Oz Noy Feat. Otis Taylor Dave Weckl & James Genus

Transcript

WED, MARCH 3RD, 9.00 pm: THU, MARCH 11TH, 9.00 pm: OTIS TAYLOR OZ NOY FEAT. DAVE WECKL & JAMES GENUS BLUES CONCERT OF THE YEAR OTIS TAYLOR banjo, guitar & voice CASSIE TAYLOR bass • TERRENCE MALLOY guitar JOSH KELLEY drums Bluesman Otis Taylor never skirted tough subject matter in a career that took him from the Folklore Center in Denver to a brief stay in London, England, to retirement from music in 1977 to operate as a successful antiques broker and since 1995 back again to the blues. Taylor's 2001 CD White African (Northern Blues Music), featuring Kenny Passarelli (bass, keyboards) and Eddie Turner (lead guitar), became his most direct and personal statement about the experiences of African-Americans. He addressed the lynching of his great-grandfather and the murder of his uncle. Brutality became his concern in songs about a black man executed in the 1930s for a murder he did not commit and about a father who could not afford doctor's bills and sat powerless watching his son die. Faith met Taylor's irony in his vision of Jesus as a mortal man who looked for ways to avoid his crucifixion and in his take on romantic infidelity among common men. Taylor's first CD, Blue-Eyed Monster, and 1997's When Negroes Walked the Earth also cast an uneasy spell on the blues world. Part of Taylor's music could feel comfortable on the back roads of the Delta in the 1920s and '30s. It came as no surprise when he interpreted Charley Patton's "Stone Pony" on a Shanachie Records compilation, Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues: New Acoustic Recordings of Pre-War Blues Classics, which also featured popular blues performers such as Alvin Youngblood Hart, John Hammond, Duke Robillard, and Corey Harris. At other times, Taylor's music was so uncompromisingly contemporary in its outlook on social injustices that he seemed more akin to South African poet and activist Stephen Biko. Taylor was born in Chicago in 1948. After his uncle was murdered, his family moved to Denver for apparent safe haven. Taylor took an interest in blues and folk music at Denver's Folklore Center. After hearing Etta James sing "All I Wanna Do Is Make Love to You (Can't by Just Looking Under the Cover)," Taylor knew he liked the blues. He then went to the Folklore Center, where he heard the banjo and country blues and Mississippi John Hurt. He also liked Junior Wells and Muddy Waters and got into the folkie blues and Appalachian music. He learned to play guitar, banjo, and harmonica. Only several decades later did he begin to understand the ties of the blues and its instrumentation to the savannah of western Africa. By his mid-teens, he formed his first groups -- the Butterscotch Fire Department Blues Band and later the Otis Taylor Blues Band. He briefly stayed in England in 1969 to pursue a record deal with Blue Horizon, but negotiations failed and he returned to the U.S. In the '70s, he took up mandolin. He decided to leave music behind in 1976 and started a successful career as an antiques broker. After much prodding from Passarelli, Taylor returned to music in 1995. He first played a benefit concert. Then he started to play again both solo and with his band in America and Europe. In the summer of 2000, he received a composition fellowship from the Sundance Institute in Park City, UT, and hobnobbed with film celebrities at the Sundance Film Festival. His When Negroes Walked the Earth was released on Shoelace Records that same year. Taylor began participating in "Writing the Blues" in the Blues in the Schools program, sponsored by the National Blues Foundation, and he started writing and performing new songs in 2001. White African and Respect the Dead were released by Northern Blues in 2001 and 2002, respectively, followed by Taylor's first release on Telarc Blues, Truth Is Not Fiction, in 2003. A second album on Telarc, Double V, came out in 2004, followed by Below the Fold in 2005 and Definition of a Circle two years later. The revelatory Recapturing the Banjo appeared in 2008, again from Telarc. With the release of his fantastic masterpiece, Pentatonic Wars and love Songs (2009), Otis is the most sold blues singer recently. Johnny Depp’s 2009 film Public Enemies features two of Taylor's songs, "Ten Million Slaves" and "Nasty Letter". The former is also featured in the film's trailer. In May 2009, he also won a Blues Music Award for his banjo playing last. Current CD: 'PENTATONIC WARS AND LOVE SONGS' (TELARC, 2009) OZ NOY guitar • JAMES GENUS bass DAVE WECKL drums OZ NOY won the 2008 highly acclaimed Guitar Player Magazine readers poll for the 2nd time in a row for “Best New Talent” Israeli-born guitarist Oz Noy is a progressive and iconoclastic artist who incorporates a wide array of styles into his own work, including funk, rock, blues, and jazz. Having performed from a young age, Noy was an in-demand studio musician by his early twenties. A move to New York City in 1996 eventually led to tours and session work with such artists as Oz Noy has performed, toured and recorded with: Richard Bona, Chris Botti, Gavin DeGraw, Harry Belafonte, Cyndi Lauper, Clay Aiken, Akiko Yano, Toni Braxton, Phoebe Snow, Nile Rogers, Mike Clark, Jeff ‘Tain’ Watts, Dave Weckl, Mike Manieri, The East Village Opera Company, Roger Glover, and others. In 2003, Oz released his debut record – “Oz Live” – recorded at NYC’s legendary Bitter End. Oz’s band featured drummers Anton Fig and Keith Carlock and bassists Will Lee, James Genus and Reggie Washington. In 2004, Oz signed to Magna Carta Records and in 2005 released his highlyacclaimed studio record “HA!” with his all-star band and special guests Mike Stern and George Whitty. April 2007, a licensing deal with Magna Carta and Japanese label Videoarts has opened the door for Oz's music in Japan. August 2007 saw the release of “Fuzzy Feat”, Oz’s third record under the Magna Carta label. For Fuzzy Feat, Oz’s all-star band is joined by various special guests including, drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, bassist Jimmy Johnson, and keyboardists George Whitty and Jim Beard. Summer of 2009- Release of the 4th coming record under Magna Carta label-“Schizophrenic” Featuring- Will Lee, Anton Fig, Dave Weckl, Keith Carlock , Ricky Peterson, Chris Palmero and special guest Steve Lukather. Current CD: 'SCHIZOPHRENIC' (Magna Carta, September 2009) DAVE WECKL For more than 25 years, Dave Weckl has developed and maintained a reputation among fans, peers, and the international music community as one of the great living drummers. For this, he has received numerous