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Drummer Eric Kamau Gravatt & Source Code To Play The Artists Quarter In St. Paul

jazzman — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:25:45 +0000

Event:
Jan. 9th & 10th
(9:00 pm)
The Artists Quarter
St. Paul, MN

Perhaps New York is the epicenter of jazz, no argument. But here in the Twin Cities reside some of the truly international figures of jazz, including Anthony Cox and Eric Kamau Gravatt, to name a distinguished pair. And this weekend at the Artists Quarter (January 9th-10th), we have the opportunity to hear Gravatt with his stellar ensemble, Source Code.

An alumn of Weather Report and the bands of McCoy Tyner, Joe Henderson, Freddie Hubbard, Blue Mitchell and others, Gravatt essentially has had two careers in jazz with a couple decades of separation. Like John Coltrane and long-time associate McCoy Tyner, he is a native of Philadelphia. Originally a conga player, Gravatt taught percussion and music in Philadelphia and Washington, DC in the 1960s.

Miles Davis invited him to join his band, but Gravatt turned down the Prince of Darkness to follow Wayne Shorter into Weather Report, with whom he toured and recorded. But Gravatt’s sound was not exactly what WR founder Joe Zawinul had in mind, and after a while Gravatt was replaced in favor of a more “bottom heavy” drummer. He moved on to the fusion band Natural Life (with Bobby Peterson and Bob Rockwell), a move that brought him to the Twin Cities some 30 years ago.

Demands of family and a desire for financial stability took Gravatt out of fulltime music and into fulltime work as a guard at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Lino Lakes. “I had kids, and Corrections were the only thing being offered that paid that good, and they had (benefits) you couldn’t get in jazz,” Gravatt told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. Only recently, after retiring from Lino Lakes, has Gravatt returned to his calling, again touring with McCoy Tyner and performing with his band, Source Code.

Details:

-Set starts at 9:00 pm (nightly)
-cover is $12

Location:
The Artists Quarter
408 St. Peter Street (downtown)
St. Paul, MN
(651) 292-1359
www.artistsquarter.com

Funeral Services For Jazz Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard: Remembering a great jazz musician

jazzman — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:35:10 +0000

Funeral services for Freddie Hubbard will be held at 1:00 pm on Tuesday, January 6th at the Faithful Central Bible Church’s Tabernacle. It is located at 321 North Eucalyptus Avenue (East of 405/West of LaBrea) in Inglewood, CA. The funeral service will be open to the public. There will also be a viewing beginning at 11:00 am. The funeral service will be followed by a private repast.

For more information, call the church: (310) 412-0372.

Riverside’s Mission Inn Closes Down Lounge Act: Long time performer Henry “Skipper” Franklin looks for a new gig

jazzman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:51:45 +0000

Bassist extraordinaire Henry “Skipper” Franklin has been performing five nights a week at Mission Inn Hotel in Riverside for very close to ten years. He has used a variety of pianists over the time, keeping the mix well stirred.

Of great pianists working in the business, Gary Matsumoto comes from a fine educational background and some terrific jazz experiences, and has worked with the “Skipper” for about the last three years, mostly Saturday nights. They recently also produced a trio CD, titled Days Ahead, with drummer Tony Austin, which is getting a good amount of air play on jazz stations.

Each Christmas holiday the Mission Inn has a spectacular display of lights. This particular night, there were literally thousands of people coming around, walking through the hotel to see the lights and also hear the jazz and Christmas music of the Franklin duo. The Presidential Lounge has an exclusive ambience. Outside in the foyer, there are several paintings of Presidents, all looking representative in their own time periods.

Franklin and Matsumoto are a perfect match as Franklin lays down the melodic lines along with Matsumoto’s generous harmonics beside his gracious melodies. There are many capabilities with intonation, bass slides and chords in Franklin’s remarkable soloing. The comping Matsumoto achieves in his piano voicings is superb. Every time they play, they fill the room quickly and draw the crowd in.

Franklin announced some bad news however, letting people know that for economic reasons Mission Inn was ending their long job December 31st. We fans hope they will change their decision for the future in 2009.

For more information, please see www.henryfranklin.com and www.garymatsumoto.com . This is one of the best duos around L.A.

[Source: L.A. Jazz Scene]

Sonny Fortune To Play The Jazz Showcase in Chicago

jazzman — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:36:03 +0000

Sonny Fortune, the great post bop alto saxophonist, flutist and composer, appears at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago for four nights from Thursday, January 8th through Saturday, January 11th. Fortune is a riveting improvisor who can play inside or out with a logic and passion that never loses the listener. In his monthly Jazz Times article, Nat Hentoff stated that Sonny “ought to be a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master.” At 69 years old, Sonny is still blowing hard at the peak of his powers.

Over the years Sonny has also recorded with such greats as Dizzy Gillespie, Elvin Jones, Oliver Nelson, George Benson and Nat Adderly, to name a few. In June 1975 Sonny formed his own group, marking his debut as a leader with two critically-acclaimed LPs for A&M Horizon, Awakening and Waves of Dreams. He’s had many albums released since then including three Blue Note CD’s: Four In One, his album of the music of Thelonious Monk; A Better Understanding was released September of 1995; and From Now On, was released in September 1996.

In addition to leading his own quartet, the following 10 years saw Sonny playing with the Nat Adderly Quartet and as a featured soloist with the Elvin Jones Jazz Machine. In 1987-88 he was part of the Coltrane Legacy Band that also featured McCoy Tyner, Elvin Jones and Reggie Workman. More than a legacy, Sonny is still here and blowing hard.

His latest album, You and the Night and the Music, was put out in August of 2007. Hailed by Jazz Times and Down Beat as some of his best stuff yet, this release reflects the fact that Fortune won’t be slowing down any time soon.

Press Release: Jazz Pianist & Composer Fahir Atakoglu Performs At Nighttown

jazzman — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 05:24:47 +0000

Legendary Jazz Pianist & Composer Fahir Atakoglu Live At Nighttown. Legendary Jazz composer Fahir Atakoglu will be performing live on January 22nd at 8:00 pm at Nighttown in support of his latest CD, Istanbul in Blue, which has reached #1 on the JazzWeek World Music Charts, at NightTown in Cleveland, Ohio.

Available from Amazon
- CD
- mp3 download

There’s a lot to enjoy on Istanbul in Blue from a contemporary and historical standpoint, and as listeners should definitely own a copy of “If,” this one shows a willingness to expand, employ different styles, and bodes well for Atakoglu’s next adventurous excursion.

Read full story at http://www.24-7pressrelease.com.

Don’t Miss Pharoah Sanders At Yoshi’s In Oakland, CA

jazzman — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 12:46:39 +0000

Event:
Jan. 2nd – 4th
(Fri-Sat: 8:00 pm & 10:00 pm; Sun: 7:00 pm)
Yoshi’s Jazz Club
Oakland, CA

Jazz legend Pharoah Sanders descends on the Bay area to play Yoshi’s in Oakland on Friday, January 2nd through Sunday, January 4th. He will also make his way to Santa Cruz for one night at the Kuumbwa Jazz Center on Monday, January 5th.

Ferrell Sanders was renamed “Pharoah” by Sun Ra when he joined Ra’s Arkestra. Then Sanders joined the cadre of avant-garde saxophone pioneers of the time: Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Archie Shepp. Pharoah Sanders possesses an instantly identifiable tone that is thick and harmonically rich and heavy with overtones- a sound that can be as aggressive and raspy as Peter Brotzman. Coltrane’s later style was strongly influenced by Sanders. Sanders first really captured the publics attention while playing with expressionistic and wide-open free jazz in John Coltrane’s late ensembles of the mid-’60s. Sanders’ later music has become more lyrical and soulful while continuing to explore new harmonic terrain.

Pharoah Sanders formed his first group in 1963, with pianist John Hicks (with whom he would continue to play off-and-on into the ’90s), bassist Wilbur Ware, and drummer Billy Higgins. His first record as a leader was in 1964 for the ESP label. The group played an engagement at New York’s Village Gate, where John Coltrane heard him and by 1965, Sanders was playing regularly with the Coltrane group. Strength was a necessity in that band, and as Coltrane realized, Sanders had it in abundance.

