedule as a composer-performer. His first record is in the works.
Devon Gates is a bassist, vocalist, and composer from Atlanta, Georgia, now based in Brooklyn, NY. After studying anthropology and jazz performance at Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, and the Royal Academy of Music (London, UK) she has emerged in the contemporary jazz scene, working with esteemed artists including Terri Lyne Carrington, Vijay Iyer, Jen Shyu, and Nicole Mitchell, and performing at venues such as The Kennedy Center, SFJazz, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, and the London Jazz Festival. Recently named one of 2024’s Up and Comers of the Year (The New York City Jazz Record), she also leads her own projects as a bandleader, collaborator, and composer, bringing her unique blend of jazz, chamber, and soul influences to New York, Japan, Italy, Mongolia, India, the UK, and more in recent years.
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