Johnny Blowers, drums: Played & recorded with Eddie Condon,
Pee Wee Russell, "Wild" Bill Davison, Bobby Hackett, Muggsy
Spanier, Sidney Bechet, Sy Oliver, and Teddy Wilson. He has backed
vocalists Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Bertha "Chippie" Hill,
Billie Holiday, and Laurel Watson. He has been in the big bands of
Bunny Berigan, Tommy Dorsey, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, and Benny Goodman.
He was Frank Sinatra's drummer for 11 years (1942 - 1953), and he
recorded with Louis Armstrong on dates both with and without Ella
Fitzgerald.
Art Baron,
trombone: Played in the bands of Duke Ellington, Charlie
Mingus, and Illinois Jacquet, as well as with the Preservation Hall
Jazz Band and the Lincoln Center Jazz Ensemble.
Ruth Brisbane,
vocalist: Was in the Paris production of "Black and
Blue"; on Broadway, played Bloody Mary in "South Pacific",
and appeared in the "Wiz", and "Raisin"; off Broadway
did her own one-woman show, "The Legacy of Bessie Smith".
Michael Max Fleming, bass: Performed with Mary Lou
Williams, Clifford
Jordan, Chet Baker, Sammy Davis Jr., and Billy Eckstein.
Michael
Dawson, conga drums
The
Harlem Blues and Jazz Band:
The Harlem Blues and Jazz Band is said to be the most authentic swing
band in America. It stars veteran jazz and blues musicians whose roots
reach back to the 20s and 30s. Together since 1973, the originals
actually “jumped” at the Woodside and “stomped” at the Savoy with
Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie, “fats” Waller, Louis Armstrong,
Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton and other jazz greats. The Harlem Blues
and Jazz Band is called a “national treasure,” and is enthusiastically
embraced by audiences around the world.
This performance
will take place in conjunction with the Hartford International Jazz
Festival.
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Friday,
November 5, 7:00 p.m.
Presenting
Pat Martino Quartet - Web
Site
Opening Group: Windsor High School Jazz Combo
Pat
Martino Quartet is:
Pat Martino, guitar
Dave Kikoski, piano
Mark Egan, bass
Scott Robinson, drums
About Pat Martino:
Guitarist
Pat Martino has been recognized as one of the most exciting and virtuosic
guitarists in jazz. With a distinctive, fat sound and gut wrenching
performance, he represents the best not just in jazz, but in music.
He embodies thoughtful energy and soul. Pat began playing professionally
in 1961 and has performed with a wide variety of artists, including
Sonny Stitt, Woody Herman, Bobby Hutcherson, Chick Corea, Gene Ammons
and many others. He has been a recording artist for Vanguard, Prestige,
Warner Brothers and currently Blue Note. In 2002, he received the
2nd Annual Heroes Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts
and Sciences, as well as Grammy nominations for Best Jazz Instrumental
Album and Best Jazz Instrumental Solo.
“In a set that
flamed with restless vitality, Martino took no prisoners, ripping
off high-speed runs and brisk, hard-swinging chording. Once known
as a Wes Montgomery-style player, he has, since his comeback, transformed
his music into a full-throttle, cutting- edge contemporary expression.”
– The Los Angeles Times
“Mr. Martino,
at 50, is back and he is plotting new musical directions, adding more
layers to his myth.” – The New York Times
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Saturday,
April 9, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.
Presenting
Shemekia Copeland - Web
Site
Opening Group: Hall High School Jazz Combo
Shemekia
Copeland is:
Shemekia Copeland, vocals
Arthur Neilson, guitar - Web
Site
Kevin Jenkins, bass
Jeremy Baum, keyboards
Damon Duewhite, drums
About
Shemekia Copeland:
Since
the 1999 release of he debut album Turn the Heat Up (recorded when
she was 18), blues singer Shemekia Copeland has taken the music world
by storm. She holds four W. C. Handy Awards, five Living Blues Awards,
and a Grammy nomination. She has appeared before national audiences
on Austin City Limits, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, the CBS Early
Show and NPR’s Weekend Edition. She headlined the 2002 Chicago Blues
Festival, whipping the crowd of 100,000 fans into a frenzy. Shemekia’s
passion for singing, matched with her huge, blast-furnace voice gives
her music the timeless power and foot stomping urgency of a very few
greats who have come before her. The media has compared her to young
Koko Taylor, Aretha Franklin, Etta James and Ruth Brown.
“Copeland burns
white hot, singing with enough power to knock you flat on your back
and enough purr to make you want to stay there.” – Austin Chronicle
“Shemekia Copeland
sings urgently modern songs carved from the solid wood of her blues
roots. Honest, masterful, and wrenchingly credible … she is as new
as tomorrow’s paper and as ageless as the blues itself; this music
could not be in better hands.” – Boston Globe
“Hot and haunting,
Copeland doesn’t come across as an entertainer so much as a force
of nature. The sound of her rafter-rattling voice—a dark, thundering
alto—generates waves of energy and emotion. Impressive, fresh and
modern, she has poise to match her power, and commands attention as
few of her peers do.” – Washington Post
“Pure, beautifully
unaffected and powerful” – Living Blues
“Wonderfully expressive
singing … breathtaking performances that touch the heart.” -- Down
Beat
“Shemekia Copeland
is a major talent” – Chicago Tribune
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Saturday,
May 21, 2005 - 7:00 p.m.
Presenting
Steve Coleman and Five Elements - Web
Site
Opening Group: Windsor Jazz Combo
Steve
Coleman and Five Elements is:
Steve Coleman, alto sax
Jonathan Finlayson, trumpet
Jen Shyu, vocals - Web
Site
Tim Albright, trombone
Tyshawn Sorey, drums
About
Steve Coleman:
Alto
saxophonist and composer Steve Coleman has been called one of the
most important jazz musicians of the last 20 years (“A Jazz Guerrilla
Blows Back In, Spreading Ideas,” Ben Ratliff, The New York Times,
8/18/2002). Five Elements’ music (called “energetic, thrilling”) draws
on deep, far-reaching forays into the music and cultures of ancient
civilizations (India, Egypt, West Africa) and on seeing the universe
as one whole. Coleman says, “Music is really just our lives expressed
in sound … It plants the seed to start moving on to a higher realization
of who we are. That’s what I’m ultimately striving for in this music.”
A prolific creator of music, Coleman has produced 23 albums in 18
years. His latest CD, Lucidarium (Latin for “Bringer of Light”),
is about “light, awareness and sight, in both the inner and outer
forms.” (liner notes)
Steve Coleman
and Five Elements’ live performance “is hard, funky, buoyed by Mr.
Coleman’s clear, beautiful alto saxophone tone; it is rhythmically
and contrapuntally orderly. Feeling it with your body is easy. If
at first you’re intrigued enough to count the beats per measure, the
music soon gives way to a pleasing multiplicity of meter, and you
let it wash over you.” “What’s most impressive is that he isn’t slowing
down.” (Ben Ratliff, The New York Times, 8/18/2002)
Formed in 1981, Five Elements is the oldest of several
incarnations of the musical collective known as “M-Base.” In describing
M-Base, Coleman says:
For
me the M-Base collective is the group of people who have contributed
to a way of thinking about creating music. It is not a group of people
who make a certain style of music.
I am only
the catalyst and portal through which the energy that is holding
this particular incarnation of creative relationships together is
working. But other individuals respond to these vibrations by opening
themselves to these creative energies and this is what makes it
a collective on this plane of existence.
“The focus of musical
discourse suddenly shifts from the individual creator to the collective,
the individual as a part of global humanity.” (jazz trombonist and music
scholar George E. Lewis)
Coleman's ongoing
explorations in "transcultural experimentalism" (to borrow
a phrase from George E. Lewis), and the ensuing discoveries that inform
his music, are propelled by the desire to create a "spiritually
transformative process" (Michael Dessen).
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Individual
and Series Tickets:
Series
Tickets (all 4 concerts) (must be purchased prior to October 9, 2004):
HJS Members: $68.00
General Admission: $85.00
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
NOTE:
We have a large number of free student tickets that have been
donated by HJS member Steven Konover. If you are a student, please call
the HJS office to reserve one for the concert(s) of your choice.