After John Coltrane’s death in 1967, Sanders worked briefly with his widow, Alice Coltrane, and then primarily as a leader of his own ensembles. From 1966-1971, Sanders released several albums on Impulse, including Tauhid (1966), Karma (1969), Black Unity (1971), and Thembi (1971). Not to be forgotten around this time period was a major international hit album Village of the Pharoahs. Originally recorded four years after the death of one of his major influences and collaborators, John Coltrane , it features thirteen different musicians, including notables like Norman Connors on drums, Cecil McBee and Stanley Clark on bass, Sedatrius Brown on vocals and nice percussion work by Joe Bonner with Kylo Kylo adding a Eastern touch to the percussion. This is one of his more rare discs and deserves closer listening.

In the mid-’70s, Sanders recorded his most commercial effort, Love Will Find a Way (Arista, 1977); it turned out to be a brief detour. From the late ’70s until 1987, he recorded for the small independent label Theresa. From 1987, Sanders recorded for the Evidence and Timeless labels. The former bought Theresa records in 1991 and subsequently re-released Sanders’ output for that company. In 1995, Sanders made his first major-label album in many years, Message From Home (produced by Bill Laswell for Verve).

The two followed that one up in 1999 with Save Our Children. In 2000, Sanders released Spirits — a multi-ethnic live suite with Hamid Drake and Adam Rudolph. In the decades after his first recordings with Coltrane, Sanders developed the capability of playing convincingly in a variety of contexts, from free to mainstream, and as a mature artist he has discovered a hard-edged lyricism that has served him well.

Location:
Yoshi’s Jazz Club
510 Embarcadero West
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 238-9200
http://www.yoshis.com/jazzclub

Rockefeller Foundation Presents “A Celebration Of America”: In honor of the presidential inauguration and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

jazzman — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 01:58:20 +0000

Event:
Jan. 19th, 2009
(7:00 pm)
Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater
Washington D.C.

Jazz at Lincoln Center and The Rockefeller Foundation will present “A CELEBRATION OF AMERICA” in the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theater on the occasion of the Presidential Inauguration and Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Monday, January 19, 2009 live on CNN at 7 p.m.

The evening’s program will look back on the life of one of the greatest of all Americans, and forward to a new era under a new President. An all-star cast will illustrate that American democracy and America’s music – jazz – share the same tenets and embody the same potential for change, hope and renewal, which Dr. King himself called America’s “triumphant music.” Special guest stars will be announced shortly.

“A CELEBRATION OF AMERICA” by Jazz at Lincoln Center is made possible through the generous support of the Rockefeller Foundation. It will be hosted by Anderson Cooper & Soledad O’Brien (live on CNN) and lead by Wynton Marsalis and Sandra Day O’Connor.

Keep Your Calendar Clear For The 19th Annual VF Outlet Berks Jazz Fest

jazzman — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 10:36:55 +0000

The 19th annual VF Outlet Berks Jazz Fest, presented by the Berks Arts Council, runs March 27 through April 5 and will bring to fans a wide array of musical styles, including contemporary and traditional jazz, soul, blues, big band and one-of-a-kind ensemble shows. Shows are held at major venues as well as intimate club and restaurant settings, making it a rather unique 10-day festival.

Featured artists at this year’s festival include veteran stars Peter White and Mindi Abair; the world premiere concert of Bela Fleck: The Africa Project; superstar saxman Boney James; festival favorite Brian Culbertson; the Sax for Stax duo of Gerald Albright and Kirk Whalum; urban pop/jazz ensembles Average White Band and Pieces of a Dream; world-renowned bassist Victor Wooten; powerful and moving vocalist Phoebe Snow; the Sax Pack of Jeff Kashiwa, Steve Cole and Kim Waters; piano-based McCoy Tyner Quartet; festival veterans Joe McBride and Kenny Blake; guitarist extraordinaire Chieli Minucci & Special EFX.

Fans also can enjoy the soulful sounds of Take 6 plus Wayman Tisdale; pianist David Benoit and saxman Warren Hill; renowned saxophonist and clarinetist Anat Cohen; the acclaimed Tierney Sutton Band; the Brian Bromberg Quartet; steel pan master Andy Narell and the Cantonsville High Steel Drum Band; Tim Price, Rachel Z and the Department of Good and Evil; and Nelson Rangell with the Reading Pops Orchestra performing My American Songbook. The festival finale features Jazz Attack with the always-entertaining Rick Braun, Richard Elliot and Jonathan Butler.