accolades and honors; Modern Drummer inducted Dave into their Hall of Fame and named him “one of the 25 best drummers of all time”. But these honors, in addition to many more bestowed by the music community, are the product of Dave's undying commitment to making great compositions. Dave's incredibly dynamic and diverse drumming, which has inspired musicians worldwide, is built on a solid foundation of knowledge and respect for music. Born in St. Louis Missouri, January 8th, 1960, to a mother who loved music and a father who played the piano as a hobby, Dave started playing drums around the age of 8. During his high school years, Dave received many awards from the NAJE (National Association of Jazz Educators) for outstanding performances in his high school's competition-winning jazz band. He was involved with numerous local groups from a very young age while studying with St. Louis-area teachers Bob Matheny and Joe Buerger. At age 16, Dave began to work professionally with local pop and jazz groups. In 1979, he moved to the East coast to study music at the University of Bridgeport in Connecticut. At just 19 years of age, Dave was getting recognized. While playing the club scene in New York City with a band called Nite Sprite, Dave started to receive accolades from established studio musicians such as Steve Kahn, Michael Brecker, and especially drumming great Peter Erskine. It was Peter who recommended Dave for his first 'big gig' in town with a group called French Toast, forerunner to the Michel Camilo band, which has been recorded quite extensively over the years. From this group, legendary bassist Anthony Jackson recommended Dave for the prestigious Simon and Garfunkel reunion tour in 1983. After this tour, it was not long before Dave was regularly being called for radio and TV jingles, sound track sessions, and top recording dates with such artists as George Benson, Peabo Bryson, Diana Ross, and Robert Plant, P R E S New York im Bayerischen Hof 03. März – to name a few. In 1985, Michael Brecker suggested to Chick Corea that he look into Dave's services for his new Elektric Band. That was the beginning of a seven year relationship with both the Elektric and Akoustic Bands, where nine recordings and three videos were produced, including a Grammy for the first Akoustic Band release. The Elektric Band showcased Dave's cutting-edge drumming and innovative use of electronic and acoustic drums, bringing him world-wide recognition. Though the Elektric Band went on a 10-year hiatus in the early '90s, the band is once again touring from time to time. It also released a 17-part conceptual album entitled "To The Stars" in mid-2004. As a solo artist, Dave has recorded and produced nine recordings to date, including GRP/MCA solo releases Masterplan, Heads Up, and Hardwired. In 1998, Dave realized his long-time goal of forming a world-touring band. The Dave Weckl Band released five studio records, including: Rhythm Of The Soul, Synergy, Transition, Perpetual Motion, and Multiplicity. The band also released a hot live album, LIVE (and very plugged in) and a compilation of DWB and instructional videos entitled The Zone. More recently, Dave has enjoyed taking on more sideman work. He regularly joins guitarist Mike Stern, Chuck Loeb, and Oz Noy, among others. When off the road, Dave keeps busy with session and production work at his home studio in Los Angeles. He also teaches at the annual Drum Fantasy Camp. Additionally, Dave has many instructional video/DVDs and play-along packages on the market. A constant student of the art of drumming and music, Dave gives back every chance he gets through clinics and classes all over the world. Of teaching, Dave says: "It is my goal to inspire as many young (and not-so-young) people as possible to want to play music, whether it be on drums or another instrument. With all the negatives in the world today, I feel this is my way of contributing a positive action toward spiritual happiness, which music can be a big part of, if you let it. So parents, if your child has a talent for music, please allow them the opportunity to develop that talent!" JAMES GENUS James Genus was born in Hampton, Virginia on January 20, 1966. He started playing bass at the age of 13. After graduating from high school in 1983, he attended Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. During his last years at the University he studied and played with the renowned Ellis Marsalis. In 1987 he received a degree in Jazz Studies, after which he soon moved to New York. Since then he has been called upon to play either acoustic or electric bass in many different musical settings. Among the many different groups that he has recorded or performed with include: Michael Brecker, The Brecker Brothers, Whitney Houston, Chick Corea, Herbie, Hancock, John Scofield, Pat Martino, Vanessa Williams, Bob James, David Sanborn, Branford Marsalis, Roy Haynes, Dianne Reeves, Dave Douglas, Anita Baker and many more. When not on tour, James is the bassist on the highly rated TV show- Saturday Night Live. TUE, MARCH 16TH, 9.00 pm: STANLEY JORDAN STANLEY JORDAN guitar • CHARNETT MOFFETT bass KENWOOD DENNARD drums "I want to be a part of a new way of doing things." STANLEY JORDAN One way to attack the daunting task of describing Stanley Jordan is to think of him as a world class guitarist who marches in all aspects of his life to the beat of his own drummer. Never one to be locked into constraints when it comes to musical expression, genres or applications, the Palo Alto, California-born prodigy is a progressive thinker with goals and ideals that stretch far beyond record deals, fortune or fame. Though he maintains a busy international touring schedule and recently recorded several special independent CDs, his broader interests stretch into the realms of Music Therapy and Sonification. Stanley Jordan came to prominence with the release of his 1985 debut album Magic Touch, a revolutionary project that dually placed him at the forefront of re-launching legendary Blue Note Records into a contemporary entity in jazz and beyond, as well as establishing the thentwenty-something Jordan as among the most distinctive and refreshing new voices of the electric guitar. Key to Jordan's fast-track acclaim was his mastery of a special "tapping" technique on the guitar's fret board instead of conventional strumming and picking. While a handful of other virtuoso players were using similar techniques, Stanley's fluid and melodic use of tapping captured the imagination of listeners via his inherent warmth and sensitivity. He happened upon the technique without any