Boston, MA--Jazz Week will be celebrated April 21 through April 29 with more than 100 events in over 50 venues in various locations throughout the Boston metro area. Featured will be Ellis Marsalis, Frank Morgan, Lyambiko, Phil Wilson, Ben Monder, Jerry Bergonzi, Yoron Israel, Grace Kelly, Avishai Cohen, James Merenda, Tiger Okoshi, Dominique Eade, Charlie Kohlhase, Ran Blake and many more.
Coordinated and promoted by the non-profit organization JazzBoston, Jazz Week kicks off with an “All-Star Jazz Blowout" concert on Apr. 21, 8 p.m., at Berklee Performance Center with part of the proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village in New Orleans. Other special events: a free “Perspectives on Jazz" seminar series held weekdays at the Boston Public Library and two “Family Initiative: Jazz for All Ages" events: Apr. 22, Center for Latino Arts in the South End, and Apr. 29, Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Also: a Borders-Back Bay free in-store performance series Apr. 23-27 at 7 p.m.
For information and event updates go to www.jazzboston.org/jazzweek or call (888) 671-0993 (toll free).
For eight days, the music that has made Boston a destination for artists and fans of all stripes will be celebrated throughout the city during an event that Mayor Thomas Menino has officially proclaimed “Jazz Week."
Participating in the celebration being coordinated by the non-profit organization JazzBoston will be hundreds of musicians of all generations performing jazz of every style in venues throughout the Greater Boston area, from clubs, museums and churches to libraries, universities, hotels and community centers.
It will mark the first time since the much acclaimed Boston Jazz Weeks of the 1970s and early 1980s that such a diverse, community-wide jazz event will take place in the city that has given the world such musical giants as Roy Haynes, Chick Corea and Tony Williams.
Jazz Week Highlights
Several hundred artists will be performing during Jazz Week, including Salim Washington, Marianne Solivan, Nat Simpkins, Mehmet Sanlikol, Lisa Thorsen, Kurtis Rivers, Marta Gomez, Ray Santisi, Patricia Zarate, Tim Ray, Henri Smith, Deborah Henson-Conant, George Garzone, Eric Hofbauer, Garrison Fewell, John Lockwood, Bob Brookmeyer, Luther Gray and The Fringe.
The Jazz Week kick-off “All-Star Jazz Blowout" concert on Apr. 21 at Berklee Performance Center will feature drummer Max Weinberg, Band Leader of NBC TV's “Late Night With Conan O'Brien," along with Phil Wilson directing the first-ever all-star band of faculty and students from Berklee, NEC, Harvard, MIT, Wellesley, Longy and Brandeis. The concert will also mark the reunion of Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet with Allan Chase, Cercie Miller, Tom Hall, and Joel Springer.
The new Borders bookstore in Back Bay will host “Jazz Week @ Borders" April 23 to 27 with free nightly in-store jazz concerts from 7 to 8 p.m. Among the performers: 14-year-old Brookline saxophonist Grace Kelly.
Opening its doors right before Jazz Week will be the new Beehive music club at the Boston Center for the Arts at 541 Tremont St. in the South End. Appearing there during Jazz Week will be Wannetta Jackson, Paulo Danay, Eric Watson, Berklee College of Music's “Emerging Artists," and others.
The free “Perspectives on Jazz" seminar series will be held on weekdays at the Boston Public Library and cover topics such as “Jazz Cross-Currents," “Jazz in the South End: Then and Now," and “Jazz: Black America's Gift to the Nation and the World." Among the panelists: Joe Lovano, Al Vega and Leonard Brown.
The two JazzBoston “Family Initiative: Jazz for All Ages" events bookending Jazz Week are set for the Center for Latino Arts in the South End featuring percussionists Anita Quinto and Marcus Santos (Apr. 22) and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education with vocalist Dominique Eade (Apr. 29).
A number of unique collaborations are also on tap. Turkish multi-instrumentalist Mehmet Sanlikol teams with trumpeter Tiger Okoshi at Suffolk University's C. Walsh Theater for “An Eastern Ritual of Love" on Apr. 24. “Freex to Geex 2007," presented by the Boston Cyberfest and the Music Synthesis department of Berklee College of Music, will explore the worlds of computer music sounds, live video and improvised music at Fenway Recital Hall on Apr. 29. And “A Moment in Chaos," presented in conjunction with the Cambridge Science Festival, will feature animated films by Kate Matson with improvisation by Phil Scarff, John Funkhouser and others on Apr. 24 at the Volpe Transportation Building, Cambridge.
A 21st Century Revival
“Jazz Week 2007 is an effort to spread the word about the vital jazz scene that exists in Boston, to build up the jazz community, and to share this wonderful music with the larger community," says trumpeter Mark Harvey, co-leader of JazzBoston's Jazz Week team whose Aardvark Jazz Orchestra performs a Duke Ellington tribute featuring pianist Ran Blake at the Museum of Fine Arts on Apr. 29.
“The original concept for this kind of citywide celebration began in 1973 when the Jazz Coalition produced the first-ever Boston Jazz Week and took jazz into all sorts of neighborhood settings as well as into large concert halls. The time is right for a 21st-century revival of the spirit and multifaceted sounds of music that a Jazz Week can bring to Boston."
Scheduled to tie into the Smithsonian Institution's national observance of April as Jazz Month and culminate in a birthday tribute to Duke Ellington, born on April 29, Jazz Week is being coordinated and promoted by JazzBoston but produced independently by participating musicians, presenters, clubs, educational institutions, and other organizations.
According to Pauline Bilsky, JazzBoston's executive director, “What's special about Jazz Week is that it is the product of a collaborative effort by representatives of Boston's entire jazz community. It exemplifies our belief that connecting members of the jazz community who don't normally work together is the best way to keep Boston's thriving jazz scene growing. That's why it has been one of JazzBoston's top priorities from the beginning."
