Thursday, March 22, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Chick Corea Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Chick Corea , piano Ryan Kisor, trumpet Kenny Rampton, trumpet Marcus Printup, trumpet Vincent Gardner, trombone Chris Crenshaw, trombone Elliot Mason, trombone Sherman Irby, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet Ted Nash, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet Victor Goines, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet Walter Blanding, tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet Paul Nedzela, baritone and soprano saxophones, bass clarinet Carlos Henriquez, bass Marion Felder, drums Tonight’s program will be announced from the stage. Cal Performances’ 2017 –18 season is sponsored by Wells Fargo. ABOUT THE ARTISTS The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) (1993); and Portraits by Ellington (1992). For comprises 14 of the finest jazz soloists and en - more information, visit jazz.org. semble players today. Under the direction of Wynton Marsalis, Jazz at Lincoln Cen ter’s man - Jazz at Lincoln Center is dedicated to inspiring aging and artistic director, this remarkably ver - and growing audiences for jazz. With the satile orchestra performs a vast repertoire world-renowned Jazz at Lincoln Center Or - ranging from original compositions and Jazz at ches tra and a comprehensive array of guest Lincoln Center-commissioned works to rare artists, Jazz at Lincoln Center advances a unique historic compositions and masterworks by Duke vision for the continued development of the art Ellington, Count Basie, Fletcher Henderson, of jazz by producing a year-round schedule of Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy performance, education, and broadcast events Gillespie, Benny Goodman, Charles Mingus, for audiences of all ages. These productions in - and many others. The JLCO has been the Jazz at clude concerts, national and international tours, Lincoln Center resident orchestra since 1988, residencies, weekly national radio programs, performing and leading educational events in television broadcasts, recordings, publications, New York, across the United States, and around an annual high school jazz band competition the globe. Alongside symphony orchestras, bal - and festival, a band director academy, jazz ap - let troupes, local students, and an ever-expand - preciation curricula for students, music pub - ing roster of guest artists, the JLCO has toured lishing, children’s concerts and classes, lectures, over 300 cities across six continents. Guest con - adult education courses, student and educator ductors have included Benny Carter, John Lewis, workshops, a record label, and interactive web - Jimmy Heath, Chico O’Farrill, Ray Santos, Pa - sites. Under the leadership of managing and quito D’Rivera, Jon Faddis, Robert Sadin, David artistic director Wynton Marsalis, chairman Berger, Gerald Wilson, and Loren Schoenberg. Robert J. Appel, and executive director Greg The JLCO has been voted Best Big Band in the Scholl, Jazz at Lincoln Center produces thou - annual DownBeat Readers’ Poll for the past sands of events each season in its home in New four years (2013–2016). In 2015 Jazz at Lincoln York City, Frederick P. Rose Hall, and around Center announced the launch of Blue Engine the world. Records, a new platform to make its archive of recorded concerts available to jazz audiences Chick Corea (piano ) has attained iconic status everywhere. The first release from Blue Engine in music. The keyboardist, composer, and Records, Live in Cuba, was re corded on an his - bandleader is a DownBeat Hall of Fame mem - toric 2010 trip to Havana by the JLCO and was ber and NEA Jazz Master, as well as the fourth- released in October 2015. Big Band Holidays most-nominated artist in Grammy Awards was released in December 2015, The Abyssinian history, with 63 nods—and 22 wins, in addition Mass came out in March 2016, and The Music of to a number of Latin Grammys. From straight- John Lewis came out in March 2017. Handful of ahead to avant-garde, bebop to jazz-rock fu - Keys , featuring a group of all-star guest pianists, sion, children’s songs to chamber and arrived in September 2017. To date, 14 other symphonic works, Corea has touched an as - recordings featuring the JLCO have been re - tonishing number of musical bases in his career leased and distributed internationally: Vitoria since playing with the genre-shattering bands Suite (2010); Portrait in Seven Shades (2010); of Miles Davis in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Congo Square (2007); Don’t Be Afraid… Yet Corea has never been more productive The Music of Charles Mingus (2005); A Love than in the 21st century, whether playing Supreme (2005); All Rise (2002); Big Train acoustic piano or electric keyboards, leading (1999); Sweet Release & Ghost Story (1999); multiple bands, performing solo, or collaborat - Live in Swing City (1999); Jump Start and Jazz ing with a Who’s Who of music. Underscoring (1997); Blood on the Fields (1997); They Came this, he has been named Artist of the Year three to Swing (1994); The Fire of the Fundamentals times this decade in the DownBeat Readers Opposite: Chick Corea. Photo courtesy of Chick Corea Productions. 