formal study and had been applying it to his already exemplary traditional playing ten years prior to the album. Though Jordan showcased the technique in a variety of musical styles from swing to rock, it was smooth jazz radio support for his singular versions of "The Lady in My Life" (first recorded by Michael Jackson) and the Beatles' "Eleanor Rigby" that sent Magic Touch to the top of Billboard's jazz chart for a stunning 51 weeks. The album became a gold-seller (over 500,000 sold) - outstanding for any jazz or instrumental CD. Subsequent albums found Jordan caught in a frustrating web of wanting to usher his audience into deeper levels of his artistry while record companies craved more of the stuff that had whisked him to the chart top. Because he debuted on the Blue Note label, he was marketed as a jazz progressive when what he was trying to stress was music beyond stylistic boundaries. Those projects included a solo guitar project titled Standards Volume 1 (1986) where Stanley made the bold statement that songs by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Joni Mitchell deserved recognition as standards as much as chestnuts like "Georgia On My Mind." He followed that with the band album Flying Home (1988) and an especially edgy album titled Cornucopia (1990), half of which was straight ahead jazz recorded live and the other half of which was multidimensional originals recorded in the studio. Still later in 1994 after a move to Arista Records (then-helmed by pop music maverick Clive Davis), he recorded the bracingly eclectic Bolero album, featuring covers of Herbie Hancock's "Chameleon," Jimi Hendrix's "Drifting," his original "Plato's Blues" and the CD's centerpiece, a 17-minute arrangement of Ravel's "Bolero" broken up into rock, African, Latin, "groove" and industrial versions. Now in 2007, it's been over a decade since Stanley Jordan has released an album on a major record label, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been active in the music field. To the contrary, he has been exploring deeper dimensions of his craft. After a self-imposed exile from the rat race in the 9` 0s that included a retreat to the mountains of the southwest, Stanley Jordan has re-emerged with a new life's direction. "Most people - if and when they find their calling - come to see themselves in some sort of service capacity," he states. "Right now I feel a strong desire to bring my music to the people not just for entertainment, but also for inspiration and healing." A primary element of this new direction involves championing Music Therapy, which he is studying in a Masters program at Arizona State University. "Accelerated music schools give lots of good information but not a lot of advice on how to learn and retain that information," he states. "I try to supply this missing element of how to approach it to where you don't strain yourself. Physically, musicians run the risks of problems such as repetitive motion strain that this can help. More importantly, Music Therapy can help creative people with psychological problems such as perfectionism. Normally people approach difficult music, start out not playing it very well then try to increase their ability to play it. My approach is the opposite. I say approach easy music first, do it well then gradually increase the difficulty of the music. That way you have success right from the start. It's a way of slowing down and staying in a comfort zone, enabling you to learn the music faster in the long run while building up your confidence."The positive affects of this training are not just skills Stanley teaches but skills he has adopted for his own creativity. "With composing, you start writing something and it's great because you get all these ideas. But the minute you stop and analyze it, you have the constraint of writing something that fits what you've already done. Now there's this whole 'judgment' thing going on. What I suggest is to stay in the creative flow for as long as possible, getting as many ideas E N T S f – Konzertreihe Frühling 2010 – 01. Juni out as you can. Then come back later with a different head to do the editing and critical side. The 'mental training' for this is not in books. It's closer to meditation or neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) where one is taught to control their mental state to achieve a goal. This can be applied not just to music but to other aspects of your life." Another area of intensive interest for Jordan is the development of Sonification (turning something into sound) and the concept of using music as a form of representation. "A great percentage of the data that people analyze is time sensitive data," Stanley explains, "and audio is a far superior vehicle for understanding the passage of time. Take the amortization schedule of a 30-year mortgage, for example. If I hit one note per second in the left speaker for interest and another note per second for principle in the right speaker, it would take about six minutes to 'play' that mortgage. A person could hear how long they would be paying interest before they started paying principle. Looking at it on a graph is one thing, but listening to it makes you feel it. Sonification offers deeper understanding of information because more of the brain is involved in understanding that information." Jordan sees the potential for Sonification applications on a revolutionary level. "Sonification can be of profound benefit to humanity," he continues, "especially when making decisions that affect other people which requires an emotional understanding of what you're doing. For example, you can use Sonification for a person's vital signs. To a degree that's already in place with machines that beep for heart rates, but it's in a primitive stage without much coordination. You get all these pieces of equipment making different sounds. Through Sonification, we can create a universal language that makes it easier for physicians to listen to several monitors' sounds and know what's going on with their patient's body. This is done using principles similar to those of arrangers and sound mix engineers. In arranging music for a number of instruments, you write so that the parts stay out of each other's way, enabling you to hear each part separately." Where does this leave new recordings in the matrix of Stanley's career? In 2004 he was prominently featured with the Italian group Novocento on their CD, Dreams of Peace. And independently, he has recorded two CDs: Ragas (a collaboration with musicians from India featuring Jay Kishor on sitar) and Relaxing Music in Difficult Situations