- American jazz singer-songwriter Sheila Jordan channels Holidays emotional timbre and improvisational skills in Sophisticated Lady (Saturday, December 5, 2009)
- One of the hottest singers on the jazz charts, Kurt Elling showcases his expressive baritone in a program entitled Swing, Brother Swing (Saturday, November 21, 2009)
Sheila Jordan
Sophisticated Lady
Saturday, December 5, 2009 at 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Price: $32-38
“[Sheila Jordans] ballad performances are simply beyond the emotional and expressive capabilities of most other vocalists." New York Times
One of the few remaining voices of the golden age of jazz, Sheila Jordan makes her Kimmel Center debut with a program entitled Sophisticated Lady on Saturday, December 5, 2009 in Perelman Theater. Jordan has been called “one of the most consistently creative jazz artists of all time" (All Music Guide), known for her signature sweeping changes of pitch, improvisation skills and bebop roots in performances of standards as well as her own compositions. Jordan was awarded the Mary Lou Williams Award for a Lifetime of Service to Jazz in 2008, following the album release of Winter Sunshine in celebration of her 80th birthday.
A survivor with a rich jazz history, Sheila Jordan grew up in poverty in the coal-mining country of Summerhill, Pennsylvania. Influenced primarily by bebop instrumentalists, particularly saxophonist-composer Charlie “Bird" Parker, Jordan began her career as part of a trio called Skeeter, Mitch and Jean, composing lyrics to Parker's arrangements. After moving to New York in the early 1950s, she married Parker's pianist, Duke Jordan, and honed her skills in harmony and theory in New York with legends like pianist Lennie Tristano and bassist Charles Mingus.
One of Jordan's first recordings, The Outer View (1962) with jazz pianist George Russell, featured a famous 10-minute version of “You Are My Sunshine." She made her Blue Note debut recording Portrait of Sheila in 1963, followed by albums with pianist Steve Kuhn, whose quartet she joined, and the album Home (1980), comprising a selection of Robert Creeley's poems set to music and arranged by Steve Swallow. A 1983 duo set with bassist Harvie Swartz, Old Time Feeling, features several of the standards Jordan regularly features in her live repertoire, while 1990's Lost And Found pays tribute to her bebop roots. Her penchant for singing with minimal accompaniment led to another remarkable collaboration with bassist Cameron Brown, with whom she has been performing all over the world for more than 10 years, releasing live albums Ive Grown Accustomed to the Bass (2000) and Celebration (2005).
Committed to helping young musicians and keeping the message of music alive, Jordan has taught at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, City College in New York and Graz, Austria, and holds weekend workshops as well as vocal coaching sessions at her home.
Sheila Jordan Quintet
Sheila Jordan, vocals
Ralph Lalama, tenor saxophone
Peter Mihelic, piano
Cameron Brown, bass
Tony Jefferson, drums
Saturday, December 5, 2009 | Intermission
Perelman Theater
Artist Chat
An intermission Artist Chat led by Kimmel Center Vice President of Programming Tom Warner and Jazz Up Close Artistic Advisor and jazz pianist Danilo Prez, along with the evenings featured performer will explore the music heard in concert as well as their own thoughts, memories and riffs.
Kurt Elling
Swing, Brother Swing
Saturday, November 21, 2009 at 7:30pm
Perelman Theater
Price: SOLD OUT
“With his soaring vocal flights, his edgy lyrics and sense of being on a musical mission, he has come to embody the creative spirit in jazz." Washington Post
“The standout male jazz vocalist of our time" (New York Times), Kurt Elling continues the Kimmel Center's season-long tribute to Billie Holiday with Swing, Brother Swing on Saturday, November 21, 2009, on the heels of a recent European tour in support of his new album Dedicated to You (2009). Winner of the Prix Billie Holiday from the Academie du Jazz in Paris, Elling brings his warm baritone to a program named for Holidays upbeat “Swing, Brother Swing," originally recorded with the Count Basie Orchestra at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom in 1937.
One of the foremost contemporary voices in the art of vocalese--putting words to instrumental jazz solos Kurt Elling's repertoire ranges from his own compositions to modern interpretations of standards, often used as a springboard into free form improvisation, scatting, spoken-word and poetry. He has set words to music by Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett and Pat Metheny, often incorporating inspiration from writers such as Rainer Maria Rilke, Pablo Neruda and Beat poet Jack Kerouac. Ellings most recent album, Dedicated to You: Kurt Elling Sings the Music of Coltrane and Hartman (2009), was recorded in January 2009 as part of Lincoln Centers American Songbook series, and features an all-star cast of musicians including saxophonist Ernie Watts, the Laurence Hobgood Trio and the string quartet ETHEL. His previous album, Nightmoves (2007), was nominated for a Grammy® Award for Best Jazz Vocal Album.
Ellings prolific career has garnered numerous awards. In addition to eight Grammy® nominations, the Jazz Journalists Association named Elling “Male Singer of the Year" for the fifth time in 2009. Also in 2009, he topped the DownBeat Critics Poll for “Male Vocalist of the Year" for the tenth year and won the DownBeat Readers Poll for the fifth year. In 2010, Elling is scheduled to release a new album of works by Joe Zawinul, Wayne Shorter, Keith Jarrett and Stevie Wonder, among others, with his quintet and special guests. Also in 2010, Elling will tour the United States with Monterey Jazz Festival All-Stars Kenny Barron Trio, Regina Carter and Russell Malone in celebration of one of the longest running jazz festivals in the world.
“In an era when bona fide jazz singers are in perilously short supply...Elling seems hellbent on rewriting the definition of what Jazz singing is all about." Chicago Tribune
Kurt Elling Quartet
Kurt Elling, vocals
Laurence Hobgood, piano
Rob Amster, bass
Ulysses Owens, Jr., drums
Saturday, November 21, 2009 | Intermission
Perelman Theater
Artist Chat
An intermission Artist Chat led by Kimmel Center Vice President of Programming Tom Warner and Jazz Up Close Artistic Advisor and jazz pianist Danilo Prez along with the evenings featured performer will explore the music heard in concert as well as their own thoughts, memories and riffs.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 215-893-1999, online at www.kimmelcenter.org, or at the Kimmel Center box office open daily from 10am to 6pm and later on performance evenings. (Additional fees may apply.) For group sales call 215-790-5883.
A limited number of $10 tickets are available for these Kimmel Center Presents performances. Tickets go on sale the day of the event and can be purchased at the Kimmel Center box office at 5:30pm prior to evening curtain time and 11:30am for matinees. Limit one ticket per person.
Kimmel Center Presents' 2009/10 Season is sponsored by Citi. American Airlines is the Official Airline of Kimmel Center Presents.
Free at the Kimmel programming and subsidized tickets offered to the community and social service groups for $10 are made possible through the Wachovia Gateway to the Arts Community Access Program, supported by a generous grant from the Wachovia Foundation.
The Kimmel Center is the recipient of partnership funding through the nationally recognized PNC “Grow Up Great" initiative, a ten-year, $100 million investment in preparing children for success in school and life. Funding gives support to the Kimmel Center's early childhood program “Bop and Swing," an arts program for children 1-5 years old, designed to promote an appreciation for American culture.
For more information contact Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.
