Carolyn McClair Public Relations

LIVING JAZZ LEGEND RANDY WESTON TO BE HONORED!
Honorary Co-Chairs Marty Markowitz, Danny Simmons And Others
To Honor Renowned Pianist And Composer.

“When Randy Weston plays / a combination of strength
and gentleness / virility and velvet emerges from the
keys in an ebb and flow of sound / seemingly as natural
as the waves of the sea.” – Langston Hughes

BROOKLYN, NY, October 3, 2011 – TRANSART, Inc. announced today that its annual Jazz Treasures program will take place on Monday, October 17, 2011 at 6:30 pm at The Rotunda in Brooklyn Borough Hall (located at 209 Joralemon Street in downtown Brooklyn). This year’s event will include an awards program, a VIP reception, and live music. The highlight of the evening will be a tribute to Brooklyn’s own Randy Weston, a world-renowned jazz pianist and composer who was selected as a National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master in 2001. Credited with creating the Brooklyn sound, Weston is also the 2011 Guggenheim Fellow for the Creative Arts. www.RandyWeston.info.

Other awardees are Dr. Robert O’Meally (Zora Neale Hurston Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Columbia University, and Founder/Former Director, Columbia’s Center for Jazz Studies) and Charenee Wade (2010 2nd Place Winner, Thelonious Monk International Jazz Vocal Competition). Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn Borough President, and Danny Simmons, Chairman Emeritus, New York State Council on the Arts are honorary co-chairs. The host committee, chaired by activist and writer Kevin Powell, includes great African American influencers from a variety of fields, including award-winning poets and activists Amiri Baraka and Sonia Sanchez; Jitu Weusi, Co-Founder of The Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium; James Mtume, jazz and R&B musician and Co-Host of Open Line on KISS FM; and Marc Lamont Hill, Columbia University Professor and Host of Our World with Black Enterprise. Sharif Abdus Salaam, Host of Jazz Alternatives on WKCR-FM is the Master of Ceremonies. Performances will feature saxophonist Salim Washington, Charenee Wade, and others.

Tickets are only available online at www.transartinc.org. Admission ranges from $20 to $50. For more information, please call 845.384.6350 or send an email to info@transartinc.org. Also, www.facebook.com/jazzinthevalley.

More About Randy Weston

With a career span that covers more than six decades, Randy Weston is one of the world’s foremost pianists and composers and is recognized as a true innovator and visionary. Perhaps the Newport Jazz Festival newsletter said it best: “Sitting at the top of the ivory throne [in the jazz world] is the majestic, octogenarian pianist/composer Randy Weston: The music’s most profound living link to Africa, born in Brooklyn to parents whose roots are in Jamaica, Panama, and the American south. Pianistically, he is a descendant of Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Nat King Cole and John Lewis…. [He] is anchored in the ancient, ancestral ache of the blood, sweat, and tears of his people. Mr. Weston has written some of the most identifiable jazz standards of the modern era, including the hip-notizing Little Niles, and the immortally cool Hi-Fly. Unlike a lot of people who talk about Africa, Weston actually lived [there], ran a jazz club in Morocco, and established life links with the mysterious Gnawa musicians of that country.”

Randy Weston was born in Brooklyn in 1926. He cites Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Art Tatum, and Duke Ellington as piano heroes, yet says that Thelonious Monk had the greatest impact. His first recording as a band leader came in 1954 on Riverside Records and it was about this time that he played around New York and wrote many of his best loved tunes: Saucer Eyes, Pam’s Waltz, Little Niles, Hi-Fly. The latter is a “tale about being my height and looking down at the ground,” says the 6′ 8 jazz master.

About Jazz Treasures and Event Purpose

Musicians and scholars recognize jazz as America’s original music, created and developed by Black people who trace their ancestral and cultural lineage to Africa. Having once enjoyed prominence on the popular music scene, jazz is not widely embraced nor understood today by its would-be heirs. TRANSART seeks to change that. In keeping with its mission, TRANSART promotes and preserves jazz culture throughout New York. Jazz Treasures is one of TRANSART’s successful programs that accomplishes this goal.

Greer Smith, founder of TRANSART, explains the motivation behind this event “I wanted to create an event that not only honors legendary and upcoming jazz musicians, but one that creates a space for African American youth, in particular, to learn about their musical heritage. This tribute is a people’s celebration. It’s inter-generational on purpose and it’s based in Brooklyn on purpose, yet it’s for everyone.” Addressing the relevance of jazz culture, Smith adds: “Historically, Brooklyn has been fertile ground for this culture, a culture that has shaped a music that is treasured worldwide. Acknowledging Randy Weston for his work in consistently promoting jazz and its African roots is a way to say thank you and to introduce him to a generation via his music and his humanity.”

Jazz Treasures 2011 Host Committee | Sharif Abdus-Salaam, Adeyemi Bandele, Lumumba Bandele, Amiri Baraka, Wanda Burgess, Khephra Burns, NYS Assemblyman Karim Camara, Jo Ann Cheatham, Laurie Cumbo, Olu Dara, Camille Evans, Bernice Green, Richard Green, Brenda M. Greene, Roger Greene, Marc Lamont Hill, Delridge Hunter, NYC Councilwoman Letitia “Tish” James, Robert H. Johnson, Richard Jones, Don Quinn Kelley, Marline Martin, Carolyn McClair, James Mtume, Sam Pinn, Laura Rice, Sonia Sanchez, April R. Silver, Ernest Skinner, Quincy Troupe, Khalia Washington, Salim Washington, Jitu Weusi, NYC Councilman Jumaane Williams. Host Chair: Kevin Powell

For more info, visit www.transartinc.org, www.facebook.com/jazzinthevalley, call 845.384.6350 or send an email to info@transartinc.org.

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Jazzmobile Presents First Annual Jazzy Awards Celebration:
In Honor of Dr. Billy Taylor’s 90th Birthday
Monday, October 10, 7:00 pm, Hudson Theatre

Special Performances by Dianne Reeves, Frank Wess,
Jimmy Heath, Wycliffe Gordon and the Jazzmobile Big Band

Evening Also Honors George Wein and JPMorgan Chase Foundation

NEW YORK, September 28, 2011 – Jazzmobile, Inc., the Harlem-based organization that pioneered the concept of bringing jazz into the community and creating new audiences with mobile jazz performances, hosts its  first annual Jazzy Awards Celebration: In Honor of Dr. Billy Taylor’s 90^th Birthday (1921-2010) featuring a concert with special performances by Dianne Reeves, Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Wycliffe Gordon and the Jazzmobile Big Band conducted by Cecil Bridgewater on Monday, October 10, 7:00 pm, at the Hudson Theatre, 145 West 44^th Street in New York City.

