FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact: Lois Cohn Associates
CARAMOOR INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
PRESENTS THE 2012 JAZZ FESTIVAL, JULY 28-29
PAT METHENY UNITY BAND, ROY HAYNES’ FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH BAND,
DEE DEE BRIDGEWATER, KENNY BARRON & MORE
KATONAH, NY, July 3, 2012 – Caramoor International Music Festival’s annual weekend-long Jazz Festival has become a premiere destination for jazz music for artists and fans alike. The 2012 Jazz Festival – July 28 and 29 – welcomes some of the industry’s brightest talents and celebrated chart-toppers, demonstrating the breadth and diversity of the state of jazz.
On Saturday, the festival kicks off with Hard Bop icons Billy Harper and The Cookers and continues with a solo set of lyrical jazz by pianist Kenny Barron, followed by the rising star vocalist Gretchen Parlato in the Venetian Theater. Later in the evening, three-time Grammy® Award-winner Dee Dee Bridgewater will entertain the audience with a concert highlighting the different trends in jazz singing. As a dominant force on the jazz scene for several decades, legendary Roy Haynes will close the evening with his newly formed Fountain of Youth Band, featuring some of today’s most dynamic and virtuosic musicians.
Sunday brings 19 time-Grammy® Award-winner Pat Metheny to the stage with the Pat Metheny Unity Bandfeaturing Monk Competition winner, bassist Ben Williams, Grammy® nominated saxophonist Chris Potter, and longtime collaborator and drummer Antonio Sanchez to round out the festival.
TICKETS
Tickets for July 28th are $15, $30, and $45. Tickets for July 29th are $15, $20, $37.50 and $52.50. Tickets are on sale now. To purchase, call the Caramoor Box Office at 914.232.1252 or visit www.caramoor.org. Groups of 16 or more may purchase discounted tickets by contacting Matthew Scarella at 914.232.5035 ext. 252 ormatthew@caramoor.org.
PRESS TICKETS
For Press tickets, images, and/or artist information, contact Brittnee Walker at 412.601.2474 orbwalker@lcohnpr.com or Fiona Zwieb at 903.780.6978 or fzwieb@lcohnpr.com.
PROGRAMS
SATURDAY, JULY 28 IN THE VENETIAN THEATER
CARAMOOR JAZZ FESTIVAL (I)
$15, $30, $45
3:00pm – The Cookers
Eddie Henderson, David Weiss, trumpets
Billy Harper, Craig Handy, tenor saxophones
George Cables, piano
Cecil McBee, bass
Victor Lewis, drums
4:15pm – Gretchen Parlato
5:30pm – Kenny Barron
Dinner Break
8:00pm – Dee Dee Bridgewater
9:00pm – Roy Haynes’ Fountain of Youth Band
Jaleel Shaw, saxophones
Martin Bejerano, piano
David Wong, bass
Roy Haynes, drums
SUNDAY, JULY 29 IN THE VENETIAN THEATER
CARAMOOR JAZZ FESTIVAL (II)
$15, $20, $37.50, $52.50
4:00pm – Pat Metheny Unity Band with Chris Potter, Antonio Sanchez, and Ben Williams
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Pat Metheny first burst onto the international jazz scene in 1974 and with the release of his first album, Bright Size Life (1975), he reinvented the traditional “jazz guitar” sound for a new generation of players. Over the years, he has performed with artists as diverse as Steve Reich to Ornette Coleman to Herbie Hancock to Jim Hall to Milton Nascimento to David Bowie. He has been part of a writing team with keyboardist Lyle Mays for more than twenty years – an association that has been compared to the Lennon/McCartney and Ellington/Strayhorn partnerships by critics and listeners alike. Metheny’s body of work includes compositions for solo guitar, small ensembles, electric and acoustic instruments, large orchestras, and ballet pieces, with settings ranging from modern jazz to rock to classical. Metheny has won countless polls as “Best Jazz Guitarist” and awards, including three gold records for (Still Life) Talking, Letter from Home, and Secret Story. He has also won 19 Grammy Awards spread out over a variety of different categories including Best Rock Instrumental, Best Contemporary Jazz Recording, Best Jazz Instrumental Solo, and Best Instrumental Composition. The Pat Metheny Group won an unprecedented seven consecutive Grammies for seven consecutive albums.
