jazz

I manage the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project for the Library for the Performing Arts, a two-year endeavor funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories.

The project is entering its final season this fall, and we have an exciting lineup of artists performing in our Duke Jazz Series: Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies (August 26), Brian Lynch and Spheres of Influence (September 23), and Peter Apfelbaum and The New York Hieroglyphics (November 13). Further information is available from our most recent press release.

Most of the live performances and oral histories we have recorded as part of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project are now available for viewing/listening at The Library for the Performing Arts. To view a full list, search “Doris Duke Charitable Foundation” as a note in The Catalog.

I will be taking a brief hiatus from the project during the late summer and early fall to travel to Kabul, Afghanistan, where I will be training staff at the American University of Afghanistan in library cataloging procedures and assisting the University library in getting its online catalog up and running.  read more »

Harlem is the home to a rich variety of music. In addition to the Mariachi Academy of New York, zip code 10035 is also currently home to the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. I recently visited the Visitor Center of the Jazz Museum, located at 104 East 126th Street on the second floor.
Inside, I found a cool oasis-jazz music was playing at just the perfect volume in a big light room.  read more »

Double bassist Ben Allison has emerged as one of the rising stars of jazz in the last decade. He has performed all over the world with musicians ranging from saxophonist Lee Konitz to legendary performance artist Joey Arias. He has appeared on over 25 albums by various artists and has written music for film, national television and radio, including the theme for the National Public Radio (NPR) show "On the Media" and the score for Two Days, a play written by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Donald Margulies. Allison’s most recent album, Little Things Run the World, reached #1 on the CMJ National Jazz radio charts and remained in the top 20 for over four months.

Allison, along with his group, Medicine Wheel, will be playing here at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts as part of the Duke Jazz Series on Friday, May 1, at 7:30. They will be performing selections from their Chamber Music America-commissioned album, Peace Pipe.

The Duke Jazz Series is part of the two-year Library for the Performing Arts’ project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories. One of the goals of the NYPL’s Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Project is to draw attention to talented performing artists who may still be somewhat under the radar in terms their holdings at the Library. Right now, Ben Allison’s clipping file, a limited number of sound recordings and tap dance performance tapes for which he was a contributor, and one CD of his compositions may be found in our collections. We want to change that! As part of our Duke Jazz Series endeavors, we will soon be able to present not only Ben Allison in person, free of charge, to our May 1 audience (which we hope will include you!), but also Ben’s commercial recording of Peace Pipe, DVD and CD versions of the Ben Allison/Medicine Wheel live performance, and an audiorecorded oral history with Ben Allison, in which he will discuss his career with jazz journalist David Adler.

The Ben Allison/Medicine Wheel concert is free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. It will be held at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. For more information, please call 212.870.1793 or visit nypl.org/lpaprograms.

And finally, for a taste of Ben’s work: Ben's group, Man Size Safe, performing "Respiration"

Appearing in May as part of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts’ Duke Jazz Talks is Dee Dee Bridgewater, in discussion about her life and work with Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum. Following the dialogue, there will be a brief performance.

Vocalist Dee Dee Bridgewater made her New York debut in 1970 with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra, and then went on to capture everyone’s heart (and a Tony for Best Featured Actress) as Glinda the Good Witch in The Wiz. She has worked with such jazz greats as Sonny Rollins, Dizzy Gillespie, Dexter Gordon, Max Roach, and Roland Kirk, while solidifying her theater reputation by taking on such roles as jazz legend Billie Holiday in Stephen Stahl’s Lady Day and becoming the first black actress to play Sally Bowles in Cabaret. You can hear her now on NPR's JazzSet where she continues to spread her love of jazz to listeners while highlighting live jazz music around the world.  read more »

Film noir is the theme for Jefferson Market’s Monday night films this month. We’ll start the series with Fritz Lang’s Hangmen Also Die. Please take a look at The New York Public Library’s online calendar for our other upcoming films.

We’ll also have a special non-noir Saturday film screening of Blithe Spirit on March 21, 2009 at 2pm. Based on the play by Noel Coward, Blithe Spirit is getting a revival on Broadway this month. The 1945 movie poster described the film as “super-naturally spicy screen entertainment” in “blushing Technicolor. Can you resist? I think not!