Watch for updates on Jazz Week by visiting the JazzBoston website.
Coordinated and promoted by the non-profit organization JazzBoston, Jazz Week kicks off with an “All-Star Jazz Blowout" concert on Apr. 21, 8 p.m., at Berklee Performance Center with part of the proceeds going to Habitat for Humanity Musicians Village in New Orleans. Other special events: a free “Perspectives on Jazz" seminar series held weekdays at the Boston Public Library and two “Family Initiative: Jazz for All Ages" events: Apr. 22, Center for Latino Arts in the South End, and Apr. 29, Cambridge Center for Adult Education. Also: a Borders-Back Bay free in-store performance series Apr. 23-27 at 7 p.m.
For information and event updates go to www.jazzboston.org/jazzweek or call (888) 671-0993 (toll free).
For eight days, the music that has made Boston a destination for artists and fans of all stripes will be celebrated throughout the city during an event that Mayor Thomas Menino has officially proclaimed “Jazz Week."
Participating in the celebration being coordinated by the non-profit organization JazzBoston will be hundreds of musicians of all generations performing jazz of every style in venues throughout the Greater Boston area, from clubs, museums and churches to libraries, universities, hotels and community centers.
It will mark the first time since the much acclaimed Boston Jazz Weeks of the 1970s and early 1980s that such a diverse, community-wide jazz event will take place in the city that has given the world such musical giants as Roy Haynes, Chick Corea and Tony Williams.
Jazz Week Highlights
Several hundred artists will be performing during Jazz Week, including Salim Washington, Marianne Solivan, Nat Simpkins, Mehmet Sanlikol, Lisa Thorsen, Kurtis Rivers, Marta Gomez, Ray Santisi, Patricia Zarate, Tim Ray, Henri Smith, Deborah Henson-Conant, George Garzone, Eric Hofbauer, Garrison Fewell, John Lockwood, Bob Brookmeyer, Luther Gray and The Fringe.
The Jazz Week kick-off “All-Star Jazz Blowout" concert on Apr. 21 at Berklee Performance Center will feature drummer Max Weinberg, Band Leader of NBC TV's “Late Night With Conan O'Brien," along with Phil Wilson directing the first-ever all-star band of faculty and students from Berklee, NEC, Harvard, MIT, Wellesley, Longy and Brandeis. The concert will also mark the reunion of Your Neighborhood Saxophone Quartet with Allan Chase, Cercie Miller, Tom Hall, and Joel Springer.
The new Borders bookstore in Back Bay will host “Jazz Week @ Borders" April 23 to 27 with free nightly in-store jazz concerts from 7 to 8 p.m. Among the performers: 14-year-old Brookline saxophonist Grace Kelly.
Opening its doors right before Jazz Week will be the new Beehive music club at the Boston Center for the Arts at 541 Tremont St. in the South End. Appearing there during Jazz Week will be Wannetta Jackson, Paulo Danay, Eric Watson, Berklee College of Music's “Emerging Artists," and others.
The free “Perspectives on Jazz" seminar series will be held on weekdays at the Boston Public Library and cover topics such as “Jazz Cross-Currents," “Jazz in the South End: Then and Now," and “Jazz: Black America's Gift to the Nation and the World." Among the panelists: Joe Lovano, Al Vega and Leonard Brown.
The two JazzBoston “Family Initiative: Jazz for All Ages" events bookending Jazz Week are set for the Center for Latino Arts in the South End featuring percussionists Anita Quinto and Marcus Santos (Apr. 22) and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education with vocalist Dominique Eade (Apr. 29).
A number of unique collaborations are also on tap. Turkish multi-instrumentalist Mehmet Sanlikol teams with trumpeter Tiger Okoshi at Suffolk University's C. Walsh Theater for “An Eastern Ritual of Love" on Apr. 24. “Freex to Geex 2007," presented by the Boston Cyberfest and the Music Synthesis department of Berklee College of Music, will explore the worlds of computer music sounds, live video and improvised music at Fenway Recital Hall on Apr. 29. And “A Moment in Chaos," presented in conjunction with the Cambridge Science Festival, will feature animated films by Kate Matson with improvisation by Phil Scarff, John Funkhouser and others on Apr. 24 at the Volpe Transportation Building, Cambridge.
A 21st Century Revival
“Jazz Week 2007 is an effort to spread the word about the vital jazz scene that exists in Boston, to build up the jazz community, and to share this wonderful music with the larger community," says trumpeter Mark Harvey, co-leader of JazzBoston's Jazz Week team whose Aardvark Jazz Orchestra performs a Duke Ellington tribute featuring pianist Ran Blake at the Museum of Fine Arts on Apr. 29.
“The original concept for this kind of citywide celebration began in 1973 when the Jazz Coalition produced the first-ever Boston Jazz Week and took jazz into all sorts of neighborhood settings as well as into large concert halls. The time is right for a 21st-century revival of the spirit and multifaceted sounds of music that a Jazz Week can bring to Boston."
Scheduled to tie into the Smithsonian Institution's national observance of April as Jazz Month and culminate in a birthday tribute to Duke Ellington, born on April 29, Jazz Week is being coordinated and promoted by JazzBoston but produced independently by participating musicians, presenters, clubs, educational institutions, and other organizations.
According to Pauline Bilsky, JazzBoston's executive director, “What's special about Jazz Week is that it is the product of a collaborative effort by representatives of Boston's entire jazz community. It exemplifies our belief that connecting members of the jazz community who don't normally work together is the best way to keep Boston's thriving jazz scene growing. That's why it has been one of JazzBoston's top priorities from the beginning."
Watch for updates on Jazz Week by visiting the JazzBoston website.
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