Dafnis Prieto, Jovino Santos Neto, Donny McCaslin, Jane Ira Bloom, Ben Allison, and Drew Gress in Series Funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is launching a free jazz concert series this fall, featuring performances by Dafnis Prieto, Jovino Santos Neto, Donny McCaslin, Jane Ira Bloom, Ben Allison, and Drew Gress. Over the next year and a half, the Duke Jazz Series will present eight free concerts, featuring jazz ensembles selected from the Chamber Music America's “New Works" program. This 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.
The first concert of the Duke Jazz Series, featuring the Dafnis Prieto Sextet, will be held September 26, 2008. Selections from the sextet's new album, Taking the Soul for a Walk, will be performed. Dafnis Prieto, known for his explosive energy and intense style, is a Cuban drummer and composer whose range extends from Cuban rhythms to traditional jazz ensembles. In addition to the Chamber Music America award, Prieto has received numerous grants and fellowships, and was a Grammy Award nominee for his album, Absolute Quintet, as Best Jazz Album, and a Latin Grammy nominee for Best New Artist in 2007.
On November 21, 2008, the series will feature the Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto with special guests Harvey Wainapel and Felipe Salles. They will perform selections from the album Canto do Rio. Jovino Santos Neto, hailed for his brilliant and intuitive style, is a Brazilian pianist, flutist, and composer whose inspiration comes from Brazilian musical traditions, including African and Portuguese, as well as classical forms. In 2004, Jovino Santos Neto's Canto do Rio was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Record, and in 2006, Roda Carioca was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Record. This program is part of the 3rd Annual Latin American Cultural Week (LACW), a celebration of Latin American arts and artists, with music, theater, visual arts, literature, and lectures in venues throughout New York City from November 5 through 21. LACW is a program of PAMAR (Pan American Musical Art Research) founded and directed by Uruguayan pianist Polly Ferman.
Upcoming performances will include saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his group on January 7, 2009; soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and her quartet on February 20, 2009; double bassist Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel on May 1, 2009; and bassist Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies on August 26, 2009.
All concerts in the Duke Jazz Series are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Performances will be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, New York, 10023. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and performances begin at 7:30 p.m. For information, please call (212) 642-0142.
“We are delighted to work with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present a free jazz concert series, focusing on this great art form that originated in America," said Jacqueline Z. Davis, the Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “The Foundation's generous grant enables us to not only present live concerts, but to record and preserve them for future generations of artists, scholars, researchers, and arts professionals."
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has awarded a two-year, $1 million grant to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to support the preservation of performing arts works and related oral histories through the audio and visual documentation of jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances by artists or organizations previously funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; the creation of oral and video histories involving Foundation-supported artists and organizations; and the preservation of recently acquired, fragile, and deteriorating archival material related to the life and work of Martha Graham.
The grant, which began in February 2008 and continues until January 31, 2010, will enable the Library to record approximately 25 live jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances by artists or organizations, and conduct and record approximately 40 oral histories with notable performing arts personalities responsible for or related to those performances. Additionally, the Library will preserve 70 hours of oral histories related to the life and work of dancer/choreographer Martha Graham.
About the Jazz Section of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Grant During the two years of the grant, the Music Division will present eight live performances by jazz ensembles recognized by Chamber Music America's “New Works" program, which is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Each live performance will be recorded in both video and audio formats and added to the Division's archive, as will a subsequently created oral history of key musicians, composers, and other influential figures related to each recorded live performance. In addition to discussing their careers and accomplishments, individual composers and musicians will also examine the commissioning process and the efforts involved in the collaborative creation and performance of the commissioned works, an area not often documented in oral history recordings.
The Library's Music Division, in partnership with the GRAMMY Museum and Recording Academy, will also present the Duke Jazz Talks, one-on-one conversations between GRAMMY-nominated or GRAMMY-winning jazz artists and music curator and scholar Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum. Duke Jazz Talks begin this fall at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In addition, the Music Division will conduct 10 oral histories with musicians who will be performing in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 Jazz at Lincoln Center seasons.
About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties
About The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Division, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, as are a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters, and photographs.
About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 87 Branch Libraries in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website.
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts is launching a free jazz concert series this fall, featuring performances by Dafnis Prieto, Jovino Santos Neto, Donny McCaslin, Jane Ira Bloom, Ben Allison, and Drew Gress. Over the next year and a half, the Duke Jazz Series will present eight free concerts, featuring jazz ensembles selected from the Chamber Music America's “New Works" program. This 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.
The first concert of the Duke Jazz Series, featuring the Dafnis Prieto Sextet, will be held September 26, 2008. Selections from the sextet's new album, Taking the Soul for a Walk, will be performed. Dafnis Prieto, known for his explosive energy and intense style, is a Cuban drummer and composer whose range extends from Cuban rhythms to traditional jazz ensembles. In addition to the Chamber Music America award, Prieto has received numerous grants and fellowships, and was a Grammy Award nominee for his album, Absolute Quintet, as Best Jazz Album, and a Latin Grammy nominee for Best New Artist in 2007.
