THE COLBURN ORCHESTRA, ROBERT CRAY, A FINE FRENZY, DAVE KOZ, JONNY LANG, LEDISI, TROMBONE SHORTY, MAVIS STAPLES, AND TYRESE TO CELEBRATE "ONE NIGHT ONLY: A CELEBRATION OF THE LIVE MUSIC EXPERIENCE" WITH HOST SHARON OSBOURNE AT THE GRAMMY FOUNDATION®'S 14TH ANNUAL MUSIC PRESERVATION PROJECT
Thursday, February 9, 2012 Red carpet arrivals - 7:15 p.m. Guest speakers and performances - 7:30 -9:00 p.m.
Saban Theatre 8440 Wilshire Boulevard Beverly Hills, CA 90211
Prestigious GRAMMY®Week Event Highlights GRAMMY Foundation's Ongoing Work To Safeguard Music's History
The GRAMMY Foundation®will host "One Night Only: A Celebration Of The Live Music Experience" — the 14th Annual GRAMMY Foundation Music Preservation Project — featuring live musical performances and historical footage from preservation archives. Television personality Sharon Osbourne will be the evening's host. Performers include GRAMMY® winners Robert Cray, Jonny Lang,and Mavis Staples; current GRAMMY nominees Dave Koz and Ledisi; and the Colburn Orchestra, A Fine Frenzy, Trombone Shorty, and Tyrese, as well as other artists to be announced shortly. The evening's musical director will be Darrell Brown, songwriter/producer, Recording AcademyTrustee, and GRAMMY Foundation Board member. Neil Portnow, President/CEO of The Recording Academy®,and the GRAMMY Foundation, will be in attendance, along with other prominent music industry leaders and members of The Recording Academy.
"One Night Only: A Celebration Of The Live Music Experience"— this year's GRAMMY Foundation Music Preservation Project — will explore the history and evolution of live concert performances and celebrate the various and invaluable contributions of those events, the key players behind them, and their influence on the American cultural landscape. This GRAMMY Week celebration promotes the GRAMMY Foundation's mission of recognizing and preserving our musical past, so that future generations can continue to benefit from an appreciation and understanding of those contributions. General admission tickets are $25 per person. For tickets and information, visit www.grammyfoundation.org or http://flavorus.com/grammyfoundationonenightonly ,or contact 323.908.0607. "One Night Only" issponsored in part by Classic Wines of California,the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Music by Getty Images,Jackson Limousine, and Wolfgang's Vault.
UCLA LIVE 2011/2012 SEASON
Sonny Rollins, Symphonic Jazz Orchestra featuring Christian McBride, Keith Jarrett, Gary Peacock, Jack DeJohnette, Kenny Burrell, Hugh Masakela, Ravi Coltrane, Geri Allen, among scheduled artists.
Fri., Feb. 10, 2012- Click image for details and to purchase tickets
Ravi Coltrane Quartet and Geri Allen Timeline Band- Click image for details and ticket information
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The Broad Stage at the Santa Monica Performing Arts Center Presents...
Oct. 1, 2011 - James Farm with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman and Eric Harland
Dec. 17-18, 2011 - The Manhattan Transfer
Feb. 18, 2012 - Hiromi
Mar. 19, 2012 - The Ballad of Emmett Till by Ifa Bayeza
Kenny Burrell 80 Years Young: A Musical Birthday Feast at UCLA
Dee Dee Bridgewater, Stevie Wonder, B.B. King and Kenny Burrell Photo by Reed Hutchinson
By Paula Edelstein
There are birthday parties and then there are birthday musical feasts! The latter is what the legendary guitarist Kenny Burrell gave recently at UCLA’s Royce Hall when he celebrated his 80th birthday. Kenny Burrell, 80 Years Young featured special guests galore including the incomparable Dee Dee Bridgewater, blues great B.B. King, and the great Lalo Schifrin.
Other exciting performers included the Jazz Heritage All Stars and the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited as well as a Tribute Vocal Ensemble. As if they were not enough, Stevie Wonder showed up and caused the audience to break into a roaring ovation as he paid tribute to Kenny Burrell and later dueted with Dee Dee Bridgewater in a completely improvised birthday song. They were amazing.
B.B. King's 20-minute set proved to be fun as well as entertaining. At 86, a seated King playing his well-known guitar Lucille, made jokes about his having already been 80 years old and knowing what it is like as he offered Burrell a chair for their pending duet! The audience enjoyed King's snappy repartee as well has his huge hit, "The Thrill Is Gone." The two dueted and were greeted with a standing ovation.
