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Home , Big Band Holidays, Branford Marsalis, Charles Earland, Crystal Silence, Eric Reed (musician), Further Explorations

Thursday, March 22, 2018, 8pm Zellerbach Hall at Lincoln Center Orchestra with

Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Chick Corea , , Kenny Rampton, trumpet , trumpet Vincent Gardner, trombone Chris Crenshaw, trombone Elliot Mason, trombone Sherman Irby, alto and soprano , flute, clarinet Ted Nash, alto and soprano saxophones, flute, clarinet , tenor and soprano saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet , 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.

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS

The 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 , 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 , Mary Lou Williams, Dizzy performance, education, and broadcast events Gillespie, Benny Goodman, , 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 , 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 , John Lewis, workshops, a record label, and interactive web - , Chico O’Farrill, Ray Santos, Pa - sites. Under the leadership of managing and quito D’Rivera, , Robert Sadin, David artistic director Wynton Marsalis, chairman Berger, , and Loren Schoenberg. Robert J. Appel, and executive director Greg The JLCO has been voted Best 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, 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. 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, 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 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); (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 ; 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 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 ), Con cert debut release, Tough Young Tenors , was ac - (with Circle: , , claimed as one of the best jazz albums of the and ), and year, and his artistry began to impress listeners (with Return to Forever: , Stanley and critics alike. He has been a member of the Clarke, , and Flora Purim), as Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since 1998 and well as (with Gary Bur ton), My has performed, toured, and/or recorded with Spanish Heart , Remembering , and his own groups and with such renowned artists Further Explorations (with Eddie Gomez and as the Orchestra, , ). Hilton Ruiz, , An adventurous collaborator, Corea has Jacquet Big Band, , Marcus teamed with a wide range of artists, from jazz Roberts, Wynton Marsalis , Isaac Hayes, legend to new-generation pi - and many others. Blanding lived in Israel for anist , 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 and Herbie ensemble and with US artists such as Louis Hancock have endured decades. Hayes, , 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 , 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 . 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 , where his on August 14, 1971 in Cleveland, Ohio and teachers included Dr. Douglas Farwell and began playing the 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 Play the . 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 G od’s Trombones, a spiri- University, and as adjunct instructor at the New tually focused work that was premiered by the School. He is currently the director of the Jazz orchestra at Jazz at Lincoln Center. at Lincoln Center Youth Orchestra, and he has contributed many arrangements to the JLCO Marion Felder (drums) was born in 1984 in and other ensembles. In 2009 he was commis - Orangeburg, South Carolina, and raised in sioned by Jazz at Lincoln Center to write The Detroit, Michigan. Felder began playing drums Jesse B. Semple Suite , a 60-minute suite inspired at the age of three. His earliest influences range by the short stories of Langston Hughes. In ad - from gospel music to Motown. He graduated dition, Gardner is a popular instructor at Jazz from the world-famous Cass Technical High at Lincoln Center’s ongoing jazz education pro - School, which has produced many jazz greats gram, Swing University, teaching courses on over the years. During high school, Felder bebop and more. Gardner is featured on a num - began performing with legendary trumpeter ber of notable recordings and has recorded five Marcus Belgrave, who encouraged him to move CDs as a leader for Steeplechase Records. He to New York City. Felder received his bachelor’s has performed with the Or - and master’s degrees from the Juilliard School chestra, Bobby McFerrin, Harry Connick, Jr., and has since performed, recorded, or toured the Saturday Night Live Band, , A with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Mar - Tribe Called Quest, and many others. Gardner cus Belgrave, Michael Bublé, David Ostwald, was chosen as the #1 Rising Star Trombonist in Shayna Steele, John Alred, Victor Goines, Wyn - the 2014 DownBeat Critics Poll. ton Marsalis, , Christian McBride, Grady Tate, Catherine Russell, Sara Victor Goines (tenor and soprano saxophones, Gazarek, Hank Jones, , Paul clarinet, bass clarinet ) is a native of New Or - Simon, Nile Rodgers, Carla Cooke, Vanessa leans, Louisiana. He has been a member of Rubin, , , Martha the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra and the Reeves, , , Marcus Wyn ton Marsalis Septet since 1993, touring Printup, , Vincent Gardner, Ben throughout the world and recording over 20 Wolfe, Carl Allen, Eddie Henderson, Lalah albums. As a leader, Goines has recorded seven Hatha way, the Clarke Sisters, Ernestine Ander - albums, including his latest releases, Pastels of son, , Jim Snidero, and Allan Ballads and Blues (2007) and Love Dance Har ris. Felder has been a regular member in (2007) on Criss Cross Records, and Twilight the Wycliffe Gordon Quintet and Count Basie (2012) on Rosemary Joseph Records. A gifted Orchestra. composer, Goines has more than 50 original works to his credit, including 2014’s Crescent Vincent Gardner (trombone) was born in City , premiered by the Jazz at Lincoln Center in 1972 and was raised in Hampton, Orchestra. He has recorded and/or performed Virginia. After singing and playing piano, vio- with many noted jazz and popular artists, in - lin, saxophone, and French horn at an early age, cluding Ahmad Jamal, , Dee Dee he decided to focus on the trombone at age 12. Bridgewater, , , Dizzy He attended Florida A&M University and the Gillespie, , , University of North Florida. He soon caught the Ellis Marsalis, , Willie Nelson, ear of Mercer Ellington, who hired Gardner for , , , his first professional job. He moved to Brook - and a host of others. Currently, he is the direc - lyn, New York after graduating from college, tor of jazz studies/professor of music at North - completed a world tour with Lauryn Hill in western University. He received a bachelor ’s

