With a career reaching back over five decades, the legendary jazz pianist, Ahmad Jamal opened the 2008 International Jazz Festival. The innovative and delightfully surprising improvisations heard that evening in the intimate Spanish Courtyard showed why Ahmad Jamal is one of our greatest living jazz pianists.
Arguably the most prominent figure in jazz today, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader, Wynton Marsalis and his Septet headlined this year's Festival and made Saturday night swing. Elio Villafranca and Chuchito Valdes - two of today's most eminent Cuban pianists - began the day by squaring off in a Cuban musical summit. Wingspan brought together a powerful line up of some of today's most exciting players and served as a perfect vehicle for pianist and leader Mulgrew Miller's ever-evolving and highly personal style. The afternoon concluded with the foremost Brazilian duo - guitarist Ricardo Peixoto and vocalist Claudia Villela - in an exploration of 50 years of Bossa Nova.
On Sunday, the weekend concluded with the piano pyrotechnics of Dominican pianist and Westchester resident Michel Camilo. 81-year-old saxophonist, composer, band leader, and jazz legend, Jimmy Heath and his Big Band turned up the heat(h)! To start the afternoon, pianist Aaron Diehl, unleashed his brilliant technique and sensitive touch, showing why he is a new force on the jazz scene.
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ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Wynton Marsalis, trumpet ~ Jazz musician, trumpeter, composer, bandleader, advocate for the arts, and educator, Wynton Marsalis has helped propel jazz to the forefront of American culture. His prominent position in American culture was solidified in April 1997, when he became the first jazz artist to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize in music for his work Blood on the Fields, which was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center. He has served as the world-renowned arts organization’s artistic director as well as music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (formerly known as the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra) since its inception.
At an early age, Mr. Marsalis exhibited seriousness about study, an aptitude for music, and a desire to contribute to American culture. On October 18, 1961, in New Orleans, Louisiana, he was born the second of six sons to Ellis and Dolores Marsalis. At age 8, he performed traditional New Orleans music in the Fairview Baptist Church band, led by legendary banjoist Danny Barker. Marsalis began studying the trumpet seriously at age 12, and gained experience as a young musician in local marching bands, jazz and funk bands, and classical youth orchestras. At 14, he was invited to perform the Haydn Trumpet Concerto with the New Orleans Philharmonic.
In 1979, Marsalis entered The Juilliard School in New York City to study classical trumpet but in the fall of 1979 he had the opportunity to sit in with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers and pursue his true love, jazz music. In the summer of 1980, he joined the band of acclaimed master drummer Art Blakey which inspired generations of emerging jazz artists to hone their craft. In the years to follow, Marsalis was invited to perform with Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Gerry Mulligan, John Lewis, Sweets Edison, Clark Terry, Sonny Rollins and countless other jazz legends.
In 1982, Mr. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader, and over the last two decades, he has produced a catalogue of more than 40 jazz and classical recordings for Columbia Jazz and Sony Classical, which have won him nine GRAMMY® awards. In 1983, he became the first and only artist to win both classical and jazz GRAMMY® awards in one year, and repeated this feat in 1984. In 1999, he released eight new recordings in his unprecedented Swinging into the 21st series, which includes a 7-CD boxed set of live performances from the Village Vanguard.
Not content to focus solely on his musicianship, Mr. Marsalis has devoted equal time to developing his compositional skills. Embraced by the dance community for his penmanship, he has received commissions to create major compositions for Garth Fagan Dance, Peter Martins at the New York City Ballet, Twyla Tharp for the American Ballet Theatre, and Judith Jamison at the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. In 1995, Marsalis with Jazz at Lincoln Center, collaborated with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center to compose the string quartet At the Octoroon Balls, and again in 1998 to create a response to Stravinsky's A Soldier's Tale with his composition A Fiddler's Tale.
In 1999, Mr. Marsalis presented his most ambitious work to date, All Rise, an epic composition for big band, gospel choir, and symphony orchestra, performed by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur along with the Morgan State University Choir and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Mr. Marsalis’s rich body of work includes Them Twos, his first symphonic work and the second collaboration between Jazz at Lincoln Center and the New York City Ballet in 1999; Big Train, commissioned and premiered in 1998 by Jazz at Lincoln Center; Sweet Release, a score for ballet written in 1996 for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and choreographed by Judith Jamison for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater; Jazz: Six Syncopated Movements, from the 1993 Jazz at Lincoln Center collaboration with the New York City Ballet; Jump Start, a score written for dancer and choreographer Twyla Tharp; Citi Movement/Griot New York, a three-movement composition created in collaboration with choreographer Garth Fagan; and In This House, On This Morning, an extended piece based on the form of a traditional gospel service, commissioned and premiered by Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1992. Mr. Marsalis signed to Blue Note Records and his debut CD on the label, a quartet recording entitled The Magic Hour, was released on March 9, 2004. On March 6, 2007 he released From the Plantation to the Penitentiary, the follow up to the CDs The Magic Hour and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, the companion soundtrack recording to Ken Burns’ PBS documentary of the great African-American boxer, and Wynton Marsalis: Live at The House Of Tribes on Blue Note Records.
Mr. Marsalis co-wrote a composition called Congo Square with Ghanaian drummer Yacub Addy and dedicated the piece to Mr. Marsalis’ native New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, in collaboration with Yacub Addy’s group Odadaa!, premiered Congo Square on April 23, 2006 in New Orleans then performed the piece on tour from Florida to New York.
Mr. Marsalis’ commitment to improving people’s lives through music and his contributions to the arts paint a portrait of his character and humanity. He is internationally respected as a teacher and a spokesman for music education, having received honorary degrees from 29 of the nation's leading academic institutions, including Columbia, Brown, Princeton, and Yale universities.
In 1987, Mr. Marsalis co-founded a jazz program at Lincoln Center. In December 1996, the Lincoln Center Board rewarded the jazz department's significant success by voting it a full constituent, equal in stature with the ten other organizations on campus including the New York Philharmonic, Metropolitan Opera and New York City Ballet—a historic moment for jazz as an art form and for Lincoln Center as a cultural institution. Jazz at Lincoln Center has developed an international agenda with up to 500 events annually around the world.
Under Mr. Marsalis’s direction, Jazz at Lincoln Center programming offers performances, lectures, film forums, dances, television and Peabody Award winning radio broadcasts as part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Radio national radio program, recordings, and jazz education including programs for people of all ages and music publishing. Mr. Marsalis regularly conducts master classes, lectures and concerts for students, including the popular Jazz at Lincoln Center Jazz for Young PeopleSM concerts that spawned the first-ever comprehensive jazz appreciation curriculum of the same name for 4-9th grades. Educational activities also include the annual Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition and Festival that has reached more than 3,500 bands in North American and Australia, and the Band Director Academy.
Mr. Marsalis donates his time and talent to non-profit organizations throughout the country to help raise money to meet the many needs within our society. From My Sister's Place (a shelter for battered women) to Graham Windham (a shelter for homeless children), the Children's Defense Fund, Amnesty International, Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, Food For All Seasons (a food bank for the elderly and disadvantaged), Very Special Arts (an organization that provides experiences in dance, drama, literature, and music for individuals with physical and mental disabilities) to the Newark Boys Chorus School (a full-time academic music school for disadvantaged youths).
He also has brought the spirit of jazz into the homes of millions of people through television programs such as Marsalis on Music, Ken Burns’ Jazz and Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson (PBS), the BET Jazz series Journey with Jazz at Lincoln Center, and with the radio series Making the Music for National Public Radio (NPR), which won a Peabody Award in 1996. Mr. Marsalis released To a Young Musician: Letters from the Road, published by Random House in 2004, as well as Sweet Swing Blues on the Road, a collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center photographer Frank Stewart. In October 2005, Candlewick Press released Mr. Marsalis’ Jazz ABZ, an A to Z collection of 26 poems celebrating jazz greats, illustrated by poster artist Paul Rogers.
For his many achievements, Time magazine selected Mr. Marsalis as one of America's most promising leaders under age 40 in 1995, and in 1996 Time celebrated Marsalis as one of “America's 25 Most Influential People.” He also was named one of "The 50 Most Influential Boomers" by Life magazine.
In the spring of 2001, United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan proclaimed Mr. Marsalis an international ambassador of goodwill by appointing him a United Nations Messenger of Peace. He also has been awarded the Congressional Horizon Award, the French Grand Prix du Disque, the Louis Armstrong Memorial Medal, the Netherlands' Edison Award, and the Algur H. Meadows Award for Excellence in the Arts, and has received countless plaques as well as keys to more than 50 cities. He has been inducted into the American Academy of Achievement, and was dubbed an “Honorary Dreamer” by the I Have a Dream Foundation. He also has received a citation from the United States House of Representatives for his outstanding contributions to the arts. The Higher Ground Hurricane Relief concert produced by Jazz at Lincoln Center has raised over $2 million for relief efforts. Mr. Marsalis serves as Co-Chair on Lieutenant Governor Landrieu’s National Advisory Board for Culture, Recreation and Tourism, a national advisory board to guide the Lieutenant Governor’s administration’s plans to rebuild Louisiana’s tourism and cultural economies. He has also been named to the Bring Back New Orleans Commission, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin’s initiative to help rebuild New Orleans culturally, socially, economically, and uniquely for every citizen.
As Jazz at Lincoln Center’s artistic director and as music director of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Wynton Marsalis continues to spread the spirit of swing and raise awareness of jazz in the consciousness of the American public and the world.
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Mulgrew Miller & Wingspan ~ The greatest respect accorded an artist is that which is bestowed by his peers. Such is the regard in which Mulgrew Miller is held. In a 1995 New York Times poll consisting of his peers, Mr. Miller was voted the most in-demand pianist. In the same poll, the venerable Hank Jones listed him as one of his favorite pianists. His extensive discography reveals that he is undoubtedly the most recorded pianist of his generation with over 500 recordings as a leader and sideman. In the book Jazz Photographs of the Masters, Bob Blumenthal asserts that Mulgrew Miller is “perhaps the leading pianist of his generation.” Further testament of his prowess is his ever widening network of colleagues who value highly their association with him.
With all of the respect and accolades such as these, Mulgrew Miller continues to be a vital contributor in the world of Jazz. His impact upon the scene since his arrival in the late seventies has been made through his many recordings and his tenure with some of the most important bands of the eighties and nineties. Although highly esteemed as a skilled, swinging accompanist and inventive soloist for many years, by veterans and “young lions” alike, Mr. Miller has emerged as a leader of vision and a significant composer. He has in recent years appeared throughout Europe, Japan, Australia, the United States and Canada with his own trio, and his reputable sextet “Wingspan”.
Much has been written about Mr. Miller’s ever-evolving style, which now exhibits a very personal way with melody, harmony, and rhythmic feeling, forged from his longtime associations with many innovative Jazz legends including Woody Shaw, Art Blakey, Betty Carter, Benny Golson, Johnny Griffin, and Tony Williams.
Born and raised in Greenwood, a small town in the Mississippi delta, Mr. Miller’s music is tinged with the blues/gospel flavor of his native environment. He studied formally from age eight, and also played religious music and Rhythm & Blues as a teenager. Two years were spent studying at Memphis State University, (now U of M), followed by short stays in Boston and Los Angeles, before finally arriving in New York with the Duke Ellington Orchestra conducted by Mercer Ellington in 1977. In 1985 Mr. Miller made his first recording as a leader for producer Orrin Keepnews’ former label, Landmark, and later recorded on the RCA Novus label. In June 2002 Mr. Miller went into the studio again as a leader, after a seven year hiatus, to record Wingspan for the new MaxJazz label. The CD quickly ascended to the #1 position on the radio airplay charts and placed #18 for the 100 most played recordings of 2002.
In October of 2003 he premiered an original work which was commissioned by the Dayton Contemporary Dance Company and performed live by his quintet Wingspan along with the DCDC. The work was choreographed by the reknown choreographer, Ron Brown. In addition, he has completed an artist residency in the Dayton Ohio area schools and colleges. Mulgrew Miller was appointed to serve as artist-in-residence at Lafayette College for the 2003-04 school year. He has been honored with many citations. In 2003 he received the “Distinguished Achievement” award from the University of Memphis.
June 2004 saw the release of Mr. Miller’s first live recording. The CD, entitled Live at Yoshi’s, which features his trio with young bassist Derrick Hodge and drummer Karriem Riggins, was highly acclaimed and also rose to the top of the airplay charts.
The year 2005 (the 50th anniversary of his birth) proved to be a milestone year for the pianist. He assembled a new trio with bassist Ivan Taylor and drummer Rodney Green. He also entered the world of academia as he was appointed Director of Jazz Studies at William Paterson University. In 2006 he received an honorary doctorate from Lafayette College and went on to tour Europe with bassist Ron Carter. Later that year his “Live at the Kennedy Center” recordings were released to critical acclaim.
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Ricardo Perixoto, guitar ~ Ricardo Peixoto's fluid melodic sense and original harmonic approach place him at the forefront of Brazilian guitar in the U.S. today. An inspired improviser with a keen compositional sense, Ricardo's unique and eloquent style evokes images far beyond his Brazilian territory. Born in Rio de Janeiro, guitarist, composer and arranger Ricardo Peixoto came to the U.S. by way of a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music, and later settled in the San Francisco Bay Area. Though grounded both in the jazz and Brazilian music traditions, Ricardo has ventured well beyond their borders. Working as a solo artist, or in collaboration with others, he draws on a huge stylistic palette. Whether playing classical or electric guitars, Ricardo's music combines rich melodies, unusual harmonies, and the unmistakable rhythms of Brazil.
Peixoto’s long-standing partnership with vocalist/composer Claudia Villela has produced the acclaimed CD ‘Inverse Universe’. Their performances explore their country’s rich and diverse traditions, both in their original work and in their arrangements of brazilian classics, while also allowing for spontaneous interaction with each other and the music in the moment. In addition to his ongoing collaboration with Villela, Peixoto has recorded and performed with, among others, Flora Purim and Airto, saxophonist Bud Shank, percussionist Dom Um Romão, Toots Thielemans, Dori Caymmi, Guinga, Harvey Wainapel, and Marcos Silva. He has performed throughout the US, Europe, Canada, Japan and Brazil.
Aside from his work as a performer and composer, Peixoto is also well respected as a teacher and lecturer on Brazilian music.
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Jesus "Chuchito" Valdés, piano ~ Jesus "Chuchito" Valdés following in the footsteps of his famed father Chucho Valdés and grandfather Bebo Valdés, continues the legacy of great piano players from Cuba. His influences of Afro Cuban rhythms and jazz creates an exciting and energetic blend of spicy music that drives audiences wild.
Chuchito has led "Irakere" for 2 years and has also performed at festivals, clubs and concerts throughout the world: from Cuba, the Caribbean to North America, South America, and Europe.
Chuchito is recognized as a master at Cuban music including Son, Danzon, Cuban Timba and Guaguanco. He has also extensively studied classical music including harmony and composition. His original compositions and arrangements draw on classical harmonic and structural techniques.
In his performances, Chuchito’s music draws on many styles including Afro-Cuban Latin Jazz, Bebop, Danzon, Cha-Cha-Cha, Son Montuno and much more. Chuchito Valdés currently resides in Cancun, Mexico and is a frequent performer in the United State and Canada.
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Elio Villafranco, piano ~ Pianist and composer Elio Villafranca’s musical excellence was first widely recognized in 2003 by Jazz Times Magazine who selected his debut album Incantations/ Encantaciones (Universal/Pimienta) as one of the top 50 best jazz albums of the year. More recently, Wynton Marsalis featured Mr. Villafranca, in a performance at the Allen Room, Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.
The Elio Villafranca Quartet has featured an array of accomplished musicians including Pat Martino, Jane Bunnett, Terell Stafford, Eric Alexander, Casey Benjamin, and John Santos among others. The Elio Villafranca Quartet has toured nationally and internationally, performing at Jazz a Beaune Festival in France and the Blue Note Jazz Club in New York City. Villafranca has also gained the recognition of Latin and jazz music elite as a sideman: He has collaborated with Jon Faddis, Sonny Fortune, Dave Valentin, Lenny White, Horacio "El Negro" Hernández, Ralph Peterson, Giovanni Hidalgo, Eddie Henderson, Miguel Zenon, Candido Camero, and Johnny Pacheco among others.
Mr. Villafranca has also toured Europe with Grammy Nominated Blue Note recording artists Jane Bunnett as part of The Spirit of Havana, and also as part of Pat Martino’s Quintet, with whom he performed at various world-renowned venues including the Blue Note Jazz Festival in Ghent, Belgium, the Blue Note Jazz Club in Milan, Italy, the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia, Italy, and the North Sea Jazz Festival at The Hague, Holland. Elio Villafranca was born in the Pinar del Rio province of Western Cuba and classically trained in percussion and composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte in Havana, Cuba.
Since his arrival in the U.S., Villafranca has been involved in East and West coast jazz and Latin jazz scenes. His music, inspired by jazz and Afro Cuban music, creates a unique cultural and musical fusion, with spirited, groundbreaking innovations. Mr. Villafranca has composed and arranged original music soundtracks for PBS documentaries and a variety of independent films, and is resident professor at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia. Villafranca currently resides in New York City and is represented by Gail Boyd Artist Management.
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Claudia Villela, voice ~ Claudia Villela’s voice gets all the attention, and it’s easy to understand why. Her glorious five-octave instrument is one of the wonders of jazz, lithe and startlingly beautiful in every register. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, she is a true artist, pouring natural magic in every sound she makes. A supremely inventive improvising singer, she is like an aural avatar who can conjure the hot thumps of primitive drums, the cool language of Miles Davis, the ethereal yearn of a bamboo flute, or the distortion-laden guitar of Jimi Hendrix.
But it’s a serious mistake to let her gorgeous voice overshadow her other musical talents. Based in Northern California since the mid-1980s, Villela has evolved into a ingenious composer and lyricist , as well as a poignant interpreter of the Brazilian songbook.
Whether writing at the piano or percussion or generating spontaneous tunes in the studio- as on her lavishly praised 2004 duo session with piano legend Kenny Werner, DreamTales (Adventure Music)- Villela possesses a rare gift for melodic invention, coupled with a rhythmic sensibility steeped in Brazil’s vast treasury of syncopation. “It’s really stream of consciousness music,” says Werner about DreamTales, an album that inspired banjo great Bela Fleck to declare that Villela “is pure music.”
While once described as the best-kept Brazilian secret in North America, Villela finally attained widespread recognition with the 2003 release of her masterpiece “InverseUniverse” (Adventure Music), a program of dazzling original pieces created with her longtime collaborator, Rio-born guitarist Ricardo Peixoto, with guest star Toots Thielemans on harmonica.
In recent years, Villela’s international reputation as a performer and composer has continued to grow through appearances at the world’s most prestigious jazz festivals and clubs,. In the fall of 2008, she received a high profile commission from New York University commissioned to set poems by several Latin American poets to music. Her performance with acclaimed Brazilian singer and composer Dori Caymmi was broadcast nationally as part of National Public Radio’s “JazzSet.”
Besides her soaring voice, what sets Villela apart from other Brazilian jazz singers is her expansive musical conception. Her musical palette extends far beyond samba, bossa nova and bebop to encompass the universe's teaming natural and supernatural realms. From Amazonian rainy ceremonial rituals to tropical bird calls and sensuous ocean rhythms, Villela taps into Brazil’s protean landscape, evoking the bone-deep sense of yearning for home, love and nature that suffuses her Brazilian soul. Her eclectic taste and inspiration ranges from Bach to Gismonti, though she is also finds herself a fan of Led Zeppelin and lesser known Brazilian folkloric rhythms.
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