After intermission, Kenny Burrell, tall, elegant and always classy, spoke about the need for a Los Angeles-based repertory Jazz Orchestra that would provide jobs for jazz musicians. Appealing to jazz enthusiasts and referencing “Ellingtonia” (a class he teaches at UCLA that examines the accomplishments of Duke Ellington), Burrell has formed the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited and hopes that it will be a home to jazz musicians such as the only other permanently housed company in the USA – Jazz at Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis as its Artistic Director. Several of Ellington’s former bandmates helped to found and now make up the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. What a great and completely unselfish birthday wish!
Dee Dee Bridgewater, now dressed in an elegant turquoise gown sang with Burrell during her swinging set. Her classic vocals set with Burrell's cool toned, bebop was an instant hit despite a thinning audience who had been in attendance for several hours.
Later in the program, the UCLA Philharmonia conducted by Neal Stulberg performed Pax Humana (Hommage a Kenny Burrell) for orchestra. This piece was based on The Peacemaker by Kenny Burrell and created by Paul Chihara. They finished their set with Sunset Time (Revisited) written by Kenny Burrell. After nearly four hours, the UCLA Philharmonia and the Los Angeles Jazz Orchestra Unlimited collaborated on Suite For Peace before the artists joined for the Finale.
At 80 years young, Kenny Burrell is still as elegant and refined as the day he first stepped onstage. His dexterity on guitar is as cool and graceful as ever. This birthday musical feast only verified that Kenny Burrell is still the remarkable educator and guitarist that we all love. Happy Birthday Kenny!
Symphonic Jazz Orchestra featuring Christian McBride By Paula Edelstein
According to Mitch Glickman, Co- Music Director and Conductor of the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra, the idea for George Duke to compose Dark Wood: Duke Bass Concerto for McBride originated circa 1999. The work was commissioned by the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra and made possible in part by a grant from the James Irvine Foundation and the SJO Benefactor’s Circle whose members include Anne Finestone & Charles Dolan, Jinko Gotoh, Quincy Jones and Harold Levy. Duke responded with a two movement work for solo bass (acoustic and electric), violins, violas, bass, harp, drums, percussion, French horn, woodwinds, trumpet, and trombone.
The official completion date of the score is not known although some changes of detail continued to arrive for two or three weeks after that and a few were made during the days preceding the World Premiere at UCLA’s Royce Hall Los Angeles, California on September 24, 2011. Unfortunately the composer (who is also a Co-Music Director of SJO) was not in attendance but the inspiration for the work, master bassist/composer Christian McBride, was the featured solo bassist with the Symphonic Jazz Orchestra. Mitch Glickman conducted.
At the World Premiere, the skill and sensibility of composer George Duke were on full display. In true concerto form, he convinced his listeners by giving the orchestra the introduction and statement of the material and then brought in the true feelings of the solo bass voice with a counter-statement. This arrangement brought out the force of McBride’s solo by thrusting the orchestra into the background while at the same time the audience still realized that the orchestra has had its say and was not just employed to support the soloist. The ritornelli (return of orchestral music after solos) were both successful and effective at the end of McBride’s personal and eloquent solos in the first movement.
The lyric and expressive gifts of Christian McBride that have singled him out among his jazz colleagues were cheered with a standing ovation. These components of McBride’s artistic personality were particularly remarkable in the emotionally poignant second movement. The sustained resonance of his acoustic and electric basses as well as his adept dexterity and voicings captivated the audience.
Overall, bringing McBride’s solos into fresh relationships with the 67-piece orchestra provided powerful harmonic lifts and a deeply calming coda. Together they provided room-filling sonorities that were both energetic and relaxing. Glickman, who conducted without a score, had a profoundly coherent command of the work and at its conclusion embraced McBride and exchanged celebratory handshakes with him and the concertmaster, Ralph Morrison.
Prior to the performance of Dark Wood: Duke Bass Concerto for McBride, Mitch Glickman led tenor saxophonist Pete Christlieb and drummer Marvin “Smitty” Smith in Charles Floyd’s Elements.This piece was followed by an audience participation aspect of the matinee. Glickman explained that mixing certain genres of music together can be likened to foods mixed together and then suggested that classical or symphonic music (chocolate) when mixed with jazz (peanut butter) would result in a Symphonic Jazz Recipe. Arranged by Glickman, this four-part program included Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik,” Antonio Carlos Jobim’s “Girl From Ipanema,” Henry Mancini’s “Theme FromPeter Gunn” and Joe Garland’s “In The Mood” (made famous by Glenn Miller) and allowed the audience to identify which portions of the music were classical (chocolate) and/or which portions of the music were jazz (peanut butter).