Roy Haynes has been “hard swinging” since 1944, when he made his professional debut at the age of seventeen in his native Boston. Haynes extracted the rhythmic qualities from melodies and created unique new drum and cymbal patterns in an idiosyncratic, now instantly recognizable style. He has recorded or performed with Gary Burton, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie, Henry Grimes, Christian McBride, Jackie McLean, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Gerry Mulligan, Art Pepper, Sonny Rollins, Horace Tapscott and many others.. His most recent recordings as a leader are Fountain of Youth and Whereas, both of which have been nominated for a Grammy Award. After appearing in 2010 with Chick Corea’s quartet, Haynes returns with his Fountain of Youth Band to Caramoor.
Dee Dee Bridgewater is one of few entertainers to have ever commanded such depth of artistry in every medium. Fewer still have been rewarded with Broadway’s coveted Tony Award (Best Featured Actress in a Musical The Wiz), nominated for the London theater’s West End equivalent, the Laurence Oliver Award (Best Actress in a Musical Lady Day), won two Grammy® Awards and France’s 1998 top honor Victoire de la Musique (Best Jazz Vocal Album). She made her phenomenal New York debut in 1970 as the lead vocalist for the band led by Thad Jones and Mel Lewis, one of the premier jazz orchestras of the time. Performing the lead in equally demanding roles as Sophisticated Ladies, Cosmopolitan Greetings, and the musical Cabaret (the first black actress to star as Sally Bowles), she secured her reputation as a consummate entertainer. For her latest recording,Eleanora Fagan To Billie With Love From Dee Dee, Bridgewater honors an iconic jazz figure, Billie Holiday.
Kenny Barron’s unmatched ability to mesmerize audiences with his elegant playing, sensitive melodies and infectious rhythms is what inspired The Los Angeles Times to name him “one of the top jazz pianists in the world” and Jazz Weekly to call him “the most lyrical piano player of our time.” Kenny Barron’s own recordings for Verve have earned him nine Grammy nominations beginning in 1992 with “People Time” an outstanding duet with Stan Getz followed by the Brazilian influenced “Sambao and most recently for “Freefall” in 2002. Mr. Barron consistently wins the jazz critics and readers polls, including Downbeat, Jazz Times and Jazziz magazines. In 2005 he was inducted into the American Jazz Hall of Fame and won a MAC Lifetime Achievement Award. He is a six-time recipient of Best Pianist by the Jazz Journalists Association and was as a finalist in the prestigious 2001 Jazz Par International Jazz Award. In spring 2008, Mr. Barron released his first studio recording in four years with The Traveler (Universal France), an intoxicating mix of favorite Barron tunes set to lyrics and newly penned compositions.
The Cookers draws its inspiration from the possibilities of such incendiary nights by combining some of the greatest musicians from the hard-bop era, with some of this generation’s more fiery players. No single album captures the mystique of this era better than The Night, recorded for the Blue Note label in 1965, a memorable septet performance recorded before a beautifully responsive audience at Brooklyn’s Club La Marchal where Freddie Hubbard and Lee Morgan engage in a trumpet battle for the ages. While giants in their own right, the members of this ensemble have performed and/or recorded with pretty much every jazz great of the past 40 years including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, Max Roach, Art Blakey, Horace Silver, Jackie McLean, Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Wayne Shorter, Joe Henderson, Lee Morgan, Dexter Gordon, Dizzy Gillespie, and Roy Haynes, among others.
