NEW SCHOOL UNIVERSITY'S JAZZ & CONTEMPORARY
MUSIC PROGRAM ANNOUNCES "JAZZ@ 6:30"
Guest artists to include Jane Ira Bloom, Andrew Cyrille,
Fred Hersch,
Roy Hargrove, Reggie Workman, and others
(New York, NY – October 7, 2002) New School University's Jazz & Contemporary Music Program announces its four-part series of performances for New School Jazz @ 6:30. The series will feature Kenny Werner & Andy Statman on Monday, October 28; Reggie Workman & Andrew Cyrille (with special guest) on Monday, November 11; Roy Hargrove & Raymond Angry on Monday, November 25; and Jane Ira Bloom & Fred Hersch on Friday, December 13. Performances are followed by a Q & A sessions with the artists. All performances will take place at Tishman Auditorium, 66 West 12th Street, NYC. (Take #1 train of "F"train to 14th Street). Elise Axelrad is producer of Jazz @ 6:30. The series was founded and conceived by Paul J. Weinstein.
Tickets are $18 per show or $60 for the series. Tickets may be purchased at the New School Box Office, located in the lobby of 66 West 12th Street. (Box office hours are Monday through Thursday, 1:00 – 8:00 p.m., Friday, 1:00 – 7:00 p.m.) Tickets may also be charged by call 212-229-2488.
KENNY WERNER & ANDY STATMAN, Monday, October 28, 6:30 p.m.
A pianist of seemingly infinite capacity, Jazz Program faculty member Kenny
Werner provides a lyrical (but never predictable) journey through the seas
of improvised music. A guru of jazz education since the publication of his book,
Effortless Mastery, he is also sought-after for college lectures and
residencies, and while on campus often performs with student ensembles. A Brooklyn
native, Werner became a concert piano major upon completion of high school,
but in 1970, his desire to improvise took him out of the classical world and
into jazz. Under guidance from teachers, Werner began to combine the spiritual
and musical aspects of creativity, blending an ideology that constitutes his
approach to music today. In addition to recently recording with his new trio,
Werner has recorded Between Heaven and Earth with Klezmer musician Andy
Statman. Statman's music, Werner says, "is all about light and consciousness,
and that is the goal that draws and captures my heart."
A driving force behind the neo-klezmer movement since its inception in the
early 1980s, Andy Statman is a paradox: a musical traditionalist who
continues to break new artistic ground. A celebrated mandolin player in the
1970s, Statman (clarinetist/composer/bandleader) has reinvigorated yet another
realm of traditional musicmaking -- klezmer -- the instrumental dance music
of Eastern European Jews. After achieving critical acclaim as a bluegrass musician,
Statman learned clarinet and went on to other neo-klezmer groups such as the
Klezmatics, Brave Old World and the Klezmer Conservatory Band. Statman has gone
back to the roots of klezmer in the "niggunim," or Hasidic prayer-melodies
that are used by Jewish mystics to induce heightened spiritual awareness. Statman
and his quartet, featuring Kenny Werner, use these melodies as raw material
for their spiritually oriented jazz improvisations.
REGGIE WORKMAN & ANDREW CYRILLE with special guest, Monday, November
11, 6:30 p.m.
Reggie Workman has performed with almost every notable figure in Jazz.
His 40-year career includes landmark recordings with John Coltrane, Art Blakey,
Archie Shepp, Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Cecil Taylor, among many others. In
1960, Workman became a member of Coltrane's famous Quartet, along with
Elvin Jones and McCoy Tyner. His own groups have included Top Shelf, The Reggie
Workman Ensemble, and his current group, Trio 3. In 1998, he began Tribute
to an African American Legacy, an ongoing initiative featuring arrangements
and new works inspired by 20th century African-American composers. Among his
many accolades, Workman has received the Eubie Blake Award for Musical Excellence,
the IAJE Award for Education, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jazz Foundation
of America, and a Living Legacy Jazz Award from the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.
Since 1987, Reggie Workman has been a full-time instructor and coordinator of
curriculum in the Jazz & Contemporary Music Program.
Drummer and Jazz Program faculty member Andrew Cyrille attended both The Juilliard School and Hartnett School of Music. He has worked with some of the most renowned jazz artists of the period, including Mary Lou Williams, Coleman Hawkins, Illinois Jacquet, Kenny Dorham, Freddie Hubbard, and Babatunde Olatunji. From the mid-60s to the 70s, Cyrille collaborated with pianist Cecil Taylor and taught as artist-in-residence at Antioch College. He has also organized several percussion groups featuring notables such as Kenny Clarke, Milford Graves, Rashied Ali, Daniel Ponce, and Michael Carvin. Having toured and performed throughout the world, he is currently a member of TRIO3, featuring Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman. Cyrille has received three NEA grants for performance and composition, two Meet the Composer grants, and an Arts International award to perform with his quintet in West Africa. In 1999, Cyrille received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition.
ROY HARGROVE & RAYMOND ANGRY, Monday, November 25, 6:30 p.m.
Trumpeter and Jazz Program alumnus Roy Hargrove grew up in Texas and
began trumpet in the school band at age 9. Hargrove attended Berklee College
of Music, then transferred to the New School Jazz Program, from which he graduated.
Exposed to many varieties of music at an early age, such as Gospel, Soul, and
R&B, Hargrove has uniquely interpreted those influences, extending his jazz
lines from a base in classic bop to a sound and personality uniquely his own.
Having recorded several albums as a leader, first with RCA/Novus and then with
Verve, he has enjoyed commercial recognition as well. An exceptionally gifted
musician, with a rich tone and inventive mind, Hargrove received a Grammy award
in 1998 for Habana, recorded with his band Crisol.
Pianist and organist Raymond Angry was born in Miami, Florida. After
completing his M.A. at Howard University, Angry made his move to New York. In
the period that he has been here, his musicianship has earned the respect of
fellow musicians, performing with such notables as Mulgrew Miller and Ralph
Peterson. Angry also has extensive experience in church music, R&B and Hip-Hop.
JANE IRA BLOOM & FRED HERSCH on Friday, December 13, 6:30 p.m.
Jazz Program faculty member and saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom is a graduate
of Yale University and the Yale School of Music, winner of the Downbeat
International Critics' Poll, and recipient of fellowships from the Doris
Duke Foundation, the NEA, the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, as well as the
IAJE Charlie Parker Fellowship for Jazz Innovation. She has performed, recorded
and/or collaborated with artists such as Charlie Haden, Ed Blackwell, George
Coleman, Rufus Reid, Kenny Wheeler, Julian Priester, Fred Hersch, Jay Clayton,
and Cleo Laine. Winner of the 2001 Jazz Journalists Award for soprano sax of
the year, Jane is also the first musician ever commissioned by the NASA Art
Program, and was honored by having an asteroid named in her honor by the International
Astronomical Union (asteroid 6083). Bloom was recently awarded a fellowship
for jazz composition by Chamber Music America/ Doris Duke Jazz Project for work
on "Chasing Paint," a series of compositions inspired by painter Jackson
Pollock.
A pianist and composer whose work has received nearly universal acclaim, Fred Hersch has been described by The New York Times as "a master who plays it his way." Hersch has released seventeen albums as a leader, two of which were nominated for Grammy awards for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance. He has co-led another twenty albums and has appeared as sideman or featured soloist on over eighty further recordings. Hersch has been widely recognized in recent years for his ability to re-invent the standard jazz repertoire, investigating classics and interpreting them with fresh ideas. He has also enjoyed long-time musical associations with such jazz artists as Joe Henderson, Stan Getz, Toots Thielemans, Gary Burton, and Charlie Haden, as well as such diverse vocalists as Andy Bey and Dawn Upshaw.
Jazz @ 6:30 is sponsored in part by a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts
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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 most prominent jazz artists - Larry Goldings, Brad Mehldau, Roy Hargrove, Miri Ben-Ari, Peter Bernstein, Ali M. Jackson, 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 a New York City university committed to critical scholarship, artistic integrity, and ethical responsibility in the social sciences, humanities, the arts and design. It is comprised of a liberal arts foundation of three schools: The New School, Eugene Lang College and the Graduate Faculty of Political and Social Science, and five professional schools: Parsons School of Design, Mannes College of Music, Actors Studio Drama School, Milano Graduate School of Management and Urban Policy, and the Jazz & Contemporary Music Program. 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) 5Ave-321 or go to the Web site at www.newschool.edu