I, an audio extension of his Music Therapy interests. Beyond those, Stanley is preparing some new CDs that will focus on something he has only shared sporadically: original compositions. However, as with all things related to Stanley Jordan, he will release them when he feels the music and the timing is right. "There's a belief that when you're a musician, you're supposed to want to be rich and famous," he muses. "I've never been like that. I do want to be paid well for what I do and want people to know about what I do - as big of an audience as I can - but that's a tangent. I see the commercial and artistic as two separate things. Sometimes they can work together. Sometimes they work against each other. I'd rather be musically satisfied and not famous than be famous and not satisfied with my music." "When I have something new I'm playing that I really like, then I'm most motivated to share it with the world." Current CD: 'STATE OF NATURE ' (MACK AVENUE, 2008) CHARNETT MOFFETT A virtuosic bassist who is equally skilled on acoustic and electric, Charnett Moffett has been a better sideman than leader. His own recordings (for Manhattan, Blue Note, and Evidence) have had an excess of bass features while failing to develop a group sound. The son of drummer Charles Moffett, Sr. and the younger brother of drummer Codaryl, singer Charisse, trumpeter Mondre, and tenor saxophonist Charles Jr. (all of whom have guested on his records), Charnett started on bass early and appeared at age eight on a family record in 1974 for LRS. He later studied at Juilliard and was in Wynton Marsalis' quintet when he was 16, playing with the trumpeter regularly during 19831985. Moffett, who appeared on 17 records before he turned 20, has worked with Tony Williams, Slide Hampton, Mulgrew Miller, Monty Alexander, Sonny Sharrock, Stanley Jordan, David Sanborn, Arturo Sandoval, and Diane Reeves, among many others, and played regularly with Ornette Coleman during 1993-1995. Scott Yanow Current CD: 'THE ART OF IMPROVISATION ' (MOTEMA, 2009) WED, MARCH 24TH, 9.00 pm: MIKE MAINIERI & NORTHERN LIGHTS MIKE MAINIERI vibraphone • BENDIK HOFSETH saxophone BUGGE WESSELTOFT keyboards LARS DANIELSSON bass • AUDUN KLEIVE drums Primarily recognized as an award-winning jazz vibraphonist, Mike Mainieri's equally remarkable talents as producer, performer, arranger, and composer have contributed to shaping the cutting edge in music. During 50's and early 60's, he performed with such legendary artists as Buddy Rich, Billie Holliday, Dizzy Gillespie, Coleman Hawkins, and Wes Montgomery. At the age of 20, he won Downbeat's International Jazz Critic's Award. In 1962, he joined the ground breaking jazz/rock group Jeremy & the Satyrs led by flutist Jeremy Steig. The Satyrs appeared at New York's Club A-GoGo, and performed with such monumental figures as Frank Zappa, Richie Havens and Jimi Hendrix. During the late 60's, this small circle of performers grew into what became known as the White Elephant Orchestra, a 20-piece, all-star, experimental ensemble. The group featured such soloists Michael Brecker, Ronny Cuber, Jon Faddis, Lew Soloff and Randy Brecker. In the late 70's, Mike founded the pioneering jazz/fusion group Steps Ahead, which included previous cohorts Michael Brecker, Eddie Gomez, Steve Gadd and Don Grolnick. Delving into contemporary sounds while maintaining experimental sounds and compositional integrity, Steps Ahead was and is a launching pad for young talent and new musical ideas. Steps 'alumni' include appearances by such notable artists as: Saxophonists: Michael Brecker, Bendik Hofseth, Rick Margitza, Donny McCaslin, Bob Mintzer, Bob Berg, Bill Evans Pianists: Don Grolnick, Warren Bernhardt, Eliane Elias, Kenny Kirkland, Rachel Z, George Whitty, Mitch Forman, Robbie Kilgore, George Whitty, Dave Kikoski, Joey Calderazzo Guitarists: Mike Stern, Steve Khan, Chuck Loeb, Hiram Bullock, Dean Brown, Paul Jackson, Wayne Krantz, Jimi Tunnell Bassists: Eddie Gomez, Tom Kennedy,Victor Bailey, Daryl Jones, Tony Levin, Jeff Andrews, James Genus, Baron Browne, Richie Goods, Marc Johnson, Ed Howard, Larry Grenadier, Scott Colley, Richard Bona Drummers: Steve Gadd, Peter Erskine, Steve Smith, Rodney Holmes, Billy Kilson, Clarance Penn, Jeff 'Tain' Watts, Ben Perosky Vocalists: Dianne Reeves, Bobby McFerrin, Richard Bona Other noteworthy jazz collaborations have included recordings with Joe Henderson, Art Farmer, Dave Liebman, Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Marcus Miller, Joe Lovano, Jim Hall and Jane Monheit As a composer, arranger and performer, Mike has contributed to over 100 gold and platinum albums. An active participant in the rock and pop scenes, Mike produced and co-wrote three albums with Carly Simon, and recorded with Paul Simon, Linda Ronstadt, Aerosmith, Billy Joel, Janis Ian, James Taylor, Dire Straits, Bonnie Raitt, George Benson, and on Don McClean's classic album; "American Pie". In 1991, Mike brought to bear his vast experience with the creation of his own Jazz label NYC Records (www.nycrecords.com). The independent label is a vehicle for exposing new and established artists such as vocalist Luciana Souza, pianist Rachel Z. (Nicolazzo), alto saxophonist Myron Walden and legendary tenor saxophonist, George Garzone. Current CD: 'TWELVE PIECES ' (NYC Music, September 2009) BUGGE WESSELTOFT Since the early 1990´s Bugge (conveniently pronounced Boogie!) has made an impressive, truly post-modern transistion from ECM nordic jazz traditions, playing and recording together with the likes of Jan Garbarek, to forming his own exquisite label "Jazzland", and creating a unique, fresh blend of "future jazz". Which finds itself equally at home with fans of deep house, techno, ambient, as well as traditional and experimental jazz purists. Following on from the pioneering, globally acclaimed "Sharing" album in 1998, Bugge has spent the past two years touring the world´s melting-pot festivals, where jazz meets club culture in a heady brew, and has seen his "sound" embraced by leading worldwide jazz critics - confidently comparing this new Norwegian star to Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Erik Satie(!), as well as finding an impressive following among some of the world´s most respected DJ glitterati: Gilles Peterson, José Padilla, Mixmaster Morris, and New York´s cult "Body and Soul " collective. Current CD: 'PLAYING ' (Jazzland, 2009) TUE, APRIL 13TH, 9.00 pm: TANGO FROM BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA: PABLO ZIEGLER & QUIQUE SINESI, GUEST WALTER CASTRO PABLO ZIEGLER piano (EX. ASTOR PIAZZOLLA) QUIQUE SINESI guitar • WALTER CASTRO bandoneon ’A Piazzolla protege, Ziegler continues the master’s legacy.’ LOS ANGELES TIMES ‘Ziegler’s music adheres to the central traits that make new tango so powerful, fitted with bravura, swagger, elegance.’ AZZTIMES ‘Ziegler shows his strength on his own tunes where the music moves as if it were telling stories. RHYTHM Longtime pianist and protege of the groundbreaking tango legend Astor Piazzolla, Pablo Ziegler is the primary force driving innovative tango music. Furthering the developments of Piazzolla’s ‘New Tango’ movement, Ziegler continues to break free from the strong traditions and stylistic limitations of tango, developing his own emphatic musical style. Pablo Ziegler was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1944. He studied at Buenos Aires Music Conservatory where he graduated as Piano Professor. He continued his studies with Adrian Moreno and Galia Schaljman. He studied composition with professors as Gerardo Gandini and Francisco Kröpflt. When he was fourteen years old, he began to play with different jazz groups and at the same time until he was eighteen played piano solo concerts. Then he created the Pablo Ziegler Terceto which was dedicated to playing classical music with jazz arrangements done by himself and, at the same time he wrote music such as Polvo de Estrellas (Musical), La Noche de los Grandes (TV); Adios Roberto and Tacos Altos (cinema), etc. In 1978 he joined Master Astor Piazzolla’s quintet and started his tournees through Europe, USA, Japan, etc. playing with worldwide known artists such as the Italian singer Milva and the American Gary Burton. When Astor Piazzolla died - in Buenos Aires, on July 4, 1992 - he left behind an extraordinary musical legacy - and a challenge. Piazzolla didn’t just revolutionize tango. In his New Tango he brought forth a new language, a fresh vocabulary of sounds and emotions, accents and attitudes. It turned out that the same man once accused by purists of killing tango had given this music a future. But it’s a future left for others to write. With Quintet for New Tango, pianist, composer and arranger Pablo Ziegler, a member of Piazzolla’s last Quintet (1978 - 1988), stakes his claim. It might be Piazzolla’s language at times, but it’s always Ziegler’s story being told. Piazzolla’s legacy ‘is both a blessing and a curse,’ he says. ‘To break through a system you have to know it deeply. If I know anything it is that I do know this system, inside out. I am in that path.’ PABLO ZIEGLER THU, APRIL 15TH, 9.00 pm: JOHN ABERCROMBIE ORGAN TRIO JOHN ABERCROMBIE guitar • ADAM NUSSBAUM drums JARED GOLD Hammond B3 organ Abercrombie´s connection to the organ goes back to his earliest days, as he has always professed a love for the sound of the organ and guitar together. After several years of groove-based and straightahead playing guitarist/composer John Abercrombie found his niche in the mid-70?s with open-oriented Europeans and Americans who often recorded for ECM records. He has broadened his approach over the years with Eastern influences, electronics, and free music although he maintains a strong sense of the jazz tradition. He plays a variety of interactive music, refusing to be limited or compromised. Over a career spanning more than 40 years and nearly 50 albums, John Abercrombie has established himself as one the masters of jazz guitar. Favoring unusual sounds (he played electronic mandolin on McCoy Tyner's 1993 album 4x4) and nontraditional ensembles (recent quartet recordings have included violinist Mark Feldman), Abercrombie is a restless experimenter, working firmly in the jazz tradition while pushing the boundaries of meter and harmony."Born on December 16, 1944 in Port Chester, New York, Abercrombie grew up in Greenwich, Connecticut, where he began playing the guitar at age 14. Like many teenagers at the time, he started out imitating Chuck Berry licks. But it was the bluesy music of Barney Kessel that attracted him to jazz. Abercrombie enrolled at Boston's Berklee College of Music and teamed up with other students to play local clubs and bars. One of those clubs, Paul's Mall, was connected to a larger club next door, the Jazz Workshop, where Abercrombie ducked in during his free time to watch John Coltrane and Thelonious Monk.Abercrombie's appearances at Paul's Mall led to several fortuitous meetings. Organist Johnny Hammond Smith spotted the young Abercrombie and invited him to go on tour while he was still a student. During the same period, Ambercrombie also met the Brecker Brothers, who invited him to become a new part of their group Dreams, which would become one the prominent jazz-rock bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Abercrombie appears on the group's eponymous debut album.After graduating from Berklee, Abercrombie headed to New York, where he quickly became one of New York's most in-demand session players. He recorded with Gil Evans, Gato Barbieri, and Barry Miles, to name a few. He was also a regular with Chico Hamilton?s group. "But it was in Billy Cobham's band, which also featured the Brecker brothers, that Abercrombie first started to build a following. He was featured on several of Cobham's albums, including Crosswinds, Total Eclipse and Shabazz, all of which staked new ground in fusion jazz. The group was booked into large concert halls and arenas, appearing on bills with such top rock attractions as the Doobie Brothers. It was not, however, the direction Abercrombie had hoped his career would go. "One night we appeared at the Spectrum in Phildelphia and I thought, what am I doing here?" he said. "It just didn?t compute." In the early 1970s, Abercrombie ran into Manfred Eicher, who invited him to record for ECM. The result was Abercrombie's first solo album, Timeless, in which he was backed by Jan Hammer and Jack DeJohnette. Abercrombie's second album, Gateway, was released in November 1975 with DeJohnette and bassist Dave Holland; a second Gateway recording was released in June 1978.He then moved on to a traditional quartet format, recording three albums on ECM--Arcade, Abercrombie Quartet, and M--with pianist Richie Beirach, bassist George Mraz and drummer Peter Donald. "It was extremely important to have that group for many reasons," Abercrombie told AAJ in 2004. "It was, of course, a good band, but it was also my first opportunity to really be a leader and to write consistently for the same group of musicians."His second group, a trio with bassist Marc Johnson and drummer Peter Erskine, marked the first time he experimented with the guitar synthesizer. This gave him the opportunity to