Our February films came to an end with a screening of a film about Harold Arlen, the composer of such standards as It’s Only a Paper Moon and Stormy Weather and the music to The Wizard of Oz. The film had some wonderful performances by Rufus Wainwright, Debbie Harry, and Jimmy Scott, whose appearance was a highlight for me.

When I first moved to New York City I made a short list of jazz performers I wanted to see. The list wasn’t short for long, as a handful of names were added each time I’d scratch one off. Most of the individuals on this list were musicians who were around in the 1950s and were amazingly still around and performing. Jimmy Scott was on that list and the first show I saw upon moving to NYC. You might remember Scott from his haunting performance in the last episode of Twin Peaks.

A few of the other names on that short list that were quickly marked off include:  read more »

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!

Please join us for our next Duke Jazz Talk featuring father/son artists Bucky and John Pizzarelli on Wednesday, February 11 at 8:00 p.m. Duke Jazz Talks put the spotlight on four GRAMMY® -nominated and -award winning jazz artists. Bucky and John will discuss their lives and work with Bob Santelli, Executive Director of The GRAMMY MuseumSM; following the dialogue will be a brief performance.

Duke Jazz Talks are part of the two-year Library for the Performing Arts’ project funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present, document, and preserve jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances and related oral histories.

These oral histories are offering the chance to be connected to times we can never know - times we can only miss. I encourage you all to be a part of celebrating a generation of musicians whose schooling was backing Billie for a week as she passed through town - whose best education was piling into Coltrane's station wagon and traveling across the country and back. Be a part of appreciating your primary resources. Further, be a part of the movement to document, preserve, and provide access to these rich histories.

Photo Credit: Jens Palm

The Pizzarellis:

Bucky Pizzarelli has been playing professional jazz music for over sixty years. His extraordinary skill as a rhythm guitar player places him in the company of other jazz greats like Freddie Greene and Barry Galbraith. He has pioneered the great chord solo tradition begun by George Van Eps and Dick McDonough. For many years, Eps and Pizzarelli were considered the only guitarists to play the seven-string guitar exclusively.

John Pizzarelli has followed in the footsteps of his father, and has been playing the guitar since he was six years old. He began playing alongside his father at age 20, and has since gone on to have his own prolific career as a jazz guitarist, vocalist and bandleader. Internationally known for classic standards, late-night ballads, and the cool jazz flavor he brings to his performances and recordings, John Pizzarelli also hosts the nationally syndicated radio program “Radio Deluxe with John Pizzarelli.”

There is an admission charge of $10 or $5 for students for Duke Jazz Talks programs. For ticket reservations, please call 212.870.1793, or to charge by phone, call 212-245-5440. We also accept TDF vouchers for this event.

This event will be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. For more information, please call 212.870.1793 or visit nypl.org/lpaprograms

Hope to see you there!

Beginning in late September 2008, The Performing Arts Library (LPA) hosted two Duke Jazz Series concerts with Dafnis Prieto Sextet and Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto. The members of those groups were wonderful individuals with extraordinary talent. Every musician expressed their love for the music; we witnessed that excitement and burst of energy when they performed. My favorite musician was Jeff Busch from Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto who is the percussionist for that group. The piece that he stood out the most was “Feira Livre,” from Jovino Santos Neto’s album Canto do Rio.

We are pleased to start the New Year and our new Jazz season with Donny McCaslin, who is participating in our next Duke Jazz Series concert. Donny McCaslin who plays the tenor saxophone, will be performing on January 7, 2009 with David Binney, Scott Colley, Adam Cruz, Gonzalo Grau, Ben Monder, and featuring the vocals of Kate McGarry. The Donny McCaslin Group will be performing selected songs from McCaslin’s sixth album In Pursuit, described as “The concept of “pursuit,” single-minded devotion to a distant goal, marked by inventive exploration has characterized his music almost from the beginning.”

Some of the musicians who will be performing in upcoming Duke Jazz Series concerts are Jane Ira Bloom, Ben Allison, and Drew Gress, along with few others. All the performances will be held at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Bruno Walter Auditorium, at 111 Amsterdam Avenue @ 65th Street. Doors open at 7:00, show at 7:30 p.m. Admission to this show is free, and is first-come, first-served.

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 »