Sonny Rollins: Innovative and Relentless at Royce Hall By Paula Edelstein
Tenor titan Sonny Rollins returned to the West Coast with his quintet recently to perform at UCLA’s Royce Hall. With several new awards under his belt including the Kennedy Center Honor presented on his 81st birthday (September 7th), the National Medal of Arts presented this year by President Obama, and the Jazz Journalists Association’s awards as 2011 Musician of the Year and Tenor Saxophonist of Year, the amazing Mr. Rollins had the audience charged up the moment he walked onstage.
Rollins’ inspired saxophonics resonated with the near-capacity audience as he launched into “Patan Jali,” a gem that was filled with his empathic hard-bop mastery and a blue note that he held for what seemed like an eternity. Energetic blowing like that made him a legend in the jazz world and without taking a break, he continued to create a mood with “Serenade” which successfully captivated the audience with exemplary soloing from Peter Bernstein on guitar and Kobie Watkins on drums. Rollins’ take on “Blue Gardenia” was fine and mellow with burnished tones that added excellent shading and nuance that seemed to come from an invisible air-pocket hidden within his energetic muse. He was blowing like a young man and with the charged up accompaniment of Peter Bernstein on guitar, Bob Cranshaw on bass, Sammy Figueroa on percussion and Kobie Watkins on drums, this quintet boosted its impressive outing with every note.
“Nice Lady” and “They Say It’s Wonderful” followed. Personally profound, these songs connected with the audience as Rollins’ kept the music flowing non-stop. He ended the concert with “Nishi” and “Don’t Stop the Carnival” after stopping for a second to tell the audience that he was “still trying” and that was enough to cause the audience to leap to their feet with a thunderous standing ovation. The legend of Sonny Rollins is a true-to-life jazz story that revealed itself in robust and inventive ways at Royce Hall and was one event that the great saxophonist can be proud of.
Karen Briggs performs with Cornelius Mims. Photo by Michael Tweed/Tweed Photos
3rd Annual Jazzy Jam Education for Empowerment Benefit Concert
Performance Review by Paula Edelstein
Central Park in Pasadena, CA was the scene for the 3rd Annual Jazzy Jam Education for Empowerment Benefit Concert on Saturday, May 13, 2011. Hosted by KKJZ 88.1 Radio personality, Bubba Jackson, and produced by Jacqueline Snell-Brown for Charity Events LA in partnership with the City of Pasadena, the event featured a program of gospel, R&B, and jazz performed by such world-renowned artists as Karen Briggs, Everett Harp, Cornelius Mimms, Evelyn “Champagne” King, Freddie Fox, Kori Withers, Vessel(s) & The Band, the Supa Lowery Brothers, Johnny Polanco, Rapid Response, and the Pasadena City Wide Gospel Choir.
Trumpeter Christopher Lowery and his brother drummer Wesley Lowery are the Supa Lowery Brothers. Their rendition of Freddie Hubbard’s “Little Sunflower” were quite distinctive from other versions and performed with individual thoughts worked out in a new way. “All of a Sudden” offered another interesting perspective of their musical skills while their cover of “Funky Good Time” left no doubt that they could funk it up and get the crowd involved.
Jazz violinist Karen Briggs (Stanley Clarke, Yanni, Soul To Soul, etc.) is full of superb music. Today, she revised several songs for her electric violin and gave a great performance with the Jazzy Jam Band under the direction of Cornelius Mims (Beyonce, Natalie Cole, Michael Jackson). Their medley “Little Sunflower/Pusher Man” was not just another fusion of a well-known jazz standard with a major R&B hit song.This was a medley that offered the virtuosity of a two world-class artists who combined their talents for the first time with little or no rehearsal or sound check! This unique sound was awesome! Briggs’ captured every nuance capable of her violin while Mims’ well-respected musical finesse captivated the audience with his vocals and guitar playing that generated throughout the audience.
As the sun played hide and seek and the audience socialized, the Jazzy Jam Band played several more hits including “Groove Line,” and “Rock Steady” to keep the audience excited. Appearances by special guests Freddie Fox and disco diva Evelyn “Champagne” King provided an impressive mix of danceable oldies while vocalist Kori Withers (daughter of singer Bill Withers) was well-received for her easy-listening folk compositions.
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