6 ABOUT THE ARTISTS Poll. Born in 1941 in Massachusetts, Corea re - he moved with his family to New York City; mains a tireless creative spirit, continually rein - by age 16, he was performing regularly with his venting himself through his art. As the New parents at the Village Gate. Blanding attended York Times has said, he is “a luminary, ebullient LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and and eternally youthful.” Performing Arts and continued his studies at Corea’s classic albums as a leader or co-leader the New School for Social Research, where he include Now He Sings, Now He Sobs (with Miro - earned a bachelor’s degree in 2005. His 1991 slav Vitous and Roy Haynes), Paris Con cert debut release, Tough Young Tenors , was ac - (with Circle: Anthony Braxton, Dave Holland, claimed as one of the best jazz albums of the and Barry Altschul), and Return to Forever year, and his artistry began to impress listeners (with Return to Forever: Joe Farrell, Stanley and critics alike. He has been a member of the Clarke, Airto Moreira, and Flora Purim), as Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since 1998 and well as Crystal Silence (with Gary Bur ton), My has performed, toured, and/or recorded with Spanish Heart , Remembering Bud Powell , and his own groups and with such renowned artists Further Explorations (with Eddie Gomez and as the Cab Calloway Orchestra, Roy Hargrove, Paul Motian). Hilton Ruiz, Count Basie Orchestra, Illinois An adventurous collaborator, Corea has Jacquet Big Band, Wycliffe Gordon, Marcus teamed with a wide range of artists, from jazz Roberts, Wynton Marsalis Quintet, Isaac Hayes, legend Lionel Hampton to new-generation pi - and many others. Blanding lived in Israel for anist Stefano Bollani, from banjoist Béla Fleck four years and had a major impact on the music to vocal superstar Bobby McFerrin. His duo scene while touring the country with his own partnerships with Gary Burton and Herbie ensemble and with US artists such as Louis Hancock have endured decades. Hayes, Eric Reed, Vanessa Rubin, and others in - Corea’s Trilogy album, from 2014 , a live vited to perform there. He taught music in sev - triple-disc set with bassist Christian McBride eral Israeli schools and eventually opened his and drummer Brian Blade, won two Grammy own private school in Tel Aviv. During this pe - Awards. The album documents this trio inter - riod, Newsweek International called him a “Jazz preting classic Chick compositions (such as Ambassador to Israel.” “Spain”), plus previously unreleased pieces by the pianist (“Piano Sonata: The Moon”), an Chris Crenshaw (trombone ) was born in array of jazz standards, and even a piece by Thomson, Georgia on December 20, 1982. Alexander Scriabin. All About Jazz noted: “This Since birth, he has been driven by and sur - one certainly ranks among his most memorable rounded by music. When he started playing trios…. [Corea] has never been more active— piano at age three, his teachers and fellow stu - and with albums as superb as Trilogy … clearly dents noticed his aptitude for the instrument. at the top of his game.” This love for piano led to his first gig with Corea’s latest release, Chinese Butterfly , is Echoes of Joy, his father Casper’s gospel quartet the culmination of 50 years of musical kinship group. Crenshaw started playing the trombone with the legendary drummer Steve Gadd. at age 11, receiving honors and awards along He and Steve went into the studio with Lionel the way. He graduated from Thomson High Loueke, Steve Wilson, Carlitos Del Puerto, and School in 2001 and received his bachelor’s de - Luisito Quintero. You need to hear what they gree with honors in jazz performance from came out with: a nonstop musical rush, full of Valdosta State University in 2005. He was joy and beauty. awarded Most Outstanding Student in the VSU music department and College of Arts. In 2007 Walter Blanding (tenor and soprano saxo - Crenshaw received his master’s degree in jazz phones, clarinet) was born into a musical family studies from the Juilliard School, where his on August 14, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio and teachers included Dr. Douglas Farwell and began playing the saxophone at age six. In 1981 Wycliffe Gordon. He has appeared as a sideman 6B PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS on fellow JLCO trumpeter Marcus Printup’s 2000, and then joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Bal lads All Night and on Wynton Marsalis and Orchestra. Gardner has served as an instructor Eric Clapton Play the Blues. In 2006 Crenshaw at the Juilliard School, as visiting instructor at joined the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and Florida State University and Michigan State in 2012 he composed God’s Trombones, a spiri- University, and as adjunct instructor at the New tually focused work that was premiered by the School.