Saturday,
May 22, 7:00 p.m.
Presenting
Dave Douglas & Vacation Blues - Dave's
Web Site
featuring Roswell Rudd, Brad Jones and Barry Altschuls
Opening Group: Conard High School Jazz Sextet
About
Dave Douglas:
Recipient
of numerous awards
and honors, including #1 on trumpet in the Down Beat Critics' Poll
from 2000 - 2003, Dave Douglas is committed to developing music which
extends the traditional language of jazz. With a strong background in
jazz, he persistently questions the boundaries of genre and reexamines
assumptions about music with each new project. The diversity of his
influences are reflected in the music he writes for his own ensembles—currently,
13
different working groups —as well as more recent projects exploring
the meeting points of improvisation and electronic music.
"Douglas prides himself in discovering connections between
seemingly disparate idioms as a means of further discovering his own
voice. He organically melds swinging straightahead jazz with the calm
of classical chamber, the clash of avant-garde improvisation, the bounce
of sprightly orchestral film music, the bolt of highly charged pop-rock
and the colorful textures of ethnic music, including Hungarian and Indian."
Dan Ouellette, Down Beat, August 2000.
Listen to a live
performance of the Dave Douglas New Quintet.
View an extended
discography of his work up to 1999.
Download his mp3 files here.
The music has
to move forward. -- Dave Douglas
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Saturday,
June 12, 7:00 p.m.
Presenting
Greg Osby 4 - Web
Site
Opening Group: Cheshire High School Jazz Band (20 musicians)
About
Greg Osby:
An
innovative, outspoken, often controversial musician, Greg Osby has
been a progressive force in jazz for nearly 20 years. With a full
command of the language of bebop, a taste for rhythmic complexity,
and a fiery approach to his primary instrument, the alto saxophone,
he has never been afraid to take chances with his music. He describes
himself as one who is "always searching … always looking for
the missing element, or the next phase, in constant transition, in
constant growth and in progression." Osby describes his music
as a "hybrid music" that demands intensive and wide-ranging
study, both within and outside its traditional boundaries. "A
lot of jazz players, they just don't go outside the gate," Osby
says. "They stay in their yard, and eat the grass until it's
bald. And you can't survive that way." Instead, Osby believes
that the only way that the genre will prosper is for "jazz musicians
to step outside of their own arena and allow themselves to be touched
and graced by musicians and art that embraces a different aesthetic."
Called "a high-speed improviser of idiosyncrasy and authority
in charge of a blow-torch band" (Ben Ratliff, The New York Times,
12/6/1998), "Mr. Osby works against the normal principle of stirring
up excitement. There are no honks, pronounced slurs or jarring dynamics
in his playing; he draws you in with one strong, original idea after
another." (Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, 8/2/2001) Listen
to a National Public Radio (October 1, 2003) interview
of Greg Osby, and samples of his music. Download
Greg Osby's mp3 files.
Change, without
abandon. -- Greg Osby
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Individual
and Series Tickets:
Series
Tickets (all 3 concerts) (must be purchased prior to April 24, 2004):
HJS Members: $51.00
General Admission: $64.00
Individual
Concert Tickets:
HJS Members (purchased in advance):
$20.00
HJS Members (purchased
at the door): $25.00
General Admission
(purchased in advance): $25.00
General Admission
(purchased at the door): $30.00
All Students:
$5.00
Obtain
tickets in advance from:
Hartford Jazz Society
116 Cottage Grove Road
Bloomfield, CT 06002
Or call the HJS office at 860-242-6688 (Monday
- Friday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m.).
Major credit cards accepted.
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Directions,
Map and Free Parking
Directions
and Map
From Springfield and Points North:
Take I-91 South to Capitol Area Exit 29A (left exit). Take the second
exit from the ramp, marked Prospect Street. Turn right onto Prospect.
The back of the museum is on the left, one block up.
From
New Haven and Points South:
Take I-91 North to Capitol Area Exit 29A (left exit). Take the second
exit from the ramp, marked Prospect Street. Turn right onto Prospect.
The back of the museum is on the left, one block up.
From
New York and Points West:
Take I-84 East to Capitol Avenue Exit 48B. Turn left onto Capitol
Avenue, and when it ends, turn left onto Main Street. The museum is
on the right, two blocks up.
From
Boston and Points East:
Take I-84 West to Downtown Hartford Exit 54 (left exit). Immediately
after crossing the Founders Bridge, turn left onto Columbus Blvd.
Turn right onto Arch Street, then right onto Prospect Street. The
back of the museum is on the left, one block up.
From
Route 4 and Northwestern Connecticut:
Follow Route 4 (Farmington Avenue) until it joins Asylum Street in
Hartford. Follow Asylum as far as you can, then bear right onto Ford
Street (by Bushnell Park). Go one block and turn left onto Pearl Street.
Go four blocks and turn right onto Main Street. The museum is one
block up, on the left.
From
Route 2 and Southeastern Connecticut:
Take the Downtown Hartford Exit 54. Follow directions from I-84 westbound.
Free
Parking:
Use Travelers Lot #7 off Prospect Street (directly opposite the back
of the Atheneum), or, if this lot is not available, park on the street.
All parking is free on weekends.
Master
Classes
Education is a
vital component of (and reason for) this concert series. Accordingly,
we have arranged for Andrew Hill, Dave Douglas and Greg Osby to conduct
master classes for students on April 23, May 21, and June 11, respectively,
at locations in Hartford yet to be determined. Please check back here
for further details.
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Thank
You to our Supporters!
The Hartford
Jazz Society would like to thank the following organizations whose
financial support made this concert series and the master classes
possible:
The Ensworth Charitable Foundation
The J. Walton Bissell Foundation
The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation
The George and Grace Long Foundation
The Knox Foundation
The Greater Hartford Arts Council
HJS would
also like to thank the following individuals and organizations who
generously responded to our Fall appeal to support this project:
Asylum Hill Congregational Church
Ethel M. Austin
Robert P. Belliveau
Susan R. Brown
Michael Casinghino
Stephen Cauffman
Brian & Eliz Cunningham
Art Fine
Albert & Audrey Grundt
Louise Harris
Diana Jackson
Jeff Nelson
Robert Pernell
Graham Ralph
Bill Sullivan
Bill Washington
James H. Winslow, J.D.
Ethel L. Wright
Barbara Zemel
Last but not least, HJS would like to thank The Honorable
Mayor of Bloomfield, Sydney T. Schulman, for his enthusiastic support
of this concert series, HJS and Jazz!
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A Final Note
In addition to
the physical characteristics of the Aetna Theater, which we think
both audiences and musicians alike will find very conducive to live
jazz, there is another important reason why we think the Wadsworth
Atheneum is an especially suitable venue for this concert series:
just as the Wadsworth Atheneum became a "mecca
for innovation and experimentation" in the world of art,
it is our hope that this series will become a mecca for the innovation
and experimentation that are the lifeblood of this art form called
Jazz.
In
his teen years, Andrew Hill studied composition with Paul Hindemith
and performed with Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, and Johnny Griffin.
He went on to record