NEW SCHOOL UNIVERSITY
JAZZ & CONTEMPORARY MUSIC PROGRAM
PRESENTS "JAZZ@ 6:30"
(New York, NY – February 13, 2001) New School University's Jazz & Contemporary Music Program announces its four-part series of performances featuring
pianists for the New School Jazz @ 6:30 spring program. Joanne Brackeen,
with bassist Cecil McBee, Roland Hanna and Barry Harris, Brad Mehldau and Ted
Rosenthal will be performing at the Jazz Performance Space at New School
University, 55 West 13th Street, 5th Floor, NYC, on Monday evenings, March 18,
April 8, April 29 and May 6, respectively. The performances will take place
in the New School's intimate Jazz Performance Space at 55 West 13th Street,
NYC. Each artist will present an hour of music, followed by a question and answer
session with students.
Tickets are $18 per show or $60 for the series. To purchase tickets by phone,
please call 212-229-5896, ext. 308. Tickets may also be purchased directly through
The New School's box office at 212-229-5488. (Box Office hours: Monday
– Thursday, 1-8 PM, and Friday, 1-7 PM) For further information on the
Jazz Program, call 212-229-5896.
JOANNE BRACKEEN, WITH BASSIST CECIL MCBEE
Monday, March 18, 2002, 6:30pm
Two-time winner of Down Beat International Critics' Poll for best pianist
and two-time National Endowment of the Arts grant-winner, Joanne Brackeen has
been described as a "virtuoso pianist, one of Jazz' most prized possessions."
She has performed and recorded with Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers, Joe
Henderson, Stan Getz, Pharaoh Sanders, Freddie Hubbard, Dave Liebman, Toots
Thielmans, Jon Faddis, Eddie Gomez, and Jack DeJohnette. In retrospect of such
extraordinary musical collaborations, Brackeen has stated: "Art Blakey
called me his adopted daughter, and I felt privileged to spend three years in
his band. My energy exploded to a new level! That level expanded and became
more prolific as I worked with Joe Henderson for an extended period of time.
He insisted on creativity both in music and life. Playing with Stan Getz was
a major event every night of the two years I spent with him." Leading her
own groups, Joanne has performed in North and South America, Europe, Asia, and
Australia. Venues include the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institute, Carnegie
Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, as well as the JVC, Monterey, Montreal, North Sea,
and Montreaux Jazz Festivals. With more than 25 recordings as a leader, Ms.
Brackeen is currently a recording artist for Arkadia Records; her most recent
CD, Pink Elephant Magic, received a Grammy nomination in January 2000.
Ms. Brackeen is a faculty member of New School University's Jazz &
Contemporary Music Program.
Joanne Brackeen will perform with faculty member Cecil McBee.
ROLAND HANNA AND BARRY HARRIS - SALUTE TO TOMMY FLANAGAN
Monday, April 8, 2002, 6:30pm
Pianist Roland Hanna was born in Detroit, Michigan on February 2, 1932. Sir
Roland's father was a preacher in a sanctified church, where he was first
exposed to rhythm and blues-tinged music. He was later influenced by a number
of fellow Detroit piano legends, including Tommy Flanagan, Barry Harris, Hank
Jones, and Terry Pollard. Sir Roland studied at the Eastman and Juilliard Schools
of Music. He performed with Benny Goodman's band in its first appearance at
the New port Jazz Festival in 1958 and, in 1967, took over the piano chair in
the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra. Though he made his first recording as a
leader in 1959, Hanna's independent career didn't begin to take off
until 1971, when he formed the New York Jazz Quartet, a cooperative ensemble
that gigged into the 1980s. After a benefit tour of Liberia in 1969, he was
knighted by the country's president and has worn the honorific "Sir"
proudly ever since. In recent decades Hanna has become involved with Jazz repertory
both through playing in the Broadway show Black and Blue and with the
Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. He also teaches in the Jazz program at the Aaron
Copland School of Music at Queens College, CUNY. Still active as a performer
both at home and abroad, he has maintained a busy recording schedule, both with
his own projects and on dates led by others. For this performance, Roland Hanna
appears with fellow pianist Barry Harris in a tribute to the late Tommy Flanagan.
Dr. Barry Harris is an internationally renowned Jazz pianist, composer and
teacher. He has received the Living Jazz Legacy award from the Mid-Atlantic
Arts Association, and an American Jazz Masters Fellowship from the National
Endowment for the Arts. In addition, Dr. Harris is a recipient of the Manhattan
Borough President Award for Excellence in recognition of his devoted public
service and in honor of excellence in the field of music. In 1999, he received
a Mentor award for his work with youngsters at the Manhattan Country School
in New York City. Dr. Harris has devoted his life to the advancement of Jazz
and in the 1980s founded the Jazz Cultural Theatre. For the past several decades
Dr. Harris has been an exponent of the classic Jazz style that was developed
by Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk and Coleman
Hawkins. When not travelling, Dr. Harris holds weekly music workshop sessions
in New York City for vocalists, students of piano and other instruments. He
is appearing with fellow pianist Roland Hanna in a tribute to the late Tommy
Flanagan.