Blues is back in abundance at the 2009 Berks Jazz Fest, with two Severn Soul & Blues Revues, featuring Steve Guyger, Big Joe Maher, Tad Robinson, Roy Tyler and New Directions, and the Severn Records All-Star Band in the first show; and Clarence Spady, Darrell Nulisch, Lou Pride and the Severn Records All-Star Band rounding out the second show. Blues fans can also enjoy guitar virtuoso Joe Bonamassa, The Billy Price Band featuring special guest Fred Chapellier; and The Derek Trucks Band.

Fusion fans will get their fill with all-stars Steve Smith & Vital Information; and veteran-led Metro, featuring festival favorite Chuck Loeb, Mitch Forman, Dave Weckl, Randy Brecker, Gerald Veasley and Bobby Franceschini.

Great ensemble and tribute shows offer unique musical experiences to all fans this year.
Soul Summit II, presented by Jason Miles, features soul-drenched music and an all-star lineup with Maysa, Simone, Richard Elliot, Jeff Golub, Bob Babbitt, Reggie Young, and Steve Ferrone plus the Soul Survivors.

East Bay Soul brings the funk and R&B with Greg Adams, Phil Perry, Michael Paulo, Lee Thornburg plus the Joyce Cooling Band.

Artists paying tribute to some of music’s greats include the Gerald Veasley Band celebrating the Music of Stevie Wonder, with Najee, Nnenna Freelon, Joe McBride and the Berks Jazz Fest Horns in a fourth show televised live by WFMZ-TV Channel 69.

There is also the return of the very popular Rick Braun’s Tribute to Chet Baker; and Bobby Lyle & Paul Jackson Jr. will have a tribute to Jimmy Smith & Wes Montgomery.

This year’s festival has something for everyone, with smooth and straight-ahead jazz, smokin’ blues, soulful singing, unique ensembles, rousing tributes and much, much more.

For more information about this event, please visit www.berksjazzfest.com

Get Your Tickets at Ticketmaster

Press Release: Upcoming performance by jazz vocalist Paulette Dozier

jazzman — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 23:21:02 +0000

Six years and two CDs later, jazz vocalist Paulette Dozier is finally back at the Biltmore Hotel this December 2008. Her return is long overdue, but her performance makes the wait well worth it. Set in the beautifully coiffed gardens of the hotel’s poolside Cascade Restaurant, this extraordinary entertainer performs a repertoire mixed with festive holiday songs, memorable standards, and signature originals from her latest CD, “Over & Over Again.”

Read the full story at www.24-7pressrelease.com.

Orange County Performing Arts Center Welcomes New York Voices: A night of favorite yuletide tunes as well as jazz classics

jazzman — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 22:22:49 +0000

Event:
Dec. 12th-13th, 2008
(7:30 pm, 9:30pm)
OCPAC
Costa Mesa, CA

Grammy Award-winning New York Voices will add a special beat to the holidays for audiences at the Orange County Performing Arts Center December 12th and 13th, when they perform favorite yuletide tunes as well as jazz classics in Samueli Theater. New York Voices’ holiday songs will include “Let It Snow,” “O Come, O Come Emmanuel” and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas.”

Credited by the Boston Herald as “the most exciting vocal ensemble in current jazz,” New York Voices comprises Peter Eldridge, Lauren Kinhan, Darmon Meader, and Kim Nazarian and is renowned for both tight, complex harmonies and dazzling solo scat flights. Brazilian, R&B, classical and pop influences regularly make their way into the group’s fundamentally jazz sound.

Ticket Information:

Tickets to see Jazz Christmas with New York Voices are $59 and are available at the Center’s Box Office at 600 Town Center Drive in Costa Mesa, by calling (714) 556-2787, or online at OCPAC.org.

For inquiries about group ticket discounts for 15 or more, call the Group Sales office at (714) 755-0236. Student rush tickets for $15 will be available one hour before each performance. A valid ID is required at the time of purchase, with a limit of two tickets per person, which must be paid for in cash.

Students are advised to call the Orange County Performing Arts Center’s information line at (714) 556.2787 to confirm availability. The TTY number is (714) 556-2746.