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ABOUT THE ARTISTS degree in music from Loyola University in New from 1995 to 1997. During that tenure he also Orleans in 1984, and a master’s degree from recorded and toured with Marcus Roberts, and Virginia Commonwealth University in Rich - was part of Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead Program mond in 1990. and Roy Hargrove’s ensemble. After a four-year stint with Hargrove, Irby focused on his own Carlos Henriquez (bass ) was born in 1979 in group in addition to being a member of Elvin the Bronx, New York. He studied music at a Jones’ ensemble in 2004 and then Papo Vaz - young age, played guitar through junior high quez’ Vazquez’s Pirates Troubadours after Jones’ school, and took up the bass while enrolled passing. From 2003–11 Irby was the regional in the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement director for JazzMasters Workshop, men toring Pro gram. He entered LaGuardia High School young children, and he has served as artist-in- of Music & Arts and Performing Arts and residence for Jazz Camp West and an instructor was involved with the LaGuardia Concert Jazz for Band Camp. He is Ensemble, which went on to win first place a former board member for the Cuba NOLA in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Essentially Ellington Collective. Irby formed Black War rior Records High School Jazz Band Competition and Festi - and released Black Warrior , Faith , Organ Starter , val in 1996. In 1998, soon after leaving high Live at the Otto Club , and Andy Farber’s This school, Henriquez joined the Wynton Marsalis Could Be the Start of Something Big . Since re - Septet and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, joining, Irby has arranged much of the Jazz at with whom he has toured the world and been Lincoln Center Orchestra’s music, and he has featured on more than 25 albums. Henriquez been commissioned to compose several new has performed with artists including Chucho works, including Twilight Sounds and his Valdés, Paco De Lucía, Tito Puente, the Mar - Dante-inspired ballet, Inferno . salis Family, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder, Lenny Kravitz, and Marc Anthony. Ryan Kisor (trumpet ) was born on April 12, He has been a member of the music faculty at 1973 in Sioux City, Iowa, and began playing School of Music since trumpet at age four. In 1990 he won first prize 2008, and was music director of the Jazz at at the Thelonious Monk Institute’s first annual Lincoln Center Orchestra’s cultural exchange Trumpet Competition. Kisor with the Cuban Institute of Music with Chucho enrolled in Manhattan School of Music in 1991, Valdés in 2010. His debut album as a band - where he studied with trumpeter . leader, The Bronx Pyramid , was released in He has performed and/or recorded with the Sep tember 2015 on Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Mingus Big Band, the Orchestra, Blue Engine Records. , and ’s Liberation Music Orchestra, the Car - Sherman Irby (alto and soprano saxophones, negie Hall Jazz Band, the Philip Morris Jazz All- flute, clarinet ) was born and raised in Tusca - Stars, and others. In addition to being an active loosa, . He found his musical calling sideman, Kisor has recorded several albums as at age 12 and in high school he played and a leader, including Battle Cry (1997), The Usual recorded with gospel immortal James Cleve - Suspects (1998), and Point of Arrival (2000). He land. He graduated from Clark Atlanta Univer- has been a member of the Jazz at Lincoln Cen - sity with a BA in music education. In 1991 he ter Orchestra since 1994. joined Johnny O’Neal’s Atlanta-based quintet. In 1994 he moved to New York City and re - Elliot Mason (trombone ) was born in England corded his first two albums, Full Circle (1996) in 1977 and began trumpet lessons at age four and Big Mama’s Biscuits (1998), on Blue Note. with his father. At age seven, he switched his Irby toured the US and the Caribbean with the focus from trumpet to trombone. At 11 years of Boys Choir of Harlem in 1995, and was a mem - age, he was performing professionally, concen - ber of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra trating on jazz and improvisation. At 16, Mason