play what he called "louder, more open music" with a propulsive beat, demonstrated in the group's three releases, Getting There (featuring Michael Brecker) in 1987, Current Events in 1988, and John Abercrombie, Marc Johnson & Peter Erskine in 1989. From there, he moved to partnerships that he would shuffle and reshuffle for the next 20 years. He reunited with his Gateway bandmembers in 1995 for an album appropriately titled Homecoming, but not before forming yet a third ensemble that would make several recordings together. Abercrombie had long been enamored with the sound of jazz organ, so he teamed with organist Dan Wall and drummer Adam Nussbaum in While We Were Young and Speak of the Devil (both 1993) and, in 1997 Tactics. Another album, titled Open Land, added violinist Mark Feldman and saxophonist Joe Lovano to the mix. His affiliation with Feldman, in a quartet that included Marc Johnson and drummer Joey Barron, ushered in a period of looser, freer, almost improvisatory playing. "I like free playing that has some relationship to a melody; very much the way Ornette Coleman used to write all those wonderful songs and then they would play without chords on a lot of them," he told AAJ. In fact, Abercrombie's work from this period has been compared to chamber music, with its delicacy of sound and telepathic communication between musicians.Throughout the 1990s and into 2000 and beyond, Abercrombie has continued to pluck from the ranks of jazz royalty--and be plucked for guest appearances on other artists' recordings. One propitious relationship was with guitarist, pianist, and composer Ralph Towner, with whom Abercrombie has worked in a duet setting. (Abercrombie has also worked in guitar duos with John Scofield, for 1993's Solar and with Joe Beck in Coincidence, released in 2007). Abercrombie has also recorded with saxophonist Jan Garbarek and bassist Eddie Gomez.Abercrombie keeps up a heavy touring schedule and continues to record with ECM, a relationship that has spanned more than 30 years. As he told one interviewer, "I'd like people to perceive me as having a direct connection to the history of jazz guitar, while expanding some musical boundaries." That, no doubt, will be his legacy. Current CD: 'WAIT TILL YOU SEE HER ' (ECM, 2009) WED, MAY 5TH, 9.00 pm: GEORGE DUKE GEORGE DUKE keyboards • SHANNON PEARSON vocals JEF LEE JOHNSON guitar • MICHAEL MANSON bass RONALD BRUNER drums George Duke was born in San Rafael, California, and reared in Marin City, a working class section of Marin County. When he was just four years old, his mother took him to see Duke Ellington in concert. "I don't remember it too well," says George, "but my mother told me I went crazy. I ran around saying 'Get me a piano, get me a piano!'" He began his piano studies at age seven, absorbing the roots of Black music in his local Baptist church. "That's where I first began to play funky. I really learned a lot about music from the church. I saw how music could trigger emotions in a cause-and-effect relationship." By the age of sixteen, George had played with a number of high school jazz groups. He was heavily influenced by Miles Davis and the soul-jazz sound of Les McCann and Cal Tjader. Attending the San Francisco Conservatory Of Music and majoring in trombone and composition with a minor in contrabass, he received his Bachelor of Music degree in 1967. George and a young singer named Al Jarreau formed a group which became the house band at San Francisco's Half Note Club. "There was another club up the street called The Both/And and I worked there on Mondays with everybody from Letta Mbulu to Sonny Rollins and Dexter Gordon." George later received a Masters Degree in composition from San Francisco State University and briefly taught a course on Jazz And American Culture at Merritt Junior College in Oakland. It was about this time that George began to release a series of jazz LP's on the MPS label. One night, on a local jazz station, George heard a record by the violinist Jean-Luc Ponty. When he found out that Jean-Luc was coming to California to record, he sent a tape to Dick Bock at World-Pacific Records, along with a note saying "There is no other pianist for this guy but me." The George Duke Trio which emerged from those sessions was soon burning a path of creative excitement through the jazz world. It included a major European tour and an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival. The group's first gig in a rock-oriented venue came in early 1969. "It was a club in Los Angeles called Thee Experience," George recalls. In attendance were Cannonball Adderly, Quincy Jones, Frank Zappa, and the unexpected presence of an electric, rather than acoustic, piano on-stage. The Ponty-Duke performance wowed the crowd, and ushered in the West Coast counterpart of the Eastern fusion revolution sparked by Miles Davis, The Mahavishnu Orchestra and Weather Report. Before '69 was out, George joined Frank Zappa (as he put together a new "Mothers Of Invention" lineup) and toured for an entire year. At the end of 1970, George Duke received an offer he couldn't refuse from veteran jazzman Julian "Cannonball" Adderly. "I joined the group in January '71, and stayed two years. Through Cannonball, I was given the opportunity to meet and work with Nancy Wilson, Joe Williams, Dizzy Gillespie -- all these great artists I'd been listening to since I was a kid." I met Stanley Clarke through my association with Cannonball. We played a festival in Pori Finland where I heard Stan with Chick Corea for the first time live – I was astounded! Through my recordings and live performances with Cannonball and Stanley, I developed a musical, and even more importantly, a family relationship with Flora Purim and Airto Moriera. The 70’s were filled with musical experimentation with all of these great musicians and more. In 1973, George rejoined Zappa and brought Jean-Luc Ponty with him. That band stayed together for the next three years, until Duke left to join forces with drummer Billy Cobham. Together, they formed a powerhouse jazz fusion unit even more popular and influential than the earlier Duke/Ponty group. George Duke became a solo artist in 1976, and enjoyed success with a series of fusion-oriented LP's such as his debut CBS LP, From Me To You. In 1978, the funk-flavored sound of the gold album Reach For It propelled George Duke into the upper reaches of the charts, and from small clubs to large arenas. In the late '70s, George decided to get into producing as a career. George began by producing the Brazilian instrumentalist Raoul de Souza, then made his first vocal album with singer Dee Dee Bridgewater. His breakthrough came with an album by A Taste Of Honey. The single, "Sukiyaki," went to Number 1 on the pop, adult contemporary, and R&B charts, ultimately selling over two million copies. George Duke made his debut on Elektra in February, 1985 with the Latin-flavored Thief In The Night. A second album, simply titled George Duke, was issued in August 1986, followed by Night After Night, George Duke's final release for Elektra. In 1990, George Duke was named "R&B Keyboardist Of The Year" by Keyboard Magazine for the second consecutive year. Other honors include Grammy nominations for his production of "We Are The World" by the Children Of The World; "Sweet Baby" by the Clarke/Duke project; "Let's Hear It For The Boy" by Deniece Williams; "Stay With Me Tonight" and "On The Wings Of Love" by Jeffrey Osborne; and "Fumilayo" by Dianne Reeves. Tutu, by Miles Davis with selections produced by George Duke, won a Grammy in 1986. Both Miles Davis Amandla (selections produced by Duke) and Al Jarreau's Heart's Horizon (produced entirely by Duke) received Grammy nominations in 1990. Following the release of Illusions in January 1995, Duke began mixing the Muir Woods Suite which was recorded live, when originally performed at the Montreux Festival in 1993. When not locked in the studio with the Suite, George arranged, produced and performed on songs and albums for a number of artists, including: Najee, George Howard, and the Winans (he arranged and produced three tracks on their Qwest album Heart And Soul which was nominated for a Grammy). George Duke also traveled extensively, performed a European tour with Anita Baker and a Brazilian tour with Rachelle Ferrell, as well as toured the states with his own Duke and Friends tour featuring Phil Perry, Howard Hewett, Dianne Reeves and George Howard. He ended the year performing in Jakarta with Phil Perry. 1997 began on a high note, with a trip to the Arkansas Ball for the President's Inaugural, where George Duke was a featured performer and special guest. This was followed by the spring release of George Duke's 30th solo album and fourth release on Warner Bros. Records, Is Love Enough? It displayed myriad influences and boundless energy, continuing his tradition of posing questions, inspiring thought and requiring reflection. George also produced the Grammy award winning In the Moment CD for Dianne Reeves, and Rachelle Ferrell's Individuality, delaying completion of his own year 2000 solo release, Cool. In the midst of production of his wonderfully diverse and vocally revealing sixth Warner Bros. solo release, he headlined a tribute to Jesse Jackson at a special birthday celebration for the renowned reverend, along with Stevie Wonder and Erykah Badu and continued his longstanding association as musical director for the Soul Train Awards. During the summer, Duke toured with the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tour in the USA, for which he served as both musical director and a featured artist, along with an all-star cast of musicians and vocalists including Al Jarreau, David Sanborn, Roberta Flack and Joe Sample. The summer of 2001 finds Duke on the Tom Joyner Cruise with a combination vacation and gig. Live dates include a special performance for the 100 Black Men of AmerIca Convention in Atlanta. Off to Europe where Duke is artist in residence at the North Sea Jazz Festival featuring performances with Dianne Reeves and Rachelle Ferrell. A special performance of Muir Woods Suite with the Prima la Musica Orchestra form Brussels was amazing! Also various performances at the Montreux Festival kept George busy. One special moment was a tribu- te to Miles Davis featuring Marcus Miller, Christian McBride and Richard Bona on basses; Herbie Hancock and duke on piano and synths; Terri Lynn Carrington and Chester Thompson on drums; Wallace Roney on trumpet and Jeff Lee Johnson on guitar. Duke returned to Rotterdam for several shows with Randy Crawford before returning to LA to put the final touches on Dexter Gordons CD for BPM. Current CD: 'DUKEY TREATS ' (HEADS UP RECORDS, 2008) here, spinning imaginative, long, fluid lines. Even though he is playing acoustic guitar, he is somehow able to cut through the fray of a very large group sound. Davila takes a number of inventive, blustery solos on trombone, and also trades rhythm section functions on tuba with Takeishi – when one is holding it down, the other offers color commentary and counterpoint. Kavee on drums provides constant subtle shifts in rhythm while always keeping that sense of groove. THU, MAY 13TH, 9.00 pm: TUE, JUNE 1ST, 9.00 pm: HENRY THREADGILL ZOOID LENNY WHITE HENRY THREADGILL alto saxophone, flutes, arranger, composer LIBERTY ELLMAN guitar STOMU TAKEISHI acoustic bass guitar JOSE DAVILLA trmobone, tuba • ELLIOT KAVEE drums LENNY WHITE drums • VINCE EVANS keyboards TOM GUARNA guitar • RICHIE GOODS bass Threadgill is one of the most popular cutting-edge jazz musicians. He has been recording for 40 years, including with his popular groups Air, Sextett, Very Very Circus, and Make a Move. He has devised a new system of group improvisation, utilizing serial interval blocks, rather than chord progressions or scales, providing his band with a flexible framework that encourages imagination and interaction. Threadgill was the winner of the prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship in 2003 and the United States Artist Fellowship in 2008. In the music for Zooid, Threadgill creates structures in his compositions that provide platforms for the musicians to interact in a way that is constantly challenging, one that allows for personal exploration. He programs dynamic moments where each musicians can take the initiative to pull the music in a whole new direction, creating moments of tension and release, push and pull, consonance and dissonance. Threadgill is very proud to have been a consistent band leader throughout his career: from Air to the Sextett, Very Very Circus, Make a Move, and now Zooid. The first Zooid album, Up Popped the Two Lips, recorded in 2001 not long after the formation of the band, was something of a transitional release. It has taken eight years of constant refinement for this music to truly come together, for Threadgill to finally perfect that zooid. Current CD: 'This Brings Us To, Vollume 1' (Pi Records, November 2009) This Brings Us To is the first release from Threadgill since 2001’s Everybodys Mouth’s a Book (Pi01) and Up Popped the Two Lips (Pi02). He has spent those eight years, the longest time between releases in his career, creating and perfecting a