In addition to the performances, legendary Jazz Impresario, George Wein and JPMorgan Chase Foundation will be honored for their significant contributions to Jazz and their continuous support of Jazzmobile. Wynton Marsalis,  Artistic Director for Jazz at Lincoln Center, will present the Jazzy Award to Chase while Dick Cashin, Managing Director of One Equity Partners and a Board Member of the Newport Festivals Foundation, will make the presentation to Wein. Marsalis also will present an award created from a work by renowned artist Leroy Neiman to Theodora Taylor in recognition of what would have been Dr. Taylor’s 90^th Birthday and for his many contributions to Jazz including the founding of Jazzmobile.

The Honorable H. Carl McCall is the Committee Chair for the Jazzy Awards Celebration. Honorary Chairmen are Spike Lee and Wynton Marsalis, with Kathleen Battle, Ruby Dee, Honorable David Dinkins, Joyce Dinkins, Danny Simmons and Theodora Taylor serving as Honorary Committee Members. The Steering Committee includes Eileen A. Frank, H. Sidney Holmes III, and Kim Taylor-Thompson.

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About Jazzmobile, Inc.

Jazzmobile, Inc., America’s oldest not-for-profit arts organization created just for Jazz, was founded in 1964 by NEA Jazz Master Dr. Billy Taylor and Daphne Arnstein. Its mission is to present, preserve, promote, and propagate Jazz – “America’s classical music.” This mission is implemented through quality jazz education and performance programs, workshops, master classes, lecture demonstrations, arts enrichment programs, as well as out-of-doors mobile Jazz performances and those in clubs and major concert halls here and abroad. Jazzmobile serves approximately 100,000 people in New York City and its outlying areas each year.

About the Artists

One of Jazz’s pre-eminent vocalists, multiple Grammy winner Dianne Reeves is a powerful storyteller. With her unique R&B and Jazz stylings, she has captured a huge following and tremendous critical acclaim throughout the world. She has been featured frequently with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, and at Carnegie Hall with Sir Simon Rattle and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Earlier this year, Reeves performed at Carnegie Hall’s 120^th anniversary celebration and is touring internationally with Sing the Truth!, a production honoring the music and spirit of great female artists including Odetta, Abbey Lincoln and Miriam Makeba.  Her award-winning recordings include When You Know, A Little Moonlight, The Calling and In the Moment – Live in Concert.

Prior to moving to New York in 1964 to lead his own groups, NEA Jazz Master Frank Wess performed with the Count Basie Orchestra for 11 years. He used the popularity of the Basie band to introduce the flute as an independent voice to jazz audiences, becoming one of its first major soloists. A mainstay on the New York Jazz scene and in local studios, Wess played in various shows all over the city and held a contract with ABC for 10 years performing for “Saturday Night Live,” the Dick Cavett Show, the Sammy Davis Show and others. For almost 20 years, he performed in a quintet called “Two Franks” with Frank Foster, his colleague from the Basie days. In the late 80s and early 90s, Wess led a stellar Basie-style big band, which recorded the critically-acclaimed albums “Dear Mr. Basie” and “Entre Nous.”  Soon to celebrate his own 90^th birthday (January 4), Frank Wess continues to  travel around the world as a soloist and band leader.

NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath has long been recognized as a brilliant instrumentalist and a magnificent composer and arranger.  He is the middle brother of the legendary Heath Brothers (Percy/bass and Tootie/drums), and is the father of Mtume.   He has performed with nearly all the jazz greats of the last 50 years, from Howard McGhee, Dizzy Gillespie, and Miles Davis to Wynton Marsalis.  One of Heath’s earliest big bands (1947-1948) in Philadelphia included John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Specs Wright, Cal Massey, Johnny Coles, Ray Bryant, and Nelson Boyd; Charlie Parker and Max Roach sat in on one occasion. During his career, Heath has performed on more than 100 record albums including seven with The Heath Brothers and a dozen as a leader.  He also has written more than 125 compositions, many of which have become jazz standards and have been recorded by other artists including Art Farmer, Cannonball Adderley, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Miles Davis, James Moody, Milt Jackson, Ahmad Jamal, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie J.J Johnson and Dexter Gordon. His autobiography, I Walked with Giants, is reaping rave reviews worldwide and was named 2011 Best Book of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association.

Renowned trombonist, composer and arranger Wycliffe Gordon has performed with Dizzy Gillespie, Lionel Hampton, Tommy Flanagan, Shirley Horn, Joe Henderson, Eric Reed, Randy Sandke and Branford Marsalis, plus many top players from the swing and traditional jazz world. A continued supporter of Jazzmobile, he recently premiered a Jazzmobile commission,  Within Our Gates, a composition to an Oscar Micheaux silent film.  His work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world is extensive, and includes master classes, clinics, workshops, children’s concerts and lectures — powerful evidence of his unique ability to relate musically to people of all ages.

Cecil Bridgewater is a trumpeter who realizes the lineage of his instrument and has an appreciation for its place in contemporary music. Throughout his more than 30 years as a performer, composer, arranger, record producer and educator, he has worked with Max Roach, Horace Silver, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra, Count Basie Orchestra, Duke Ellington Orchestra, Dizzy Gillespie, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Heath, Sir Roland Hanna, Wynton Marsalis and Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, among others.  At the Jazzy Awards Celebration, Bridgewater will conduct the Jazzmobile Big Band featuring some of New York’s top musicians and ongoing Jazzmobile supporters.

Tickets to the Jazzy Awards Celebration: In Honor of Dr. Billy Taylor’s 90^th Birthday are $90.00. VIP seating and pre-concert reception prices begin at $1,000 and are available through Dwight Johnson Design by calling (212) 889-4694. For more information, visit www.jazzmobile.org.

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NEWPORT FESTIVALS FOUNDATION, INC.™
ANNOUNCES BOARD OF ADVISORS FOR NEWPORT FOLK FESTIVAL®

Newport Folk Festival Returns to Fort Adams State Park July 28 – 29, 2012

NEWPORT, RI, September 28, 2011 – To further advance the dialogue with both established and budding musicians, the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc.™ announced the creation of its Newport Folk Festival Board of Advisors. The panel of musicians will help ensure that the Newport Folk Festival remains a significant, viable, and influential institution for years to come. The Board of Advisors includes: Colin Meloy of The Decemberists, Gillian Welch, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, and Ben Knox Miller of The Low Anthem.

“The Newport Folk Festival’s Board of Advisors is comprised of very special performers and we’re pleased that they have agreed to join us as we return to our roots as a non-profit organization,” said George Wein, Chairman of the Newport Festivals Foundation and festival co-founder along with Pete Seeger.   “Each of these musicians personifies and enhances the spirit of the Newport Folk Festival, which honors past, present, and future icons of the ever-changing folk scene.”

The five founding members have all previously appeared at the Newport Folk Festival, and, in a further testament to their importance to the advisory board and in true Folk Family fashion, each has a special connection that has bonded them to Newport.

“To attend the Newport Folk Festival is to be part of the unbroken chain of American music that connects Mother Maybelle Carter and Mississippi John Hurt, to Bob Dylan and Bill Monroe, and Emmylou Harris and Mavis Staples,” said Gillian Welch. “The scene is vibrant and diverse, the faces of folk change; and yet for 52 years, the Newport Folk Festival has succeeded in keeping us connected to our own living tradition.”

Jim James added, “Every time I find myself within her loving arms, ye old festival de Newport Folk sweeps me off to a special land of music and reverie where all things are possible,” “Way back when, right now, and way off into the future her power is a mirror: all-encompassing and real, reflecting back to us a vividly truthful vision of our times. I am honored and humbled to be in her presence and at her service.”

The Newport Folk Festival has seen many performers break into the musical and cultural consciousness of the world following an appearance at one of the Festival’s 51 previous installments. In exchange for the opportunity to play this mainstay of the music world, experienced and emerging artists often make some concessions to perform at Newport, and the Festival has always shown its gratitude by offering its performers a bit of magic that no other venue or festival can match, delivering credentials with historical significance and real value.

“The importance and influence of the Newport Folk Festival is undeniable,” says Colin Meloy. “I’m proud to be involved with the Festival because I feel like it can have real and lasting relevance to a new generation of musicians.”

To further cultivate the mission of the Newport Folk Festival, the Board of Advisors will not only interact with other artists in the music world, but will also serve as “talent scouts” and will be a collective sounding board for festival producers and organizers as future Newport Folk Festival lineups take shape in the years to come.

”Returning to our non-profit status, it’s imperative that we have artists who can help us shape the future of this Festival. The connection the Festival has with its artists and the music world is a characteristic that has enabled us to be successful and unique while presenting unforgettable, once-in-a-lifetime, impromptu performances. Thanks to the support of these five advisors, we will remain relevant for another 50 years and beyond,” said Jay Sweet, Folk Festival talent programmer and producer.

The Newport Festivals Foundation continues to build on the festival’s historic past by featuring emerging young artists alongside some of folk music’s most venerable names. The 2011 Festival featured: The Decemberists, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Gillian Welch, Amos Lee, Earl Scruggs, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Gogol Bordello, M. Ward, Wanda Jackson, Mavis Staples, Tegan & Sara, The Felice Brothers, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Justin Townes Earle, Delta Spirit, Middle Brother, The Wailin’ Jennys, Freelance Whales, The Secret Sisters, Trampled by Turtles, The Civil Wars, The Head & The Heart, Pokey LaFarge & The South City Three, The Cave Singers, What Cheer? Brigade, Mountain Man, David Wax Museum, Devil Makes Three, Song Circle with Dar Williams Ellis Paul John Gorka & Liz Queler, Typhoon, Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, Chris Thile & Michael Daves, The Seeger Clogging All-Stars, BrownBird, River City Extension and PS22 Chorus.

For more information, visit www.newportfolkfest.net and www.newportfestivalsfoundation.org.

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*The Newport Folk Festival® is a production of Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation, under license from Festival Productions, Inc. and George Wein; all rights reserved.

Danny Melnick Joins
Team of Newport Festivals Foundation™ Producers

NEWPORT, RI, September 20, 2011 – George Wein, Chairman of the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc.™ and Producer of the Newport Jazz Festival®, today announced the addition of Danny Melnick to the Foundation’s team of veteran concert and event producers. Melnick, who worked for Wein’s Festival Productions, Inc. (FPI) from 1990 – 1996 and again from 1998 – 2007, returns to the Festival family as Associate Producer of the Newport Jazz Festival.

Melnick will continue to produce concerts and events around the world for his own company, Absolutely Live Entertainment (ALE). Prior to forming ALE in 2007, he was the Artistic Director and a Senior Producer at FPI, where he played a central role in producing the JVC Jazz Festivals in Newport and New York, as well as the Freihofer’s Saratoga Jazz Festival, Verizon Music Festivals, the Hampton (VA) Jazz Festival and the Mellon Jazz Festivals in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, among others.

“Danny is a complete and consummate producer who is tapped in to the past, present and future of jazz, ” said Wein. “His return to the team of producers is especially important to the non-profit organization in the coming years when I am no longer involved; however, his long-term experience as a producer, programmer and promoter, with me and on his own, is also invaluable now as the Foundation moves forward.”

“I’ve had some of the best experiences in my career working on the Newport Jazz Festival. George’s invitation to reunite with him is a personal and professional honor, and I am thrilled to be returning to Newport, ” said Melnick.

Rounding out the team of Newport Festivals Foundation producers are Jay Sweet and Robert Jones. Jones, Foundation Technical Director and a Newport Folk Festival® Producer, has been involved with the Folk Festival since 1963. Known for his enthusiastic understanding of the entertainment industry’s inner workings, Jay Sweet has spent the last decade helping corporate America with its music initiatives and, in 2007, brought that expertise as well as a passion for music and a strong commitment to the environment to the Newport Folk Festival. As Producer since 2009, Sweet has carried the Festival in a new direction that reaches a young audience and sells out in advance.

“The mission of the Foundation is all important. The Folk and Jazz Festivals are moving forward with a great team of producers and music industry veterans in New York, Newport and New England. Jazz and folk are ever-evolving art forms and the Festival producers understand this, ” emphasized Wein.

Wein added, “Jason Olaine did a magnificent job as a talent booker for the Jazz Festival, and I am grateful for his dedication and hard work over the past three years.”

The 2012 Newport Folk Festival® will be held July 28 – 29 and the Newport Jazz Festival® is set for August 3 – 5. Visit www.newportfestivalsfoundation.org, www.newportfolkfest.net and www.newportjazzfest.net for more information.

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Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc.™
Announces 2012 Dates of Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals

NEWPORT, RI, September 13, 2011 – George Wein, Chairman of the Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., is pleased to announce the dates of the 2012 Folk and Jazz festivals in Newport, RI. The Newport Folk Festival® will be held July 28 – 29 and the Newport Jazz Festival® is set for August 3 – 5. Additional information will be announced in the coming months.

“Following a sold-out 2011 Folk Festival and a very successful Jazz Festival,  we want to make sure that music fans throughout the area and around the world have the 2012 dates on their calendars early,” said Wein, who has produced the jazz and folk festivals since their inceptions in 1954 and 1959, respectively.

For more information on the Newport Festivals, visit www.newportfolkfest.net and www.newportjazzfest.net.  To learn more about the Foundation, log on to www.newportfestivalsfoundation.org.

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LIVING LEGEND RUSSELL GARCIA
CELEBRATES 95TH BIRTHDAY WITH THREE CITY U.S. TOUR

See Russ Garcia on stage with award-winning jazz vocalists Shaynee Rainbolt & Terese Genecco
at The Catalina Bar & Grill, Los Angeles, October 26; Yoshi’s, Oakland, November 1;
and Iridium Jazz Club, New York, November 6

NEW YORK, NY, September 8, 2011 – On the heels of a series of sold-out concerts in New Zealand celebrating his 95^th birthday, legendary composer, arranger and conductor Russell Garcia will take the stage once again with his most recent collaborators, award-winning New York vocalists Shaynee Rainbolt and Terese Genecco, in what will likely be his farewell concert tour in the United States.

Audiences in the United States now have the opportunity to join the party at Catalina’s Bar & Grill in Los Angeles, CA, on October 26; Yoshi’s in Oakland, CA on November 1; and Iridium Jazz Club in New York, NY on November 6.

It is not often that audiences can experience nearly a century of musical history, but that’s what happens when Russ Garcia (born April 12, 1916) takes the stage.  These concerts are thrilling in equal parts for the music as they are for the stories Garcia shares from his more than 75 years of creating the soundtrack for our lives.

Whether Garcia was working on a sound stage at MGM Universal, a major-label recording studio in Hollywood, a concert hall conducting a symphony, a jazz club or festival around the world, his body of work speaks for itself.  He hesitates to toot his own horn, saying he “feels like he’s name-dropping,” but to this day, people continue to drop his name.  A partial list of artists who have worked with Garcia over the years includes Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Mel Tormé, Sammy Davis, Jr., Anita O’Day, Bud Shank, Julie London, Sarah Vaughan, Cleo Laine, John Dankworth, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Judy Garland, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Johnny Hodges, Maynard Ferguson, Stan Kenton, Harry James, Bill Holman, Jayne Mansfield, Bette Davis, Ira and George Gershwin, Fred Astaire, Eleanor Powell, Mickey Rooney, Henry Mancini, Elizabeth Taylor, Charlie Chaplin, Marvin Hamlisch and Clint Eastwood.

Now living a relatively quiet life in New Zealand but still continuing to work at home and abroad, at 95, Garcia’s life is far from the glamorous world of Hollywood he and his lyricist-wife Gina used to lead. From radio and television to theatrical films and recordings, Garcia has been active in virtually every area of the entertainment industry since the late ’40s. His early 1960s scores for George Pal’s “The Time Machine” and “Atlantis: The Lost Continent” virtually created the music template for science fiction films that followed, and his un-credited work on Charlie Chaplin’s Oscar-winning score for the film ‘Limelight’ has fans launching a grass-roots campaign to set the record straight (http://www.jazzwax.com/2008/09/the-case-of-the.html).  His jazz arranging and composing is legendary in its own right and can be heard on recordings by Stan Kenton, Roy Eldridge, Stan Getz, as well as a classic version of “Porgy and Bess” featuring Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. When describing the orchestral sounds that emerged from the West Coast jazz scene during the 1950s, the name Russell Garcia always comes to mind.  Not only did he provide arrangements for many singers and instrumentalists, he recorded more than 60 albums under his own name.  As if all that wasn’t enough, his book, The Professional Arranger-Composer, has been a valued tool for both beginners and veterans since it was written in the mid-’40’s.  In 2009, he and his wife Gina were awarded The New Zealand Order of Merit from the Queen of England for their Service to Music.

Continuing his tradition of working with and mentoring great vocalists, Russell Garcia is joined by his most recent collaborators: Shaynee Rainbolt (www.shayneerainbolt.com) and Terese Genecco (www.teresegenecco.com).

GARCIA PRESS RELEASE – ARTIST BIOS

Shaynee Rainbolt, one of today’s rising jazz singers, first worked with Garcia in 2007 when he entrusted her with the first-ever album of all Garcia originals entitled Charmed Life.  Arranged by Garcia for his signature four-trombone band, this collaboration garnered two MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets and Clubs) Awards for Best Jazz Recording (Charmed Life) and Best Song (I Remember, Music by Garcia and Lyrics by Rainbolt & Garcia.)  A top seller on CDBaby, the album was also chosen by TalkinBroadway.com as one of their Top 10 CD’s of 2008 and the press also took notice saying, “Rainbolt breathes joyful new life into his oeuvre…her interpretations plugging straight into the core of Garcia’s artistry. Beautifully sung…remarkable…” Jazzwise Magazine (UK); “This happy collaboration features Shaynee Rainbolt in inspired form…hear the magical combination of Shaynee Rainbolt and Russ Garcia.” LA Jazz Scene; “When Shaynee Rainbolt navigates the shoals of Russ Garcia’s arrangements, a beautiful artistic union forms – that of an emerging voice and an orchestral master.” Downbeat; “The classic sounds of Garcia are alive and well in the capable hands of Rainbolt and should remain there for a long time.” Jazz Improv Magazine

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Terese Genecco, who Will Friedwald of the Wall Street Journal said “…if Frank, Dean and Sammy ever returned from the Great Casino in the Sky, the first youngish female singer that I’d recommend to join their clan is this high-voltage entertainer,” has the Longest Running Nightclub Act on Broadway at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City.  In her third year of an open-ended run of shows, she is a critic and audience favorite. Genecco and Garcia have a special connection due to Genecco’s award-winning, one-woman tribute show, “Drunk with Love: A Tribute to Frances Faye!” Faye is Genecco’s idol and was one of Garcia’s favorite collaborators as well as a close personal friend.  Since relocating from San Francisco, where Genecco won the Bay Area “Entertainer of the Year” Award, there is hardly an award or accolade she hasn’t garnered. Terese is described as “addictive” and her fans call themselves “Geneccoholics.”  The critics agree.  This high-powered entertainer has won the 2009 MAC (Manhattan Association of Cabarets & Clubs) Award for Outstanding Vocalist, a 2009 OUT Music Award for Outstanding Cabaret/Comedy/Theater Song; a 2008 MAC Award for Best Recording for her Live CD of “Drunk with Love: A Tribute to Frances Faye!” (which was also chosen as one of TalkinBroadway.com’s Top 10 CD’s of 2007) and the show itself won her the 2007 Bistro Award from Back Stage Magazine and a Top 10 Best Cabaret Show from Time Out New York Magazine for two years running (2006 & 2007).

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“At 95 you have no peer pressure.” ~ Russ Garcia

“Genius – I use the accolade sparingly.  Last Saturday Russ Garcia celebrated his 95^th birthday with friends and admirers conducting a memorable concert giving insight into his extraordinary creative genius and genial personality – love that naughty humor.  The show also featured New York singer Shaynee Rainbolt whose interpretation of Russ Garcia’s compositions and Gina Garcia’s lyrics was simply sublime, with the perfect voice. Terese Genecco, who has the longest running [nightclub] show on Broadway, is a delight with an ebullient personality and great jazz vocals. Thank you Russ, take a bow.” Bay Chronicle, Kerikeri, New Zealand (April 14, 2011)

CELEBRATE A LIVING LEGEND!  RUSSELL GARCIA’s 95^th BIRTHDAY BASH & CONCERT

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26,  8 pm, $25.00:

Catalina Bar & Grill, 6725 W. Sunset Blvd., Hollywood, CA 90028, 323-466-2210  www.catalinajazzclub.com

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 8 pm, $20.00:

Yoshi’s Jazz Club, 510 Embarcadero West, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA 94607 510-238-9200 www.yoshis.com/oakland

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 6:30 pm, $25.00:

Iridium Jazz Club, 1650 Broadway, NY, NY 10019, 212-582-2121 www.theiridium.com

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Jazzmobile Presents Wycliffe Gordon’s New Original Score
To Oscar Micheaux’s Silent Film Within Our Gates
Friday, August 26, 8:00 pm at Miller Theater

NEW YORK, NY – Jazzmobile, Inc., the Harlem-based organization that pioneered the concept of bringing jazz into the community and creating new audiences with mobile jazz performances, commissioned acclaimed jazz trombonist Wycliffe Gordon to create a 78-minute original score to Oscar Micheaux’s 1920 silent film, Within Our Gates. Hear how Gordon masterfully captures the essence, culture, and historical significance of the film in stunning composition at the premier of Within Our Gates, screened and performed live with an 18-piece orchestra and two guest vocalists, on Friday, August 26, at 8:00 pm at Miller Theater at Columbia University School of the Arts, 2960 Broadway at 116th Street, in New York City.

The film will be followed by a conversation and Q. & A. session with the composer. Admission to the screening and performance is free; however, reservations are recommended by calling (212) 866-4900, extension 307.

Oscar Micheaux is regarded as one of the most prolific African American filmmakers of the early 20th Century. Daring to depict stark realities of the African American condition on film, Micheaux created Within Our Gates in response to D.W. Griffith’s 1915 silent film, “Birth of A Nation, ” which extolled the Ku Klux Klan.

Wycliffe Gordon acknowledges that many of the core issues addressed in this film are still relevant today and says he “believes in the transformative power of music to elevate consciousness and provoke the kind of dialogue that leads to cross-cultural understanding.”

Throughout our history, artists in the U.S. have utilized their skills as a vehicle to illuminate the human condition, contribute to the vitality of the broader aesthetic landscape, as well as to promote social change and democratic dialogue. Micheaux was no exception. With this project, Gordon literally picks up the baton, seeking to interpret the past, define the present and imagine the future. Gordon investigates the impact these issues play on a changing society, a society energized by the prospect of a new agenda and sheds light on the lost art of live silent film accompaniment with the creation of a new 21st Century music score. This project takes the bold leap of re-visioning and reinterpreting aspects of a pivotal work while at the same time, contributing to the expansion of the musical canon.

Starting with traditional big band instrumentation, Gordon allowed what was happening on the film to guide his composition and arrangement. He musically digested the startling issues conveyed throughout the film from an early 20th Century historical perspective to determine the sounds that aptly complemented Micheaux’s intent. Specific themes and motifs determined whether an ominous bass line, jazz waltz, percussions, vocals, claps or even silence should be used. The composition accesses Gordon’s musical depth in classical jazz training, gospel, blues, calypso, lullabies, bebop, vocals and work songs.

“Supporting Jazz artists is one of Jazzmobile’s guiding principles, ” said Robin Bell-Stevens, President & CEO, Jazzmobile, Inc. “We firmly believe in Wycliffe’s talents and are extremely happy to be able to support him in this major project.”

“We are proud to have been able to facilitate this process for Wycliffe, one of our most brilliant creators, ” added Linda Walton, Jazzmobile’s Vice President of Programming.

The orchestra features Tia Fuller, Patience Higgins, Yosvany Terry, Carl Maraghi, saxophones; Lynn Gruenwald, saxophone/flute; Jumaane Smith, Phillip Dizack, Joseph Boga, Bria Skonberg, trumpets; Michael Dease, Robert Stringer, Matt Mussellman, trombone; Max Siegal, bass trombone/tuba; Tim Brumfield, piano; Lewis Porter, synthesizer; Corcoran Holt, bass; Marion Felder, drums; Bobby Cash, percussion; Sachel Vasandani and Nancy Harms, vocals.

The Wycliffe Gordon commission is the first Jazzmobile commission since 1980, when the organization commissioned Frank Foster to create the Lake Placid Suite for the Winter Olympics. Within Our Gates is Gordon’s sophomore composition to an Oscar Micheaux silent film. The first, Body and Soul, was commissioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center and presented as part of the 38th annual New York Film Festival.
With several compositions to his credit, Gordon’s body of work demonstrates the full breadth and scope of his creative powers which were honed as a member of the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and as leader of his own ensembles and big bands. He has received numerous commissions including the vibrant, new score for the 1925 classic silent film Body and Soul (notable as the screen debut of Paul Robeson) which premiered at the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra’s 2000-2001 season opening night performance at Avery Fisher Hall. His I Saw the Light, a musical tribute to Muhammed Ali, was commissioned and premiered by The Brass Band of Battle Creek in March 2004. He is a persuasive and committed music educator, and currently serves on the faculty of the Jazz Arts Program at Manhattan School of Music. His work with young musicians and audiences from elementary schools to universities all over the world is extensive, and includes master classes, clinics, workshops, children’s concerts and lectures — powerful evidence of his unique ability to relate musically to people of all ages.

Jazzmobile, known for its presentation of free jazz concerts in New York City parks and neighborhoods, has presented Wycliffe Gordon annually on its summer festival schedule for the past several years and as a partner in the Composer’s Now Festival this past February. Jazzmobile also presented Gordon in a special concert of duets with noted Jazz pianist Eric Reed at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Jazzmobile’s mission is to present, promote, propagate, and preserve jazz. The organization has been nurturing communities and jazz artists for 47 years and has presented over 10, 000 jazz artists through summer jazz festivals, free performances, concerts, lecture demonstrations, jazz vocal competitions and master workshops.

Commissioning and presentation support are provided by The MAP Fund, Chamber Music America and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation in collaboration with Miller Theatre at Columbia University School of the Arts and the Maysles Cinema. Jazzmobile received additional support from Chase, NY Department of Cultural Affairs, NYSCA, Steinway & Sons, City of New York Parks & Recreation and the Billy Taylor Foundation. Summerfest marketing partners are The Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce, 2011 Harlem Week, Harlem Arts Alliance and WBGO/Jazz 88.3 FM.

For more information, contact Jazzmobile at (212) 866-4900 or visit www.jazzmobile.org.

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Claim Your Spot on the New Haven Green
Tomorrow, August 13, 4:30 – 9:00 pm
at 28th Annual New Haven Jazz Festival
featuring Jay Hoggard, Tina Fabrique,
Ed Fast & Conga Bop, Jonathan Barber and Ryan Sands

NEW HAVEN, August 12, 2011 – The countdown is on for the 28^th annual New Haven Jazz Festival, which takes over the New Haven Green tomorrow Saturday, August 13, from 4:30 – 9:00 pm. Celebrating the theme All Great Jazz Is Local, the Festival features vibraphone/marimba master Jay Hoggard and his AfriCaribbean Vibes, vocalist Tina Fabrique and drummers Ed Fast, Jonathan Barber and Ryan Sands.

The Festival is produced by JAZZ HAVEN, in cooperation with the Office of Cultural Affairs, City of New Haven.  Set times for the New Haven Jazz Festival, which is free of charge, are:

• 4:30 pm – RYAN SANDS QUARTET with Adam O’Farrill, Daryl Johns and Gabe Schnider

• 5:00 pm – JONATHAN BARBER QUARTET with Jeremy Pelt, Zaccai Curtis and Stephen Porter

• 5:45 pm – ED FAST AND CONGA-BOP

• 7:00 pm – TINA FABRIQUE with James Weidman, Belden Bullock and Tony Lombardozzi with a special contribution by Jay Hoggard

• 8:00 pm – JAY HOGGARD’s  AFRICARIBBEAN VIBES with Dwight Andrews, James Weidman, Belden Bullock, Pheeroan akLaff, Tony Lombardozzi, and Kwaaku Martin Obeng, Jarawa Brian Gray and Asher DeLerme.

For more information on Jazz Haven and the New Haven Jazz Festival, visit www.jazzhaven.org.

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Fountains of Swinging Youth
at Newport Jazz Festival® Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management
August 5 – 7, 2011
International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport Casino
Fort Adams State Park

Produced by George Wein and the Newport Festivals Foundation™

“… [I] think we should allow these young players to share the spotlight, until the public can fully accept them … these are all great players who are trying to find their own voice; trying to add something to the music that becomes part of the mainstream of what is happening. And it’s a privilege for me to present them at Newport.”  –  George Wein

Jazz Journalist Eugene Holley, Jr.
Takes A Look at New Directions in Jazz

NEWPORT, RI – Jazz is music of creation in real time, and there is nothing more satisfying than to witness the evolution of a young jazz artist creating him/herself in the improvisational arena of the bandstand. And for six decades, George Wein’s Newport Jazz Festival® – now presented by Natixis Global Asset Management – has been one of the most dynamic places for an up-and-coming musician to shine, and this year is no exception.

From Lee Morgan to Wynton Marsalis, young trumpeters have always been the pace setters of their generation. And this year’s festival is fortunate to have two leading lights on that celebrated instrument. The Israeli-American trumpeter Avishai Cohen (not to be confused with the bassist of the same name), is a future brass master who emerged from New York’s Small’s club with bold and buoyant tone that stretches from Manhattan to the Maghreb. He placed third in the Thelonious Monk Jazz Trumpet Competition in 1997, and has worked with some of the most accomplished musicians of his generation, including Claudia Acuna and Jason Lindner, and also worked with pop chanteuse Keren Ann and vibraphonist Bobby Hutcherson. He comes to the Newport stage on Sunday August 7, to play selections from his trio CD, Triveni – named after the  Sanskrit word meaning “the place where three sacred rivers meet;” an appropriate metaphor for this cross-cultural mélange of old and new worlds. Joining the leader will be his equally accomplished sister, clarinetist Anat Cohen, and drummer Eric Harland – also performing at this festival with the supergroup James Farm – and bassist Drew Gress.

Three thousand miles on the Left Coast, the Oakland-born trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire is the perfect bookend to Cohen.  The 28-year-old trumpeter burst on the scene with two impressive first place awards at the 2007 Thelonious Monk International Trumpet Competition and at the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition and released his debut recording Prelude To Cora on the Fresh Sound New Talent label that same year. Along with his BA from the Manhattan School of Music and his MA from the University of Southern California, Akinmusire worked with Joe Henderson, Steve Coleman, Vijay Iyer, Esperanza Spalding and Jason Moran, who featured Akinmusire on his recreation of Thelonious Monk’s 1957 Town Hall Concert. In 2011, Moran co-produced Akinmusire’s Blue Note debut, When The Heart Emerges Glistening, a scintillating, 21^st Century, post-bop recording which earned the leader the Up And Coming Artist of the Year and Trumpeter of the Year awards from the Jazz Journalist Association.  Akinmusire’s formidable and fluid trumpet lines – buoyed by drummer Justin Brown, bassist Harish Raghavan, pianist Sam Harris, and tenor saxophonist Walter Smith – will appear on the bandstand on August 6^th. Be prepared to crown this emerging trumpet king in-the-making.

But the festival is not going to let the trumpeters have all of the fun! The fleet-fingered, Indian-American alto saxophonist and Guggenheim Fellow Rudresh Manhanthappa, who along with his comrade-in-arms, pianist Vijay Iyer is creating a new century soundtrack pulsed by American and sub-continental swing, comes to festival for a blazing set on Sunday with his older Chicago counterpart Bunky Green, a legendary educator who brings his broad-shouldered, Windy City sound into the hallowed halls of academia. The ever-ascending Puerto Rican alto saxophonist Miguel Zenon – the recipient of the coveted Mac Arthur Genius Grant in 2008, and member of the SF Jazz Collective — will show the Newport audiences why he’s the “it” guy of the jazz world, when he performs music from his forthcoming CD,  Alma Adentro: The Puerto Rican Songbook, featuring the music of Puerto Rican composers Rafael Hernandez, Bobby Capo, Tite Curet, Pedro Flores, and Sylvia Rexach, performed by Zenon’s quartet with a ten-piece wind ensemble conducted by the Argentine keyboardist/composer Guillermo Klein. And Zenon also performs with a special sax collaboration,  – A Meeting of Saxophone Masters, Featuring Steve Coleman, and Ravi Coltrane that Sunday, which figures to be one of the most anticipated events on the jazz calendar.

The same island that gave us Zenón has yet again provided us with another saxophonist, the youthful Berklee alto sax phenom Mario Castro and his quintet: trumpeter David Neves, Kyumin Shin on piano, drummer Jonathan Pinson, and Tamir Shmerling. A fast learning improviser whose old-school chops are as adept in mainstream jazz and the Afro-Cuban tradition, Castro is a proud graduate of Puerto Rico’s Escuela Libre de Musica, his big break came with a sensational performance at the Heineken Jazz Festival with the Berklee in Puerto Rico student big band, earned him a full scholarship to attend Berklee’s 2005 Five-Week Summer Performance Program. With one CD under his leadership, Opposite Directions, Castro comes to the Newport stage on Sunday, and serves notice of exciting things to come from this new generation of jazz masters.

Produced by George Wein and the Newport Festivals Foundation, the Newport Jazz Festival Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management takes over Newport, RI, August 5-7 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport Casino and Fort Adams State Park. The Festival features Wynton Marsalis and Michael Feinstein “Come Fly with Me” with Special Guest Joe Negri on Friday, August 5.   On Saturday August 6, don’t miss  Wynton Marsalis; Esperanza Spalding and Friends; Hiromi; Regina Carter’s Reverse Thread; Al Di Meola World Sinfonia Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody Tour 2011 with Special Guest Gonzalo Rubalcaba; Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band; Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue; Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Trio; Michel Camilo “Mano a Mano with Giovanni Hidalgo and John Benitez;  Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet; Joey DeFrancesco Trio; Grace Kelly with guest Phil Woods; Steve Coleman and Five Elements; Mostly Other People Do the Killing; and New Black Eagle Jazz Band.

On Sunday, August 7, catch Angélique Kidjo; James Farm with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman and Eric Harland; Charles Lloyd’s Sangam featuring Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland; Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue; Hiromi: The Trio Project featuring Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips; Mingus Big Band; Ravi Coltrane Quartet; Esperanza Spalding and Friends; Brubeck Brothers Quartet with Special Guest Dave Brubeck; Ravi Coltrane Quartet; Apex: Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green; Miguel Zenón presents the Puerto Rican Songbook with conductor/arranger Guillermo Klein; John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble; Avishai Cohen’s Triveni with special guest Anat Cohen; Berklee College of Music: Mario Castro Quintet; Plus a special bonus set: A Meeting of Saxophone Masters featuring Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane and Miguel Zenón.

TICKETS & OTHER INFORMATION

Tickets for the Newport Jazz Festival Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management are on sale worldwide through www.ticketmaster.com and www.newportjazzfest.net as well as by phone, by mail and at the new Festival office at the Alex and Ani store at One Bowen’s Wharf during limited hours. General admission tickets (single-day passes only) also can be purchased at the Newport Visitor Information Center, located at 23 America’s Cup Avenue.  For general information, craft vendor information or to leave a message for festival staff, call (401) 848-5055.  For more information, log on to www.newportjazzfest.net.

Partners

Presenting sponsor Natixis Global Asset Management is one of the world’s leading asset managers. The 2011 Newport Jazz Festival Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management also celebrates support from Alex and Ani (sponsor of the Alex and Ani Harbor Stage), Amstel Light, DownBeat, NPR Music, Jazz Times and travel partners JazzFest Travel Inc., Hyatt Regency Newport, The Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina, Marriott Newport and Hotel Viking Newport.

#  #  #

Schedule Subject to Change

The 2011 Newport Jazz Festival® is a production of Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., a pending 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, under license from Festival Productions, Inc. and George Wein; all rights reserved

Jazz … With Strings Attached!

Jazz Journalist Eugene Holley, Jr.
Talks Strings & Things at Newport Jazz Festival

NEWPORT, RI – Saxophones, trumpeters, drummers, and keyboards; those are the traditional instruments you often hear in every era of jazz, and, most likely at every jazz festival. But along the way, the stringed instruments have also made their mark. Guitarists like Wes Montgomery and Joe Pass; violinists like Ray Nance and Stephane Grappelli, and bassists like Ron Carter and Scott LaFaro, have advanced the artistic boundaries of their respective instruments. The artists appearing at the 2011 Newport Jazz Festival® Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management are doing the same thing in the 21^st Century.