Opposite: Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. Photo by Joe Martinez. 8 ABOUT THE ARTISTS

received a full tuition scholarship to attend Large Jazz Ensemble Album Grammy Award. Berk lee College of Music in Boston, and after The album includes “Spoken at Midnight,” graduating he moved to New York City. Mason which won the 2017 Grammy Award for Best is a member of the Juilliard School faculty as a Instrumental Compo si tion. Nash’s arrangement jazz trombone professor, and he is also a part of of “We Three Kings,” featured on the Jazz at the jazz faculty at New York University. He has Lin coln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis’ served as a clinician worldwide, performing Big Band Holidays album, was nominated for workshops, master classes, and clinics. Mason a 2017 Grammy Award in the category of Best is endorsed by B.A.C. musical instruments and Instrumental or A Cappella Arrange ment. currently plays his own co-designed custom line of trombones. He has performed with the Paul Nedzela (baritone and soprano saxo - Count Basie Orchestra, the Mingus Big Band, phones, bass clarinet ) has become one of today’s the Maria Schneider Orchestra, the Maynard top baritone saxophone players. He has played Ferguson Big Bop Nouveau, Chick Corea, Ken- with many renowned artists and ensembles, ny Garrett, , Ahmad Jamal, including Wess Anderson, , the Randy Brecker, and Carl Fontana. A mem ber Birdland Big Band, Bill Charlap, Chick Corea, of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra since Paquito D’Rivera, Michael Feinstein, Benny 2006, Mason also continues to co-lead the Golson, Wycliffe Gordon, Roy Haynes, Chris - Mason Brothers Quintet with his brother Brad. tian McBride, Eric Reed, Dianne Reeves, Herlin The Mason Brothers recently released their sec - Riley, Maria Schneider, Jr., the ond album, Efflorescence . Temptations, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, , and Max Weinberg. Nedzela has Ted Nash (alto and soprano saxophones, flute, performed in Twyla Tharp’s Broadway show, clarinet ) enjoys an extraordinary career as a Come Fly Away , and in major festivals around performer, conductor, composer, arranger, and the world. He has studied with some of the fore - educator. Born in Los Angeles into a musical most baritone saxophonists , in - family (his father, Dick Nash, and uncle, the late cluding , , and Ted Nash, were both well-known jazz and stu - Roger Rosenberg. Nedzela graduated with hon - dio musicians), Nash blossomed early, a “young ors from McGill University in Montreal with lion” before the term became marketing ver - a bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 2006. A nacular. Nash has that uncanny ability to mix recipient of the Samuel L. Jackson Scholarship freedom with accessibility, blues with intellect, Award, he continued his musical studies at the and risk-taking with clarity. His group Odeon Juilliard School and graduated with a master’s has often been cited as a creative focus of jazz. degree in music in 2008. Many of Nash’s recordings have received critical acclaim and have appeared on the “best-of” lists Marcus Printup (trumpet ) was born and raised in the New York Times , The New Yorker , the in Conyers, Georgia. His first musical experi - Village Voice , and the Boston Globe . His record - ences were hearing the fiery gospel music his ings The Mancini Project and Sidewalk Meeting parents sang in church. While attending the have been placed on several “best-of-decade” University of North Florida on a music schol - lists. His album Portrait in Seven Shades was arship, he won the International Trumpet Guild recorded by the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orches - Jazz Trumpet Competition. In 1991 Printup’s tra and was released in 2010. The album is the life changed when he met his mentor, the great first composition released by the JLCO featur - pianist Marcus Roberts, who introduced him to ing original music by a band member other Wynton Marsalis. This led to Printup’s induc - than bandleader Wynton Marsalis. Nash’s latest tion into the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra album, Chakra , was released in 2013. His most in 1993. Printup has recorded with Betty Carter, recent big-band recording, Presidential Suite: Dianne Reeves, Eric Reed, Madeline Peyroux, Eight Variations on Freedom , won the 2017 Best Ted Nash, , Wycliffe Gordon,

8B PLAYBILL ABOUT THE ARTISTS and Roberts, among others. He has recorded Gil Evans classic version of Porgy and Bess. several records as a leader: Song for the Beautiful Rampton has been a regular member of the Woman, Unveiled, Hub Songs, Nocturnal Traces, Mingus Big Band/Orchestra/Dynasty, Min gus The New Boogaloo, Peace in the Abstract, Bird Epitaph (under the direction of Gunther Schul- of Paradise, London Lullaby, Ballads All Night, ler), George Gruntz’ Concert Jazz Band, Chico A Time for Love , and most recently, Homage O’Farrill’s Afro-Cuban Jazz Orchestra, Bebo (2012) and Desire , (2013) featuring Riza Valdez’ Latin Jazz All-Stars, and the Manhattan Printup on the harp. He made a big screen ap - Jazz Orchestra. He spent much of the 1990s pearance in the 1999 movie Playing by Heart touring the world with the Ray Charles Or - and recorded on the film’s soundtrack. Educa - chestra, the Jimmy McGriff Quartet, legendary tion is important to Printup, as he is an in- jazz drummer Panama Francis (and the Savoy demand clinician teaching middle schools, high Sultans), as well as jazz greats Jon Hendricks, schools, and colleges across the US. He teaches Lionel Hampton, and Illinois Jac quet. As a privately at the prestigious Mannes New School sideman, Rampton has also performed with Dr. of Music. August 22nd has been declared “Mar- John, Christian McBride, the Maria Schneider cus Printup Day” in his hometown of Conyers, Orchestra, , Geoff Keezer, and Georgia. a host of others. Some of Rampton’s Broadway credits include Anything Goes , Finian’s Rainbow , Kenny Rampton (trumpet ) joined the Jazz at The Wiz , Gentlemen Prefer Blondes , Young Lincoln Center Orchestra in 2010. In addition Frank en stein , and The Color Purple . to performing in the JLCO, Rampton leads his own groups. He released his debut solo CD, Brooks Brothers is the official clothier of the Jazz Moon Over Babylon, in 2013. Rampton is also at Lincoln Center Orchestra. the trumpet voice for the popular PBS TV series Sesame Street . In the summer of 2010, he per - Visit jazz.org. formed with the Scottish National Jazz Or - Facebook: facebook.com/jazzatlincolncenter chestra at the Edinburgh International Festival, Twitter: twitter.com/jazzdotorg and was the featured soloist on the Miles Davis/ YouTube: youtube.com/jazzatlincolncenter

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