BRAD MEHLDAU, SOLO
Monday, April 29, 2002, 6:30pm
One of the most compelling and innovative pianists in Jazz, Brad Mehldau began
studying the piano at age four in Hartford, Connecticut. After becoming interested
in Jazz, he earned his BFA from New School University's Jazz Program, studying
with Junior Mance, Kenny Werner and Fred Hersch. During this time, he began
to develop his own style, which he attributes to the influence of his musical
peers, specifically bandleaders Peter Bernstein and Jessie Davis (also New School
alums). Through the New School, he also met and played with his future trio-mates,
Larry Grenadier and Jorge Rossy. Brad's first major international exposure came
as a member of the Joshua Redman Quartet, with whom he recorded MoodSwing
and toured for a year and a half.
In 1995, Mehldau released his debut album as a leader, appropriately titled,
Introducing Brad Mehldau. His second album, The Art Of The Trio, Volume
One, was released in February 1997 to almost instant critical acclaim. With
the release in early 1998 of his third album (as a leader), Live At The Village
Vanguard: The Art Of The Trio, Volume Two, Mehldau spent most of the year
touring extensively throughout the US and Europe with his trio of Grenadier
and Rossy. In 1998, he also found time to record with Willie Nelson and record
and tour briefly once again with Joshua Redman. Since then, Brad has released
Songs: The Art Of The Trio, Volume Three; Elegiac Cycle (solo piano);
and Art Of The Trio 4: Back At The Vanguard. Brad has won numerous Down
Beat Readers' and Critics' polls and is a 1999 Grammy nominee.
TED ROSENTHAL, SOLO
Monday, May 6, 2002, 6:30pm
A native Long Islander, Ted Rosenthal began piano lessons at age six, studying
both Jazz and classical piano through high school with the likes of Jaki Byard
and Lennie Tristano and attending workshops with Billy Taylor, Woody Shaw and
others. Ted attended Manhattan School of Music where he received a Bachelor's
and a Master's Degree in Piano Performance; in 1988, he won first prize
in the second annual Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition. His
most recent recording, ThreePlay, is a trio outing exploring Rosenthal
originals and Jazz standards with an invigorating and free-spirited approach.
Previously, Ted recorded Rosenthology and Images of Monk. Rosenthal
has recorded with some of the top names in Jazz, among them: Ron Carter, Billy
Higgins, Tom Harrell, Dick Oatts, Brian Lynch, and Marvin "Smitty"
Smith.
Ted is the recipient of three performance grants from the National Endowment
for the Arts. "The Survivor," his concerto for piano and orchestra,
was premiered by the Rockland Symphony Orchestra with Ted at the piano. Other
classical/Jazz crossover performances include solo and featured appearances
with The Boston Pops, The Greater Palm Beach Symphony, The Tulsa Philharmonic
and The North Carolina Symphony. He has also performed in chamber and new music
concerts at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall, Alice Tully and Merkin Concert Hall.
A faculty member of New School University's Jazz Program, Ted Rosenthal
is also a contributing editor for Piano and Keyboard magazine.
Jazz @ 6:30 is sponsored in part by a grant from New York State Council
on the Arts.
****
New School University's Jazz & Contemporary Music Program
offers a B.F.A. degree program in Jazz Performance, and in Composing and Arranging.
The faculty includes such renowned artists as Reggie Workman, Chico Hamilton,
Buster Williams, Jimmy Owens, Benny Powell, Joanne Brackeen, and Jane Ira Bloom.
Alumni of the program include many of today's up-and-coming Jazz artists - Larry
Goldings, Brad Mehldau, Roy Hargrove, Miri Ben-Ari, Peter Bernstein, and Virginia
Mayhew, among others. Martin Mueller is the Executive Director of the Jazz Program.
To find out about upcoming events and performances, visit www.newschool.edu/jazz.
New School University, with 7,000 matriculated students
and 25,000 continuing education students, is comprised of seven academic divisions:
The New School, the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, Parsons
School of Design, Eugene Lang College, Mannes College of Music, the Robert J.
Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Actors Studio
Drama School, as well as the University's B.F.A. in Jazz and Contemporary Music.
New School Online University offers one of the largest selections of online
courses in the nation. For further information about admission to New School
University, call 877-528-3321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu