Silver Shoes and a Golden Horn is a unique collaboration between New Jersey Tap Ensemble's Artistic Director Deborah Mitchell and legendary Montclair saxophonist/composer and founder of the World Sax Quartet Oliver Lake. Lake will be joined by drummer Cecil Brooks III and bassist Beldon Bullock. Mitchell teams with New Jersey Tap soloists Maurice Chestnut, and Karen Callaway Williams and dance captain DeWitt Fleming, Jr.
“This one of a kind evening will be filled with new dances and hip jazz guaranteed to thrill and entertain," says David Rosenak, Artistic Director of Bloomfield College's Westminster Arts Center. “These gifted artists are collaborating for the first time, to join together the best of rhythm tap with Oliver Lake's unique style of jazz."
As part of this special evening and benefit performance, the Westminster Arts Center is offering $35 VIP level tickets, which include preferred seating, a post-performance reception with the artists and a limited edition cd of the show's music. Tickets are $15 for General Admission, $5 for students and seniors and FREE for BC students. For reservations and information, please phone 973 748-9000, ext 279.
The Westminster Arts Center is a disabled access facility, located on the corner of Fremont and Franklin Streets on the Campus of Bloomfield College, in Bloomfield, New Jersey. For more information on events please visit: http://www.bloomfield.edu/Westminster/. For detailed directions, please visit http://www.bloomfield.edu/about/location.asp.
About New Jersey Tap Ensemble:
NJTAP is dedicated to its mission of preserving and perpetuating the American art form of rhythm tap through public performances, new works, special programs, artist development, and arts education. The Bloomfield-based company was founded in 1994 by professional tap dancer and Artistic Director Deborah Mitchell as New Jersey's first statewide not-for-profit tap dance company. Since that time, the company has continuously served audiences and artists in New Jersey and our region, and prides itself in being in the forefront of a great 21st century tap revival. The New Jersey Tap Ensemble is a recipient of the New Jersey State Council on the Arts Citation of Excellence and is designated as a qualified organization by the New Jersey Cultural Trust. For more information about NJ Tap, please visit www.njtap.org
About Oliver Lake:
The Artistic Director of Passin' Thru, composer, saxophonist, and poet, Oliver Lake is co-founder of the renowned World Saxophone Quartet. A Guggenheim fellow for composition, Oliver was the first African American commissioned by Library of Congress and the McKim Foundation for composition. His Orchestra piece, Cross Stitch premiered in the spring of 94 performed by the Wheeling Symphony. His piece for violin and piano, Movement Turns and Switches, premiered inn the fall of 1993 at the Academy of Arts and Sciences in Washington DC.
Receiver of numerous composition commissions from the N.E.A. and Meet the Composer, many of Lake's compositions are included in the Smithsonian collection. Various artists have performed his works, including the Arditti String Quartet, World Sax Quartet, Amherst Sax Quartet, Regina Carter, Brooklyn Philharmonic, the Wheeling Symphony, San Francisco Contemporary Players, New York Music Ensemble, and the Pulse Percussion Ensemble of New York.
Mr. Lake has performed throughout the world, including Japan, Australia and Europe with the World Saxophone Quartet and/or Trio Three. He has performed and arranged for such diverse artists as pop singer Bjork, rocker Lou Reed, jazz vocalist Abbey Lincoln and the rap group, Tribe Called Quest. During the past year Oliver has toured western U.S and Canada performing a solo theater piece he created called Matador of 1st & 1st, directed by Oz Scott. His latest quintet recording is entitled Dedication to Dolphy on the Italian label, Black Saint. Oliver's music was nurtured early on by the Black Artist Group of St. Louis, of which he was a founding member. His music is a mature and masterful integration of seemingly disparate elements. His work is a combination of improvisation and composition with jumps and leaps of structure, rhythm, melodic and harmonic invention that have become his signature.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