Gretchen Parlato’s 2009 sophomore breakthrough, In a Dream, signaled the arrival of an incredibly inventive modern jazz singer. Her follow-up, The Lost and Found, demonstrates that she has staying power. In a Dreamgarnered international acclaim with Billboard magazine hailing it as “the most alluring jazz vocal album of 2009”; it also made it onto the top year-end polls for Jazz Times, the Boston Globe, the Village Voice and NPR. An alumna of the Thelonious Monk Institute, Parlato has been turning heads ever since she won the 2004 Thelonious Monk Institute International Vocal Competition with which she displayed a musical individuality loaded with paradoxical powers. Since then she has toured worldwide to sold-out audiences with BBC Radio proclaiming, “Star over London…A star is born!” Her originality captivates musicians as well, prompting invitations to appear on over 50 recordings with the likes of Terence Blanchard, Kenny Barron, Terri Lynn Carrington and Esperanza Spalding.
ABOUT CARAMOOR
Caramoor is the legacy of Walter and Lucie Rosen, who built their summer home – now known as the historic Rosen House at Caramoor – and filled it with their treasures. Walter Rosen was the master planner for the Caramoor estate, realizing his dream of creating a place to entertain friends from around the world. Their musical evenings planted the seeds for today’s Caramoor International Music Festival. Witnessing the pleasure their friends took in the beauty of Caramoor – the house with its art collection, the gardens, and the musical programs on summer evenings –the Rosens established a public trust to open Caramoor to the community in 1946. Lucie Rosen survived her husband by seventeen years. During those years, she expanded the Music Festival. The Spanish Courtyard was used as a setting for musical events, as it is today, and, under her direction, the great stage of the Venetian Theater was built.
Caramoor is a performing arts center located on a unique 90-acre setting of Italianate architecture and gardens in Westchester County, NY. It enriches the lives of its audiences through innovative and diverse musical performances of the highest quality. Its mission also includes mentoring young professional musicians and providing educational programs for young children centered on music. It is often described as “a Garden of Great Music,” where audiences are invited to come early, explore the beautiful grounds, enjoy a pre-concert picnic, and discover beautiful music in the relaxed settings of the Venetian Theater, Spanish Courtyard, Music Room of the Rosen House, and the magnificent gardens.
With its unique heritage, Caramoor remains a place where magical summer days and nights are shared and enjoyed by thousands. “Caramoor is the loveliest Festival of them all.” – The New York Times
Concert Venues and Gardens
Concerts take place in two outdoor theaters: the 1,714-seat, acoustically superb Venetian Theater and the more intimate, romantic 558-seat Spanish Courtyard. Caramoor’s gardens are also well worth the visit and include nine unique perennial gardens. Among them are a Sense Circle for the visually handicapped, a Butterfly Garden, Tapestry Hedge, and Iris and Peony Garden.
GETTING TO CARAMOOR
By car from the West Side of Manhattan and New Jersey, take the Saw Mill River Parkway north to Katonah. Exit at Route 35/Cross River. Turn right and, at the first traffic light, make a right turn onto Route 22 south. Travel 1.9 miles to the junction of Girdle Ridge Road. Follow the signs to Caramoor. (For detailed directions call 914.232.5035 and press 4, or online at www.caramoor.org). Parking at Caramoor is free.
By train, take the Harlem Division of the Metro-North Railroad to Katonah, New York. Taxi service from the station to Caramoor (5 minutes away) is available.
CLICK THE FOLLOWING LINK FOR A FULL FESTIVAL CHRONOLOGY:
https://caramoor.org/pdf/Festival_Listings.pdf
CREDITS
Performances are made possible, in part, by ArtsWestchester with
funds from Westchester County Government.
Performances are made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with
the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.
The 2012 International Music Festival is supported in part by
an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.
CARAMOOR CENTER FOR MUSIC AND THE ARTS IS LOCATED AT
149 GIRDLE RIDGE ROAD, KATONAH, NEW YORK 10536.
ALL PROGRAMS AND ARTISTS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE
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