From Emerging Geniuses to Established Giants
The Newport Jazz Festival® Swings with the Ages
Cuban-born saxophonist-clarinetist and NEA Jazz Master Paquito D’Rivera is another master of modern music and no wonder – he played with the legendary trumpeter/bebop co-creator Dizzy Gillespie in his last great big band, The United Nation Orchestra. Now D’Rivera leads and directs the Dizzy Gillespie™ All-Star Big Band: a lovely, supreme all-star aggregation of Dizzyfied musicians including trumpeter Diego Urcola and Claudio Roditi; bassist John Lee, percussionist Pernell Saturnino, drummer Lewis Nash and pianist Cyrus Chestnut. Given the breadth of Dizzy’s band book, they could play anything from “Night in Tunisia,” and “Con Alma” to “Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac” and “Things to Come.” With D’Rivera’s pithy and encyclopedic sax and clarinet lines, this band is coming to burn o Sunday, August 4.
Though a generation younger than Tabackin, tenor soprano Joshua Redman – the Harvard educated son of jazz great Dewey Redman, who burst on the scene in the 80s when he won the first Thelonious Monk Saxophone Competition, and served as the Artistic Director of SFjazz – brings two decades of his sophisticated swing to Newport on Sunday joined by his combo, which includes his Harvard alum, pianist Aaron Goldberg, bassist Reuben Rogers, and drummer Greg Hutchinson. At home with straight-ahead, ballad, avant-garde, bebop, and fusion genres, Redman will keep the music real, no matter the mood or groove.
The immortal Art Blakey and his Jazz Messengers was the school of hard, swinging grooves that graduated arguably the best trumpeters in jazz, from Clifford Brown, Lee Morgan and Freddie Hubbard to Woody Shaw, Wynton Marsalis and Terence Blanchard. A veteran of the Young Lions period of the 1980’s, Blanchard’s Crescent City trumpet tones, have given him a distinguished and diversified career with over 30 albums as a leader, along with an equally impressive career as a film composer – mostly with Spike Lee – in addition to a sterling record as an educator with The Thelonious Monk Institute. Blanchard’s recordings have featured tributes to Billie Holiday and Chano Pozo, along with an intriguing collaboration with the provocative intellectual Cornel West. He’s just signed with the Blue Note label for his latest CD, “Magnetic,” so Blanchard will be in top form with his quintet: Cuban pianist Fabian Almazan, tenor saxophonist Brice Winston, bassist Joshua Crumbley, and drummer Justin Brown. Look for Blanchard’s musical gumbo to have the right sonic seasoning for jazz on Saturday, August 3.
On his latest CD, Renaissance, uberbassist Marcus Miller – a native New Yorker who claims pianist extraordinaire Wynton Kelly and rappers Foxy Brown and Lil’ Kim as cousins, teams with the New Orleans Night Tripper Dr. John on their funky, Professor Longhair-pulsed rendition of Janelle Monae’s pop hit, “Tighrope.” And, Miller – a three decade veteran studio musician who’s played with everybody from Miles Davis, David Sanborn and Boz Scaggs to Luther Vandross and Lonnie Liston Smith – brings his youthful combo featuring soon-to-be Young Lion Alex Han on saxophone to Newport on Saturday, leading with his fearless, Fretless bass and bold basslines that hold it down, whether it is R&B, hip-hop, soul, rock or jazz. Look for Miller and company to perform selections from “Renaissance,” including WAR’s “Slippin’ into Darkness” and the Quincy Jones/Ivan Lins Brazilian composition “Septembro (Brazilian Wedding Song).” Miller fits a lot of syncopations and styles under his trademarked porkpie hat, but the important thing is that no matter the mood, mode or meter, Miller and the other veterans will get your toes tapping, with that jazzy sound of surprise.
The Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Global Asset Management features Natalie Cole and the Bill Charlap Trio with special guest Freddy Cole, at the International Tennis Hall of Fame at the Newport Casino (194 Bellevue Avenue) on Friday, August 2, at 8:00 pm. The festival continues on Saturday, August 3, on three unique stages from 10:30 am – 7:00 pm at Fort Adams State Park (90 Fort Adams Drive). The roster includes Wayne Shorter’s 80th Birthday Celebration: Wayne Shorter Quartet featuring special guest Herbie Hancock and Danilo Perez, John Patitucci & Brian Blade; Marcus Miller; Esperanza Spalding - Radio Music Society; Michel Camilo Sextet; Terence Blanchard Quintet; Robert Glasper Experiment; Gregory Porter; Edmar Castañeda; Ray Anderson Pocket Brass Band; Amir ElSaffar Two Rivers; Bill Charlap Trio with guests Bob Wilber and Anat Cohen; Mary Halvorson Quintet; Rez Abbasi Trio, among others.
On Sunday, August 4, the music continues at Fort Adams at 10:30 am with Chick Corea & The Vigil with Christian McBride, Tim Garland, Marcus Gilmore and Charles Altura; Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra; Roy Haynes Fountain of Youth Band featuring Jaleel Shaw, Martin Bejerano and David Wong; Dizzy Gillespie™ Big Band under the direction of Paquito D’Rivera; Hiromi: The Trio Project with Anthony Jackson and Steve Smith; Joshua Redman Quartet; Jim Hall Quartet featuring Julian Lage; Jon Batiste & Stay Human; Dee Alexander: Songs That My Mother Loved; The Dirty Dozen Brass Band; Lew Tabackin Quartet with Randy Brecker, Peter Washington and Lewis Nash; Donny McCaslin Group; Steve Coleman Projects: Five Elements, Talea Ensemble and Duo with Tyshawn Sorey; David Gilmore & Numerology featuring Claudia Acuña, Miguel Zenón, Luis Perdomo, Christian McBride, Jeff “Tain” Watts and Mino Cinelu; and others.
TICKETS & OTHER INFORMATION
Tickets for the 2013 Newport Jazz Festival presented by Natixis Global Asset Management are on sale now at www.newportjazzfest.net, by phone and by mail.
There will be a festival office in the Newport area where tickets can be purchased in person at a later date. For general information, craft vendor information or to leave a message for festival staff, call the festival hotline at (401) 848-5055. For more information, log on to www.newportjazzfest.net or www.newportfestivalsfoundation.org.
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About Natixis Global Asset Management, S.A.
Natixis Global Asset Management, S.A. (www.ngam.natixis.com) ranks among the world’s 15 largest asset managers.1 As a multi-affiliate company, NGAM brings together the expertise of multiple specialized investment managers under one umbrella with the belief that this combined expertise offers unique market perspective. The firm spreads this same ideal in the global community by sponsoring programs and events that help enrich the lives of individuals and enhance and preserve the cultural experience for future generations through music.
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1 Cerulli Quantitative Update: Global Markets 2012 ranked Natixis Global Asset Management, S.A. as the 13th largest asset manager in the world based on assets under management as of December 31, 2011.
About Newport Festivals Foundation™
The Newport Festivals Foundation was founded by George Wein in 2010 to build and continue the legacies of the famed Newport Jazz Festival® and Newport Folk Festival®. Under the auspices of the Foundation, the Newport Jazz Festival presents performers who respect and honor jazz music traditions, and at the same time reflect the changes in today's musical trends. Through the establishment of partnerships with local high schools and colleges/universities, the Foundation will present programs to educate young people about jazz music as presented at the annual festivals. For more information, please visit www.newportfestivalsfoundation.org.
In addition to presenting sponsor Natixis Global Asset Management, additional sponsorship support for the Newport Jazz Festival is provided by Alex and Ani, a positive energy, eco-conscious, lifestyle brand, and Louis Jadot, America’s #1 French Wine.
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*Artists Subject to change
The 2013 Newport Jazz Festival® and Newport Folk Festival® are productions of Newport Festivals Foundation, Inc.™, a 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation, under license from Festival Productions, Inc. and George Wein; all rights reserved.