new system of improvisation in a group setting. A zooid is a cell that is able to move independently of the larger organism to which it belongs, an apt description of the musical language that Threadgill has developed for this band. The compositions are organized along a series of interval blocks comprised of three notes, each of which is assigned to a musician, who is free to move around within these intervals, improvising melodies and creating counterpoint to one another. The system provides the framework for open dialogue within the group while encouraging the musicians to seek new ways to improvise, away from a reliance on chord changes, scales or any of the clichés of certain “free” jazz. The music is coupled with complex rhythms, another distinctive aspect of all of Threadgill’s music. He was among the first in jazz to use constantly shifting meters, which creates a layered rhythmic effect, while maintaining a steady pulse. Despite its rhythmic intricacy, his music maintains a grooving, funky vibe, even though there is rarely a “1” to be found anywhere. This quality, later co-opted by Steve Coleman, Greg Osby, Cassandra Wilson and the M-Base Collective, has had a profound effect on much of the music and the drumming styles that one hears in jazz today. Threadgill has always understood the importance of bringing together musicians who are willing to dedicate themselves to his vision. Each member of Zooid – Threadgill on flute and alto saxophone, Liberty Ellman on acoustic guitar, Jose Davila on trombone and tuba, Stomu Takeishi on acoustic bass guitar, and Elliot Humberto Kavee on drums – has worked to gain a thorough mastery of Threadgill’s singular musical language. The core of the band has now been together for almost ten years. The one recent addition, Stomu Takeishi, was a member of Threadgill’s earlier band Make a Move, so he is no stranger to his music. Threadgill and Ellman are the main solo voices on the CD. Threadgill plays with two very distinct styles, depending on the instrument. He playing tends towards the pretty on flute, and a biting, almost R&B attack on alto sax. Ellman shows off his development as a soloist A versatile drummer, Lenny White is still best-known for being part of Chick Corea's Return To Forever in the 1970's. White was self-taught on drums and he largely started his career on top, playing regularly with Jackie McLean (1968) and recording "Bitches Brew" with Miles Davis in 1969.White was soon working with some of the who's who of jazz including Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, Woody Shaw, Gato Barbieri, Gil Evans, Stanley Clarke and Stan Getz among others. As a member of Return To Forever during 1973-76, White gained a strong reputation as one of the top fusion drummers, but he was always versatile enough to play in many settings. After the breakup of RTF, Lenny White headed several fusion projects but none of the recordings (for Nemperor and Elektra) have dated well at all, emphasizing commercial funk. However his work with the Echoes Of An Era and Griffith Park all-star groups were been more successful and he has been a valuable sideman for a wide variety of projects. Energized by the success of last Summer’s RETURN TO FOREVER 30-Year Reunion, Lenny White was anxious to introduce his next-generation PRESENT TENSE band to the same enthusiastic RTF audience that had filled concert halls around the world.Lenny formed the original PRESENT TENSE in 1995, a band able to deliver Lenny’s eclectic musical message. After his beginning with Miles Davis (“Bitches Brew”), Freddie Hubbard (“Red Clay”), and RETURN TO FOREVER as an important founding father of “Fusion,” Lenny went on to explore the widest musical spectrum, as both producer and bandleader. Starting with a number of solo Fusion albums, Lenny moved into the 1980s, succeeding in genres ranging from Straight-Ahead Jazz (“Echoes of an Era” with Chaka Khan and “The Griffith Park Collection”) to the Progressive Pop of his band Twennynine, Bass/Drum Funk with bassist Marcus Miller and the Jamaica Boys, and soundtracks for Spike Lee (“School Daze”) and the Hudlin Brothers (“House Party”).Lenny then formed PRESENT TENSE with a mind that his musical exploration was still in its infancy. The first self-titled record included elements pulled from Lenny’s entire career, but moved forward into Hard Rock, Modern Hip-Hop, and even what could be described as Heavy Metal. Today, the exploration continues with Lenny’s new PRESENT TENSE, another band of younger, well-educated players who understand the complexities of Jazz, but who still have the open-minded abandon to follow Lenny’s quick-to-change-direction musical lead. The band was in the studio, well into recording its new record when the RTF reunion was announced, but instead of hindering the new PRESENT TENSE progress, similar to how the experience reinvigorated Lenny, it also inspired the band.Each member is an accomplished musician and bandleader in their own right, but when it came to RTF, they, like most others, were inspired to see Lenny, Chick (Corea), Stanley (Clarke), and Al (Di Meola) together again, blazing through their ground-breaking, genre-defining compostions with all the intensity and passion as when they invented it.Rejuvinated by the tour, Lenny decided, even before its end, that he wanted to take the new PRESENT TENSE out for a short European tour ... knowing it will be good for him, good for the band, and ultimately good the soon-to-be-released record.As mentioned earlier, Lenny already had the urge to make a return to his “Fusion” roots before the RTF reunion, and was motivated to reform PRESENT TENSE when he heard friend and past collaborator (keyboardist) George Colligan’s MAD SCIENCE with (guitarist) Tom Guarna ... impressed with Colligan’s foward-thinking electric jazz, and his obvious reverence for the past.Getting together with George, Lenny was furthur inspired, and proceeded to “officially” form today’s PRESENT TENSE band. KÜNSTLERISCHE LEITUNG & COVER COLLAGE BY BRANE RONCHEL BRANKO KARTENVORVERKAUF AN ALLEN BEKANNTEN VORVERKAUFSSTELLEN UND IM HOTEL BAYERISCHER HOF PROMENADEPLATZ 2 – 6 · 80333 MÜNCHEN, TELEFON NIGHT CLUB 089/21 20-994 (AB 19.00 UHR) SITZPLATZRESERVIERUNG NUR IM NIGHT CLUB MÖGLICH. WWW.BAYERISCHERHOF.DE [email protected] P R E S E N T S New York im Bayerischen Hof Konzertreihe Frühling 2010 03. März – 01. juni OTIS TAYLOR OZ NOY DAVE WECKL JAMES GENUS STANLEY JORDAN CHARNETT MOFFETT MIKE MAINIERI BUGGE WESSELTOFT PABLO ZIEGLER QUIQUE SINESI WALTER CASTRO JOHN ABERCROMBIE ADAM NUSSBAUM GEORGE DUKE HENRY THREADGILL ZOOID LENNY WHITE