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.
A Cash Bar
will operate from 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM in the Lobby, where there will
be seating at tables.
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Directions,
Map and Free Parking
Directions
and Map
From I-91 North or South:
Take I-91 to Exit 29A (Capitol Area). Bear RIGHT at Pulaski Traffic
Circle. RIGHT onto Gold Street. Museum is on the opposite corner of
600 Main Street.
From
I-84 East:
Take Exit 48B, Capitol Avenue. Turn left on Capitol Avenue, and when
it ends, turn left on Main Street. The museum is two blocks north,
on the right.
From
I-84 West:
Take I-84W to Exit 54 (Downtown Hartford). Cross over the Founders
Bridge. Continue straight through two lights. Turn LEFT on Prospect
Street. Museum is on the right, two blocks up.
Free
Parking:
All parking is on the street and is free on weekends.
Master
Classes
Education is a vital component of (and reason for)
this concert series. Accordingly, we have arranged for Pat Martino,
Shemekia Copeland and Steve Coleman to conduct master classes for
students on November 4, April 9, and May 21, respectively. Students
who wish to participate in the classes are expected to bring their
instruments.
Pat Martino’s
master class will take place at The Greater Hartford Academy
of the Arts (in the Recital Hall) on November 4, 2004 from 3:30 PM
- 5:30 PM. The
Academy is located in the Learning Corridor at 15 Vernon Street in
Hartford. There are directions [www.learningcorridor.org/directions/directions.htm]
and a campus map [http://www.learningcorridor.org/directions/LearningCorMap.pdf]
(the Recital Hall is in Building 5). There is ample free parking in
the nearby Parking Garage (Building 8 on the campus map) on the Learning
Corridor campus.
Shemekia
Copeland's master class is being hosted by the Hartford Conservatory
and will be held at Asylum Hill Congregational Church (in the Twichell
Room) on April 9, 2005 from 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM. The Church is located
at 814 Asylum Avenue in Hartford. Directions with map are available
at http://www.ahcc.org/directions.htm.
Free parking is available in the parking lot adjacent to the Church
(enter from Asylum Avenue).
Steve
Coleman's master class will take place at The
Artists Collective (in the Atrium) on May 21, 2005 from 1:00 PM
- 3:00 PM. Steve will be there with the entire Five Elements group.
The Artists Collective is located at 1200 Albany Avenue at the corner
of Woodland Street and Albany Avenue in Hartford. There is ample free
and attended parking in the parking lot at the rear of the building.
Enter the parking lot from Woodland Street.
Student participants
will be seated closest to the instructor; observers will be seated
behind them. If you are a student, or a teacher who wants to enroll
one or more students, please register early so that we can assure
sufficient preferred student seating. Register through the HJS office
at 860-242-6688, or by e-mail to: hartjazzsocinc@aol.com
and provide your name, address, phone number, e-mail address, school
and grade. Observers are welcome if enough seats are available.
I was pretty
young when I realized that music involves more than playing an instrument.
It’s really about cohesiveness and sharing. All my life, I’ve felt
obliged to try and teach anyone who would listen. I’ve always believed
you don’t truly know something yourself until you can take it from
your mind and put it in someone else’s. —Milt Hinton, from his
autobiography, Bass Lines
There is a
vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated
through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all
time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never
exist through any other medium and it will be lost. The world will
not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is nor
how valuable nor how it compares with other expressions. It is your
business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel
open.
—Martha Graham as quoted in Agnes de Mille. Martha: The Life and
Work of Martha Graham.
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:
Lincoln
Financial Foundation
The Ensworth Charitable Foundation
The Edward C. and Ann T. Roberts Foundation
The George and Grace Long Foundation
The Greater Hartford Arts Council
The Knox Foundation
The Joseph P. Stackpole Trust
The Greater Hartford Automobile Dealers Association
MassMutual Volunteers in Action
CBT Foundation
The Junior League of Hartford
The Hartford Advocate |
|
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Lloyd
Mayers, piano: Selected by Duke Ellington's sister, Ruth, to
take over piano chair in the Duke Ellington Orchestra after Ellington's
death. Sammy Davis' pianist for 11 years.