On November 21, 2008, the series will feature the Jovino Santos Neto Quinteto with special guests Harvey Wainapel and Felipe Salles. They will perform selections from the album Canto do Rio. Jovino Santos Neto, hailed for his brilliant and intuitive style, is a Brazilian pianist, flutist, and composer whose inspiration comes from Brazilian musical traditions, including African and Portuguese, as well as classical forms. In 2004, Jovino Santos Neto's Canto do Rio was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Record, and in 2006, Roda Carioca was nominated for Best Latin Jazz Record. This program is part of the 3rd Annual Latin American Cultural Week (LACW), a celebration of Latin American arts and artists, with music, theater, visual arts, literature, and lectures in venues throughout New York City from November 5 through 21. LACW is a program of PAMAR (Pan American Musical Art Research) founded and directed by Uruguayan pianist Polly Ferman.
Upcoming performances will include saxophonist Donny McCaslin and his group on January 7, 2009; soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom and her quartet on February 20, 2009; double bassist Ben Allison and Medicine Wheel on May 1, 2009; and bassist Drew Gress and 7 Black Butterflies on August 26, 2009.
All concerts in the Duke Jazz Series are free and open to the public on a first-come, first-served basis. Performances will be held in the Bruno Walter Auditorium, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, New York, 10023. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. and performances begin at 7:30 p.m. For information, please call (212) 642-0142.
“We are delighted to work with the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to present a free jazz concert series, focusing on this great art form that originated in America," said Jacqueline Z. Davis, the Barbara G. and Lawrence A. Fleischman Executive Director of The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. “The Foundation's generous grant enables us to not only present live concerts, but to record and preserve them for future generations of artists, scholars, researchers, and arts professionals."
The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation has awarded a two-year, $1 million grant to The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts to support the preservation of performing arts works and related oral histories through the audio and visual documentation of jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances by artists or organizations previously funded by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation; the creation of oral and video histories involving Foundation-supported artists and organizations; and the preservation of recently acquired, fragile, and deteriorating archival material related to the life and work of Martha Graham.
The grant, which began in February 2008 and continues until January 31, 2010, will enable the Library to record approximately 25 live jazz, contemporary dance, and theater performances by artists or organizations, and conduct and record approximately 40 oral histories with notable performing arts personalities responsible for or related to those performances. Additionally, the Library will preserve 70 hours of oral histories related to the life and work of dancer/choreographer Martha Graham.
About the Jazz Section of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Grant During the two years of the grant, the Music Division will present eight live performances by jazz ensembles recognized by Chamber Music America's “New Works" program, which is supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. Each live performance will be recorded in both video and audio formats and added to the Division's archive, as will a subsequently created oral history of key musicians, composers, and other influential figures related to each recorded live performance. In addition to discussing their careers and accomplishments, individual composers and musicians will also examine the commissioning process and the efforts involved in the collaborative creation and performance of the commissioned works, an area not often documented in oral history recordings.
The Library's Music Division, in partnership with the GRAMMY Museum and Recording Academy, will also present the Duke Jazz Talks, one-on-one conversations between GRAMMY-nominated or GRAMMY-winning jazz artists and music curator and scholar Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the GRAMMY Museum. Duke Jazz Talks begin this fall at The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. In addition, the Music Division will conduct 10 oral histories with musicians who will be performing in the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 Jazz at Lincoln Center seasons.
About the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation
The mission of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation is to improve the quality of people's lives through grants supporting the performing arts, environmental conservation, medical research and the prevention of child maltreatment, and through preservation of the cultural and environmental legacy of Doris Duke's properties
About The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts houses the world's most extensive combination of circulating, reference, and rare archival collections in its field. Its divisions are the Circulating Collections, Jerome Robbins Dance Division, Music Division, Billy Rose Theatre Division, and the Rodgers and Hammerstein Archives of Recorded Sound. The materials in its collections are available free of charge, as are a wide range of special programs, including exhibitions, seminars, and performances. An essential resource for everyone with an interest in the arts - whether professional or amateur - the Library is known particularly for its prodigious collections of non-book materials such as historic recordings, videotapes, autograph manuscripts, correspondence, sheet music, stage designs, press clippings, programs, posters, and photographs.
About The New York Public Library
The New York Public Library was created in 1895 with the consolidation of the private libraries of John Jacob Astor and James Lenox with the Samuel Jones Tilden Trust. The Library provides free and open access to its physical and electronic collections and information, as well as to its services. It comprises four research centers - the Humanities and Social Sciences Library; The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts; the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture; and the Science, Industry and Business Library - and 87 Branch Libraries in the Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. Research and circulating collections combined total more than 50 million items, including materials for the visually impaired. In addition, each year the Library presents thousands of exhibitions and public programs, which include classes in technology, literacy, and English as a second language. The Library serves some 16 million patrons who come through its doors annually and another 25 million users internationally, who access collections and services through the NYPL website.
For more information contact All About Jazz.
