The crown jewel of their current projects is a tribute to Django Reinhardt -- a Festival and All Star touring group in his name. The '10th Anniversary' of their very successful Django Festival at Birdland took place in November 2009 and featured Tchavolo Schmitt, Andreas Oberg, Terrell Stafford, Joel Frahm, Samson Schmitt, and others. The success of the Django Festivals led them to produce individual Spirit of Django concerts during the summers at Alice Tully Hall, and later at Rose Hall for 7 years.
For Jan/Feb 2010 Stratta Philips Productions has organized a cross/country tour of their Django AllStars -- a group featuring legendary gypsy guitarist Dorado Schmitt, Samson Schmitt, Marcel Loeffler, Pierre Blanchard, and Brian Torff. The tour begins at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC on January 16, with performances following at The Dakota (MN), Yoshi's Oakland, Kuumbwa Jazz Center in Santa Cruz, Catalina's in LA, OCPAC in Costa Mesa, CA, The Iridium (NYC) and finishes at the Montreal Jazz Festival on February 4-6. The new CD by Dorado Schmitt and the Django Reinhardt NY Festival AllStars' Live at the Kennedy Center is soon to be officially released. For more information visit http://www.djangobirdland.com.
Stratta Philips Productions was formed in 1988 with a directive to follow “their taste" in music, not trends or the record industry but their own passions -- to be producers who work their projects from soup-to-nuts. Starting with an idea, this production team creates original concepts, brings in top quality artists (sometimes completely unknown), solicits sponsors, markets their concerts, works the rehearsals -- runs the show backstage, they do it all. They have earned the respect of the music community, industry players, and a public following for their tireless efforts to deliver something original, highly artistic but also entertaining and deserving.
The history of their “Django" events begins with the duo's long-time collaboration with great jazz violinist Stphane Grappelli. In 1988, Philips and Stratta produced Grappelli's 80th birthday tribute at Carnegie Hall, where Yo-Yo Ma performed in the jazz world for the first time, playing custom written arrangements by Musical Director Roger Kellaway. The celebration included performances with The Juilliard String Quartet, Michel Legrand, Harold Nicholas, and Toots Thielemans. Grappelli became a source of inspiration to create a US platform for the music of his partner, Django Reinhardt. This was the first-ever tribute of its kind in the US which brought the finest gypsy jazz players from Europe.
Other historical events have included “From Harlem to Hollywood" at Carnegie Hall which paid tribute to tap legends The Nicholas Brothers. Hardly remembered at the time, Stratta and Philips, advised against doing the concert -- forged ahead and had a sold-out house. With Lena Horne, Bill Cosby, Maurice Hines, Savion Glover and the dancers from the Broadway production of Bring in Da Noise, Bobby Short, Ben Vereen, and a big band -- a la the Cotton Club days -- it was a night to remember. There wasn't a dry eye in the hall as clips from the MGM musicals were cast on a huge screen. Bill Cosby, who hosted the event, called Philips the next morning to say it was a brilliant evening.
Brazilian music was not quite as popular as it is on the radar today, but Philips and Stratta decided it should be back in the early 90's and started producing many years of All Jobim and More, the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim at Carnegie Hall, the first featuring Jobim himself. Others to follow included Gal Costa, Gilberto Gil, Ivan Lins, Joyce, Simone, Dori Caymmi and more. In each concert, Stratta/Philips invented a unique situation such as having the classical Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Stratta, with Branford Marsalis and Eliane Elias performing with it...a first for the orchestra playing Brazilian music. Bernard Holland of The NY Times wrote “this concert gives me hope for the future of music."
Once again, daring the odds, they paid tribute to tenor saxophonist Illinois Jacquet at Carnegie Hall, one of the brightest nights of his life. The tribute, was well-deserved but risky at the time. Adding Ray Charles, a big fan of Jacquet's, came from a brainstorm session, as was titling the show “50 Years of Flying Home" -- citing one of the most famous instrumental solos in jazz history when Jacquet as a youngster took this memorable solo in the Lionel Hampton Orchestra.
Bringing tango to Carnegie Hall in the 90's, a time when tango was considered old fashioned, was another Stratta/Philips vision, proven right. With the Pablo Ziegler Quintet's modern tango combined with guests Gary Burton, Joe Lovano, Paquito D'Rivera, top artists from Buenos Aires, and some dancers, the two productions “Tango Magic" and “Tango, Passion, and Swing" were big hits that led to a PBS Special and developed a community around tango music in the US.
Other events in the history of Stratta/Philips include The Magic of Toots, paying tribute to Toots Thielemans in a stunning production. You could hear a pin drop at Carnegie Hall. Timely was their night honoring Oscar Peterson with an all-star line-up of Hank Jones, Clark Terry, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Wynton Marsalis, Christian McBride and more. The master passed three months later. Paquito D'Rivera's big night celebration also at the great hall was a Latin/Jazz feast -- Bebo Valdez, Cachao Candido, Michel Camilo and others combined with appearances of Yo-Yo Ma and Rosa Passos, an orchestra, and more. The pair produced the highly successful Regina Carter CD Paganini: After a Dream and the sold-out concert of this music. For five years, they produced “Absolut Concerto", a daring “new music" project at Lincoln Center with major symphony orchestras and commissioned works by top composers such as John Adams.
Their productions with opera star Sumi Jo, notably her performance of Broadway songs with Orchestra at Carnegie Hall, the recording of which later became “gold," was her most successful record to date and one of her only recordings outside classical and Korean folk music.
Pat Philips began her career starting the first-ever jazz series at the 92nd street Y, titled “Jazz Alive at the Y" in 1981, featuring an all-star cast including Benny Goodman, Gerry Mulligan, Honi Coles and the Copacetics, James Moody, Sir Roland Hanna, and the NY Jazz Quartet with Grady Tate. In the early 80's she developed the first jazz series at the Seaport on the Old Pier (before renovation) and also “Salsa at the Seaport" which included a 5-year run with Tito Puente and many other top Latin bands. These seaport series brought attention to the area, which subsequently became a hot spot for music and tourism.
Philips has presented Al Jarreau, Ray Charles, Branford Marsalis, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Milt Jackson, Michael Brecker, Stefon Harris, John Pizzarelli, Hank Jones, Tony Bennett, Herbie Hancock, Nancy Wilson, The Count Basie Orchestra, Branford Marsalis, Dave Brubeck, Russell Malone, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Paul Simon, James Brown, and hundreds more. She created a summer jazz series on the Dewitt Clinton Ship with a long list of top artists from Betty Carter to Take 6 to Buddy Rich, Lionel Hampton, Slide Hampton and more. Philips also managed the career of multi-talented pianist/arranger/composer Roger Kellaway which led the Philips/Stratta team into cross-over projects with the NY Philharmonic and the NY Pops. She and her partner produced The Songwriter's Hall of Fame show for 10 years which included top stars from the pop, rock, and jazz worlds as they paid tribute to America's greatest songwriters.
Ettore Stratta, known as the “Crossover Whiz" created Switched on Bach at Columbia when he headed the International Department and went on to have a brilliant independent recording career using his vast musical knowledge as Pianist, Conductor, and Producer. He created Symphonic Tango, Symphonic Bossa Nova, and Symphonic Boleros for Teldec in the 90's working with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra of London and the London Symphony Orchestra in the ensembles' first ventures into music outside of the Classical world. He included guests Al Jarreau, Hubert Laws, Tom Scott, and brought to light the talent of opera stars Jose Cura, Placido Domingo with orchestra of non-classical music.
Stratta has also produced recordings with Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett (The Art of Excellence), Lena Horne, Julio Iglieses, Linda Eder, Cleo Laine, Maureen McGovern, Yo-Yo Ma & Roger Kellaway, conducted for George Duke, to name a few.
DJANGO ALLSTARS 10th ANNIVERSARY TOUR
January 16: Kennedy Center, Washington, DC
January 17-19: The Dakota, Minneapolis, MN
January 21-24: Yoshi's, Oakland, CA
January 25: Kuumbwa Jazz Center, Santa Cruz, CA
January 26-28: Catalina's, Los Angeles, CA
January 29-30: Orange County Performing Arts Center, Costa Mesa, CA
February 1-3: The Iridium, New York, NY
February 4-6: Montral Jazz Festival
For more information contact DL Media.