Ever since Charlie Christian plugged in his guitar, that instrument has been on the cutting edge of every style of jazz since the thirties. And for much of his astonishing 35-year career, the New Jersey-born guitarist Al Di Meola – who’s been wowing the world ever since he debuted in the seventies as a teenage phenom with the fusion group Return to Forever – has been expanding the boundaries of the plectral horizon with verve and nerve. His impossible, Mephisto-like chops are only matched by his equally impressive ability to showcase the guitar in a variety of musical settings. As you will hear when he brings his World Sinfonia ensemble — Fausto Beccalossi on accordion, acoustic guitarist Peo Afonsi, percussionists Peter Kaszas and Gumbi Ortiz, and Victor Miranda on bass — to the Newport stage on Saturday, August 6, 2011 for the latest stop of the group’s Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody Tour (which is also the name of their latest CD). The group is a virtual six-stringed passport that’s equally valid in Spanish flamenco, Moroccan rai rhythms and Turkish arabesques. This is the kind of group suited for a man who has played everything from Cuban rumba to the Argentinean tango, and with everybody from guitar legends Paco De Lucia and John McLaughlin to Jan Hammer and Jaco Pastorius. Simply put, Al Di Meola literally has the world in his hands with his amazing aggregation.

Another equally impressive musical world traveler is the ubiquitous Detroit violinist Regina Carter. She’s come a long way from her solo on the seventies hit “This Must be Heaven” with the R&B group Bloodstone, to her stupendous solo career working with jazz masters like Kenny Barron, Danilo Perez; R&B/hip-hop stars including Aretha Franklin, Lauryn Hill, and rock icon Billy Joel. Her jazz recordings range from a heartfelt tribute to her hometown to her award winning Paganini After a Dream, where he made an incredible pilgrimage to Italy to play the legendary violinist’s violin nicknamed “The Cannon.” She’s gone from swing to pop, bossa nova, Latin and classical, and when she takes the Newport stage on Saturday, August 6, she reprises the jazz-meets-West Africa grooves she laid down on her latest recording Reverse Thread – a kind of musical middle passage from the New World to the Old, piloted by Carter, kora virtuoso Yacouba Sissoko, accordion master Will Holshouser, bassist Chris Lightcap and drummer/percussion Alvester Garnett. What Carter and company will do is demonstrate in what the Afro-Cuban percussionist Chano Pozo said to a reporter about his ground-breaking collaboration with Dizzy Gillespie in the forties. “Dizzy no speak Spanish. I no speak English. But we both speak African!”

Bandleader/bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding not only speaks African like Ms. Carter, but she literally is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, and can play bass in a myriad of moods, grooves and genres. The meteoric rise of this twenty-something, Portland born-and-bred, largely self-taught prodigy, who became the youngest instructor in the Berklee School of Music, a favorite of President Obama, and the winner of 2011 Grammy Award for Best New Artist, is already the stuff of jazz legends, thanks to her three high-selling and critically acclaimed CD’s Junjo, Esperanza and Chamber Music Society. Not since Wynton Marsalis arrived on the scene three decades ago has there been an artist who has garnered the attention of the non-jazz public as she has. With her youthful, lithe appearance, and her optimistic, outgoing stage manner and her iconic Afro, it’s easy to see why she’s a hit. But make no mistake: she can play the bass – just ask her ex-employers Patti Austin, Pat Metheny and McCoy Tyner.  So when she takes the Newport stage for two shows, Esperanza and Friends, August 6 and 7, she’ll play with special guests, featuring selections especially chosen for the festival. Saturday’s Friends are Anat Cohen, clarinet, saxophone; Justin Brown, drums; Leo Genovese, piano and Sara Caswell, violin. On Sunday, Esperanza’s Friends are Ambrose Akinmusire, trumpet; Uri Caine, piano; Shalini Ramaswamy, vocals; Terri Lynne Carrington, drums; and Aaron Burnette, saxophone.

Produced by George Wein and the Newport Festivals Foundation, the Newport Jazz Festival Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management takes over Newport, RI, August 5-7 at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at Newport Casino and Fort Adams State Park. The Festival features Wynton Marsalis and Michael Feinstein “Come Fly with Me” with Special Guest Joe Negri on Friday, August 5.   On Saturday August 6, don’t miss  Wynton Marsalis; Esperanza Spalding and Friends; Hiromi; Regina Carter’s Reverse Thread; Al Di Meola World Sinfonia Pursuit of Radical Rhapsody Tour 2011 with Special Guest Gonzalo Rubalcaba; Eddie Palmieri Latin Jazz Band; Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue; Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Trio; Michel Camilo “Mano a Mano with Giovanni Hidalgo and John Benitez;  Ambrose Akinmusire Quintet; Joey DeFrancesco Trio; Grace Kelly with guest Phil Woods; Steve Coleman and Five Elements; Mostly Other People Do the Killing; and New Black Eagle Jazz Band.

On Sunday, August 7, catch Angélique Kidjo; James Farm with Joshua Redman, Aaron Parks, Matt Penman and Eric Harland; Charles Lloyd’s Sangam featuring Zakir Hussain and Eric Harland; Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue; Hiromi: The Trio Project featuring Anthony Jackson and Simon Phillips; Mingus Big Band; Ravi Coltrane Quartet; Esperanza Spalding and Friends; Brubeck Brothers Quartet with Special Guest Dave Brubeck; Ravi Coltrane Quartet; Apex: Rudresh Mahanthappa & Bunky Green; Miguel Zenón presents the Puerto Rican Songbook with conductor/arranger Guillermo Klein; John Hollenbeck Large Ensemble; Avishai Cohen’s Triveni with special guest Anat Cohen; Berklee College of Music: Mario Castro Quintet; Plus a special bonus set: A Meeting of Saxophone Masters featuring Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane and Miguel Zenón.

TICKETS & OTHER INFORMATION

Tickets for the Newport Jazz Festival Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management are on sale worldwide through www.ticketmaster.com and www.newportjazzfest.net as well as by phone, by mail and at the new Festival office at the Alex and Ani store at One Bowen’s Wharf during limited hours. General admission tickets (single-day passes only) also can be purchased at the Newport Visitor Information Center, located at 23 America’s Cup Avenue.  For general information, craft vendor information or to leave a message for festival staff, call (401) 848-5055.  For more information, log on to www.newportjazzfest.net.

Partners

Presenting sponsor Natixis Global Asset Management is one of the world’s leading asset managers. The 2011 Newport Jazz Festival Presented by Natixis Global Asset Management also celebrates support from Alex and Ani (sponsor of the Alex and Ani Harbor Stage), Amstel Light, DownBeat, NPR Music, Jazz Times and travel partners JazzFest Travel Inc., Hyatt Regency Newport, The Newport Harbor Hotel and Marina, Marriott Newport and Hotel Viking Newport.

#  #  #

Schedule Subject to Change

The 2011 Newport Jazz Festival® is a production of Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc., a pending 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation, under license from Festival Productions, Inc. and George Wein; all rights reserved