Doris Duke

Did you know that jazz musician Jane Ira Bloom...

...prodded by her friend, the actor Brian Dennehy, wrote a letter to NASA to ask what they thought about the future of the arts in space and ended up as the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA space program and with an asteriod (6083janeirabloom) named in her honor?

...had to relearn the saxophone while studying as a girl with Joe Viola at Berklee College? ("My embouchure was all wrong!")

...while walking around the dicey neighborhoods surrounding the New England Conservatory in the early 1970s, carried her alto sax in one hand, soprano in the other, and a chain attached between them? "I don't know what I thought, but nobody was gonna get those instruments!"

...was in the fourth class of women at Yale in 1972 and was part of the "The New Haven Renaissance" of jazz improvisers?

...found inspiration in the work of both top fuel race car driver Shirley Muldowney and British ice dancers Torvill and Dean?

Oh, there is so much more! Jane Ira Bloom recently sat down with Lara Pellegrinelli for a three-hour, two-part interview here at The Library for the Performing Arts as part of our Duke Jazz Series concert and oral history program, and the two had fascinating and, as you can see, wide-ranging conversations about the nature of her work as a jazz saxophonist. The interview should be available for listening to here at the Library within the next month or so, and I highly recommend it!

But, even sooner, you can see Jane Ira Bloom perform at the Library for the Performing Arts' Bruno Walter Auditorium, free of charge, with her Quartet, next Friday, February 20 at 7:30 p.m. as part of our Duke Jazz Series. The Bruno Walter Auditorium is located at 111 Amsterdam Avenue (at 65th Street). Doors open at 7:00. Hope you can join us!

Through the exceptional generosity of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Library for the Performing Arts’ Music and Dance Divisions and the Theatre on Film and Tape Archive have been awarded two years of funding to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories. Those of us on the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project have the distinct pleasure of leading these efforts.

Doris Duke was an avid jazz fan. In her honor, the Library is kicking off this fall a run of exciting programs focused on jazz, the Duke Jazz Series, Duke Jazz Talks, and Duke Jazz Histories. The Duke Jazz Series features eight live jazz performances from Chamber Music America award-winning ensembles and oral histories with each ensemble leader. Duke Jazz Talks put the spotlight on four GRAMMY-nominated and -award winning jazz artists and are hosted live by music curator and scholar Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY Museum. Jazz at Lincoln Center is our partner in producing the Duke Jazz Histories, private interviews with ten musicians performing in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 Jazz at Lincoln Center seasons.  read more »